Frederick Dropped

[eddie83]

If we are being honest from a marketing standpoint you would replace Delmarva with Frederick. Frederick is closer and much bigger population. 
 

It will be very important for the Orioles to appease the Frederick area fan base.  

[Tony-OH]

1 minute ago, eddie83 said:

I think a big issue in all sports is the younger fan. Not just talking locally but I think 20/25/30 years ago the 18-30 crowd was more into going to sporting events than this generation. The younger crowd from years ago now is older with families and just can’t in an instant on a Tuesday night say let’s go to a game. 
 

The next 3-5 years attendance in all sports will be a major topic.  

I agree. I do think major sports will all see declines for various reasons, including a newer generation that prefers to stay home and play xbox online with friends then go to games. 

Teams will needs to use streaming services to attract viewers and hope those viewers turn into fans that attend games. It's still a good time to spend an evening in Camden Yards, but it's more fun if the team is doing well, there are players you want to watch play personally, and the parking is close, cheap and safe.

[MurphDogg]

2 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

If we are being honest from a marketing standpoint you would replace Delmarva with Frederick. Frederick is closer and much bigger population. 
 

It will be very important for the Orioles to appease the Frederick area fan base.  

That would have certainly been my choice.

[MurphDogg]

2 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

It's still a good time to spend an evening in Camden Yards, but it's more fun if the team is doing well, there are players you want to watch play personally, and the parking is close, cheap and safe.

Tell your friends that the parking at the stadium lots is $8 and it is well lit with plenty of security and police. Warn them that they may have to walk by someone asking for change though. 

[Tony-OH]

2 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

If we are being honest from a marketing standpoint you would replace Delmarva with Frederick. Frederick is closer and much bigger population. 
 

It will be very important for the Orioles to appease the Frederick area fan base.  

I would agree with this though I know there is a nice fan base in the Delmarva areas as well. Saying that, it takes me two hours to get to Shorebirds Stadium and 40-45 minutes to Frederick or Aberdeen and 30 minutes (mainly due to to awful traffic near the stadium on rt3) to get to Bowie.

[Sports Guy]

Both Frederick and Bowie are essentially DC suburbs.

[eddie83]

3 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Tell your friends that the parking at the stadium lots is $8 and it is well lit with plenty of security and police. Warn them that they may have to walk by someone asking for change though. 

Walking back on Hamburg I recall in 2019 there were hardly any lights on the street. It’s pitch dark out, not like it’s 70k worth of fans piling at at 4:15 after a Ravens game. No security out there either. 

[eddie83]

6 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I would agree with this though I know there is a nice fan base in the Delmarva areas as well. Saying that, it takes me two hours to get to Shorebirds Stadium and 40-45 minutes to Frederick or Aberdeen and 30 minutes (mainly due to to awful traffic near the stadium on rt3) to get to Bowie.

And obviously vice versa going to Orioles games. Someone from Frederick area can hop on 70. Much longer from the shore. 

[eddie83]

15 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I certainly didn't mean to say that there was no impact from the image, clearly the crowd Tony hangs out with is afraid of the crime in the city. I didn't mean to downplay the fears of his friends, but they are much more likely to be injured in a car accident driving to or from the city than be a victim of a crime in or around Camden Yards.

Yeah, the murder rate is up and the city isn't perfect, but nobody is shooting at O's fans between Lot H and Gate D.

I get what you are saying... but your point here is off. It’s not the concern at the ballpark it’s the to and from aspect. 
 

Baltimore city has a major image issue and it isn’t going away. It’s not the Orioles fault but it impacts them.   

[Frobby]

16 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I certainly didn't mean to say that there was no impact from the image, clearly the crowd Tony hangs out with is afraid of the crime in the city. I didn't mean to downplay the fears of his friends, but they are much more likely to be injured in a car accident driving to or from the city than be a victim of a crime in or around Camden Yards.

Yeah, the murder rate is up and the city isn't perfect, but nobody is shooting at O's fans between Lot H and Gate D.

I agree with your assessment, but I do think it’s a fact that a significant number of people are reluctant to come to games due to their perception of danger in that area, whether or not it is justified.   

[Tony-OH]

23 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Tell your friends that the parking at the stadium lots is $8 and it is well lit with plenty of security and police.

You mean when the police left because they were told to let the rioters "have some space to destroy" and a ban of rioters attacked fans minding their own business at Pickels? 

You mean a police force that continually is being defunded and now has a mayor who was hugely behind defunding the police? That's a tough sell especially with other entertainment opportunities around that are much safer than entering lawless Baltimore.

As for $8 parking, few apparently know about it. All the lots say permit holders and the guys flagging people onto "personal" lots want $20 to park. Saying that, I haven't paid to park there in a long time so I'm just going  by what others have told me.

Look, I don't think the attendance woes are all about safety, but you have to admit that Baltimore does not have a good reputation and whether that true or not around Camden Yards, it does affect people coming to games. 

Saying that, the team's performance and just where team sports on whole are right now are contributing, but you have to admit, the 2019 attendance figures were pretty scary. 

It will be interesting to see how attendance ends up after COVID restrictions are lifted. 

At some point Elias will decide it's time to win games and maybe that will be when fans return, but how many fans will he have lost or not gained while the team was wallowing in awfulness? 

I just think the success of baseball in Baltimore is really a concern right now and I've never thought that in my entire life. I hope I'm wrong and the team wins and people come back and Camden Yards and downtown Baltimore is rocking once again, but with Harbor Place going under and few businesses wanting to open up in the current environment, I think that's years away if it happens at all. 

 

[Tony-OH]

11 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

And obviously vice versa going to Orioles games. Someone from Frederick area can hop on 70. Much longer from the shore. 

Exactly. That's why I thought keeping Frederick was so important because flying down I-70 is actually pretty easy to get to Baltimore.

[eddie83]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I agree with your assessment, but I do think it’s a fact that a significant number of people are reluctant to come to games due to their perception of danger in that area, whether or not it is justified.   

Just my personal experience but my wife and I usually spend a couple of nights a year downtown. You don’t see nearly the foot traffic after games, non game days that you saw years ago around the stadiums. 
 

Now maybe this is just our experience but I think it’s not. 

[MurphDogg]

11 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Walking back on Hamburg I recall in 2019 there were hardly any lights on the street. It’s pitch dark out, not like it’s 70k worth of fans piling at at 4:15 after a Ravens game. No security out there either. 

Hmm, maybe someone should reach out to the Orioles about the lack of light. I haven't experienced that, but I live closer to the stadium than those lots. Seems like the Orioles would want their suburban fans to feel safe.

Regardless, I have not heard of any instances of an Orioles fan being a victim of crime in the parking lots, and it seems like something that would make the news. The last Orioles related crime I can remember is a few years ago when that Yankees fan was brutally beaten and that was in the stadium, not exactly the urban crime that everyone is worried about. There was also a member of the Orioles groundscrew who got held up and had his phone stolen walking through my neighborhood two-three years ago, but that was a person walking alone after midnight hours after the game.

[MurphDogg]

5 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

You mean when the police left because they were told to let the rioters "have some space to destroy" and a ban of rioters attacked fans minding their own business at Pickels? 

You mean a police force that continually is being defunded and now has a mayor who was hugely behind defunding the police? That's a tough sell especially with other entertainment opportunities around that are much safer than entering lawless Baltimore.

As for $8 parking, few apparently know about it. All the lots say permit holders and the guys flagging people onto "personal" lots want $20 to park. Saying that, I haven't paid to park there in a long time so I'm just going  by what others have told me.

Look, I don't think the attendance woes are all about safety, but you have to admit that Baltimore does not have a good reputation and whether that true or not around Camden Yards, it does affect people coming to games. 

Saying that, the team's performance and just where team sports on whole are right now are contributing, but you have to admit, the 2019 attendance figures were pretty scary. 

It will be interesting to see how attendance ends up after COVID restrictions are lifted. 

At some point Elias will decide it's time to win games and maybe that will be when fans return, but how many fans will he have lost or not gained while the team was wallowing in awfulness? 

I just think the success of baseball in Baltimore is really a concern right now and I've never thought that in my entire life. I hope I'm wrong and the team wins and people come back and Camden Yards and downtown Baltimore is rocking once again, but with Harbor Place going under and few businesses wanting to open up in the current environment, I think that's years away if it happens at all. 

 

Glad we have that no-politics rule here.