What happened to the fanbase? Only 8,000 last night

[Frobby]

18 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

Your right, totally bogus excuse.

First of all, I don’t think it’s dangerous around the stadium.  But I do think there are plenty of people who do think that.  

The Ravens are irrelevant to this discussion, for three reasons. 

1.  Almost all Ravens games are played during the day.  Most Oriole games end after 10 pm.  

2.  There’s perceived safety in numbers.   It’s more comfortable leaving a game with 80,000 other people than with 10,000.   

3.  Most importantly, you only need 80,000 people who feel it’s safe to fill a football stadium 8 times a year.   You have a much larger number of individuals going to baseball games over 81 games. 

To be clear, I think 5 straight losing seasons, several of which were utterly noncompetitive, is by far the biggest reason attendance is down.  It will be increasing as the team shows sustained improvement.   But safety concerns of some people may prevent attendance from reaching 2012-16 levels.  We’ll see.  It depends in part just how good the team becomes.  





 

[Redskins Rick]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

First of all, I don’t think it’s dangerous around the stadium.  But I do think there are plenty of people who do think that.  

The Ravens are irrelevant to this discussion, for three reasons. 

1.  Almost all Ravens games are played during the day.  Most Oriole games end after 10 pm.  

2.  There’s perceived safety in numbers.   It’s more comfortable leaving a game with 80,000 other people than with 10,000.   

3.  Most importantly, you only need 80,000 people who feel it’s safe to fill a football stadium 8 times a year.   You have a much larger number of individuals going to baseball games over 81 games. 

To be clear, I think 5 straight losing seasons, several of which were utterly noncompetitive, is by far the biggest reason attendance is down.  It will be increasing as the team shows sustained improvement.   But safety concerns of some people may prevent attendance from reaching 2012-16 levels.  We’ll see.  It depends in part just how good the team becomes.  





 

Good Points.

Baseball attendance have been trending down for just about every single MLB team, including the winning teams.

 

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, CharmCityHokie said:

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you that Baltimore wasn't what it was a decade+ or so ago, but comparing it to SE DC is not a great argument. I work in DC, live just outside of it, all those same problems are here, ATV/dirtbike gangs (if it's a nice day tomorrow you'll see them stopping 495 between the Wilson Bridge and 295 before heading into DC proper), WMATA is a disaster (someone just set a metro seat on fire this morning at Eastern Market, just a few blocks up from Nats Park at 9 in the morning), there are shootings and violence all the time and the 1000 SE block of Capitol St is no different. I'm not trying to say there aren't legitimate problems and reasons to be wary in Baltimore, but using DC as an example of what could be better doesn't have much traction. 

 

Fair, but since the gentrification that's occurred at the Navy Yard with the removal of the old NGA building, construction of the high rises (which may be vacant), and the economic influx of activity around Nat's park, its night and day from what it was pre-Nats. I have no issues going to the Navy Yard, Barracks Row or Nats Park. At OPACY, I don't go past Pickles.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Baseball thrived for decades before televised games were a thing.

So did rolling a hoop around with a stick.  It's 2022 and baseball needs to get on board with how people want to pay for and consume their product.  It's utter nonsense that I can watch way more third-division German soccer from Southern Maryland (for free!) than I can legally stream the Orioles without paying for some $100/month ATT/Directv package.

Yes, baseball dominated when there was little or no other competition and just the revenues from one million ticket sales made you the Scrooge McDuck of sports.  That was a long, long, long time ago.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, GuidoSarducci said:

Team's won't go bankrupt in the modern era as there is revenue sharing.  This article indicates that from the national TV deal alone, every team is guaranteed basically $60 million, on top of their local TV deal which is at minimum $40m.  And that's even before considered gate revenues (that is also split between teams).  BB ref had an article a while back that seemed to imply almost every team would have a revenue of $200 million at minimum, but that did seem a bit high to me.

When teams have atrocious finances (i.e. Montreal), they will eventually get moved if there is no plan for shoring those up.

According to Forbes the Orioles (at least pre-COVID but after the tanking started) had revenues in the ballpark of $250M and almost no team spends 50% of revenue on MLB payroll.  Nobody is going bankrupt in the modern era.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yes I think they should fix the blackout issues.

That isn't what is causing a lack of attendance.

Baseball has never relied on television to drive fans to the stadium.

Media coverage increases interest in the game and the team, which indirectly leads to more attendance.  If you don't have any way to watch the Orioles on TV you're going to be less likely to go to the ballpark.  Every year millions drop cable/satellite, and a pretty small fraction replace that with the one legal way to stream the Orioles.

[survivedc]

The O’s in stadium experience isn’t great, mostly (entirely) due to concessions. The prices are absurd and the concession workers are terrible. I believe they changed providers recently and let me just say it isn’t working. Running out of hot dogs in the 5th inning, lines running 20 minutes long, no pump condiments and the condiments they do have placed at the beginning of the line. Insanely bad management.

[deward]

32 minutes ago, survivedc said:

The O’s in stadium experience isn’t great, mostly (entirely) due to concessions. The prices are absurd and the concession workers are terrible. I believe they changed providers recently and let me just say it isn’t working. Running out of hot dogs in the 5th inning, lines running 20 minutes long, no pump condiments and the condiments they do have placed at the beginning of the line. Insanely bad management.

I don't live in the area anymore, so I'm only going off second hand accounts, but everything I've heard about the stadium experience this year has been terrible. Say what you will about the Red Sox (and I could say a lot), Fenway doesn't have those issues. A wanna-be first class org can't allow those kind of problems to persist, and I've been seeing people talk about them all year.

[GuidoSarducci]

I didn't have any problems with concessions the last three times I went, the line for Boog's even was no wait.  This was the 1 PM Sunday game against the As.

[Going Underground]

2 hours ago, GuidoSarducci said:

I didn't have any problems with concessions the last three times I went, the line for Boog's even was no wait.  This was the 1 PM Sunday game against the As.

Why do they still have no napkins  besides at the concession stands? They are the only team that opens its gates an hour before the game on weekends.Not sure about the A's. Less gates open to get in. Also to get out.They have three gates when you get out by the old kids zone but only open one,so everyone jams together. They usually run out of paper towels in the men's room third base lower deck by the sixth inning. I know mostly minor things but all seem to be cost cutting measures. 

I noticed at the Red Sox game that very few Red Sox fans were in the stands.I guess school.is in and Red Sox are not good. 16,000 against the Red Sox on a beautiful Friday is not good in a pennant race. Much bigger crowd on,l Saturday. Sunday will also be low with Ravens playing.