ALWC Game 1 Attendance

[Otter]

11 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

No excuses, but here's the reason:

4k TV, 65 inches or however big it is.  AC.  Can order food from a local joint or make my own.  Don't have to pay 8 bucks for a beer.  Don't have to sit in traffic on the way to the park, don't have to pay for parking.  

It's hard to beat the at-home experience.  I'll take my kid when he gets old enough to appreciate it, for sure...I think every dad who is a baseball fan and wants to show their kid the game should definitely take their son or daughter to games.  I've been to Camden Yards probably 100+ times.  I was there for 2,130, 2,131, the day Cal ended the streak, the 93 all star game, playoff games...I've got great memories.  I don't feel the need to go again anytime soon.

 

This.  I grew up in Northern VA and it always took 1 hour to drive to Memorial or Camden no matter the time of day.  It was always easy to find parking as well.  Now that same drive takes 2-3 hours, and finding good parking is a pain.  Plus, the cost of parking, tickets, food/drinks, souvenirs has skyrocketed.  So the choice is to sit in traffic, fight for parking, pay tons of money for the hassle...or sit on my comfortable couch and watch the game on a huge HD screen for free...

[JR Oriole]

The Mets just had more exciting wins in one week than we had in four months.  I called us the Dull Orange Machine a few weeks ago for a reason.  Really boring team most of the season, with no personality at all.  They seemed to have a "get knocked down, stay down" mentality, which isn't fun to support as a fan.  There are a lot of very good reasons noted here as to why attendance wasn't great, but the energy around this team and the organization is just low and that can't help.  And a slow and boring offseason that doesn't move the needle much won't help attendance heading into next season either.  

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, Otter said:

This.  I grew up in Northern VA and it always took 1 hour to drive to Memorial or Camden no matter the time of day.  It was always easy to find parking as well.  Now that same drive takes 2-3 hours, and finding good parking is a pain.  Plus, the cost of parking, tickets, food/drinks, souvenirs has skyrocketed.  So the choice is to sit in traffic, fight for parking, pay tons of money for the hassle...or sit on my comfortable couch and watch the game on a huge HD screen for free...

Yup. Northern Va here, too. Complete hassle to get to Camden Yards. 

I might feel differently if I lived within 15-20 of the stadium but I don’t know. 

[OriolesUpAndDowns]

Also, this might be blasphemy, but Bmore is not a nice city.  I travel a ton for work and Bmore is way down the list of cities of places I would choose to go to.  

[fansince1988]

1 hour ago, Otter said:

This.  I grew up in Northern VA and it always took 1 hour to drive to Memorial or Camden no matter the time of day.  It was always easy to find parking as well.  Now that same drive takes 2-3 hours, and finding good parking is a pain.  Plus, the cost of parking, tickets, food/drinks, souvenirs has skyrocketed.  So the choice is to sit in traffic, fight for parking, pay tons of money for the hassle...or sit on my comfortable couch and watch the game on a huge HD screen for free...

Sunday day games are the best chance to avoid traffic if your trip takes you on the DC beltway. All other games times are mostly unbearable. I went to a mid week day game this season and it took me 1 hour to get to the park, and 2.5 hours to get home. 

[gamiliel]

On 10/6/2024 at 11:32 AM, OriolesUpAndDowns said:

Also, this might be blasphemy, but Bmore is not a nice city.  I travel a ton for work and Bmore is way down the list of cities of places I would choose to go to.  

Bingo....I have said this before also. Wives of players are not clamoring to come near B-More. Factor in taxes and its a hard sell.

[LookitsPuck]

People whining about 41k attendance and blaming it on the city have no idea what they're talking about. 

Why were there 47k+ of Game 1 against the Rangers last year? Did the city all of a sudden not matter then? It was also a day game. Alas, it was on a Saturday. And they had that locked up for awhile. Why has attendance went up YoY?

Look at the Astros and the Brewers. They had *less* people at their G1 games. Is Milwaukee not a nice city? Is Houston not a nice city? 

This is pretty simple. It was a day game during a weekday with crappy weather coming off a pretty lackluster performance going into the playoffs. And folks didn't know if there'd even be a home game until, what, barely a week before? 

People like winners. Miami is an awesome city. They got a new stadium when it first opened. But guess what? That team stunk in fairly short order upon stadium opening and attendance tanked. 

[interloper]

I went to a few games this year, but here are the reasons I didn't go to the WC games:

• The team had been an absolute bummer to watch for 3 entire months out of the season and to be honest by the time the playoffs got here I was exhausted and annoyed. The brand of baseball they had been employing for half the season (over-reliance on the home run, terrible ABs, iffy defense) frankly sucked to watch, even on TV, and I'm already spending money to watch them on TV.
• I wanted them to prove they could get past the WC round before I shelled out more money.

I imagine a lot of people share these reasons with me. 

[CP0861]

I have a 3 hour round trip to get to games. I can't speak about other directions, but the stadium is very easy to get to from the south...some more traffic with the earlier start times, but overall - games are VERY easy to get to, imo. You don't have the hike through the city to get to games. I'm a rural guy, and it's really not a big deal. We took the light rail from Cromwell for Game 1 (I usually park in BC or FGH) and it was a breeze. We walked out right after the game, and we immediately caught a direct bus that took us back to Cromwell directly. We did the same thing last year.

I gotta be honest - I think the "they've been horrible for half the season" reasoning is pretty lame.

Even when they were down (and dealing with significant injuries) after the AS break, they were still essentially a lock to make the playoffs. Then they get healthy-ish with some key guys back riiiiight before the playoffs and look great for a couple of series - but I guess it was too late for everyone?  Come on. 

Just say you didn't feel like it. But don't blame August play for not showing up in October. 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by CP0861