Attention, Nationals Fans! Both Of You!

We're closing in on the halfway point of the baseball season, and the news is not good for our Nats in their first year of operations at the new ballpark. Read on from the DC Sports Bog in the Washington Post:

Well this ballpark-christening season has gone about as smoothly for Washington baseball as rush hour at Metro Center. To recap: the big offseason signing got caught up in the steroid scandal, the exciting new outfielders both suffered serious injuries, the two fan favorites at the corners both suffered serious injuries, the ace and closer both suffered serious injuries, the attendance has hovered in the exact middle of the league for weeks (and is much closer to the bottom third than to the top), and the won-less record is currently the worst in the bigs.
Meaning "First in War, First in Peace, Last in the National League" is no longer a bad enough description.

But wait! Some good news! The team's percentage drop in regional sports network television ratings is not the biggest in the major leagues this season! It's, um, the second-biggest drop! Behind only the Mariners.

According to an in-depth baseball ratings story and chart by John Ourand,

posted on Sports Business Journal today (subscription required), the Nats are drawing a 0.39 on MASN/MASN 2, down 43.5 percent from last year. The average number of D.C.-market households tuning in is 9,000, which is...checking, checking....last in the majors. By a lot. That 0.39 rating is...checking, checking....also last in the majors. Also by a lot.

The biggest average households numbers, according to the story (which is based on Nielsen Media Research numbers) watch the Yankees (325,000), Red Sox (233,000) and Mets (204,000). The highest average ratings, according to the story, are found in Boston (9.75), St. Louis (8.04) and Minnesota (6.92).
More to the point, the lowest average household numbers, aside from the Nats, watch the Royals (28,000), Orioles (33,000) and Pirates (34,000). To repeat, the Nationals' number was 9,000, less than a third of the viewership in next-to-last Kansas City. The lowest average ratings, aside from the Nats, are found watching the Angels (1.24), Rangers (1.49) and Dodgers (1.57). To repeat, the Nationals' number was 0.39.

I've been told not to make public our own numbers on Nats-based Web hits, but I think "disappointing" would be an accurate description. "Very disappointing" might also apply.

Seriously, what the heck is going on here? Why do we have a baseball team? Is this just yet another example of Washingtonians being front-runners? Will the numbers spike when the Nats start winning? Does it just require time, no matter what the W-L record is? Was Peter Angelos actually correct about the lack of D.C. baseball fans? Is it really that hard to find MASN2? Or is it just that, in general, with one notable exception, Washington is to pro sports what Billings is to high culture?

Hate to say "I told you so", but I told you so. When the Senators left town in 1971, I became an Orioles fan, and that suited me fine for the next 30 years or so. Aside from a small band of fans who could never get over the fact that the Senators were gone, Washington's baseball jones was plenty satisfied by having the Orioles at Camden Yards. If the Nats want to fix their woes, they're going to need better luck in the injury department, better access for fans to their new ballpark, and more important than anything else, a division title! DC loves winners and the Redskins - and nothing else.

Don't worry, Nats fans... your misery will be short lived... The Skins go to training camp on July 20th - and after that nothing else will matter.

Capitol Rotunda Smashed By Foul Ball?

My most trusted news source, The Onion, is reporting this morning that the US Capitol rotunda was smashed by a foul ball off the bat of the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman.... Of course, this story is just a joke! How can you tell? The article says 32,457 people were at the game! Those Onion writers! Such comics!

More Nationals Park Bashing!

The Nats won their 4th straight last night - their longest winning streak of the season - beating the Pirates at the new ballpark, 3 - 2... This was a real nailbiter - the Nats didn't score the winning run until the bottom of the 8th inning. Hmmm... I wonder how many people were there to see it!

The announced crowd at the park last night was 24,723. Again - this is the number of tickets sold, not the number of butts in seats. By the bottom of the 8th, I'd bet the crowd was at best 10,000 - because fans are already well-known for sneaking out early to avoid the crowds on Metro. My "friend", Randy Bernstein, did just that last week. He and his son Evan went to a game with an announced crowd of about 25,000. Randy tells me there were nowhere near that many people in the stands - and he also confesses to leaving in the 6th inning to beat the rush.

Now, everything I've just told you flies in the face of what Tom Boswell is reporting in his column in today's Washington Post. Boswell is almost desperate to declare Nationals Park a big success, and he's quick to point out that the team's revenue from attendance may double this season. Yeah, Tom... they've boosted the hell out of ticket prices, and the new stadium also brought in more season ticket buyers - of course revenue for the team is going to increase!

But what about revenue for the city, and for the vendors who opened concession stands on the promise of more fans?

The Nats have not had a sellout since opening night, and no matter what happy spin they put on it, they can't be happy with an average attendance of under 30,000 fans - a figure that is boosted by heavier weekend crowds - midweek games have drawn closer to 20,000. The Nats are going to make their money no matter what - DC has to pay for the stadium whether people are going to the games or not.

City residents better hope for more - and longer - winning streaks!

Not To Be A Pest, But the (G)nats Aint Drawing Flies!

I noticed this morning that Grandy and Andy have gotten around to discussing what I've been reporting for the past week (here and here)... that the Nationals are having real problems drawing fans. For the record, the team has played seven games now at its new 43,000 seat ballpark, including a weekend set against the Braves... On Friday night, a beautiful night for baseball, 28,051 tickets were sold... 32,532 on Saturday... and on Sunday, the teams drew 29,151. Seven games... one sellout.

Now, I'm sure there are still plenty of fans out there who will eventually make their way down there to catch a game, and that some folks may be waiting for the initial traffic problems to shake out before they venture forth. But here's the real truth, folks. 1/ There is not enough, and there will never BE enough affordable parking... and 2/ They've already expanded the Navy Yard Metro station to handle subway traffic, but even with the expansion, the station can only handle 15,000 people an hour. That means it could take 2 hours to get every fan on a train on a busy night.

Now let me ask you... If you had to wait 2 hours just to get ON a train after a game, how many games would YOU go to? I thought so. I'm telling you - We've got trouble my friends... right here in (Anacostia) River City...

Talk About Your Fair Weather Fans!

We spent more than 30 years without baseball in DC, and many people in our area found that to be an outrage. I was not one of them. Except for the Redskins, Washington has always been a lukewarm sports town - in part, because a lot of the people who came through our area are transients (actually, that's more myth than fact), and in part because DC has always been a roll-up-the-sidewalks-at-6 pm kind of town. The Senators left in 1971, but within a year or two, I became an Orioles fan and never looked back. Memorial Stadium was closer to my home in Montgomery County than RFK was anyway... Fast forward to 1992 - Orioles Park at Camden Yards opened to hugely successful reviews, and suddenly, the baseball world became enamored with the whole "Field Of Dreams" notion that "if you build it, they will come". New stadiums started popping up all over the place, and in most, but not ALL cities, they were also key to driving up attendance. So how about the new Nationals park? It opened to rave reviews, and a near-sellout (that's right - there were a few empty seats for the debut)... And for game two? Well, the announced paid attendance was 20,487 - less than half of the stadium's 43,000 seat capacity. Mind you, major league rules dictate that attendance be counted by number of tickets sold, NOT actual butts in seats... So it's VERY likely there were fewer than 20,000 people in the place last night. Now, I will grant you... It was a chilly night and the game was played against the NCAA basketball championship. But if the Nats, current owners of a five-game losing streak, are in the basement of the NL East by the all-star break, it's going to be a long, QUIET summer along the Anacostia... Hope DC got it's money's worth!