9,000 a Night?
by: doood
Recently, I read an article in the Washington Post which stated that the Washington Nationals' Televison fanbase is the poorest in baseball so far this season. The magic statistic reported: 9,000 viewers tune in a night to watch their hometown Nationals. 9,000!? This number trails the extremely lowly Kansas City Royals by over 10,000-a-night, and isn't even close to the Orioles, the Beltway rivals.
This sorry number of viewers comes in a fanbase area of about 5.5 MILLION people. 9,000 people in this area out of 5.5 million. the percent number is staggering.
Now, I do not disaree that my beloved Nats are not the best team to watch in baseball, what with the numerous injuries and struggling both at the plate AND on the mound, but do you mean to tell me that there are only 9,000 loyal fans wathching this team, and more than 50% less loyal fans than the ROYALS! It's ridiculous.
I'm not sure what this team can do to get some support. The team is rebuilding and developing talent, and the team is not due for a good year, I think, for at least 2 more seasons. But even once they start winning, will people start jumping on, or will it be too late? Will we become like the Tampa Bay Rays, who, while finally developing and grabbing first place, still can't fill up Tropicana? Nationals Park is not attracting fans as much as expected, and the only game that truly had some real fan support was the opener.
I, a loyal 4 year Nats season ticket holder, beg Washington fans to turn on your big flat screen TV to MASN or MASN2 to watch these guys, they are on every night. But better yet, go to more home games! there are tickets at 10 bucks, and just bring your own food to avoid stadium prices. Bring your kids, your cousins, your cleaning lady, whoever. These Nats need fans, and they need support. Maybe they'll even start WINNING...
Comments:
Honestly, what do you expect? We're a young franchise and people haven't really had time to build up enough loyalty to stomach the team's current status. They're awful. It's not just that they're injured, it's that they're awful. They're bad, even when they're healthy. Given, it doesn't help that 4 of our 5 best offensive players are hurt (Zimmerman, Johnson, Milledge, and Dukes) BUt think about something. Four of our five best offensive players are Zimmerman, Johnson, Milledge, and Dukes, all of whom were having average years at best before getting hurt. When the team moved to Washington, we all knew that the team would have to get bad before it got good. But seriously, spend some money to bring in some talent. There are quality players coming to free agency this year. If the Nationals front office really wants support, then they need to make a statement to their fans that they're committed to winning. Spend some money. Bring in some people that will give the franchise some offense. The Alfonso Soriano experiment was like a virgin experience gone bad. We tried bringing in a free agent, but he wanted out so badly that we're terrified of trying again. We're young. Our best days are still ahead of us. That's for sure. But a key to developing young talent is having some veteran mentors who can help the youngins develop into solid players and show them how things get done. At this stage, the Washington area won't watch their baseball team until Jim Bowden and the Nationals give them a reason to watch their baseball team. We can wait and see if rebuilding will work, or we can make some moves that will hasten the process. It's really up to them.
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