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It was not a mistake to bring MLB back to Washington. Even though I don't think Washington will ever be a great baseball market, it still will be (and already is) a more viable baseball market than a number of markets out there, including Tampa Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh, possibly Phoenix and/or Kansas City, and perhaps a few other markets.
Name another city in the country that would put up with bad baseball as long as KC has and still draw 23k a game.
There is none.
There is not a single city out there (except NYC due to the pure size of the market) that would draw crowds over 15k after nearly twenty years of bad baseball. Not just bad, but absolutely embarrassing baseball.
As a Royals season ticket holder, anybody that calls KC a bad baseball town does not have a clue. Most Friday and Sat games draw 30-38k....for this team. The team draws small weekday crowds do to the lack of season ticket holders and the horrible location of the stadium away from the city center.
The season ticket base is small now (because of decades of losing), so now the team depends on walk up crowds.
When the Royals even hint at being competitive, just being competitive, games start to sell out.
This city is dying for a good sports team and if the Chiefs or Royals ever do anything, the city comes out of the woodwork. Too bad it's always just a tease.
The Chiefs and Royals are horrible, yet both teams draw well for their records.
No NHL or NBA either. No fun being a KC sports fan.
Having said that, it takes a very large city to support MLB. KC has a little over 2 million people. I don’t see how a city smaller than KC could support a MLB team. Milwaukee draws large crowds now, but they have a decent team.
Hang in there DC, the team will turn it around and I think DC will get out there and support that team.
I might be moving to DC and if so, you can count on a very slight increase in attendence
Baseball has made so many mistakes, the decision to return it to Washington DC pales by comparison...
Putting it on TV, to start with--a medium that largely reduces the whole game to a contest between the pitcher and the batter. (You lose all the perspective from the TV screen).
The decision to play World Series games only at night, purely for the sake of television ratings. Now there's at least one generation of kids--the future fans, remember?--who haven't been able to watch the World Series. This isn't just negligent, or even short sighted. It's criminal!
A losing team in Washington? Big deal; they can always improve. How about bringing the game back to the fans? A much taller order!
I look at it like this: The nats on average are drawing like what three times as many fans as they were in montreal. Not only that but the league did not have to realign. Nova, DC, and baltimore now have their two team market.
I think there are cities that would support an MLB team more than Washington:
Buffalo
Louisville
Indianapolis
San Antonio
Nashville
Austin
Charlotte
Raleigh/Durham
Omaha
Portland
Plus, those cities do not share a metro area with another team with deeper roots, as the Nats do with the Orioles.
It is true, the main reason no one cares in the area is cause the Nats stink. Sure DC is a football town first and foremost, but it's not a lost cause (comparing with the redskins is mean cause they are legendary).
I believe that the area supports soccer decently with the United which is one of the most succesful soccer teams (could use better TV coverage though), so it can DEFINETLY do baseball.
If they get the ball rolling and have a couple of good seasons in a row, then we will probably see a change.
There is a high income bracket in the suburbs and pockets of the city, so it can be done. The city itself, meh. Afro-Americans just really don't care about baseball anymore (I don't think they have for a while).
Although I don't necessarily believe that bringing baseball back to DC was a mistake, your comment makes a very interesting point...
Montreal was a hockey town, which MLB chose to ignore. They actually thought they could make inroads there, which turned out not to be the case. Similarly, Atlanta isn't really a baseball town so relocating the Braves there wasn't the most brilliant of all moves.
Some other posters have used the word "roots," and that may be a clue to what the sport should consider, if it becomes necessary to relocate some other team--which I'm sure will be the case.
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