Will new ballpark help Rangers attendance? (Houston, Arlington: how much, live in, design)

[Soccernerd]

I agree, but where would they put an MLB near downtown in proximity to a DART station? The land would probably be prohibitively expensive.

[f4shionablecha0s]

Originally Posted by Soccernerd

I agree, but where would they put an MLB near downtown in proximity to a DART station? The land would probably be prohibitively expensive.

The old Reunion Arena site. Would have been simple.

[TheOverdog]

The old Reunion Arena site

I think the evidence that a Dallas stadium would outdraw the Arlington stadium is kind of weak, considering again stated attendance figures (Stars at 97%, Mavs similar) of the AAC vs actual attendance figures (not that great, tickets often super cheap). There might be a slight increase but I wouldn't imagine that it would be particularly dramatic.



Same with mass transit to the games in Arlington. Figure an extra 2000 fans per hour could take rail, so 2-4k at most would be the extra number of fans. Beyond 2 hours, driving in traffic vs transit becomes moot. Maybe a huge number of that 2-4k would more than make up in booze sales, but I kind of doubt it.



Like it or not, I think that being in the mid-cities draws a proportionate number of people from Ft Worth as from Dallas, and Ft Worth attendance more than makes up for lack of mass transit. If it were me, I'd probably have put it farther north in the mid-cities for the maximum draw, but whatever.



Like Irving officials recently said, instead of crying about losing the Cowboys, they put in a half-decent music venue, they quadrupled their total attendance, increased hotel stays, and increased local spending.

[RonnieinDallas]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

I think the evidence that a Dallas stadium would outdraw the Arlington stadium is kind of weak, considering again stated attendance figures (Stars at 97%, Mavs similar) of the AAC vs actual attendance figures (not that great, tickets often super cheap). There might be a slight increase but I wouldn't imagine that it would be particularly dramatic.



Same with mass transit to the games in Arlington. Figure an extra 2000 fans per hour could take rail, so 2-4k at most would be the extra number of fans. Beyond 2 hours, driving in traffic vs transit becomes moot. Maybe a huge number of that 2-4k would more than make up in booze sales, but I kind of doubt it.



Like it or not, I think that being in the mid-cities draws a proportionate number of people from Ft Worth as from Dallas, and Ft Worth attendance more than makes up for lack of mass transit. If it were me, I'd probably have put it farther north in the mid-cities for the maximum draw, but whatever.



Like Irving officials recently said, instead of crying about losing the Cowboys, they put in a half-decent music venue, they quadrupled their total attendance, increased hotel stays, and increased local spending.

So you believe if the Mavs and Stars were in Arlington their attendance would be the same?

[TheOverdog]

So you believe if the Mavs and Stars were in Arlington their attendance would be the same?

Yeah, pretty much. In fact, their actual attendance (vs stated ticket sales) might be slightly better.

[biafra4life]

Winning is the only thing that matters. I know that definitely applies to the Mavs. I remember when they couldnt give away tickets, now they sell out all the time. Winning (or at least the expectation of future winning) is what drives most people to either go or not go.

The one curious outlier to all this is the Cowboys. They have been a frankly mediocre team for most of the last 20 years, yet it doesnt appear to impact their attendance.

[Tyryztoll]

Why did they make the new park look exactly like Minute Maid Park in Houston??? How embarrassing for the Rangers and their fans!

An opportunity to build a state of the art facility with a completely original layout that would be the talk of baseball and instead they copy Houston. Unbelievable!

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by biafra4life

Winning is the only thing that matters. I know that definitely applies to the Mavs. I remember when they couldnt give away tickets, now they sell out all the time. Winning (or at least the expectation of future winning) is what drives most people to either go or not go.

The one curious outlier to all this is the Cowboys. They have been a frankly mediocre team for most of the last 20 years, yet it doesnt appear to impact their attendance.

The Cowboys are like the Packers, Yankees, Michigan football.....in that they live on their past legends and will continue to sell tickets accordingly.

In stark contrast, no one outside of Texas has or will ever care about the Rangers.

[TheOverdog]

The Cowboys are like the Packers, Yankees, Michigan football.....in that they live on their past legends and will continue to sell tickets accordingly.

If you've been to a Cowboys game, you will also notice that opposing fans travel well -maybe due to Cowboys past legends or maybe because DFW is a decent place to visit for football fans or maybe something else. That's also a big difference between football and the other sports.



Also I went to plenty of Mavs games the year they lost the finals (and the year the won the title) and the place was often a ghost town during midweek games. Could have been the recession, and the massive growth around downtown could have helped since then, but I'm just making the point that winning alone doesn't fill the seats every night. Same with the Stars.

[tmtex]

Originally Posted by Tyryztoll

Why did they make the new park look exactly like Minute Maid Park in Houston??? How embarrassing for the Rangers and their fans!

An opportunity to build a state of the art facility with a completely original layout that would be the talk of baseball and instead they copy Houston. Unbelievable!

I wondered that also. My guess same Architect maybe