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Maybe, maybe not. For many years prior to 2008 when the Bruins were crappy, Boston couldn't come close to sellouts. When the Blackhawks stunk in 2006-07, Chicago's average seat fill was 65% (even without taking SRO capacity into account). These are Original 6 franchises with lots to offer near central arenas. Bottom line, when the team sucks, attendance reeks. Except NY and the Canadian teams other than Ottawa.
I agree bad product tends to bring bad interest. I would add two more points/thoughts.
1. The number of teams in a market.
2. Hockey being a niche sport still (not lacrosse niche, but niche nonetheless).
The Bruins have a loyal fan base, but the sport, even in one of the biggest hockey cities in the country; you'd be hard pressed to find many areas that have more HS and College hockey impact than MA, the Bruins are still a distant 4th for "sporting fandom" there.
Boston is a four team town (five if you count the Revs). Chicago is a 5 team town (six if you count the Fire).
On a map in a vacuum, PNC is the perfect location to draw fans from all over. It otherwise sucks due to nothing being around it. Though that has allowed a nice tailgating situation to come about.
On a map in a vacuum, PNC is the perfect location to draw fans from all over. It otherwise sucks due to nothing being around it. Though that has allowed a nice tailgating situation to come about.
And...
I have to wonder if having 20-30 restaurants and bars within easy walking distance to an arena would draw more fans than tailgating does?
I understand the fun of tailgating, but how much does it impact fan attendance?
Went to the game last night, and once again, cold rainy weather. Didn't notice any tailgating.
But, those hypothetical 20-30 restaurants and bars probably would have benefited.
Why did the Braves need a new stadium after 20 years? That's bloody insane.
They didn't, one of the big issues the Braves had with relatively "young" Turner Field was not owning the land immediately around/near the stadium to develop as they wish, they have that with SunTrust Park in Cobb County. The other issue they stated was that Turner was far away from a majority of their season ticket holders, who lived in the wealthy northern suburbs.
Having been to both Turner and SunTrust to see games, I thought Turner was a great ballpark even for being being 20-years-old, the only thing I would have done was reduce the capacity like they did in both Denver and Cleveland to their ballparks. Like BC1960 said, if someone is basically giving you $400 million and the development rights, I think most teams would be like heck ya!
I joked further up the tread, but watch the City of Atlanta "give" the Braves $600+ million in 20-25 years to come back to the downtown with a new ballpark at the Georgia Dome site, then in 20-25 years after that a new northern Atlanta suburb will give the Braves $750+ million to play in a new ballpark out there. As long as the Braves find cities/counties willing to throw money at them they can and will continue to move all around the Atlanta metroplex!
If there were no municipalities around Atlanta willing to build them a new ballpark the Braves would still be at Turner.
Who's the billionaire willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars into a bad market?
MLB has less than a dozen viable teams, capable of spending enough money to acquire and more importantly, keep talent. This isn't one of those markets. You'd be going in knowing you are the Generals to their Globetrotters. And hoping enough Red Sox , Yankees, Cubs, Mets, fans etc show up to fill seats every night. Even the Bulls games are usually overflowing with supporters of the away team. MLB won't solve that issue. People from "there" wont change their allegiance. It'll never happen here. Ever.
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