The Nationals drew just over 1.8 million fans to Nationals Park this season, a per game average of 22,568. That places them 23rd among 30 big league clubs, about a thousand fans ahead of the Orioles and about 500 shy of the Tampa Bay Rays on a daily basis.
Outgoing Nats’ President Stan Kasten always said: “We’ll get the attendance we deserve.” And he was quite right. With very few exceptions, losing ball clubs don’t draw particularly well. It’s that pesky correlation between winning and attendance that some dimmer lights like to ignore when trying to label some cities “bad” baseball towns. It’s far too easy to prove, yet I’ll still get the occasional crank who insists that baseball never should have returned to our nation’s capital.
If you’re actually looking for a bad baseball town, look no further than the aforementioned Tampa Bay franchise. The Rays, in postseason play again with a very solid ballclub, have struggled to draw a crowd all year. Sure, they’ll probably sell out their postseason games, but a playoff team to only average barely 23,000 fans per game sticks out like a sore thumb. Their biggest stars — third baseman Evan Longoria and lefty David Price — publicly complained about a lack of support last week.
True, the Rays were awful for years. They finished last or next-to-last their first 10 seasons. Then, in 2008, all those years of high draft picks started to pay off — along with some smart trades — and they went from worst to first and landed in the World Series. They lost, but they’ve maintained a very competitive roster.
Still, fans down there have found something else to do. Many blame the Tropicana Dome, a relic of 1970’s thinking. Some say it should’ve been built on the Tampa side of the bridge, that the aging demographic of St. Petersburg dictate that every night should be helmet night. A new ballpark proposal died on the vine a couple of years ago, and one Rays’ executive told me this year that it’s a dead issue. “We’ll be the next club to move,” he told me, also asking if I had any ideas.
Why, yes, I do, as a matter if fact: Nashville, Tennessee.
The Music City is the 29th media market, ahead of other MLB cities like Kansas City, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. I lived in that area awhile back (1968-72), and frequently go back to visit. I know there are a lot of baseball fans there. But more so, the folks in that part of the country think nothing of driving two hours to a sporting event. Take in the geography of 50-100 miles in every direction and you’ve got quite a potential fanbase.
Getting a stadium built would be a prerequisite. But as we saw with the Expos-to-D.C. scenario, moving a major league franchise is not an overnight thing.
I’m a little surprised that Nashville hasn’t made some noise about the majors in years past; it’s big league in so many ways already. They’ve already got the NFL and the NHL. Is big league baseball really such a stretch?
Examiner columnist Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
