Compared to other teams playing their first years in new stadiums, we are coming very close to setting an historic low for worst attendance ever (or at least in the recent generation of new parks since SkyDome opened in 1989).
Here, from best to worst, are the average attendance figures for all 18 parks:
| Stadium | Avg. Attend. |
| SkyDome | 46678 |
| Oriole Park at Camden Yards | 44047 |
| Turner Field | 42771 |
| Busch Stadium III | 42063 |
| Coors Field | 41852 |
| Pac Bell Park | 40973 |
| Citizens Bank Park | 39754 |
| Jacobs Field | 39121 |
| Minute Maid Park | 37730 |
| PETCO Park | 37244 |
| Comiskey Park II | 36224 |
| Safeco Field | 36004 |
| Miller Park | 34704 |
| Rangers Ballpark in Arlington | 30904 |
| PNC Park | 30430 |
| Comerica Park | 30106 |
| Nationals Park | 29487 |
| Great American Ballpark | 29077 |
To finish ahead of Bowden's Reds, Bowden's Nationals will need to average 26,867 per night over the final 8 games of the year. Monday night there were just 21,759 on hand and 24,997 last night. It's supposed to be 78 degrees and sunny all weekend, so I guess there's hope, but right now it's looking like we're going to set the standard for the least successful first year in a new stadium ever.
And just look at those numbers. Most of the teams on this list blew us away. The average average is over 37,000. The teams we're "competing" with at the bottom of the list are some of the absolute worst franchises in all of sports. The Tigers have turned it around, but remember where they were in 2000--in the middle of 12 straight losing seasons. The rest--Texas, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati--are all teams that haven't seen really any winning at all in a generation and have had meandering, awful leadership for years.
But just like Stan said, they're getting the attendance they deserve.
7 comments:
Yeah this would be pretty bad if we fell below the Reds. I think an interesting add on would be percentage of tickets sold because while some teams would remain high the Nats are only drawing 71-72% of capacity, Pirates were near 80% (Reds were even worse than the Nats). Just an idea for another way to look at the numbers. Thanks again for showing us some of the harsh truth about this team.
Here you go. By %, we could catch GASP, but not Texas.
Pac Bell Park--98.5%
Busch Stadium III--93.5%
SkyDome--92.4%
Oriole Park at Camden Yards--91.8%
Citizens Bank Park--91.4%
Jacobs Field--90.2%
Minute Maid Park--89.8%
PETCO Park--87.7%
Turner Field--85.4%
Coors Field--83.0%
Miller Park--82.8%
Comiskey Park II--82.3%
PNC Park--79.0%
Safeco Field--76.4%
Comerica Park--75.0%
Nationals Park--70.4%
Great American Ballpark--69.2%
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington--62.9%
Great work Steven, I think this is even a more accurate portrayl of where the Nats stand. Luckfully they did the smart thing and reduced ticket prices b/c there would have been a drastic dropoff otherwise.
I'm new to this site, but given its name I assume the point of the piece is to support the argument to fire Bowden. Low attendance results from poor performance. So the premis is that the poor performance is Bowden's fault?
I would say that the poor performance this season had two causes: (1) Sticking too long with the "three stooges". (2) Injuries.
The "three stooges" being Wily Mo, Lopez, and Kearns. Who was responsible for them staying in the lineup so long? Was it Bowden, as some suggest. Well then, I say, "fire Manny". If Manny is so weak that he would put these losers in the lineup just because Bowden says so, then he's not managerial material.
Suppose we had been able to rid ourselves of these three early in the season, and that we had been able to play most or the whole season with Guzman, Zimmerman, Milledge, Dukes, and Johnson all healthy. That's at least a .500, maybe playoff, team. Was Bowden responsible for the injuries?
I'm new to this site, but given its name I assume the point of the piece is to support the argument to fire Bowden. Low attendance results from poor performance. So the premis is that the poor performance is Bowden's fault?
I would say that the poor performance this season had two causes: (1) Sticking too long with the "three stooges". (2) Injuries.
The "three stooges" being Wily Mo, Lopez, and Kearns. Who was responsible for them staying in the lineup so long? Was it Bowden, as some suggest. Well then, I say, "fire Manny". If Manny is so weak that he would put these losers in the lineup just because Bowden says so, then he's not managerial material.
Suppose we had been able to rid ourselves of these three early in the season, and that we had been able to play most or the whole season with Guzman, Zimmerman, Milledge, Dukes, and Johnson all healthy. That's at least a .500, maybe playoff, team. Was Bowden responsible for the injuries?
@Ray--the attendance post wasn't intended to be part of some extended argument to fire Bowden. It's just a post stating the reality, with nothing really else to say except that it's bad.
That said, on the injuries, you're right we've had some bad luck (Zimmerman, Cordero), but Bowden has brought in an unusually high number of injury prone players. Maybe that was a risk worth taking, but when Bowden says, "who could have guessed that Shawn Hill, Nick JOhnson, Austin Kearns, Dmitri Young, Paul Lo Duca, Johhnny Estrada and Cristian Guzman would all get hurt!!" it's laughable.
I'm not sure you can blame Manny for playing Pena too much. I mean, he benched him for Roger Bernadina at one point.
And you want him to bench Kearns and Pena? Who's he supposed to play? Kory Casto?
Playing Lopez also wasn't a bad call given the options. At least he has some upside versus Belliard. Ronnie put up a great year for him too. That wasn't all that predictable.
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