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Nats v Rockies
Season Tix It rained today in Your Nation's Capital, but the station that does "Traffic and Weather Together on the Eights" promised it would end by about six o'clock and, indeed, at just about an hour before game time the grounds crew came out onto the field and started rolling up the tarp.
A working definition of "lonely" is a major league stadium, two hours before game time, in the rain:
The game started on time, 7:05 and the Nats pitcher John Lannan coming off an excellent seven-inning, five strike out performance last Friday against the Brewers, which the Nats won 5-3. Tonight with the game temp of 56 degrees Lannan faced eight men in the first but only got touched for two runs, leaving the bases loaded after 34 pitches.
We have talked, in past seasons, about the whole paid attendance deal. In Major League Baseball "paid attendance" is half true; the "paid" part. The "attendance" piece not so much. If you buy a season ticket - 81 games - you are counted as a paid attendee for all 81 games even if you've been assigned to a temporary assignment on Guam and have taken the book of tickets with you.
Season ticket sales are crucial to a baseball team because that tells them how many ushers, car park attendants, hotdog, beer, and pretzel hawkers they need. And, because season tickets are paid for before the season begins (I don't know of any pay-as-you-go season ticket plans), the team gets to use the $60 you've paid for your seat late in September, from the time your check cleared in March. Not too big a deal for one seat, but for a team that sells 20,000 season tickets, that is a significant amount of money.
The average ticket for a major league baseball game, according to Street & Smith is $22.21. The average ticket for a Nats game is $20.88 which includes a limited number of $5 seats all the way up to the $350 padded numbers right behind home plate.
The Boston Red Sox have the highest average price, $46.46 which is a Harvard Business School example of supply and demand. Fenway Park has an official seating capacity of 37,402 which is about the fourth smallest in Major League Baseball. Moreover, they have sold out every game since May 15, 2003 so the supply is small, the demand is large, and they can charge an average of $46.46.
So, now to the Washington Nationals. In their inaugural season in 2005, which was played at RFK Stadium sold about 22,500 season tickets. The next year (after an 81-81 season) the Nats sold about 17,500 season tickets which dropped to about 15,000 in 2007.
Since then the Nationals have declined to discuss their declining season ticket sales. There is a tipping point after which fans say to themselves: Why should I invest between $5,000 and $10,000 for season tickets when I can walk up for any game and get whatever seats I want?
This is not good for the morale of the owners, nor for the longevity of the front office staff.
I bring all this up because of the crummy, chilly mid-April weather in Washington meant that, with the kids still in school and a not-terribly thrilling Colorado Rockies team in town, the walk-up sales were likely to be pretty slim.
On Monday night the announced paid attendance was 11,623 which means there can't be more than 11,623 season tickets sold. Assuming there were some walk-ups and five game-type packages included in that game, it's probable that the Nationals are down to under 10,000 season ticket holders and are likely to be under 9,000.
Nationals Park has a listed capacity of 41,888. Here's what the Park looked like after five innings:
Compare and contrast the second photo - especially the outfield stands - with the first photo which was taken before the gates had even opened.
The thing is, the Nats are playing pretty good baseball. They're fun to watch with a good combination of base-stealers and home-run hitters. They are 7-7 through the first three weeks of the season meaning (coming into tonight's game) there are seven teams with a better record in the National League, seven with a worse record and one other team, these same Colorado Rockies, also at 7-7.
After Lannan's bad start, the Nats battled back with four runs in the third, one of which they gave back in the fourth. After six it was still 4-4. In the top of the seventh Ryan Zimmerman - who had a sparkling night in the field as well as going 2-3 at the plate, smacked a double to right field.
It looked like he was going to get a triple, but he appeared to limp into second base and held up. Zimmerman missed three games last week with a pulled left hamstring muscle. This appeared to his right leg so it wasn't a re-aggravation of the earlier injury.
The Nationals pushed across two runs in the bottom of the 8th which allowed them to bring the National League's best closer, Matt Capps, in to finish up for their 8th win of the year in their 15th game.
The Nats didn't get their eighth win in 2009 until (officially) May 7 when their record was 8-17 (.320), so they are 10 game ahead of last year's pace.
The press box announcer said the paid attendance was 11,191 - a new low for the Nationals - and a number which does nothing to dissuade me from my belief that season ticket sales are in the 9,000 range. And, because there were 30,697 empty seats, it is not likely there will be a large second-half rush for tickets this year.
All it will take to jack that number back up is a few winning years, a post-season appearance, and some players with personalities that the town can root for as individuals.
-- Rich Galen
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