Flirting with the Enemy
The pitching sucks, the defense is non-existent, the manager is over matched and now the President/GM is actively courting the most heinous fanbase on the planet.
"No, we want to play you, we want to see you here, and we would WELCOME your fans here. And I've got to tell you, I have gone to enough games in three different sports in Philly to tell you that I haven't always felt welcome in your parks, ok? But you can root for whoever you want, you will be welcome when you come to Nationals Park."
That's how long it takes to scrub the smell out of the stadium.Thanks bunches, Stan. Don't think we'll need to break out the translator for this one. On the heels of last night's embarrassment, did you really need to make the home opener less palatable for Nationals fans?
You remember Nats fans, right Stan? The dedicated thousands who are actually trying, in spite of all obstacles, to root for your team. Jim Bowden may have been an insufferable d-bag, but at least he never openly advocated turning every Nats game into an away game.
I understand Kasten has an ownership stake, so every empty seat really does hit him in the wallet, so here's a suggestion. It's true that Washington is a front-running town, but we're suprisingly supportive of consistent mediocrity too. Put a g--d--- watchable product on the field and you won't have to beg every bottom feeder from Flushing to Miami to make a summer time road trip to D.C.
14 comments:
It's true that Washington is a front-running town, but we're suprisingly supportive of consistent mediocrity too.
Really? Name one, just one, consistently mediocre team that Washington has ever supported with ballpark attendance in any sport. Go ahead. Name one. I can wait.
Oh, right, the Redskins. Yes, they're mediocre, but fans are in denial on that. They think they're gonna win the Super Bowl every single year. A few more years of Danny, though, and they might come around to reality.
The key word of course is consistent mediocrity. Beyond the Redskins, DC doesn't have much history of being able to maintain consistently middle of the pack teams. But it's worth noting that both the Bullets/Wiz and the Caps drew respectable crowds with middling teams that at least had some star power. Were they selling out? No. But they didn't have to pitch their arena as a vacation spot for opposing fans.
P.S. This is the Redskins' year!
But it's worth noting that both the Bullets/Wiz and the Caps drew respectable crowds with middling teams that at least had some star power.
I seem to recall at least a decade of consistent mediocrity from the Wiz in which Susan O'Malley had to market them by basically saying "come see our opponents and their great players." Is this the period of "respectable crowds with middling teams" of which you speak, and if so how does what Susan O'Malley did then differ from what Stan Kasten is apparently doing now?
To my mind there is an important difference between marketing star players on other teams to your own fans, which was at least arguably O'Malley's strategy, and marketing your ballpark as a home away from home for opposing fans, which was the gist of Kasten's pitch. If Kasten had said, "Hey, Nats fans, come out to the park next week to see Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard's head-to-head slugfest!" that's a different appeal entirely.
As for Le Suz, I love Mitchell Butler as much as the next guy, but those mid-90s Wiz teams didn't deserve to draw a crowd on their own merits. You're right to suggest that this is what teams do when their own rosters don't inspire attendance, but that's very much the point, no?
Here's a radical thought for Stan and the Lerners. Why not actually try to promote your baseball team to the local fans first? The only time management even TRIED to promote actual baseball to the local market was when Soriano was going for 40/40 at the end of 06. Otherwise it was always something else. In 2005 / 2006 the team was owned by MLB and focus was on fighting the City Council for the stadium deal. In 2007 the slogan was, "Buy season tickets for this year so you can get good seats at the new park next year." In 2008 the pitch was, "Come see the new park." This year it's apparently, "Hey Philthydelphians and New Porkers, there's plenty of good seats here to root for your boys."
A comprehensive advertising campaign costs money. Sending Stan on the radio to shill to the out-of-towners is free media. God this entire franchise is incompetent.
The only time management even TRIED to promote actual baseball to the local market was when Soriano was going for 40/40 at the end of 06.
Simon, what exactly did management do to promote Soriano going for 40/40 in 2006? Did they run ads in the paper, on radio and TV? Did they trot Soriano out on the PR circuit, having him do radio talk shows like they've had Dunn and other players doing this spring? Did they give away Soriano bobbleheads or T-shirts at the games?
Because, you know, I don't recall anything like that happening in 2006. I do recall a lot of media attention to Soriano's 40/40 chase, but media attention doesn't equate to management promoting something. In fact, usually those two things are not related at all.
I thought I remembered Charlie and Dave talking about it a lot -- which I count as managment-directed. Also there was the awards ceremony when he made the milestone.
If I have exaggerated the amount of promotion in this situation, well that sort of proves the meta-point doesn't it?
Not sure I understand what your meta-point is. You seem to have issues with the specifics of how Nats management is promoting the team when you can't even figure out the difference between team-managed promotion and media coverage.
Anon - Charlie and Dave are about as much independent media as Tokyo Rose. And the point remains that if Charlie and Dave were spearheading the team's promotional efforts, well then there weren't really any team promotional efforts to speak of, were there?
Is that the meta-point, that there aren't any promotional efforts? Or is the meta-point that the promotional efforts are wrongly directed? I'm so confused. But like Will Rogers, I never met a point that I didn't like.
The meta-point was that the team has done very little to promote the actual baseball team. If by exaggerating the amount of promotion done at the end of 2006, I apologize for giving management too much credit.
They're actually doing a good bit to promote the actual baseball team this spring. They've put Olsen, Dunn, Acta and others out on the non-WFED radio waves to talk about the team. I've heard them on WJFK frequently (Junkies, O'Meara) including on Opening Day. These are obviously interviews arranged by team promo people, not out of the goodness of the players' hearts. Makes one wonder why we never hear anything like this from FotF Ryan Zimmerman. Is it that the team doesn't want to whore him out (hard to believe) or that he refuses to do it, like he refuses to sign at team events due to his "contract"?
Anon - could be a contractual thing, but I have heard him give interviews from time to time. The Z-man, bless him, is just not super articulate, so that may play a bigger part.
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