Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Another Data Point

Sure, they've got the excuse that it's more money for the kids, but...

  • The Post -- continuing to show contempt for Kasten, the Nats, baseball, freedom and all that is right with this Grand Republic -- adds in some more details. Looks like they've done gone and pissed off just about every politician in DC.

    (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing)

    (I'm eagerly awaiting the teeth-gnashing post from Marty over at dcist tomorrow. I'm sure he's writing his screed tomorrow. $100 says he references schools)

    • posted by Chris Needham at 10:50 PM

    22 Comments:

    • As a Virginia resident (well, sort of when I'm not in college) this actually angers me some too. You know, there are around 7 million Virginians plus the 500k DC residents who just might like the idea of having a baseball team too. Many of these Virginia fans are obsessive about that other Washington team you may have heard of, the Redskins, so I'm certain that if the Nats marketed themselves properly, they could score a bonanza of fans who aren't exactly picky about the team winning or losing. Furthermore, Zimmerman attended UVA and is from Chesapeake. But no, the Nats are obsessed with Maryland (population of only 5 million), Orioles territory. I can see the charity Gala, but c'mon, the frickin' Fan-Fest too? That sends one heck of a message to fans in Virginia. While we're on that subject, here's an obvious Nats trade---something nice and decent for Mets pitcher John Maine. 1)He's a young guy with a good arm. 2)He'd be an upgrade over the trash we have now.
      3)Like Zim, he's a huge marketing opportunity, seeing as how he's from Stafford County, VA. While I'm sure there are better options, if he ever comes on the market (probably not), the Nats would be stupid not to play for him.

      By Blogger Michael Taylor, at 11/06/2007 11:48 PM  

    • Broad generalization: If the anti-ballpark crowd had focused its efforts on the biggest taxpayer boondoogle, the D.C. public school system, there may have been some progress in fixing that sorry situation. Apparently, actually "thinking of the children" isn't fashionable.

      By Blogger WFY, at 11/07/2007 8:28 AM  

    • I agree that some off-season events must happen in Northern Virginia. I don't understand why it hasn't occurred to the Lerners, who made their fortune at Tysons Corner, that the bulk of their fans and the wealth they are chasing is in NoVA. bring Zimmerman and the Meat Hook to Fairfax, and have them see how much Nats paraphernalia we wear.

      I can understand the sensitivity of folks in the District, but let's get real. The District government has had great distaste for the team, rather than embracing them now that they are actually here. It's not too difficult, Council- more fans, more taxes, the less DC actually ends up paying for the stadium.

      Oh, well. Councilman Graham would rather worry about gay strip clubs. Councilman Barry would rather worry about putting a soccer stadium in, as if that would be a success. At least Mayor Fenty has his head on straight, improving quality of life by fixing the cab fare system.

      We need to hope for a contending team within 2 or 3 years, in order to get some DC pols on the bandwagon. We need to have more players giving some DC facetime that matters, and part of that is having players whose faces matter. I'm not sure Torii Hunter is what we need on the field, but we need him in the city. Don't throw Mike O'Connor and Nook Logan at us again for FanFest.

      By Blogger Positively Half St., at 11/07/2007 8:34 AM  

    • Michael is right on with the comments on Va. I live in Southern Va and there are a ton of baseball fans in the state (majority ATL fans but I am starting to see more Nats hats).
      The Nats need "star" power. They don't need Cameron, Baldelli, or Weaver types. Bench players only get you loses and empty seats. The Nats need A.Jones. His stats will return and he will make the Nats a more interesting team to the casual fans (most ATL) which turns into revenue which turns into wins.

      By Blogger SLB, at 11/07/2007 10:15 AM  

    • They also need to do whatever they can to get the Richmond Braves somehow. That's like a knife pointed straight at the heart of the Nats fan base in Virginia, particularly because major league baseball has been absent for so long.

      By Blogger Michael Taylor, at 11/07/2007 10:46 AM  

    • Richmond, Danville, the Braves have more stake in Va than the Nats. Invest in the area (VA, MD, DC). Sign the local talent (it's there i.e. Wright, Maine, Wagner ,Upton) Zimmerman is a great example of the fans conneting to a local player.

      By Blogger SLB, at 11/07/2007 11:22 AM  

    • This is really just silly... it's not like Kasten & Lerner are sitting around going "Sweet, we got the stadium... now how can we *really* piss them off?"

      I'm sure they're trying to maximize the return on each event... and a free ballroom and getting the date that you wanted are pretty important (re: the FanFest, *planned to be in DC* originally but moved b/c the DC Convention Center was booked already [according to the Post article]).

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/07/2007 12:14 PM  

    • That's another reason why their cancellation of those really popular 1pm day games makes no sense to me. Because of the peculiarities of DC commuting, they should be expanding those games instead of reducing them. When you have a market that hundreds of thousands of workers commute to daily, why not take advantage of their commute? Especially when most commuters (if you've ever fought the traffic in Virginia from the Massaponax exit and north, you know what I'm talking about) wouldn't consider making another trip up I-95 on a weekday even if Jesus himself (and I'm not talkin' Flores) was playing at 3rd base. But, if you're already in the city and can take off early from work (i.e. Federal workers who make up a huge percentage of the city's workforce) and then can attend a baseball game and have some fun while everyone else is stuck in traffic on '95, why not? Furthermore, these sorts of people who commute into the city likely have far more disposable income than those who live there, given the relative costs of living and general affluence of suburbia. The Nationals organization seems to be following policies that are pretty much custom-built for them NOT to make as much money as they could and it's just stupid.

      By Blogger Michael Taylor, at 11/07/2007 12:18 PM  

    • Seems like a lot of ruckus over nothing. Maryland is quite within the Nats fanbase. It's not like they went to New Jersey or anything. It seems like the DC leadership is just constantly itching for an excuse to pick a fight with the team, or maybe the Post just sells it that way.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/07/2007 12:38 PM  

    • People who commute to the city are in perfect position to wander over to the stadium at the end of their work day to catch a game, michael, and they don't even have to take off work to do it. So I don't really get your point about the day games - although I guess it is kind of fun to play hooky every now and then.

      I think perhaps one of the real arguments against having day games in Nationals Park is that there will be little if any shade there, unlike RFK which had a lot of shaded seats. Baking in the sun on a 95 degree humid day is no fun at all. I don't think that scenario will make very many people want to leave their air-conditioned offices to catch a baseball game.

      By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 11/07/2007 12:54 PM  

    • "It seems like the DC leadership is just constantly itching for an excuse to pick a fight with the team, or maybe the Post just sells it that way."

      Yes and yes.

      By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 11/07/2007 12:56 PM  

    • That's not really true at all an broscia mor. There are two reasons why:

      1)For Federal workers, the workday ends at 4:30 and at the latest 5, save for mid-to-high level managers (just below SES). If you're commuting anywhere south of Alexandria, you probably want to be on the road pretty close to when you get off and you definitely don't want to make the trek back up 95 later on in the evening. I knew a LOT of federal employees who take off early, go to the 1pm games and then catch the last train home/drive home at a reasonable time. You're just not going to be able to get these kind of people back into DC later on at night.

      2) If you head for the games right after work and the games start at 7pm, assuming that they finish in 2.5 hours max, you're still going to have to spend at least another 45minutes taking the metro out of DC, then another 45min-1.5 hours driving home from Franconia-Springfield in the car. This would put you home at least around 10:30 or so and if the game goes over at all, or if there is traffic, 11pm or later still. Many of these federal workers, in order to avoid traffic, will leave for work somewhere between 4-5:30 am (I know a few people who leave at 3:30am) meaning that they would only get around 6 hours sleep, and if the game went longer for any reason, it could be significantly less than that. Furthermore, not having 1pm games pretty much cuts out the VRE market of people who ride the train home.

      At best, you might get some of these people coming back on the weekends, but only then if they're dedicated fans or do it sporadically. Most people who drive 95 do not want to do their commute on the weekend.

      By Blogger Michael Taylor, at 11/07/2007 1:09 PM  

    • Who cares who cares?

      Get some freaking talent onto the field.

      By Blogger Ray Firsching, at 11/07/2007 1:12 PM  

    • Franconia-Springfield? Why would anybody park so far out? To save another $3 on parking?

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/07/2007 1:34 PM  

    • michael, for every federal worker in DC who lives way out in VA and doesn't want to stay around for a night game, I bet there's a federal contractor like myself who lives and works in VA and would have to take the entire day off work to come in for a 1:00 game, but who can easily put in a full day at the office and get into DC for a 7:00 game. So if anything, I'd say it's a wash. Hardly a solid argument for having more day games during the week. The hot sun, OTOH, only comes out during the day, not at night.

      By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 11/07/2007 1:40 PM  

    • The biggest reason, I suspect, for the drop in day games next year is the parking clusterfuck.

      It's going to be hard enough to find parking after hours there... and with the struggle for parking as people try to find the few spots/lots that exist, it would really screw up traffic in an area that actually shuttles people out of the city.

      By Blogger Chris Needham, at 11/07/2007 1:43 PM  

    • Actually, parking will probably be more of a clusterfuck for night games than it will for day games. Look at it this way: searching for a parking place before a game will involve lots of driving aimlessly around the neighborhood until a garage with an available spot is found, mucking up traffic all the while, while leaving said parking place after the game just requires getting out of the garage and hitting the road like you know where you're going. That won't muck up traffic passing through the area as much as random wandering cars will. So, for a day game the wandering around and looking for parking will occur at noon, while for night games it would be at the tail end of rush hour. The streets will be much more empty of pass-through traffic at noon, ergo less mucked up traffic than at rush hour.

      By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 11/07/2007 2:08 PM  

    • Michael, really, there's 2.5M NoVa residents who would likely be the "fanbase" of the team, meanwhile in MoCo, PG, Charles, St.Marys in MD there's 2M. Lets not go using the entire states population like people from Norfolk, Martinsville, the Blue Ridge etc are suddenly gonna drive 3 hrs to see a ball game. And for the love of God, I live in Maryland, that does not make me an Orioles fan, in fact the only O's fans I actually KNOW are from B-more proper. Are we gonna really cry about the fact that the events are in MD. Does everyone actually care THAT MUCH? I'm not going, are you? Did you actually plan on going before? I don't think the majority of fans in NoVa are going to have a heart attack about it, apparently its just the DC Council. Don't worry though I'm sure after all this pointless shit they'll make sure to have it DC again next year, to make sure that the 7million Virginians can attend.

      By Blogger wittcap79, at 11/07/2007 3:37 PM  

    • ABM, I hope you have a good car radio to listen to while you drive "aimlessly around the neighborhood until a garage with an available spot is found" for a day game. Spots should begin opening up at around the 8th inning, when the workers already occupying those spots will start heading home from work . . .

      The first thing I thought when I saw the WaPo article this morning was: "I wonder how long it'll take for the Virginians to start in about how much richer and more important they are than Maryland and D.C. residents combined?" Sho 'nuff . . .

      As a D.C. resident, I really don't much care where the Nats hold their pregame soirees this year, just so long as they show up here in D.C. -- and not, say, Landover, Maryland -- come Opening Day!

      By Blogger Suz, at 11/07/2007 4:17 PM  

    • Suz, I won't be driving around aimlessly looking for a parking space, ever. Day game, night game, it doesn't matter. I take Metro to the games.

      By Blogger An Briosca Mor, at 11/07/2007 5:14 PM  

    • The Nats tried to schedule the Fan Fest at the new headquarters convention center hotel but it wasn't available.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/07/2007 7:06 PM  

    • Anybody seen nats.com tonight?
      First off, the Cameron thing is bullshit. The ONLY reason we would not give Church the CF job is if we signed Hunter or A. Jones, and it sounds the the latter possibilities won't happen.
      Secondly, someone needs to tell the Reds to shut the fuck up. Majewski was solid with us, and they had the right to give him a full physical before any trade was finalized.....and they're bithcing cuz a hard-throwing pitcher has shoulder problems?!?!?!???
      Holy dogshit, batman!! stop the F'ing presses!!!

      By Blogger Rob B, at 11/07/2007 9:12 PM  

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