I missed the game last night, but I'm listening to the archived broadcast this afternoon at work. The winning is so much fun, I'm thinking about skipping the Nats game tonight and staying home to watch the first place Reds... Nah, I'll go, but if I could just get a wireless signal at RFK...I had to click on this thing of beauty and stare at it for a moment.
Forget Monet, I want this hanging on my wall! Look at all the W's!
So Lancaster has a post on the pathetic attendence at last night's game, and the comments are unreal. My mom was there (hi mom!) - she seemed to have no problem driving the 1.5 hours to the ballpark!
Anyway, I'm reading through the excuses (all of them poor except the ones where people live too far away. I don't think someone from Idaho should be expected to fill the seats) and thinking that the real problem is the utter lack of efficient public transportation. The thing that allows me to go to so many Nats games is the Metro. If there was no public transportation and I had to pay for parking, I wouldn't go to half as many games as I do (which still would have put me at the ballpark 5 times.)
Castellini and Reds marketing could draw fans by providing a shuttle service to the ballpark. Buy a few buses, have them go from Dayton, Louisville, etc, maybe Sharonville or some of the other burbs. Make it a package deal, an AFFORDIBLE package deal, coming with tickets and vouchers for concessions, maybe $50 for four bleacher seats, $100 for better seats. Show a movie on the way there, Field of Dreams, for example. If you drive them, they will come.
Better yet, think about getting to take a train to the ballpark. Could you imagine if the Reds could work a deal out with Amtrack, getting the company to provide some sort of Reds pass for the season so people could go to the games more frequently, really pushing people to take the train (and they could hop a bus to the stadium, included in the cost.) Or even single game tickets. Imagine paying $10 to get from Hamilton to GABP, no car worries. Everyone loves trains, but almost no one in the Midwest has occassion for riding them. Shoot, get the city in on it. Build a railway from Union Station down the river to the stadium so that people can arrive in Cincy and take a train to the ballpark.
Does it cost money? Of course. But imagine the economic development to bring in more money. And more fans in the stands for the first place Reds.
2 comments:
I didn't bother reading Lancaster's comments because I was barraged by the same concerns last night during the 700 WLW postgame show, and then again today by John Fay in the 'Cincinnati Enquirer.' I don't know if these two factors have been mentioned, but I know, *KNOW* they play into the (supposedly) crappy attendance Thursday night.
1. It was a Thursday night. That seems obvious enough to me, I don't know why others don't see it.
2. Jimmy Buffet was playing at Riverbend. Yes, that sounds absolutely pathetic, and I agree, but it's the truth. I wrote this over on my own blog, but I'll repeat it here anyway: The man, for whatever reason, is like the second coming of Christ to Cincinnatians.
It was a sell-out tonight. Enough said, I think.
The Thursday thing doesn't fly. What's wrong with people in Cincinnati that makes them think they have to stay home on a weeknight? In most parts of the country, Thursday night is the mental start of the weekend. Young people go out on Thursdays. I know that Cincy is a conservative town, but geez, get a life, I say to those who think they can't go out on a weeknight. Most people are still up watching television by the time they would get home, so why can't they just go out to the ballpark? There are few other places in the Majors where Thursday attendence is a problem. Monday, yes, attendence is down on Mondays and Tuesdays. But Thursdays are large draws in many places. Lancasters comments had a few logical people who brought up population statistics and compared attendence to other ballparks around the area. Even Pitifulsburg has more people attending the games than the now second place Reds.
I remember the Buffet days well. Miami U. would empty out when he was in town. He used to play three or four days in a row.
No one expects a sell out on a weeknight, but 30K is not too much to ask.
It was nice to see a sell out on Friday.
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