Nationals Draw Fewest Fans At New Ballpark Since Twins In '82

Nationals Draw Fewest Fans To New Ballpark Since Twins In '82

Thursday night's Marlins-Nationals game, the last game of the season at Nationals Park, was rained out and will not be rescheduled, giving the team the "distinction of the lowest attendance for a team in its first season at a new ballpark since" the Twins opened the Metrodome in '82, according to Ben Goessling of the WASHINGTON TIMES. Thursday night's game had a "ticket presale of just 21,000," and the Nationals this season drew "more than 35,000 fans just seven times" at the 41,888-seat Nationals Park. Nationals manager Manny Acta: "I don't think everybody here just shows up to watch the ballpark." As a result of the rainout, Nationals season-ticket holders "will have the value of their tickets and parking passes applied to the cost of 2009 tickets, while single-game ticket holders can redeem their [tickets] for any Monday-Thursday nonpremium game during the 2009 season" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 9/26). The Twins opened the Metrodome in '82 with a total of 921,186 fans (THE DAILY). Acta said, “Despite our record we’re averaging close to 30,000 people in the stands every night, and there are teams that are in the playoffs or have been competitive until this last week that are not even drawing 15,000 fans a game. Once we get better and put a better product on the field, I believe the fans are going to show up in masses. But 30,000 is not too shabby when you consider the type of season we’re having” (“Washington Post Live,” CSN, 9/25). The following lists the five lowest average home attendance figures for MLB teams in their first year in a new ballpark since '82 (THE DAILY).

NATIONAL DISGRACE: In DC, Thomas Boswell writes this season "did so much damage to the relationship between the Nationals and their fans -- both current and potential -- that it simply cannot be repeated." The "responsibility falls first on the oblivious everything's-going-great Lerner family who mistakenly think they understand the game as much as they love it." Boswell writes Nationals President Stan Kasten and GM Jim Bowden, "who seem too timid to pound on ownership's door," need to "put their security on the line and tell truth to power: The Nats' product stinks." But of "all the Nats' reevaluations this winter, the authority of the team president -- or lack of  it -- may be the most vital element." If Kasten's "voice isn't heard, if his proposals are supported financially, the credibility of baseball in [DC] will fall so low that this dismal season will look like the good old days" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/26). 

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