Lagging baseball attendance

I was disappointed to see that attendance at Nationals home games has not exceeded 20,000 since their opening series against the Phillies. In the game against the Rockies on Monday night, only 11,623 paid to get in, the lowest ever recorded for Nationals Park. The problem exists in a number of other cities, however, and it may be a reflection of economic hard times. USA Today focused on the poor attendance this year for the Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays.

Citi (center) Field

Cody Gobbell reminded me that the Mets altered the center field fence in Citi Field this year, reducing the height from 11 feet to 8 feet. Cody thinks they may have built a new wall in front of the old one, but from what I can tell from photographs, that's not the case. Can anyone who has seen a game there tell us for sure whether or not there is a gap between the new wall and the old wall?

Another alteration at Citi Field is that they reoriented the bullpens, which used to be parallel to the right-center fence, and visiting team pitchers could hardly see the field from where they sat. After a series of complaints, the bullpens are now perpendicular to the right-center fence, so both teams have direct visual access to the field.

Target Field pic

James Matthes sent me a fabulous panoramic photograph of Target Field on Opening Day last week, so I have posted it. James is the proud sponsor of that page. And by the way, how 'bout those Twins?!! They are leading the AL Central Division, one of the first two teams to have won ten games so far this year.

Target Field Opening Day panorama; click to see a larger-size version.

COMMENT by: Chris J, of Harpers Ferry, WV on Apr 22, 2010 21:21 PM
I'm not too worried about the Nats attendance so far. If they can hang around the .500 mark by the time Strasburg comes up, I'm sure the attendance will rise. Go Nats!

COMMENT by: Andrew Clem, of Staunton, VA on Apr 23, 2010 20:30 PM
You're right: If the Nationals could recreate the incredible excitement of May & June, 2005, when they took first place in the NL East, attendance could go over 30,000 on a regular basis. It's a very real possibility!

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 23 Apr 2010, 8: 30 PM

(unformatted URL) .

ALL blog posts today New blog post entry

This post is over a week old, so comments are closed.

Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:

Category archives:
(all years)

This (or that) year's
blog highlights

January 18, 2010 Earthquake leaves Haiti in ruins

January 18, 2010 Our new governor: Bob McDonnell!

January 29, 2010 Obama: "We can do it together"

February 27, 2010 Huge earthquake strikes Chile

March 20, 2010 Procedural ploy to pass Obamacare

March 21, 2010 House passes Senate's Obamacare*

March 29, 2010 Rebuilding a Republican majority

March 31, 2010 Augusta County GOP reunites (for now)

May 11, 2010 R.I.P. Yankee Stadium (1923-2010)

May 17, 2010 Did Tories win British election?

May 18, 2010 The final mission for Atlantis?

June 9, 2010 Strasburg makes a historic debut

June 24, 2010 Nationals sweep the Royals (almost)

August 5, 2010 Ballpark blitz: 4 stadiums in 2 days!

August 14, 2010 Friday the 13th: Nats get lucky

August 19, 2010 "Ground Zero mosque" hysteria

September 15, 2010 Tea Party triumphs in Delaware

September 17, 2010 The U.S. Constitution and Freedom

September 27, 2010 Nationals spoil Braves' hopes, again

October 6, 2010 Photo gallery extreme makeover

October 27, 2010 Tempests in the Tea Party

November 3, 2010 Decision 2010: two cheers for the GOP

November 5, 2010 San Francisco Giants: world champions!

November 27, 2010 Goodbye to Luciano, and to Olive

December 6, 2010 Nationals sign Jayson Werth

December 29, 2010 Extreme weather disrupts sporting events

Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.

Explanation

The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:

Wild birds (LAST)
War
Science & Technology
Politics
Latin America
Culture & Travel
Canaries ("Home birds")
Baseball (FIRST)

Also see: My blog practices.

Blog errata (Nobody's perfect.)

Monthly archives (all categories)