Some many games, so little time
Baseball has the most regular season games of the big 4 sports(baseball, football, baskeball, and hockey) in America. It's easy to sell out football stadiums when you only have 8 home games spread out over four months. A MLB club will have eight home games in eight straight days and then maybe 3 or 4 more. Their marketing department has to keep promoting and making sure the fans are informed when they are playing at home and also figuring out ways to keep them coming to more and more games.
The club also has to market to a larger base of attending fans. Operating at only two-thirds capacity, the Twins would average around 30,000 fans a game at the Metrodome. This would draw almost 2.5 million fans for the season. Compare that to the Vikings, who at 100% capacity would draw about 65,000 fans per game for only 520,000 fans total for the season. Or even the Timberwolves, if they sold out every game at around 19,000 fans per game, they would only have 779,000 fans total for the season.
As a fan, it's easier to catch an entire football season, either by going to all the home games or seeing them all on TV. Even in basketball or hockey, you can still follow pretty closely with a home game once or twice a week. With baseball, there many consecutive days of home games and a game on just about every day if you follow them on TV. This takes a very dedicated fan to follow a team that closely, and there just aren't that many in any city. You need the casual fan (bandwagoner, fair-weather, or whatever else you want to call them) to sell tickets and increase revenues.
It's the economy, stupid
This reason was briefly mentioned in a quote from a Cleveland reporter in Fat Pat's column. Unfortunately he just breezed by it and continued to lament how it's so much worse here in Minnesota (I don't have a world's smallest violin to play, I'm digging out my old trombone and playing a "wah-wah-wah" instead).
Now, my perception is that Minnesota's economy, made of many diverse companies and industries, may be a bit more stable then in cities like Cleveland and Detroit, which are built more around manufacturing. However, rising gas prices and food prices are causing inflation everywhere, which leads to less disposable income for all people. With everything costing more, you have to cut back on some of the unnecessary items, which includes entertainment. If you are a parent with 3 kids and short on disposable income, what option sounds best:
A) Go to a Twins game where you have to pay for parking, tickets, and high priced food and snacks.
B) Go to the movies where you can get free parking and discounted tickets for children and pay high prices for snacks.
C) Go to a public pool or beach where you can get free parking, free or cheap admission, and bring your own cooler with cheap snacks from home. Hell, you can even bring a radio and listen to the game while you bask in the sun.
This is tough on the MLB who has lots of games and lots of seats to fill. They need lots of fans from a wide array of income brackets to drive up their attendence and revenues. Other sports leagues can narrow their target market to the upper-middle class because they don't need to fill as many seats throughout the course of the season.
If only they all could be Wrigley
I first came to the Metrodome back in 1992 to see the Twins play the White Sox. I was amazed. It was my first Major League ballgame and it blew my frickin mind. I didn't dwell on things like aesthetics of having folded up seats in right field, the artificial turf, or the fact that we were missing a beautiful day while watching a game underneath the teflon roof of the Metrodome. I was at a Major League baseball game, and that's all that mattered.
This all changed around 1995 for a few reasons. One was that the Twins had pitched plans for a new retractable roof stadium to be built by the Mississippi River. After seeing pictures of that model, I could never look at the Metrodome the same way again.
Another was that I was at the time in a young man's life when he is constantly watching ESPN's Sportscenter. After watching all these baseball highlights and seeing all the different ballparks, I started to cringe at footage from indoor domes (Kingdome, Astrodome), outdoor fields with artificial turf (Veteran's Field, Three Rivers, and Riverfront Stadium), and multi-purpose facilities that housed both football and baseball teams (Candlestick Park and many of the above-mentioned stadiums). I tended to prefer the vintage look of places like Wrigley, Fenway, and even Tigers Stadium.
Finally, this was the time that the new stadium boom hit. Camden Yards and Jacobs Field began to set the trend when designing and building new ballparks. The ballpark became just as big of an attraction as the team. I started wanting what every other kid on the block had: a new ballpark.
Here in Minnesota, after hearing our Metrodome described as an inadequate, outdated, baby-eating, puppy-kicking facility for the last decade, we all really believe it. It makes it hard to go support your home team when you have such a negative perception of their stadium. You want to go cheer on the Twins when they are playing, but that means you have to sit inside the dim Metrodome with no sunlight and put up with narrow, crowded concourses as you try to make it to the long bathroom line. Again, why not just tune into the game on the radio while you relax in the sun by the lake.
Starf*ckers, Inc.
It takes more than just a winning record to draw fans. They also want to see players who are not only talented and exciting to watch, but also players they are familiar with. That may be part of the reason why Cleveland hasn't completely come back to the record attendence numbers they were hitting back in the 90's. They won the Central Division last year with future stars in guys like Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, and CC Sabathia, but it may take another season or two before they are as recognizable as guys like Albert Belle, Jim Thome, and Manny Ramirez were.
The Twins have done a pretty good job of marketing their players to the fans. They had that great "Get to Know 'Em" ad campaign years ago when this team just started winning division titles. They've also recently resigned two of their stars, Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, to contract extensions. Both of these players are popular in Minnesota not just because of their playing ability. Mauer grew up in the St. Paul and was a multi-sport star at Cretin-Derham Hall. Morneau is Canadian, a hockey fan, and even played goalie when he was in high school. Minnesota folks can relate with that.
Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing...well, maybe not
At last, winning always helps boost attendence. People don't want to go watch their hometown team suck. They want to win and feel good about themselves, their team, their city, and their state. They want to go out and celebrate after games and punch a Packer fan in the face not because they're bitter and angry after a loss, but because they're pumped about winning and want to further demonstrate their dominance.
Yes, winning will do a lot of good things, but it won't always completely sell out stadiums. If this were the case, then the hottest tickets in town would be for Gophers volleyball, wrestling, baseball, and women's hockey. You need a good combination of the above factors to fill out your stadiums and arenas.
So instead of writing incoherent rants about how it's suburbanites fault that baseball attendence isn't up to his standards, maybe he could explore real reasons or even-*gasp*-solutions as to how to drive up ticket sales. As a memeber of the media, maybe he should work harder to get fans informed, interested, and excited about going to Twins games, instead of finding something to piss and moan about every sports team, owner, coach, athletic director, or general manager in the Twin Cities.
3 comments:
I loved going to games at the Metrodome, not because of the Metrodome itself, but because the fans are great and they really know the team. But I do agree about the multi-purpose stadiums, artificial turf, domes for baseball, etc. Here in StL, the old Busch Stadium was used by both Cardinals teams, until, of course, the football Cardinals got moved out. But that was in the 80s, and it wasn't until the Rams moved to St. Louis and the new TWA Dome was built that the astro-turf and dual purposeness of the stadium seemed superfluous. We no longer needed it because we had a real football stadium. So, after a year or two, they permanantly affixed the seats they used to move for the conversion to a football field, and then replaced the artificial turf with real grass.
Of course, fast forward to 2006, our little miracle season, first one in the New Busch stadium (or as some are rather sacreligiously calling it, The House That Pujols Built (don't get me wrong, he's a great player, but shouldn't we wait until we compare him to Ruth?)), and we've got a stadium that tries its hardest to hearken back to the days before the giant stadiums like Old Busch, the Astrodome, Three Rivers, to make it feel more like a ballpark than a stadium. Open spaces. Grandstands instead of a giant bowl. It's a beautiful place. But its crammed with advertising. But I guess that's the price you pay for a new stadium. So be wary, Christopher G. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Be prepared to be overwhelmed with the majesty of a new ball park, with how it gives new hope to the fans and rejuvenates the team. But be prepared also to see Verizon Wireless ads everywhere, to see Insurance billboards and signs proclaiming Hunter Hot Dogs to be the best, on every available square inch. Just like the sign at the new Busch, which reads "Welcome to Baseball Heaven." It's so tiny, the first time I looked for it, all I could see was an ad for the new F-150.
Nice post, Chris. Wow, I really feel like I learned something about Twins baseball - mostly that I clearly underappreciated the 2 games I attended in 2006 (c/o C & B).
The thing I love most about the dome is the 'baseball coloured ceilings'. Haha... we're so brilliant in MN. : )
Oh, and I suggest you bring that post into Twins marketing. You never know... I'd hire you on the spot after reading that - if I were them.
I'm not going to lie, Elliot, but I've slowly accepted the fate of having advertising covering every square inch of sports facilities. The Metrodome is already looking like a tacky minor-league ballpark, with the giant Best Buy logos over the dugouts and the huge milk carton in right field. I've even become comfortable with the likelihood that I'll baseball uniforms covered with advertisements before my life is over.
Just when I've abandoned all hope, however, I come across an article posted at www.twinsballpark2010.com. It mentions that they are looking to scale back on their advertising inventory to make the remaining adspace more exclusive and valuable. So I hope this is a sign of better days ahead.
And thank you, Becca, for the compliment. My original intent with this post was just to make a malicious attack on a columnist over at the Star-Tribune, but you've helped me see the light. Perhaps I will pass this along to some higher up in hopes that it will be heard, but I do think the Twins and the PR agencies they have working for them do a great a job. I think if they keep it up, the new ballpark may send Major League baseball popularity in Minnesota through the roof for the next decade.
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