ArizonaSportsFan
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Amen to that. And a tad embarassing (like tonight!) from time-to-time as well.
Why Aren't People going to D'backs games?
- Thread starter HooverDam
- Start date
Phill11
The Payphone Man
Every team is going to lose badly throughout a season. It's not a sprint... it's a marathon. 162 games.
The Diamondbacks got their rears handed to them, but you have to give credit when it's deserved. The Devil Ray's played good tonight. Jackson looked good to me. Their shortstop (Name's not coming to me right now...) made some great plays, had a triple and a homer.
The Devil Ray's are my #2 baseball team, second to the DBacks. They have the potential there. And in a few years they'll be contending with the Yankees/Red Sox for the AL East.
Back on subject though. For a monday night game, against a team that doesn't draw the crowd was decent. Lower level seemed about 70% full, upper level was scattered... My guess is it was around 20,000.
This team needs some serious changes. It's boring going to game after game if everything's the same. We have that new "pump up team" or whatever they are. But every day they do the same thing. T-Shirt time, Float or Sink, Hot Dog Races, etc. Those things are nice, but switch it up sometime... Get something new.
That music the roof opens to... ugh. I just want to shoot myself while that's playing. It's like elevator music...
The good thing is that the crowd is a bit louder than last year's...ASU games are more fun to me because there is more noise and you don't feel like an outcast making noise when the sign doesn't tell you to. The fans really need to show up, the team needs to sell tickets if they are going after any big names.
I think they should do a race like the 'Race of the Presidents' in DC, but with Barry Goldwater, Sandra Day O'Connor, Mo Udall and John McCain (complete with t-rex arms)
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I think the Cardinals selling out their stadium is a factor. And, the fact that the Suns sold more tickets too. People in this city seem to have only so much money alloted to sports. When one team gains, it seems like the others lose. It's been like that as long as I've lived here.
MaoTosiFanClub
The problem
Then explain the Angels attendance, which has been great for years in spite of a horrid offense and a bandwagon fan base.
People don't go to DBack games because Chase Field is a boring stadium and the DBacks promote a cheesy yet somehow stale baseball experience.
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I don't know much about the Angels situation but I would assume it has a lot to do with the gigantic population of Southern California to a large degree.
MaoTosiFanClub
The problem
And metro Phoenix is small? Only Orange County and Long Beach really draw Angels fans and while I'm not too sure of their exact population it can't be muchbigger than metro Phx.
Well according to Wikipedia the metro population of the LA area is about 18 million. Plus I'm sure both the Angels and Dodgers get a fair amount of tourists going to their games. The metro population of Phoenix is just shy of 4 million. 4 million < 18 million. Plus Phoenix's big tourism time of the year is the winter, which could potentially help the Suns/Cards but not the Snakes.
Diamondback Jay
Psalms 23:1
You know, not EVERYONE who goes to a baseball game, or is interested in doing so, are wrapped up in SABR Metrics like we all are.
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Cheesy is a good way to describe it. There's really not much that is pleasant about going to a Diamondback game. There's just so much obnoxious stuff like all the music and "entertainment" and vendors and everything, you can't even talk to the people you sit with. I feel like they are only trying to sell tickets to 14 year olds with ADD.
I really don't care about all that. I enjoy it because I get to go see my team play at their ballpark. Reading some of the letters to Bordow this morning pissed me off. I don't like Arizona fans....(as a whole, not you guys)
Cheesy is a good way to describe it. There's really not much that is pleasant about going to a Diamondback game. There's just so much obnoxious stuff like all the music and "entertainment" and vendors and everything, you can't even talk to the people you sit with. I feel like they are only trying to sell tickets to 14 year olds with ADD.
I agree, but what can be done about it? I hate Baxter (but not mascots in general, I like Sparky and the Gorilla), the stupid in game announcers, especially "Vanessa", she's cute, but her voice is so shrill over the PA. The "Rally Backs" are insanely annoying. They play the "Every-body-clap- your-hands" sound bite about 40 times a game, invest in garbage like the Diamond club, which even people like my sister who dont like baseball but like going to clubs hated (she said "I couldnt see the game, why is it there? Id rather just go to an actual club").
I highly doubt at this point that they'd ever consider getting rid of stuff like that, while the new ownership did do a good job toning down some of the advertising and what not in the stadium, they still have a long way to go.
MaoTosiFanClub
The problem
Yeah, Metro LA is 18 million but you're out of your mind if you think anyone north of Fullerton goes to Angels games. Ever tried driving from LA down into Orange County on a weekday before gametime? LA and Orange County might as well be Tucson and Phoenix if you throw in traffic.
People go to Dodgers and Angels games because the gameday experience reflects the community and respects the game and the product on the field is good. The DBacks have one of the three, the game experience feels like you're in a Miller Lite Commercial.
If 40 means 2 then you'd be right. Unfortunately stupid sound bites like that are the only way to get people to cheer.
I don't know about that, maybe if you didn't piss everyone off by stealing their noise makers on the way in they would cheer on their own. I think the Dbacks are trying to make the games feel too much like the party/showtime atmosphere of an NBA game and it just doesn't work with baseballs relaxed pace.
Honestly I really dislike LA and try to stay the hell away from it, so I don't know the geography or travel times well at all, so I'll take your word for it.
Diamondback Jay
Psalms 23:1
Amen on the first part Nasser. I go to the ballpark when I have the time and resources because I want to see my favorite team play at home, and to mingle with fellow Diamondback diehards.
As for the second part, as much as I hate to say this, Phoenix will always be a Suns town first and foremost, unless the team goes completely in the toilet..
Diamondback Jay
Psalms 23:1
Just to give you guys an idea.. Last month, my wife and I went to Anaheim for a few days just to get away from the heat and the daily grind.
On our trip, we went to visit friends in LA.. We all left to come back for the Angels- Dodgers game in Anaheim, and I **** you not.. To get 30-35 miles, it took us damned near 3 hours. Put it to you this way, I was half way from Phoenix to LA in quicker time than it took me to go from LA to Anaheim.
Thats not really true, they had a bit of a lull around the turn of the century, but otherwise their attendance has always been great. And its silly to compare on a pure numbers basis the amount of people who attend a basketball versus a baseball game.
So they were really selling out or coming close in the years they sucked like real sports states do? The Suns are the going to be this states favorite since they came first, but I don't know, show me some good attendance numbers when they didn't have 49+ wins.
PHXSportsFan4
Time for baseball season.
You're probably right. Unfortunately, Phoenix is known to be a lousy sports town. I even heard Peter Gammons say it wasn't a very good baseball town at all back when the WBC was being played there and they were wondering why attendance wasn't that good or something. One thing Phoenix does have going against it is that the franchises outside of the Suns are new compared to most other franchises who have been in the same city for years and have built a good fan base. Who knows, maybe it will change someday for the better.
Gammons didn't think out his argument then. The Valley has supported the Cactus League, ASU baseball, the Firebirds, etc for years. I think it stacks up well as far as knowledagble fans compared to any other city in the country. Add in very good High School teams and the Arizona Fall League, in the Valley I'll bet its possible to go to a baseball game 300 days a year.
Hmmmm. The Valley hosts the Cactus League, but it doesn't really support it. Visitors do. That's why we have the Cactus League -- to promote tourism.
ASU baseball isn't that well supported. I think they average about 3,000, a far cry from the SEC teams, some who generate almost five figures on a regular basis. If the northeast wasn't buried under snow until April, they'd support college baseball, too.
The Firebirds? You mean when they Giants/Firebirds were the only game in town? They still didn't average double figures in attendance at Phoenix Muni.
There are knowledgeable baseball fans here, but as a group, we suck. Go to a game and try and get people to stand up and make some noise when it's a tight situation, and a D-Backs' pitcher is facing 3-2 with 2 outs in a late inning. People actually tell me to sit down so they can see the game.
No, as a city, this is not a baseball town. Gammons is 100 percent right.
BC867
Long time Phoenician!
It's the price we pay for living in the Valley of the Sun. People leave L.A., Chicago, New York, etc., to live here.
Most people in the Phoenix area are from somewhere else. I became a Suns fan in 1970, because this is where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I made the move in 1978.
If you ask me where's home, I say, "Phoenix." Ask most other people, and they'll say, "L.A.", "Chicago", "New York", etc.
I root for the D'backs and Suns because this is my home. (That's why I take it to heart when they don't play their best.) Many fans here root for baseball or basketball. Strange situation. They live here, but these are not their home teams.
