The Washington Nationals are set to open the 2005 baseball season with season ticket sales most clubs would kill for. Ticket sales (season and single game) guarantee paid attendance of a minimum of 1.9 million fans, before a single regular season pitch has been thrown. Assuming the team (formerly the Montreal Expos) can field even a mildly competitive team the seasons attendance is likely to pass 3 million.
There’s only one problem as Mondays first game approaches – there’s no TV deal in place. The Washington Post reports on the negotiation mess between MLB and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos. The clocks ticking on a deal and advertisers are getting anxious…
Angelos is a slug. His team has been the doormat of the division for more than six years and he’s scared that the fans might have a choice to go see a better team play better baseball.
The DC market probably comprised most of their attendance so I’m not suprised he’s trying to squeeze the owners for more welfare.
The attendance at Orioles games is so pathetic that even after the promote visiting teams more than their own team, they still need promotions like “Come in to Wendy’s and consider purchasing a small burger and get tickets to all the Chicago, Oakland, Seattle and Detroit games for free”
They did announce that there might be a local brodcast deal today and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
“There are not any real baseball fans in DC.”- Peter Angelos
Describing Angelos as a slug is an insult to all slugs.
This graspy little whiner has been trying to claim that DC is “part of his territory”. Really? I’d like to see the documents that back that assertion up.
No Need To Read Between The Lines.
I understand that O’s tickets sales are down by 20% (according to the local sports station WTEM). Good! I hope they go down even more as the O’s continue their death spiral into another losing season. And by the way Peter…just keep up the good work of alienating the hell out of everyone in the Metro/DC area. Scumbag.
Now if they could only rename the team the SENATORS! “First in War, First in Peace, and LAST in the National League!”
O’s tickets aren’t quite down 20%. They reported a 12% decline from last year’s pace earlier this week.
I’m sure that part of that is because of the Nationals presence. But, I’m also sure that part of that is because the team hasn’t won in years and because, until just a month or so ago, the only addition they made was signing a left-handed relief pitcher.
And instead of marketing the team, they’ve been harping on the Nationals. No wonder Orioles morale is so low!
By the way, in case any of the Wizbang head honchos are listening in, the main page is pooched again. Some time yesterday, I lost the ability to access it without disabling my firewall. My setup:
Win XP SP2
IE or Mozilla
Norton Internet Security 2003
Now the DC/Baltimore area gets to have two crappy teams to choose from.