Atlanta Braves II

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#8,627
#8,627
Plus they got in that pattern of giving Atlanta those god awful 4:00 weekday start times so they could show the Yankees and Redsox in primetime.
 
#8,629
#8,629
TBrown said:
Okay. Can I call not selling out playoff games embarrassing?
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Why would all the Cubs and Mets and Yankees and Phillies and Red Sox and Indians fans who live here go watch the Braves play in the playoffs?

You really don't get what it's like if you haven't lived here. There are not that many Braves fans here. I feel like I see more Braves hats when I'm home visiting Knoxville than I do down here.
 
#8,630
#8,630
They missed the boat when they took the sweetheart stadium deal downtown. If they were going to have a stadium not accessible to mass transit, they might as well have put it up in Roswell or up 85 where the people are.
 
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#8,631
#8,631
I got to spend 45 minutes talking on the phone with Dean Taylor, VP of Baseball Operations/Assistant GM of the Royals. He was also John Schuerholz's right hand man when the Braves dominated the 90s and Royals in the 80s. Really neat to here him talk about his career path and time with the Braves.

That's all :D
 
#8,633
#8,633
GAVol said:
They missed the boat when they took the sweetheart stadium deal downtown. If they were going to have a stadium not accessible to mass transit, they might as well have put it up in Roswell or up 85 where the people are.
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Yep. You can't charge $100 a family and put the stadium south of downtown.

If they were up along the northern arc somewhere, then I don't think the transplant-demographic would kill them as much. People like my Yankee fan neighbor would be a lot more likely to take his kid to watch baseball, any baseball. It's just too big a pain to get down there and back on a weeknight when he doesn't even care about the team. Imagine how different their attendance would be if the stadium were on the site of that old GM plant in Doraville.
 
#8,634
#8,634
Vercingetorix said:
Yep. You can't charge $100 a family and put the stadium south of downtown.

If they were up along the northern arc somewhere, then I don't think the transplant-demographic would kill them as much. People like my Yankee fan neighbor would be a lot more likely to take his kid to watch baseball, any baseball. It's just too big a pain to get down there and back on a weeknight when he doesn't even care about the team. Imagine how different their attendance would be if the stadium were on the site of that old GM plant in Doraville.
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So many better options then right in the throat of the cluster that is Atlanta traffic. "I know, let's put a stadium right off the connector where it intersects with a THIRD interstate. That should make it simple for everyone to come on down!"

I suppose they thought the airport was in a convenient local as well, considering it's a 30-60+ minute drive for 85% of the Atlanta metropolis.

I do not know the numbers but I am curious to know what the Gwinnett Braves are seeing versus the big league team in relative terms, of course. I also remember that the Gladiators used to pack it in compared to the Thrashers. We all know how well that worked out, again, for the second time.
 
#8,636
#8,636
Vercingetorix said:
Yep. You can't charge $100 a family and put the stadium south of downtown.

If they were up along the northern arc somewhere, then I don't think the transplant-demographic would kill them as much. People like my Yankee fan neighbor would be a lot more likely to take his kid to watch baseball, any baseball. It's just too big a pain to get down there and back on a weeknight when he doesn't even care about the team. Imagine how different their attendance would be if the stadium were on the site of that old GM plant in Doraville.
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Doraville would be a perfect place for a stadium. Think of all the dry cleaning you could get done on your way.
 
#8,637
#8,637
GAVol said:
Doraville would be a perfect place for a stadium. Think of all the dry cleaning you could get done on your way.
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On the one hand the Doraville GM plant would be on my way home from work close to my apartment which would be awesome for games. On the other, it would be terrible for every game I didn't want to go to, which would be atleast 75% of them.

BTW, I'm a transplant, and getting downtown is too much to make more than a handful of weekend games a year. And that includes playoffs. Work doesn't stop in October.
 
#8,638
#8,638
You know most of the Smoltz stats – 213 wins, 154 saves, 3084 strikeouts, 53 complete games, 15-4 postseason record – but here’s one that I’ve always found astounding: In a span of 51 weeks, from June 3, 2002 (my first season covering the team) through May 25, 2003, Smoltz the closer pitched in 73 consecutive Braves wins. Think about that. The team went 73-0 in games in which he pitched.

-DOB on Smoltz.
 
#8,639
#8,639
Vercingetorix said:
Why would all the Cubs and Mets and Yankees and Phillies and Red Sox and Indians fans who live here go watch the Braves play in the playoffs?

You really don't get what it's like if you haven't lived here. There are not that many Braves fans here. I feel like I see more Braves hats when I'm home visiting Knoxville than I do down here.
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Even if they are transplants, it is still embarrassing to see a completely empty stadium during the regular season or a half to two third filled stadium during the playoffs. No one was arguing about the demographic of the city.
 
#8,641
#8,641
slh1089 said:
Even if they are transplants, it is still embarrassing to see a completely empty stadium during the regular season or a half to two third filled stadium during the playoffs. No one was arguing about the demographic of the city.
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I agree with this. The mounting excuses are just making me sad so let's get back to Fredi bashing.
 
#8,642
#8,642
TBrown said:
I agree with this. The mounting excuses are just making me sad so let's get back to Fredi bashing.
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It isn't "excuses"; it's reality. Atlanta's basically a city the size of Knoxville with four million people from Cleveland and New York wrapped around it. Expecting them to rabidly support the Braves (or the Falcons, or the Hawks) is just unrealistic. All the natives care about is college football, because that's all there was when they were growing up; all the transplants care about are their home teams.

The generation of kids growing up today is the first big cohort of Atlanta sports fans who will have grown up here with pro sports as a fixture their whole lives. Not all of them will stick with their dads' teams. They'll be better fans when they're grownups.

I'm sorry it embarrasses you, but that's just the reality of the population here. It's a pretty good place to live, if you're smart about where you locate. But it can be a bummer to talk sports in a bar with people.
 
#8,643
#8,643
Vercingetorix said:
It isn't "excuses"; it's reality. Atlanta's basically a city the size of Knoxville with four million people from Cleveland and New York wrapped around it. Expecting them to rabidly support the Braves (or the Falcons, or the Hawks) is just unrealistic. All the natives care about is college football, because that's all there was when they were growing up; all the transplants care about are their home teams.

The generation of kids growing up today is the first big cohort of Atlanta sports fans who will have grown up here with pro sports as a fixture their whole lives. Not all of them will stick with their dads' teams. They'll be better fans when they're grownups.

I'm sorry it embarrasses you, but that's just the reality of the population here. It's a pretty good place to live, if you're smart about where you locate. But it can be a bummer to talk sports in a bar with people.
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Again, no one was arguing the demographic of the city. It does not change the fact that the stadium is empty. Plain and simple.
 
#8,644
#8,644
It isn't just here. You see the attendance in Oakland the other day?

There are about 8-10 large market (ie, money) teams that draw big crowds during the week. Everybody else usually draws under 20,000 on weeknights.
 
#8,645
#8,645
slh1089 said:
Again, no one was arguing the demographic of the city. It does not change the fact that the stadium is empty. Plain and simple.
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There were probably 15-20k butts in seats last night. I'd bet that if you looked around MLB in cities other than NY, Boston, Chicago and LA, you'll find something similar on a weeknight in April.
 
#8,646
#8,646
GAVol said:
There were probably 15-20k butts in seats last night. I'd bet that if you looked around MLB in cities other than NY, Boston, Chicago and LA, you'll find something similar on a weeknight in April.
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Yessuh.
 
#8,649
#8,649
GAVol said:
I sat in a crowd of 50,000 on Saturday. Did they magically bus in the true fans for that game?
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Really have no idea why you are getting bent out of shape. All I originally said was that the stadium looked pretty empty last night. Not sure how that is arguable.
 
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