via William Ladson
I was waiting for this. Literally. Like had a blank post ready to go with a picture of Jayson Werth’s once cool now molesty (subjective) beard waiting.
This morning, Nats reporter Adam Kilgore wrote more words about the little baseball team’s ridiculous Take Back The Park campaign, which projects to have about as much success as Rick Perry’s presidential bid.
Kilgore spoke more with Nats COO Andrew Fefffffffer and – Peter Griffin excited noise - Jayson Werth, who enouraged us to take his bait by saying that the Nationals’ current fan situation is eerily similar to what the Phillies experienced with Mets fans before winning five straight division titles.
Bait taken.
[Washington Post]“All I know is, in ’07 it was 50-50, 60-40 Mets to Phillies fans,” Werth said. “And then pretty soon there were very little Mets fans. Whether that’s because they stopped selling to Mets fans or they just stopped coming, I don’t know.”
“You’re definitely better off with a park full of your own fans at home compared to a park full of somebody else’s fans at home. I think it’s good.”
Well, let’s be honest, it stopped because the Mets pooped all over themselves in consecutive seasons. However, the 50-50 (60-40?! You asshole) split of which Werth speaks is a gross exaggeration. There’s no metric to track rooting interests, but, compared the the Nationals, the Phillies didn’t struggle nearly as much with attendance in the years leading up to "success."
The Phillies averaged roughly 10,000 more fans per game (around 33k) in the three seasons leading up to their NL East crown (2005-2007). The Nats have averaged roughly 23k fans per game during the last three seasons. So, while that total doesn't spell out the amount of visiting fans, it's safe to assume that the Phillies fans-Mets fans split was probably more like 75-25, not 50-50. Or at least not as one-sided as it is when the Phillies play in Washington. Not even close.
Plus, it's actually insulting to compare the Phillies' fan base to that heaping pile of pea coat-wearing, lifeless Capital Hill staffers who wouldn't know a cut-fastball if it sliced through their side-parted hair.
Back to COO Ffffffer for a second: He had some thoughts on the cockiness of Philly bloggers:
“It’s kind of taken on a larger picture,” Feffer said. “A lot of the bloggers said quote, Nationals fans won’t buy the tickets. This is from Philly fans – Nationals fans won’t buy the tickets. Season-ticket holders are going to list them on StubHub, and we’re going to buy all the tickets, anyway. If there’s any message that goes out, this should be a rally call for the community. It’s less about this series. I think it’s become a civic issue of Washington. Are we going to band together? It’s an opportunity for us to recapture and reclaim the market as a sports market.”
No, you are not going to band together. In fact, here at CB, along with our partners, we’re working on confirming that bus order for Sunday night, May 6, for the 8 p.m. ESPN game. We’re taking over your park, Mr. F-er.
BTW- tickets to that weekend series in D.C. available here, here, and here, starting at $15.
…
Meanwhile, I received a press release from TruMedia Networks today. They offer an analytics platform to Major League Baseball teams and announced that the Nats were their newest client:
TruMedia Networks, a fast growing sport analytics firm, announced today that the Washington Nationals will be licensing their baseball analytics platform to evaluate player strengths, weaknesses and tendencies. The Nationals’ baseball operations department will have access to TruMedia’s customizable analytics platform, including proprietary data visualization solutions.
“We have been extremely impressed with TruMedia’s approach to analytics and the flexibility of their cutting edge software,” said Bryan Minniti, Nationals’ Assistant General Manager, “We look forward to leveraging the granular analysis made possible by TruMedia’s baseball analytics platform.”
I’m not sure exactly what sort of “granular analysis” it spits out, but I imagine one snippet from Hal will look something like this: JAYSON IS NOT WORTH $126 MILLION. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, DAVE?!
34 Responses
do they still have the buy one get one season ticket plan? what a terrific fan base.
Seeing that I get an email every 3 or 4 days begging me to buy tickets (in the Philadelphia area) – i’d say “Take back the Park” is full of fail.
It would have been quite a clever little marketing campaign if they hadn’t gone full retard on it.
it wasnt cool to be a phillies fan in 07, he is more than 100% right.
My favorite part of these posts are always the end when some jerkoff who works for the Nats says the fans should really get mad and see this as a rallying point… BLAH BLAH BLAH…
… then right below it is says… “BTW – tickets available HERE, HERE, and HERE, for $15.”
HA! LOVE IT!!
O well, fuck em. We run their house cause they a bunch of bitches and don’t put any Phaith behind their team. GO PHILS!!!!
Faith is spelled with an F.
You know, these posts get more douche chill inducing by the day.
Anyone with a brain and some intelligence can tell you the Nats are going to be a really good team for a long time (and I’m a Philly sports fan saying this) so more and more posts – before the season even starts, mind you – about how this team is going to be so bad, you’re just asking for a rude awakening.
Remember the one game last season when all the Phillies fans all stood and cheered at that final out at the Nats park before they were made to look like the biggest bunch of goofs ever? Learn from that.
So while you may think you’ve got yourself the right theory currently, would love to revisit these posts a few years from now, provided this website is still around, and maybe we’ll see how accurate you were.
I’m a Phils fan in DC and while there seems to be a little more interest in the Nats this year, this is still a horrible sports town and their little “Take Back the Park” campaign is a joke. Nats fans consist of (A) lobbyists and other corporate hacks (B) sackless suburban Dads trying to get their nerdy and uncordinated kid interested in baseball and (C) nerdy young professionals from other cities and feel obligated to support their new “home team” even though they were never interested enough to cheer for the team in the city they grew up in. I’ve actually heard several Nats “fans” say they purposely avoid Phillies series because they don’t want to be around all the Philly fans. So come on down. Plenty of good seats are still available at CBP South!
It is true, noone cared about the phillies in 07, 06, 05, 04, so forth… so on.
has anyone ever gone to a red sox phillies game in those years? or even a mets game… he was right, most of the people that read this starting going to phillies games in 09, so they have no clue that werth is actually right.
Funny thing is, we went down last year and they had an Ian Desmond bobblehead. I’m sure we out numbered them 8-1. It was sad in that it was like being home, except I just drove like 5 hours.
They complain about Philly fans, however I personally saw the Nats Stadium run out of bobbleheads and started being dicks to Phillies fans by trying to not give us any merchandise. But, Phillies fans were giving theirs away to kids who were sad they didn’t get an Ian Desmond (!) bobblehead and Nats fans who were looking to get them (in most cases for free). So don’t complain when I didn’t see a single Nats fan looking out for another Nats fan (they were selling theirs). Just another case of Phillies fans outclassing Nationals fans
Kyle- I never once said the Nats weren’t going to be good.
I think the Nats’ ownership demanded these moves because of their embarrasment on Opening Day in 2010 (Halladay’s first game). It’s pretty chilling to see your opening day lineup/coaches/trainers booed during introductions.
Agreed, Chirp Chirp. Most twenty-somethings (and I am a twenty-something) were unaware that a baseball team existed in this town prior to 2007. That’s why there are so many clueless morons at games trying to live up to the reputation of the “stereotypical Philadelphia fan” – getting inebriated, cursing like sailors and picking fights with anyone who takes issue with it.
Citizens bank south
I loved going to phils games before ’08 …
its a shame as Chirp Chirp said .. most of you didnt
Love
Beez Nutz
Kyle @ 12:39 PM, you are not a Phils fan. Any d-bag that parenthesizes a claim that they are is simply a Nats fan trying to legitimize their post by typing that they are a phillies fan. This isn’t about the Nats being good or not either. The point is that even if they are good, it ain’t gonna happen for them in D.C., similar to Atlanta. Not a sports town. Never has been and never will be.
The “Natinals” are just coming off as all kinds of pathetic. It’s good to be king.
FUCK WERTH! SIGN ME UP FOR THE TRIP
Yeah, well he is right. in 2007 there was nothing by Mets fans there when the Mets came to town. The reason they aren’t there now, is because Phils fans actually want to go to the games, and they aren’t selling their tickets to Mets fans.
2005 maybe, not 2007
Eat my nuts
Totally agree with Beez Nutz & Chirp Chirp.
I have had partial season tickets since the mid 80s and sometimes you do wish that it was pre-2008 – less lines, less traffic, less idiots that don’t know what they are talking about making a bad reputation for Philly fans, lower ticket prices, etc. But that comes with a bad team, so what would you rather have? What’s more enjoyable to you (just saying in general – not to anyone specific)?
Here is something interesting – Watch any game prior to the World Series win. The stadium is filled with a lot of different color t-shirts/jackets..etc (whites, reds, blacks, blues). Now, watch any game post world series win, 75% of the stadium has red on.
And just to chime in to the convo about Phillies and Nats fans, the Washington area really doesn’t have the fan base the Philly area has. Philly pulls from NJ, PA, DE, MD, some areas of NY. Washington – most of the area is pulled away by Philly fans, Baltimore fans and people who don’t watch baseball. Look around next time you go to a game, how many African Americans do you see compared to the White population (and I not talking bad about anyone, just stating an observed fact)? The same goes for Atlanta and why they never fill the stadium in the regular season even though they have a good team. Even Ryan Howard said they need more A.A.’s in baseball b/c there isn’t enough. So what I am getting at is that the Philly area has enough population to overcome this and maybe the Washington/Atlanta area doesn’t.
Just my two sense, it could be wrong, could be right! Just thought I’d chime in with my opinion.
Werth is actually 100% RIGHT……
I’m a FULL SEASON TICKET HOLDER (have been for 22 years) and we do have TOO MANY BANDWAGON JUMPERS in this City. It gets annoying too, they make us look bad. They think they’re cool too and they’re not, I will. slap. the. shit. outta. any. of. them. when I need to.
The thing that pisses me off are the guys that know they started watching in 2008 but with everything on the Internet and Sports Radio, they hear things and teach themselves the little things to say to make themselves look like they’ve been fans prior to ’08. Numbers don’t lie……either do empty Stadiums/Ballparks. Just like the Sixers now…..I was getting LOWER LEVEL seats for 76ers games for UNDER $10, (Sometimes FREE on CL) PER PAIR, NOT FAR FROM MID COURT……the best thing was watching guys act like they’ve ALWAYS listened to the “1,2,3,4,5, SIXERS” song and try to do stupid shit to JUSTIFY themselves as being a “FAN”.
Just be your FRAUD self and admit it, there’s nothing wrong with just starting to follow a team, do that and start fresh, it beats being a FRONTRUNNER. It happens in all cities, but most of them admit it….
Actually, I remember at CBP (before we were good), nobody even wore T-Shirt Jerseys, let alone the COLOR RED.
Just try to think why the National Media HATES US
Are you an ’08er?,
U mad, bro?
I grew up in PA but now been in DC long enough to watch the trendy DC fans go from the Wizards, then to the Caps, and now slowly moving to the Nats. This is especially true now that the Caps are having a lackluster season. Despite what some people may think, the Nats are going to be good starting this season and can put up a legitimate fight for the wild card, or, if all the pieces fall in place, the division. All the new found Nats fans will come out and profess to be lifelong fans; not unlike what has happened at CBP over the past couple of seasons.
NORTH AMERICAN
I think he has a good point, so does Werth, sorry to say.
Does anyone actually read any of these long comments that losers like chirp post?????
Yes, I read them. Some are more entertaining than the article itself.
who gives a crap? lets just go to CBP South and cheer on our boys and come home with the W.
Nobody cares about the Exexpos. They will continue to suck throughout history.
Skipping comments to address something.
I’ve been a Phils fan for a while now. 15 years actually. I say 15 because at 10 years old I was really into sports(and playing LL baseball too).
I have gone to Phils games in the times before the WS win and just so you idiots know…There were more Phils fans than opposing fans. You all like to do nothing but call kyle out on things that you forget to use that brain God(or Raptor Jesus) gave you.
Think about it, you come here, read his posts and then bitch about them. He gets hits, makes money and you sit in mommy’s kitchen on her wifi talking about how much more you know then kyle and how you could run a better blog. Oops! time to get back to flipping those burgers!
R.I.P Philly fan intelligence.
Pretty sure Mets fans stopped coming because The Midnight Mayor crushed the Mets.. Also it was never close to 60/40 or 50/50.. Don’t they know that there is no such thing as a Nationals fan?
The Phillies had plenty of a fan base prior to 08′, not sure what some of you morons are talking about. Did they sell out or have 40k plus a night. No! And why should they have when they fielded crappy teams during the 90’s and then average teams through 06′? Who wants to pay extra for that? Doesn’t mean no one was watching.
I sure the hell saw more Phillies fans then Mets fans in ’06 and ’07. It may have got sketch before the Bank opened, but I agree it was hard to tell because people didn’t get decked head to tail in fan gear then. I just NEVER remember the visitors outnumbering us, since I’ve been going to games since 1990.
People who consider ‘the good old days’ the times when we sucked I really wonder about. I love the team and love the wins, so I welcome all the bandwagoners who discovered our team in ’08. They are late bloomers, but it’s fricking better then a cavernous and empty Vet and loss after loss with no hope of a postseason.
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