Wizards versus Celtics! Dan, I'll be there, Row A, Section 227, cheering on the Wizards. This one is going to be hard fought.

As to the Nats, we all would totally be there if were a smidgeon about 45 degrees. It's just too COLD for baseball right now.

Never met more Caps fans in my life in the last week. This is the city of the bandwagon. If you build a winning team, we will come.

Caps vs Flyers (mainly because of playoff beards)
Wizards vs Celtics
Nats vs Marlins
DC United vs some team I've never heard of

1=D
2=C
3=B
4=A

attendance guess:
1) Nats - Marlins (barely)
2) Caps - Flyers
3) United - Pachuca
4) Wizards - Celtics

passion
1) Caps - Flyers
2) United - Pachuca
3) Wizards - Celtics
4) Nats - Marlins

B) Wednesday night, Wizards vs. Celtics
Announced: 20,474.

A) Wednesday night, Nats vs. Marlins
Announced: 20,473.

D) Friday night, Caps vs. Flyers
Announced: 18,773, or whatever sellout is.

C) Wednesday night, D.C. United vs. Pachuca
Announced: 16,921.

Hah! One of the excuses for the poor attendance you cited is a typo, I'm assuming, but a rather hilarious one. The poor draw was because "they were playing the Nats." Hopefully the draw problem was more that the Marlins were the opponent, rather than that some other team didn't make the trip to play the Marlins. But I say calm down to all these nay-sayers. Yes, a crappy second night of attendance, despite the many excuses. Let's all relax and check back in June before we really start to worry.

The other reason that might have contributed to the attendance problem is the "Oh, my gosh, we're all going to die in some horrible Metro overcrowding accident/traffic jam" thing that everyone keeps harping on. Apparently, for some people, waiting ten minutes for a Metro train is just more than they can take in order to go to a baseball game.

D.C. may or may not be a good sports town, but it is a town of complainers and overreacters. It is the second game of the year--we've got 79 more.

The Plan had a laundry list of excuses ready for the poor turnout last night. But as always, none of them were caused by team management. The #1 reason for the lack of fan support is the absolute refusal to invest in on-field talent.

I have season tix to the Nats with 6 people and the games this week, at least against the Marlins, were some of the last game picked in our ticket draft. Buts its still weird that the attendance was so low. BTW I have 4 tickets section 134 12 rows off the field for sale. Any takers!!!LOL

I have season tix to the Nats with 6 people and the games this week, at least against the Marlins, were some of the last game picked in our ticket draft. Buts its still weird that the attendance was so low. BTW I have 4 tickets section 134 12 rows off the field for sale. Any takers!!!LOL

Posted by: | April 8, 2008 6:10 PM

Thats for Thursday game vs. Marlins

Attendance: Nats edging out the Wizards for overall, Caps sell out (giving them top percentage of filled seats), United draws well for mid-week but comes up last amongst these.

Passion: United and Caps tie at the top; Wizards a distant runner-up; Nats have passion at games?

It's worth noting that United is in a knockout tournament and has extremely high expectations that have gone mostly unmet since 2004, while the Caps are in the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. It is kind of an unfair advantage in the passion department. In a hypothetical situation with no extenuating factors (playoffs, game against rival, etc), United takes this with ease.

I was there, but I'm no Nats fan (or Marlins fan, they're extinct), I just wanted to see the new park. Turns out it's beautiful and I think people will go. But only the diehards (or hearty fools like myself) will brave the cold to watch terrible baseball, and the Nats don't have many diehards yet. On the plus side, no lines at the concession stands!

Chest Rockwell: I was at the United playoff game last fall and I don't remember any fans in the upper deck. (In fact the group from Chicago sitting behind me was the loudest bunch in the stadium.)Couldn't all those passionate fans sell out the lower bowl?

Attendance:
Wizards-Celts (sell out)
Caps-Flyers (sell out)
DCU - Pachuca (20k)
Nats-Marlins (18K)

Atmosphere/passion
Caps - playoff hockey baby
DCU - mexican fans plus DC's loyal = rfk rock
Wizards - too many suits, bandwagon, and celts fans
Nats - it's baseball

>>Big League Stew takes another shot at D.C. as a sports town, writing that "this is going in Washington's permanent file on how it's not that great of a sports town. Second game? New Stadium? Yeah, you guys gotta show."

Actually I think the stadium has had a negative impact if anything. A strong majority of DC residents opposed the stadium deal seeing it as an unfair giveaway to MLB, one that they didn't want to pay for. But it got rammed down their throats anyways. So should we be surprised that the Nats are struggling to get people to ball games?

Powerboater69:

DC United shuts down the upper bowl of RFK except for matches where attendance well over 30,000 is expected. Otherwise, DC United's deal with DCSEC to use the stadium is financially deficient. Attendance is limited to either ~19K or ~24.5K, depending on advance sales and other factors.

Also, you may have either had seats on the wrong side of the field, or left before the 75th minute.

That said...

Attendance:
Wizards/Celtics
Caps/Flyers
Nats/Marlins
DCU/Pachuca

Passion:
Caps/Flyers (Rivals)
DCU/Pachuca (Midweek)
Wizards/Celtics (Lots of happy Boston repatriates here)
Nats/Marlins

Although I watched the game and laughed at the team's performance and the attendance, my excuse for not going to the Nationals game actually was Memphis-Kansas, the replay of Washington Post Live at 11, and infomercials. I wouldn't let weather stop me unless I knew it was probably going to delay or postpone the game. I'll be at the United match Wednesday night getting updates way too frequently on the other games. Wednesday is a pretty good day for sports considering it is mid-week. I just wish I weren't missing USA-Canada(coincidentally, another future RFK parking nightmare) in women's soccer.

B,A,: The United had the upper deck open for the 2006 playoffs when they stuck the Revolution fans up there on the far side from the United fans. The only reason it was closed in 2007 was lack of demand.

You are right about the United fans getting into the game during the last 15 minutes when our offense finally woke up. But it was painfully quiet for most of the game.

Rusty is down on DC baseball? Why wasn't I told sooner?!?!

I want to know where you two were sitting that it was quiet.

Of course the attendence for the second game was going to suck. We have 1 home game, on the road for a week, then come back in cold & rainy weather for a baseball game? I went, and enjoyed the park, but left early because I was so cold. Low 40s and rainy on an April Monday night is not baseball weather. Especially when the NCAA Champ was going to be determined that night.

Let the Caps and Wiz get the (hopefully) long ppayoff runs out of the way, get some summer weather, and some Nats buzz and people will show up.

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