Nats No-Shows?
So I went to the Nationals game against the Los Angeles Dodgers last night and enjoyed good weather, short lines for food and a rather spirited effort by the home team, which scored a 10-4 victory. I was one of the few to see it, however. Despite a break in the weather the stadium was not exactly full. I took this shot as Livan Hernandez faced the first Dodger hitter:
The official announced attendance was 22,712, but I stress that that was the announced crowd. In fact, pro sports teams always annouce the paid crowd, but the gate crowd is almost always far lower. Last season, as I reported in a couple stories last year, the Nationals said they sold more than 33,000 tickets per game, but actual attendance was about 7,000 or 8,000 lower than that.
Mayor Williams and the other baseball boosters say the new stadium will cure these ills and that's why it's worth spending $611 in public money, an investment that will pay dividends from the entertainment district that will anchor the new ballpark. But already the new team owners and the DC planners are fighting over the project.
The Lerners have promised a "grand reopening" of RFK for July 21. It will be important for them and the city leaders who pushed so hard for baseball to do something to get the fans to support the franchise. Or else it could be a long wait for the new ballpark.
By David Nakamura |
May 27, 2006; 11:51 AM ET
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Next: Office of Baseball
Posted by: che | May 29, 2006 05:14 PM
There may be a Bolvian in the Major Leagues, so I guess that is on topic.
Posted by: ^^^^^ | May 29, 2006 09:58 PM
Full of allegations and lies....please see:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcwire/2006/05/find_the_frontrunners_cont.html#comments
Posted by: ^^^^^ | May 30, 2006 10:04 AM
This blog is incredibly stupid.
One, it's rarely updated and barely policed. There's some nasty s*** in here that really should get pulled by the webmaster or whomever is in charge.
Two, the updates consist of Washington Post reporters telling us "What I Did Last (Night, Weekend, Summer)." Who cares?
Three, a certain Ward 3 candidate seems to think it is his personal mission to spread the word about his candidacy by flooding this blog. Icky.
Posted by: Mike from Chevy Chase DC | May 30, 2006 02:57 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
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http://www.unknownnews.org/0606020509comvot.html
Ohio election fraud investigated ... by the man who caused it
by M.R. Kropko, Associated Press
May 9, 2006
CLEVELAND - Democrats called Monday for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to remove himself from an investigation into what went wrong with the primary election in Ohio's largest county.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said Blackwell should step aside because his office is responsible for the rules that govern county election boards that had scattered problems last Tuesday, including poll workers who did not know how to turn on new electronic voting machines. Blackwell, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, faces too many conflicts of interest to properly oversee the probe, Redfern said.
"It's a silly request," said James Lee, a spokesman with the secretary of state's office. "The people of Ohio twice elected Ken Blackwell to serve as secretary of state. He will continue to serve."
Blackwell asked the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections on Friday for an investigation of voting glitches during the county's first attempt at electronic voting using Diebold Inc. touch-screen and optical scan systems.
The board, which met Monday for the first time since the primary, said an independent committee would try to determine what caused failures at polling places. Committee members will have expertise in electronic voting technology and elections administration, and the panel will be asked to provide a report by July 15, said Bob Bennett, who is chairman of both the Cuyahoga County elections board and the Ohio GOP.
In Cuyahoga County, which has a little more than 1 million registered voters, some poll workers did not show up to open voting sites. Officials also ordered the hand-counting of more than 18,000 paper ballots after new optical scan machines produced inconsistent tabulations. The counting was not complete until Sunday night, leaving several local races in limbo for days, and the outcome of one race for state representative was reversed.
Questions remain whether the equipment or the paper ballots, or both, were at fault, said Michael Vu, the county's elections director.