I can demonstrate the proper injection technique at the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo

I can visit my children at the Boys and Girls Club.

I certainly won't be at the Smart CEO Future 50 event

Why wasn't I invited to speak at the SmartCEO event?

Whoop de woo.

I'm looking forward to the Food And Friends event.

I can give driving tips at the Washington Auto Show

You (fake) guys are killing me, I tells ya!

Bring me back and I will happy to talk about how I've kept pitching in the bigs due to my healthy eating techniques.

The fan fests the Orioles used to (still?) run at the Balto Convention Center were really nice events - why not just observe, steal what works and just do it? It's ok to copy success!

Why not poll season tix holders who probably went to these things up north to see what they liked and what they didn't?

Why not market the team and the new park world-wide to fill it every night (at least sell all the tickets)?

Every travel agency that books summer trips to DC (and MILLIONS come to the Nation's Capital) should be contacted to have Nats tix as an option.

Every hotel within a 25 mile radius of DC should have Nats tix purchase available when you reserve the rooms and at the concierge's table. Target the seat location and price to the swankiness of the hotel.

Every community association and work welfare group from Columbia to Richmond, from Waldorf to Winchester should have package deals of Nats tickets to sell. My work assoc dropped Nats tix (kept O's) because the Nats tried to force them to purchase way more tix than they could sell. Stop it.

A fan fest should be in DC, at a large enough venue and done EVERY January. If DC won't cut the red tape to do it, then hold it at the Chantilly/Dulles Expo Center.

There's SO much to market - get the old Senators back when the Rangers play here, welcome back the entire 1969 squad and celebrate their 86-76 season and Ted Williams and Frank Howard, honor Joe Gibbs and the Redskins one night, give away Gibbs' bobbleheads so you sell out the place!

Offer a DVD series of the sweep of the Orioles last year with both TV and radio calls; offer the Discovery channel special on the new park as a link on the web site. Let people see that you have the best place in the world to watch the best game in the world!

One more thing - SIGN CHARLIE SLOWES AND GET HIM OUT THERE MARKETING!!

The Nationals' poor marketing is sad and needs to be corrected ASAP. The team owes it to the fans and the city to be good stewards of the $611 million freebie DC gave them. But, look, if they make the team and the park and the city and the National Pastime available, far and wide, to as many people as possible, won't they make even more money? Won't the city get more tax revenue? Won't it cement the team's future in DC for as long as MLB survives? Won't world-wide marketing help introduce the game to the world? Every civilized nation has an embassy in the city. Sell them a luxury box for crying out loud! Why not make the Washington Nationals the world's team? Why not do everything possible to increase a small fan base that right now seems to consist mostly of old folks who remember the Senators and didn't defect to Baltimore?

I could go on and on and I don't even have a marketing degree?

Get going Stan! Wake up Chartese! What in the world are you doing? Surely this isn't all due to the lack of parking!

I'm willing to wait for a winning team. I'm not willing to put up with such apathetic and incompetent marketing.

Just watch, when attendance tanks, no one will remember the lousy marketing, they'll blame it all on Washington not being a "baseball town"!!

Stan, Chartese, if you or your staff read these things, let me know and I'll give you even more ideas. Do you want a letter or an email?

I'm sorry. I thought it was the "Fast-Food and Friends". See you at Mickey Dee instead!

When are they going to schedule an appearance with Ms. Lopez, Ms. Boone, Ms. LoDuca, and even Ms. Benson?

Excellent post by Natswriter. The things s/he mentioned are only a few of the obvious money-making ideas this team could employ. Instead, they continually fail at marketing this team in any manner that represents success.

Personally, I do not exaggerate when I say that watching so many missed opportunities pass this team by causes bile to rise in my throat. It is nothing short of disgusting to watch this team leave so much money on the table, and so many potential fans ignored.

Amen, Natswriter. The marketing is grade D -- do they want to dig their own graves with ticket sales this year? It isn't going to be easy to get to the new stadium, and there aren't 44,000 chumps like me who will go come rain or shine. The Lerners need to shake up this second-rate operation, soon, for all our sakes.

Outstanding observations, natswriter. My baseball buddies and I talk about this all the time. Why isn't this city covered in Nats promotions? Why isn't everybody in town being "brainwashed" into believing a night at the ballpark is the thing to do? It's pretty shocking that a professional organization operates in such a mickey mouse way. They didn't get it nailed down before the season ended? Come on.

Agreed here too natswriter. I was hoping we'd get a suprise marketing overhaul/blitz for 2008 that would make up for the past chintziness.

Very disappointing.

I also agree with natswriter and other posters re. continued marketing failures.

I agree with natswriter. The marketing dept. is basically non-existent. I am willing to give the Lerner's a pass because, I'm sure they are heavily involved in getting the ballpark built on time. However, next year I will not be so willing.

There are thousands of people in this city that agree with the sentiments of Natswriter and others on these comments. The only people that seem to disagree with the comments are the folks running the team, and two posters off of ballparkguys.com

To 505 now 203-

I can assure you that myself and others will not be so patient. The Nats have fallen on their face with broken promises for far too long. If they do not have the details for all off-season events by renewal time in late 2008, there will be at least 6 seats in section 117 that come available.

Is this news to you people? Where have you been.....I know Barry never writes about this stuff and neither does the Wpost but many of us have been pointing out the lameness of the Lerners Marketing and general front office operations for over a year now?

Really we are getting more news and opinions that are well reasoned from blogs and their posters (Coke at Park!), why would anyone pay 50 cents for the paper?

Wpost sure is not adding value to this discussion is it? Just a matter of time for the dinosaurs editors lead the post into bankruptcy......tick dock Barry, get out while you can before the flood.

Maybe the Nationals are afraid successful marketing will lead to too many people attempting to drive to the park, leaving them high and dry for parking.

I don't think ads with asterisks instructing fans to take the Metro are every exciting.

Catch Nats Fever! *

*just make sure you don't drive

I, for one, will be basing my summer trip back east on the Nationals schedule. I didn't catch a game at RFK last year, but I will definitely see a game in the new park this year.

Gretchen: I agree with the poster who said the STHs will most likely snatch up all the opening day tickets. I know I intend to buy up all of my allotment because they'll be in such high demand. All kinds of "friends" are coming out of the woodwork already asking me to get them tickets.

You'll probably be able to get them somehow, but not cheaply and not likely through the regular route on the Nats website.

I don't know if I'd recommend getting STs just to get opening day tickets. But if you do go to games regularly, I'd bet my opening day tickets you won't regret getting a 20-game plan.

Barry, you mentioned before that Stan reads your chats and occasionally checks this space. How about copying Natswriter's sentiments and sending an email for the masses? Something with your name on it might actually get through the temp filters working the mail room. Its time to shine.

just an FYI on what natsnut said, i don't think the 20 game package gets you opening day tix. iirc, you have to have the 41 game plan to get opening day.

and i wholeheartedly agree with natswriter's comments. it's so disheartening to see opportunities pass by. they won't have the "first season in the new stadium" attraction to use as a keystone for marketing for another 20+ years--and, even then, it won't be with the "new team smell" still on it. it really feels like they're blowing the golden opportunity here. and there just doesn't seem to be a legitimate reason behind it.

i know some of the lerner haters will throw out the "cheap" line, but those guys didn't become as rich as they are be looking a gift horse in the mouth. i can't imagine they'd be penny-wise and pound-foolish like this, you just don't get to be rich that way in the first place (unless you inherit it all, which the senior lerner did not).

I like the caravan idea better than the single-location Fan Fest, although I seem to be in a distinct minority. Having Nats players and Manny appear at various events, although logistically challenging, can increase fan awareness, which is what the team needs at this point.

Whether the Nats will publicize these events as much as they need to is a legitimate question. Also, why talk up a Fan Fest -- outside of the District, yet -- and then abandon it?

If the FO can get its marketing act together, we may yet live to see something like the Cubs Convention (a hotel-based weekend fanfest that's loosely coupled with other events around Chicago, such as the Len & Bob Bash at House of Blues at which Son Volt, among others, will be playing).

Getting the message straight is the first step, though; I share the concern of other posters in this regard.

"just an FYI on what natsnut said, i don't think the 20 game package gets you opening day tix. iirc, you have to have the 41 game plan to get opening day."

Correct. But with the 20 game plan you become a season ticket holder and theoretically get a several-day head start over the general public when single-game ticket sales begin, which becomes your opportunity to buy tickets for Opening Day. (Although of course your 20-game seat will already be filled by a 41-gamer on OD, so you'll have to settle for best available seat instead.) I say that you will theoretically get a head start because last year some bozo posted the special STH password on ballparkguys.com and thereby opened it up to anyone. Hopefully that bozo will know better and not do the same thing again this year.

SR Lerner is over 80 years old as I recall......JR Lerner did inherit it all and seems lost....along with the several family members hired to do front office jobs they seem completely lame at.......any chance you could write about the total nepotism of the Lerner ownership group Barry? Oh that's right....No because that would take some digging....it is not posted on the Nats Website and Laden or Chris have not done the work for you yet?

231 (other 506). 20-game ticket holders don't get their *regular seats*, but we most definitely can buy opening day tickets before the general public.

Almost everything that natswriter is advocating involves the marketing of groups of single game tickets to a broad audience of potential buyers. Sure, it would be great if the Nats did that (and who's to say that there aren't such things in the works already?) but now is not the time. The focus now is on selling SEASON TICKETS. Any seat for a game that is packaged up as part of one of the things natswriter is advocating immediately becomes a seat that cannot be sold as a SEASON TICKET. This team is still developing its season ticket base, whereas the Cubs and other such clubs already have maximized their season ticket base and are now marketing to the masses to try to fill in whatever gaps are remaining in their season's seating. That's a different kind of marketing than what the Nats need to be doing now. No one who wouldn't have bought a season ticket already is going to buy one just because the Nats have a fan fest. Fan fests and the like market to the casual single-game customer, and those tickets aren't even for sale yet. Natswriter, where are your suggestions for the Nats on how to market season tickets?

the jr lerners (there are more than one) have cut their teeth in the RE business and have all been successful at it. i'll agree that they inherited money, but to be fair, they aren't "paris hilton-like" about it. they all have worked the family business from right out of college (and probably before that) and continued to build a very successful business. they're not lost when it comes to business in general, or they wouldn't have been successful.

that said, we all know from seeing countless other examples in many sports, being successful in other businesses does not necessarily give one the foundation to be a successful sports owner. it's taken dan snyder a decade to stop making horrible mistakes with his franchise. and while i had plenty to take him to task for as an owner, i always at least appreciated that he desperately wanted (wants) to win and would spend whatever it took (unlike, say, the bidwells)--although he's also an example of why plain liberal spending doesn't create a winning sports franchise.

of all the things the FO/ownership has been taken to task for, most i am willing to be (short-term) forgiving and patient about. this issue, marketing, however, i am not. there's no legit excuse for screwing this one up. and i'll jump on the anti- side of the argument on this topic with the rest of the naysayers. if they don't remove their upper extremities from their posterior crevices, they'll probably put this franchise at a disadvantage for quite a while.

and yes, i stand corrected on the 20 game thing, i was looking at it from the wrong perspective. thanks for the correction.

419, i agree that the team's focus now (and until february, to some extent) is on STs. but that doesn't mean they can't start marketing these other single game ticket opportunities now. for a company on a calendar fiscal year, their money for these kinds of expenses may have missed a budget cycle already. they need to know what kinds of packages will be available for what cost as early as possible so that they can put through budget requests and set up their own distribution plans. waiting until the day single game tix are available to do that is shooting themselves in the foot. proactive marketing is the proper way to do that. these plans should have been created and put in place last summer so they could be ready to market opportunities now, not in march when it may be too late.

I remember the Expos had incredible marketing on a shoestring budget. They were always having some wacky-themed night at the ball park and coming up with off the wall ways to get fan interest.

So far, like natswriter so eloquently put, the Nats are running their marketing machine terribly!

A marketing opportunity to emulate...

I attended a multi-day meeting of one of the zillions of California state review boards held at a large hotel near the Oakland airport. In the lobby was a sign - guests interested in attending that evening's A's game were invited to take advantage of the hotel's (free) courtesy shuttle for a round trip ride to the park's front gate. About a dozen hotel patrons went and had a great time. No parking problems whatsoever!

231, I repeat again that it's not really possible to market something that you don't have readily available for sale in the manner you're suggesting the team should be doing now. I'd be willing to bet that if asked right now by some company budget officer how much it would cost to reserve a section or a suite for a one-game employee bash in August, the Nationals would be able to quote a ballpark (heh, heh, heh, I made a funny) figure that the guy could use for budgeting purposes. But if the company guy wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty of particular games and particular seats to make a deposit, they wouldn't be able to do that now BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SELL THOSE SEATS TO A SEASON TICKET HOLDER. And if they're successful in doing that, they would not want to have done a big marketing push now for "group/company sales" because then they'd just have to turn away almost everyone who was attracted by that marketing due to lack of availability. Do you not get that? And how do you know that they don't already have marketing plans in the works for when/if they actually need to use them? Just because you don't see evidence of it doesn't mean that no marketing groundwork is being laid. Fan fests and the like are a red herring, not serious marketing. Unless you market the fan fest, who would know about it anyway? (Can't count on the Post to do that.) Why do a marketing opportunity that itself requires marketing? The law of diminishing returns is in play. Posters like natswriter have already bought in on the team, yet for some reason they feel that they should still be the focus of the team's marketing efforts. Makes no sense.

Uhm, maybe the Lerners aren't stupid enough to try to compete with the playoff bound Redskins for marketing attention...

"I remember the Expos had incredible marketing on a shoestring budget. They were always having some wacky-themed night at the ball park and coming up with off the wall ways to get fan interest."

And how'd that one work out for them in the end, anyway?

"So far, like natswriter so eloquently put, the Nats are running their marketing machine terribly!"

Again, I say, how do you know that? The focus now is (as it should be) on sellinng season tickets. Natswriter and the like are talking about marketing opportunities that can't even open up until the decision is made by the team that it's exhausted its possibilities for further season ticket sales. Obviously that point hasn't been reached yet.

I gotta agree with 419 on this completely. I don't see any evidence of poor marketing for 2008 yet. Not even last year, since on reflection it doesn't make sense to blow money on a "throw away" year.

Honestly, there's no excuse for them dropping the ball on this one. Stupid, just stupid.

I'd like to see the apologists come up with an excuse for this one.

This team is too new to have blown such a great opportunity to get fans ready for baseball. The hardcore fans will go to the new park regardless; however, for the casual fan, errors like this is a black eye for the Lerner Group.

New post.

I would argue that the marketing we're talking about isn't necessarily about selling x number of season and/or single game tickets either.

It's about creating buzz and excitement and anticipation. Big signs. Big announcements. Big advertisements. And big surprises are what I'm talking about.

No matter how many times you say that the Nats should be spending all of their time marketing season tickets at this point, it's not true. Between now and March 30, how many people are out there with a big chunk of money that'll say, ya know, now that I think of it, maybe I should buy Nats season tickets. People who wanted them have been jockeying for years, and they're paid up, and have their seats assigned.

This is the same kind of thinking that makes people think that individuals will be shut out of opening day tickets. They won't, despite what some of you and Kasten says, tickets won't be nearly as hard to get as Kasten has fantasized about. There just aren't that many people who didn't go to Nats games last year who are going to say, hey, the Nats still aren't very good and they're still in a crummy location without any bars or restaurants around it, and there's no parking. But there's a new stadium, so I'm going to start going to games all the time.

This is Washington, DC, not Kansas City. A new building is not such a stunning attraction.

If you wake up and get to your computer with a credit card before 10:00am on some yet-to-be-determined (I think, maybe it has been determined) Saturday, you'll get tickets.

This is Washington, DC, not Kansas City. A new building is not such a stunning attraction.

Oops. And I'll say it again, this is not Kansas City.

I don't see how having a huge season ticket radio and print ad marketing campaign across the city, coupled with a season ticket booth and sales reps at a fanfest is a failure to market season tickets. There are a whole lot of people in this city that would ante up for 20 game ST packages if they only knew about the options. The bottom line is that the Nats have failed to communicate this en masse to the general public.

And to 506(before moving), that logiv makes no sense. The Redskins were not in the playoffs until last week, yet the Nats were not marketing prior to last week. The Redskins will not be in the playoffs after this week, and the Nats will likely not be marketing on Monday either. Of course, my comments also do not reflect the reality that professional baseball and football fans, while sometimes overlapping, are also often mutually exclusive.

one might argue that "lack of evidence of poor marketing" could just be "lack of evidence of marketing at all," since we've seen no commentary from anyone about any positive marketing. i've seen a few bus signs and commercials on sports shows about ST packages. but little else being done to excite the potential fan base - not the current ST holders, i agree that we shouldn't be the target of their marketing right now.

419, i understand your points, and i don't completely disagree, but i've seen little marketing effort to corporations for STs, either (including my company or others i have relationships with).

maybe there should be a little effort to pump up the concept of a new stadium and new season coming up while they happen to be in the middle of the ST drive (or maybe tail end, at this point).

while "fan fests" may not be the most effective way to gain fans, they could be a venue to take potential ST holders and turn them into partial ST holders. the kind of thing they should be doing now, before they start selling single game tix. and you want to "pump up" attendance at an event like that? give STHs who attend "first shot" that day at their allotments of single game tix. especially this season, i'll bet that would draw a crowd (altho it's probably not feasible).

and more appearances with autograph opportunities to get player visibility out there. maybe ones the team actually sets up themselves instead of just glomming onto an existing event (car show, health show, etc). not saying they shouldn't do those shows, just that they should do their own stuff, too. have players do a sign and greet at ESPN zone during workday lunch time, for example.

the point isn't necessarily that they should have already implemented the specific ideas natswriter posted, it's that they should be working the marketing machine more in general to raise awareness of the team while they're in the middle of selling ST packages, and soon single game tix. and the team has a history of poor marketing in general, both under MLB and, so far, under the lerner/kasten banner as well.

remember, i'm usually one of the "glass half-full" people around here. but this is the kind of issue that sticks in my craw. i can't see the logic of not taking complete advantage of the "once-in-a-franchise" opportunity to use the new stadium to pump up the fan base (both psychologically and financially). i'm still perturbed that they seemed to blow the opportunity to set up player/fan interaction this offseason because they, essentially, "forgot" to lock down players before the season ended.

which brings up another interesting point. we all know how the redskin players are connected to the community here. granted, it's a *FAR* more established team/franchise, but these are the kind of efforts that are needed to make the same kinds of connections. the redskins FO doesn't have to arrange as many "events" for skins players because many of them already do some of that on their own, and are more available to the community in general. many of them spend their offseasons here. for now, we seem to have players who aren't as connected to the community as i hope they eventually are. the lack of top players in last year's "caravans" and the fact that few, if any, top players are lined up to do anything this offseason, is a disconnect between the players on the team and the fans. and those kinds of connections are what breed a connected fanbase. and that's the kind of thing the FO needs to be putting together right now that none of us are seeing happening.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

---

Oops. And I'll say it again, this is not Kansas City.

Section 419+1 brings up some very valid points about building the season ticket base that I agree with. And once again, I am willing to give them a pass for a while. But, in future years if promotions being offered in the offseason and during the season are as lame as they have been, I will have a problem with it.

Give the Lerner's a chance for crying out loud. They have done an outstanding job drastically improving the worst minor league system in MLB in under 2 years, I am willing to give them a chance with marketing.

What's with the cheap shots at Barry? I think he is doing a pretty good job considering the company he works for. Please continue to take shots at the Post but, I think Barry needs to be given a pat on the back.

Definitely, Barry is a very diligent reporter/blogger.

re. the Lerners, I imagine that they did face challenges in trying to lock up a site for a fan fest after they had purchased the team in that such venues are probably booked well in advance. However, at some point one could reasonably expect that fan fests, caravans, and such events would be organized and planned well in advance and that fans would be made aware of the dates in advance as well.

Amen, 505 now 203. Yeah they cd market better but I don't think the caravan sounds so bad. But then I've never been to a fan fest. (I wasn't a real baseball fan till the Nats came to town.)

I will be very interested to see how many of you that are still willing to give them more chances feel after the RFK parking concept falls through.

A lot of people are counting on that to happen, and the deal is further away from being finalized than many people realize.

I'm at the Convention Center a lot lately -- on weekends -- for various things. It's gigantic, I'd be really surprised if they couldn't accommodate a Fan Fest type event. It's not like the Nats have that many fans...

I knew in my gut that Aaron Boone would be the headliner, now that we can't enjoy the caravan stylings of Mr. Nook Logan.

Boone's dad is probably making him do it.

Do it or there's a dope slap waiting for you... :)

---

Boone's dad is probably making him do it.

Has anything been done about the Reds' grievance on the Majewski deal? Or is Bud afraid of appearing too hasty on this thing?

Remeber this is a business. The FO thinks the new stadium is this year's draw, not the players (we must wait until 2009 or 2010 to have real players). Also it's difficult for a team that doesn't have a long term commitment to any of it's players to get those players to come to a Fanfest just before ST. Last year the two players that participated in the Caravan were in the area already. This year none of the players on the 40 man roster live in the DC area. So in order to have a Fanfest the team has to fly in all the players. This is just another way for the FO to let us know we should not get too attached to our present roster. Kids relate to the players, not a stadium. The team has a long way to go to build a loyal fan base. Events where kids can interact with the players one on one are in the long term more important than a new stadium. The team should be doing both Fanfest and Caravans. This would be money well spent, especially if this team is looking at another 4th place finish.

When I read comments about how difficult or expensive it would be to get the players to come to town, I'm puzzled. Seems to me that any player who is likely to be on the roster should be *required* to come to town several times during the offseason and interact in some way with the fans.

With minimal planning, I'm sure that the team and players could find acceptable dates. And with a little creativity, you could come up with events that line up with the players' interests, whether lower-income kids, a charity group associated with a disease the player cares about, military service members, or just about anything. I can't imagine any down side to being visible in all parts of the community, and I also can't imagine the cost being very high, especially when compared with the potential benefit.

I haven't checked, but I imagine the Collective Bargaining Agreement has something to do with that.

*****************
When I read comments about how difficult or expensive it would be to get the players to come to town, I'm puzzled. Seems to me that any player who is likely to be on the roster should be *required* to come to town several times during the offseason and interact in some way with the fans.

Posted by: dcbatgirl | January 6, 2008 11:08 AM

I remember in the past that players have gotten into trouble, fined etc., for not participating in community events. Which makes me think it is, or at least it was, part of their contract. Alan Iverson used to always get in trouble for missing such events in his younger days as a Sixer, they'd fine him or bench him.

Maybe things have changed.

Multi-year contracts may have "participation clauses" in them be standard one year basic contracts do not.

Why is that? I would think that if a player is only able to get a one year contract, you could more easily get him to agree to do extra stuff. What do you mean by "standard one year basic contracts"? Are all one year contracts the same?

Just asking.