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Monday, August 30, 2004Who knew success would get old?Interesting column (no, not a blog, no matter what SI.com says) by Albert Chen on the general apathy of Atlanta baseball fans.
Unfortunately, the fans in Atlanta are staying away. Covering the Braves-Rockies game last night I escaped the sterile confines of the stadium press box and planted myself in the cheap centerfield seats, a few rows from Phil Niekro's painted closeup on the Smurf-blue outfield wall, where there were no more than two dozen people scattered in the entire section during the game. Attendance is up at 21 of the 30 major league ballparks, but here in Atlanta, the Braves are drawing their smallest crowds since 1991. This year the first-place Braves have attracted fewer fans than the bottom-feeding Diamondbacks, Rockies and Mariners.This is nothing new for the Braves, who have even had difficulty selling out playoff games for the past several seasons (I also seem to remember less-than fantastic ticket sales for the 1999 World Series). In fact, the Braves attendance has fallen each year since moving into Turner Field in 1997:
I was quick to blame these numbers on the overall apathy that surrounds all professional sports franchises in Georgia (and the entire south-east, for that matter) as it's common knowledge that collegiate athletics are king in that part of the nation. That, and the normal decline seen after any team opens a shiny-new stadium would explain this little problem. I mean, surely this can't be because Braves fans are bored with 12 straight playoff appearances, can it? I decided to see if other Atlanta pro teams were having similar problems. Attendance figures for both the Thrashers and Hawks have lagged in the last few years (but of course they do suck, so it's hardly relevant). Meanwhile the Falcons, who have had a fair bit of success recently, but still nothing like the Braves, have seen their attendance figures grow steadily over that time- which sorta of flies in the face of my little theory. That leads me to believe that, yes, Braves fans are bored with success. That seems to be the only logical explanation for the declines. What a bunch of ungrateful bastards! This is right up there with Red Sox fans who bitch about the Yankees spending too much money. |
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