Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
the sox fans are certainly there in chicagoland, in great numbers, they're just a cynical bunch who won't go to the ballpark and support their team just because.
sox fans need a reason to show up, whereas cubs fans will show up just to drink and be merry in america's largest outdoor bar, even if the team on the field is mediocre.
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I think this speaks to something and I can't quite put my finger on it. It seems as if
most professional sports teams have the problem the Sox have, to one extent or another, while a few- and
many college teams- enjoy the beneficial position the Cubs have.
I think professional teams need to do more to make a day or night out to see them more than a day or night out to see them, but that might be so obvious as to not be worth saying. But the blocks around whatever New Comiskey is now called certainly don't help. Likewise (since I live in Baltimore now), while Camden Yards is amazing and there's bars and restaurants to the northwest of it, to the northeast and east there's blocks of blank streetwalls, and to the south of it there's just parking lots.
On the other hand, I've loved going to the Verizon Center in DC. The venue, the complex it's a part of, and the neighborhood around it is all fun and engaging. And the Wizards' attendance is meh. So I dunno.
But the model of high ticket prices (I know baseball isn't bad, but still) just to watch something you could watch at home or at a bar seems to be dwindling like it did when games first started being televised. You need to do more to bring people out than just put on a game, and ideally do it in a place where people already want to be. A baseball game can be more or less like a candy bar in the checkout aisle of a grocery store if you do it right, and that's what a lot of college football is and it's certainly what Cubs games are to a lot of people.