The Jays beat Kansas City 8-1 last night. The score was not the story though, the crowd was. Just over 10-thousand people went to the game at Rogers Centre, that's a franchise low. Toronto isn't the only place where people have stopped going to games. Take a look around the majors---many teams are playing to crowds that are at less than 50 percent capacity. The Yankees and Red Sox aren't suffering, but baseball as a whole is. Has the sport simply become too expensive? Have people just lot touch with the high salaries given out in the sport? Has the economy got the sport in a stranglehold or is it fans in Toronto and other places simply know their team isn't a contender, so why back a winner? Its no secret people will start showing up if they are supporting a winner, but in baseball, the winner is usually the team with the highest salaries. You know the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Angels and Dodgers are going to be right there every year because they spend the money to get the best players.
Some would suggest a salary cap is the only way to make the field a level playing one. Kansas City simply can't compete year after year with the Yankees, the Twins have done a great job of being a small-market franchise, but they can't do it by themselves. Other teams seemingly don't want to follow the Twins model.
If teams like the Jays are going to suffer at the gate, perhaps they need to try and lower ticket prices. Yeah, in this day and age that sounds dumb, but if you are going to get 10-thousand people at 50 bucks a pop. Why not see what happens when tickets are 20 bucks each. Don't just do it for the Yankees and Red Sox when they come to town, do it for all games. I'd rather have 40-thousand in the park at 20 bucks apiece than paying 50 bucks for 10 thousand. The sad thing is with greed playing such a part in today's sports, teams won't do this. They already would be if they could.
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Day 2 of the Esso Cup is in the books, and its anyones guess as to who might play in the final. It would seem to me after being there for all the action that the Atlantic and Quebec reps are a bit overmatched, but Edmonton, Notre Dame, Thunder Bay and the host Rebels have all shown flashes of brilliance. Day 3 is tomorrow. Some say its womens hockey, forget it. Yeah, you aren't going to see Canada-US at the Olympics, but you are going to see a decent hockey game. The Edmonton-Thunder Bay game yesterday was a very entertaining contest. If you can, check it out and check out the new Co-Operators Centre. It is a venue to behold. It is a venue though where there may be a Reid Pedersen sighting so beware. Consider yourself warned!
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The Habs play so well on the road against the Caps and then go THUD! From what I saw, Montreal looked terrible last nite in dropping a 4-1 decision. Buffalo ebat Boston to take a 2-1 advantage. I would think the Sabres would bounce back in their series with Buffalo. As expected, its a series for the tender, whatever guys allows three is seemingly the loser. C'mon Ryan Miller, I took your team to get to the finals so don't bounce me out now.
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The NFL schedule comes out tomorrow. I can start planning my Sundays. I'm not the only one. Yeah I know, I know. Sundays means nothing gets done once the first Sunday hits. Yes, you're right, but the missus deserves to know when hubby invokes his cone of silence for another year. It may also give me a chance depending on when it happens to convince Vanstone to go to Denver to see his beloved Broncos get crushed by the mighty Seahawks. Just like it was four years ago on a very cold night when Josh Brown connected on a 52 yarder on the last play of the game to give Seattle a victory.
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Is CMT ever bringing back Lindsay Stone?
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Can I finish this before going to the land of Z's. I'd better stop or the answer will be no. Two days into the Esso Cup and my voice hasn't given way yet as I do games for fasthockey.com. Keep your fingers crossed that I can do it for three. That's all I got. Its time for the head to meet pillow.
8 comments:
This Expos fan knows when baseball died. It died the day baseball killed itself by cancelling the rest of the season and the World Series. If Montreal had won that year, they would still be around today in a downtown ballpark. I am certain of that.
I watched a bit of the womens hockey on Access last night. Its a little quicker than I expected. I may have to go down and take in a game as my bosses brother has a girl on the Rebels.
Baseball needs an overhaul. If a 30 team league only has 5 teams contending on a year-year basis, something needs to change.
Little Johnny
Uhhh....don't you mean ROD Pedersen. Why don't you just give it up, and go back to the rock where you came from.
No! I would be talking about REID Pedersen. One of the executives at Evraz Place, and Rod's brother. Nice try idiot! Apparently the rock you crawled out from hit you on the head a few times upon exit.
It's time that comment sections require a person to identify themselves, either their name or a pseudonym, that way we know who the brain dead is.
As for the Jays, it's still hockey season, even if the Maple Laughs aren't in the playoffs. Once hockey is done, the fan base will return. Be patient
i agree with mike...no more anonymity...if you have something to say admit who you are...
not sure what the answer is for baseball...but i know this die hard expos fan is being won over by the young arms and bats on the jays...and the return of buck to the booth...
i missed the habs game last night...not sad...
mongo
Selig and the owners don't care -the top teams bring the revenue and the rest are an afterthought. Until there is a salary cap in place there is no hope for 80% of the teams and fans (aka suckers to the owners) are now not showing up for games-wow. Go Jays!
The problem with the attendance being down can be tied to an organization's stupidity on the management side. Free Agency has been around now for close to 35 years. A team like Minnesota just shelled out a $100M contract for Joe Mauer. If he produces people will support them. There are organizations that were once the class of baseball when the Yankees and Red Sox were complete jokes. Toronto used to get any Free Agent they wanted. Baltimore was the standard by how you developed a system, and a franchise. Kansas City was always in Division Finals. Oakland went to 3 WS in a row.
What happens is Owners who know nothing about Baseball hire the smartest retards they can find to run their franchises. Are you going to tell me that Vernon Wells is a $100M player? That set back the franchise for 10 years. The list goes on.
Now you see teams like Texas hire proven guys like Nolan Ryan to run the franchise from top down. In addition to baseball Ryan is a very successful entrepreuneur in Texas. Baltimore is in discussions to get Cal Ripken into their fold. So this is not a difficult situation. You put someone at the top who has a vision. You create a farm system, and you establish a very strong scouting system in latin countries. From there you develop those players, and flip them when you need to load up to make a run. Check the Yankees and Red Sox. Many of their players are home grown through the system.
When you run a team like Toronto which used to be the class of the American League, don't be surprised when on 10000 show up to watch them play against another shit ball team like Kansas City. If it wer 1985 those were the two best teams in baseball, and you'd have a full house. Instead it is high calibre AAA ball charging Major League ticket prices.
Obama
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