Attendance and the Hardline calling out the fans

the only thing I heard was the rangers were toast and the a’s were applying butter……
great analysis!

i agree with the comments… i’m reminded of some old saying about pots, kettles and blackness.

…i.e. bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. you probably aren’t really much of a fan of the sport.

They can park and get in for free. And the last time I checked they don’t have a show on the weekends.

The morning show went through the same argument as the Hard Line, and it was tiresome. The fans are told to be patient with the building from within approach because winning takes time. The same goes for rebuilding a disinterested fan base.

That being said, I took my kids Saturday to the first game and had a blast. 161 opening up all the way to I-30 makes the drive slot easier from up north.

Fans at TBIA boo way too much and way too quickly.

Rangers fans, don’t boo Feliz. Ever.

and only talk sports when it is convenient for they to do so.

Also, the Rays were 27th in attendence last year. They were able to go to the WS despite “low energy and being demoralized.”

outside of the 3 games in Houston.

I’ve told my wife that she’s lucky because if we lived in Arlington still, I would be going to every game.

That people who go to the Rangers game, nearly half of them that night is their 1st game of the season. I swear to God we have the most uninformed fans ever. And nothing pisses me of more than seeing someone with a Rangers shirt and a Red Sox/Yankees hat. This fan base will never be good, lets just face the facts. We are the Six Flags of baseball and it will always be that way.

That will fix everything!!!!!!

I know Ben and Skin make still make it out to games even though their show was pulled.

Where’s Greggo?

….or whenever it was that Rhyner and Greggo decided to let Corby and Douchebag Danny hijack the show at every opportunity.

As for the complaints about attendance, it’s tiresome. Like someone said earlier- attendance usually spikes the year after improvements are shown. The public perception of the Rangers is that they fade down the stretch. It’s not an entirely accurate perception, but that’s what you hear when you listen to sports talk radio.

If this team finishes within a few games of a playoff spot and doesn’t have to slash payroll by 50% in the offseason, attendance in 2010 will continue to climb.

It really pissed me off, just like the Kinsler interview did.

If you can’t get up for an important game bc there are no fans, then you probably should just stop playing sports.

Also this meeting I’m in is a total kick in the nuts. Ugh.

Mike had to let Corby and Danny have a bigger role because the pill popping liar that he was working with was clearly not pulling his weight.

…and thought the exact same things that are being said here, especially about the “if you’re going to the baseball game to go to a bar afterwards, rethink your motivation” point.

But it takes a good while to build up a fan base. The casual fan base here doesn’t really exist. And the elephant in the room is the stadium being in Arlington. No one wants to go to Arlington. It’s a dump. Corby’s argument that part of the reason he doesn’t go is that there’s nothing around the stadium, is a fair one. Fan bases are made up of lots of casual fans who want to make a night of it. The game itself isn’t enough to attract them, especially when the stadium is 20 miles out of town.

That’s why the new owner should seriously consider moving the team to downtown Dallas. It’s probably not feasible, but I hope they consider it.

CJ Wilson is the MVP of this team….not MY, not Feldman…CJ Wilson.

Any credibility (however little there was) he had was lost when he made that statement…CJ has been fine this year but he’s hardly the MVP.

Further, I would love to know the last time any of those jokers actually went to a game that they had to pay for…both of them are whining, sniveling little baseball dolts who wouldn’t know a good “sports point” if it smacked them in the face.

And Ranger fans are the worst of the lot. I’ve been to 7 games this year, and it’s the same every time: a lot of the fans arrive late, leave early, spend most of the time doing or trying to start the wave, and changing diapers. It’s the kind of crowd that only makes some noise when the “make some noise” graphic is flashed on the jumbotron.

That being said, there are some really good ones too. My gf and I sat next to a family of 5 who drove all the way from northern Oklahoma to see a day game, and drove back after the game. They said it was their 7 or eighth time do so. My hope is that next year, and for years to come, the fickle fan base of this market will be treated to some great baseball, and in the process cultivate some real fans.

It’s hard for fair-weather fans to get into the Rangers, because of 10 years of sucking, and a couple of decades of sucking before they had any success. They see themselves as battered wives being given flowers after a particularly hard beating.

Me and my buddy went to a game against the Rays last August. Rangers are hitting in the 7th and putting a rally together. They go up 2-0 and have bases juiced with 1 out, trying to put away the game. Me and my friend stand up and start clapping and yelling during the next at bat. Haven’t done anything the whole game but just sit there and clap when good things happened. So when we do this, we are told to sit down by various middle aged men. We ignored it at first, but the SIT DOWN!! yells kept coming. It just made you see how sorry the people that go to the game are. Plus these guys yelling at us didn’t have any kids with them or anything. FRUSTRATING!! That’s why I hate going to Rangers games.

these guys were bitching about attendance and they haven’t even been to as many games this season as some “spare” Rangers fan in Salt Lake? That’s pretty pathetic.

As you said, attendance has gone up. As have the TV ratings. It’s not going to double in one season after this team has been pretty bad for a decade now. There are some great young players here, and as fans get to know them better and the team hopefully continues to win more the attendance will continue to rise.

For the most part, the people that bitch about the attendance are just doing it because they have to always be bitching about something.

people who say they don’t go to games because it’s a pain to get to are not going to go anyway.

I work across the street from Presbyterian on Walnut Hill and Greenville. I live just south of downtown Dallas.

Going to a weeknight game requires several things from me. It requires that I change into whatever I’m wearing to the game before I leave work, it requires that I leave work about 20 minutes early, it requires that I haul ass once I get home to pack my lunch for the next day and get everything ready, and it requires that I get everything together so I can go outside and meet my husband at the north entrance to my building when he slows down so I can jump in the car. We leave at about 5:40 and roll up to the ballpark between 6:20 and 6:40. It takes us about an hour to get home and he gets up at 5am and I get up at 6am.

We have been to over 60 games this season. People who whine about the drive from Dallas aren’t going to go, and they probably will have some other excuse if it was closer.

I get tired of hearing how great it would be if the Rangers were in Dallas. Downtown Dallas sucks as bad as Arlington (which is where I live). There are many bars/restaurants around the ballpark. Danny and Corby saying there are not just proves how little they have been out there recently. What they should’ve said and what they implied was that they want to get trashed after the game and don’t want to drive 30 miles while drunk (which is smart). If beer sales stop in the seventh, then they have to drive 30-45 minutes after the game to a watering hole close to home, they have already lost their buzz, so they prefer to just go to the bar and watch the game.

Also, the Hardline does a road show in Arlington at least once a month, so they could be at the game by the end of the first if they really wanted to go and the drive was the only issue. I like how they said the drive to see Paul McCartney last month was very easy and smooth, but how going to the Rangers is such a beating.

Lastly, didn’t understand Craig’s reasoning that inclement weather adds to the sports experience, saying how it is great to go to football games in the rain. Yes Craig, I think rains makes football more enjoyable, because they play football in the rain. Unfortunately rain is a beating at a baseball game because 3 hour rain delays suck. and getting home at 1am to get up at 6am is a whip.

I think the stories of how few times they gone is funny, since the ticket postgame show is one of the other places I’ve heard the complaints and they made excuses for how few times they’ve been to the park as well.

But hey, they are sports talk hosts and they address a lot of stupid things over the year, whatever. Its Kinsler that annoys me. I defended his low batting average and approach all year, I never waivered on supporting him as a player.. but there are certain things you don’t do and complaining about your fanbase is one of them. And at least one of the times that he did it, he wasn’t lead on by the hosts or asked a direct question, he went out of his way to do so.

For one thing, its like calling out your boss. Rather you are correct or not you don’t just publicly criticize people you are responsible to… in your general non-national security situation anyway. Sure we arn’t actually his boss, but any reasonable player should realize there is no good to come from calling out the fnas.

Second, can you at least throw out a “there are some diehard fans” or something? Its not like there are literally zero loyal followers of the rangers here and petty as it may be I’d like to think the players appreciate those of us that there are. You don’t actually have to be in the ballpark every night to support the team, this isn’t 1930. And many of us still go often, I’m going 2 more times this week.

And finally, come on… you act like being 3 games out in early september is winning the ALCS. Its now looking like two winning seasons in a decade, both probably sub 90 win years without the playoffs. If a one year resurgence to just being relevant at all should have 50K a night, whatever.. the attendance has been ok aside from some weekdays and bad opponents + the horrible conditions of this past weekend. They were talking up how well this weekends series was selling… and just in time it looks like the rangers have collapsed and completely fallen out of it.

but what’s the provenance of the ‘Rhyner is Dead’ thing. Ive been hearing it for years, seen it on t-shirts, etc. but I have no idea what the storybehind it is.

Ian,takes notes,he’s supposed to be your mentor and BFF.

when you try to “z” through your Outlook email at work.

My blood pressures a lot better since I started punching over to CDs for Rangers/baseball segments.

Looking to sports radio for decent content is like looking to the DMN comments section for a reasoned discussion. The main difference between the two is that the commenters at the DMN’s website don’t have microphones.

On the topic of location, I’ve never liked driving to Arlington. I live in Denton and no matter how you slice it, the drive to Arlington sucks. I either have to sit in Dallas traffic, sit in Mid-Cities traffic or sit in Ft. Worth traffic. While the options for getting to Arlington are fewer, the drive also sucks for anyone located in Collin County.

I could care less about the other attractions in the area. I’m going to The Ballpark for a baseball game. But when it’s most likely going to rain or when it’s a week night game with nothing really inspiring to it or it’s 98 degrees at first pitch, count me out. I don’t want to drive for an hour and twenty minutes to sit around during a rain out or do anything other than chill the f out after a long day at work or go sit way too close to one or more strangers and sweat my balls off. No thanks on all counts.

The issue of time in getting to and from Arlington has a tremendous amount to do with attendance during the week. Unless you live in Arlington, it’s inconvenient to get to it from everywhere on any given weeknight. Unless this team is lights out, I suspect that most people will choose the couch over more spirit-crushing commuting on a weeknight.

Add this transportation problem to decades of this team being mediocre to bad, and that’s why I don’t think fans don’t show up.

The Rangers are averaging 27,029 per game according to ESPN. That is pretty much right in the middle of the middle tier of teams that average between 23 and 32 thousand a night. I don’t think the attendance this year is out of line from what should be expected. I don’t get what the big deal, there are several teams that have been more successful that average right in the same range as the Rangers.

I only live 5 miles from the ballpark, but I admit I am a fair weather fan….so what, sue me!! I go to the games when the conditions are perfect……nice weather, giveaways, pitching matchups, etc….

I also have a big ass HD TV, nice couch, cheaper and colder beer……and LSB. How in the hell can you expect me to leave that??

I buy Rangers merchandise, eat Sonic, fly Southwest, etc……… so they have enough of my money and support already!!

there was a pathetic showing (although I’m sure the weather had something to do with it)

I’m not sure that there was more than 1000 people in the stands in the 8th inning. My buddy and I hopped into the front row in left field no problem

you stole my post, kinda.

I hate when people complain about things, but then soon after admit they are guilty of the same thing, but still go on about how people should be doing something.

Myself, I’ve been in attendance for all 3 rainouts this year plus another game that had a 2 hour rain delay in the middle of it. I’ve probably been to about 7-10 games this year with tickets to 3 more games still this year (18th, 25th, 27th).

http://www.theticket.com/Portals/2/UserFiles/User70160/KTCK_091509_HL-Rangers.mp3

IF YOU STOP POPING OUT…..
THEY WILL COME!