I can't decide where I see more empty seats: at Camden Yards or Nationals Park?
http://sportslocker.blogspot.com/

1) It does seem to me that relatively high ticket and concession prices are driving away some potential attendees at the margins.
2) The team isn't an especially good one, and that was driven into Washingtonians's heads all off-season by the local media. That's going to have an effect as well.
3) That said, I was at the game yesterday. Perfect baseball weather for a Sunday afternoon game, the grass was green, boys of summer, etc., all that. The folks that stayed away missed a hell of a nice time.

They’re almost guaranteed to finish with the worst attendance in all numbers – total, average and percentage – for a new stadium since Cincinnati opened Great American Ball Park in 2003.

So they're worst....of four? That doesn't say much.

The prices behind the plate are simply too high. They won't sell well even if the Nats put a great team on the field.

Entertainment is one of the first things to get axed when budgets get tight. It's not a surprise that baseball might be the first sport to experience an impact on attendance due to the struggling economy. Nobody was thinking about it when the NFL was in full swing and NBA seats were already sold.

Now it will get presented as a "problem WITH baseball" when in fact it will be more timing than anything else.

But it is also true that baseball could do something about it. Still five months left in the season. Lots of time. It is not mandatory to charge $100 or more for a ticket.

I would have a promotion around the cost of gas. Bring in receipt for a gas purchase and get the equivalent seat in that price range for that cost plus the up to three more for half price. Baseball needs to encourage groups.

So if you had to pay $45 to fill your tank you get a $45 ticket and then up to three more for $22.50. That's a pretty good deal.

Despite the completion of the park, the area surrounding it gave me the impression that everything (park included) was a work in progress. Once Half Street and all that is a "destination," that could help.

The kids all getting out of school should help, too. I've never really read too much into small crowds on weeknights in April.

Part of Washington’s allure, when Major League Baseball planned the move from Montreal, involved the potential fan base. Smart, fanatical and, best of all, with loads of disposable income.

Then Jack Abramoff tried to buy off all of Washington. New lobbying laws soon followed, and now the maximum gift given to a lawmaker cannot exceed $50. Which means all the Presidential tickets – $325 for single-game ones, $335 on Saturday and $400 for the front row, all more than the best seat at Yankee Stadium, which goes for $250 – that should have gone from lobbyist to Congressman to hard-working staffer no longer exist, and the market won’t get any hotter unless the Nationals do, too.

“That’s a factor,” Kasten said. “The economy is a factor. Where we are in our development cycle in our team is a factor. I don’t think (we’re going to lower ticket prices). Not really. It’s not something we’re anticipating.

“It’s clear to me that when we turn the corner as a team, they’ll come.”

And this, more than anything, inspires Kasten’s calmness

In other words, Washington is where Atlanta was in the late eighties. (I could buy that analogy further if Bowden was Schuerholz.)

I would have a promotion around the cost of gas. Bring in receipt for a gas purchase and get the equivalent seat in that price range for that cost plus the up to three more for half price.

Interesting, in a McCain-Clinton pandering sort of way, but what about the fan who doesn't drive? Could a receipt for a large bag of rice result in a similar bonus?

Positives about the new stadium:
1) It sure do look pretty
2) Free bicycle valet
...

Tickets really are too expensive, even the cheap tickets are too expensive given how few of them are. I think prices will have to come down slightly, but I doubt the Nationals are sweating the current attendance.

Terp:

One could then have a night encouraging public transportation. There are lots of options.

I don't understand the need to be insulting. It was merely a suggestion.

If their goal is to maximize revenue (as opposed to raw attendance), then the pricing may be correct. I do understand there are a lot of different ways to drive the gross (start the tickets cheap; get the fans there and in the habit of attending; then raise prices as you get better). But i would bet they are betting off with a half full stadium averaging $75.00 a ticket than a full stadium at $25.00 a ticket (assuming that parking revenue is not going to increase once you get half full, as people use non-baseball venue lots, and that the concession take is not going to be that great).

I don't understand the need to be insulting. It was merely a suggestion.

FWIW, I didn't read any insult into that at all.

There are only 3k parking spots. No one drives to the games anyway.

It really is a nice looking park.

... you'd think that a new franchise would want to build up a fanbase by any means necessary. Offer cheap seats, get a generation of people into the park who will become fans.

One could then have a night encouraging public transportation. There are lots of options.

Apparently, 90+% come via public transportation, which I can only assume includes the shuttle bus they run from their old parking lots at RFK.

Tickets really are too expensive, even the cheap tickets are too expensive given how few of them are.
The upper deck is pretty close to full more often than not. It's not those seats that are the "problem."

.. you'd think that a new franchise would want to build up a fanbase by any means necessary. Offer cheap seats, get a generation of people into the park who will become fans.

Clearly you've forgotten the the glories of Bolshevik Bud's Billionaire Boondoggle. Fans can come to the ballpark or fans can stay home - the owner will get a fat check regardless. Whether you've earned those millions by enticing fans with a worthwhile product, or you're just sitting back and waiting for the enormous welfare check to arrive, at the end of the season you're still rolling in doubloons, Scrooge McDuck-style.

For those who have been to a Nats game - how easy is it to buy a relatively cheap seat but move to a better one in say, the 3rd inning?

Is the "if we build it they will come" idea of a new retro stadium now obsolete, as to attendance? Is it simply that baseball hasn't yet taken off in DC as the club has been performing poorly? Purely speculating here, but I bet if they have a season above .500 where they contend for a while, they'll have a major attendance surge.

For those who have been to a Nats game - how easy is it to buy a relatively cheap seat but move to a better one in say, the 3rd inning?

Depends on the section and the individual usher. There are some, especially those on the 200 level near the scoreboard, who think that they're the last line of defense from Washington being taken over by terrorists.

Opening night, I don't think anyone checked my tickets when I sat near the dugout, and if they were ever going to reallllly check, that'd have been the night.

Your best sneaking opportunities are probably down the lines in foul territory or the 200 section in RF... the back rows there seem half empty and I don't remember much of an usher presence there.

Really, the best thing to do is buy a $5 ticket and either hang around the Red Porch or along the railing in the CF area.

One could then have a night encouraging public transportation. There are lots of options.

I remember Kasten's wife saying on Opening Night that there was no public transportation to the stadium.

#14:

The upper deck is pretty close to full more often than not. It's not those seats that are the "problem."

It's the scarcity of those seats that is the problem in my mind. Obviously people are willing to pay $10 to see a game, even from the distant seats, but there are only what, 6 sections of $10 seats? Then the next jump is $18 and then $24. That is stiff.

In RFK, when the Nats were well out of the running in August the cheap seats dropped to $3 on weeknights, so I bet they drop prices eventually.

Went to the game yesterday and there was a surprisingly good crowd, considering it was the Pirates. But I have two major beefs:

1. According to the ticket agent, the cheapest tickets available for 3 seats in a row were the $27 seats above the scoreboard in right-center. This was despite the fact that huge, huge sections of the upper deck along the 3rd base line were totally vacant. So, basically, unless several hundred season ticket holders have seats in the cheapest section of the ballpark and they all decided not to show up yesterday, the ticket agents were not selling the cheapest seats and were forcing us to pay for more expensive tickets. Is there another explanation?

2. By the second inning they were out of ketchup and fountain lemonade- not "hold on a minute while we refill," but "we ran out." Minor quibble, sure (both were for the ladyfriend), but still- the 2nd inning?

Also, and I know teams refuse to leave money on the table, but it's not like ownership is on the hook for that 600 million and needs to make it back this season, so what's with the high ticket prices? Isn't it more important to build the fan base?

I can't decide where I see more empty seats: at Camden Yards or Nationals Park?

At least in Baltimore there are ~19 home games a year against NYY and BOS.

Washington was a two time loser when it came to baseball franchises. Why is this a surprise?

The attendance dropped in year TWO, a lot more in year three. This is just more of the same.

Washington was a two time loser when it came to baseball franchises.

So was New York.

For those who have been to a Nats game - how easy is it to buy a relatively cheap seat but move to a better one in say, the 3rd inning?

Unfortunately, the really expensive seats that are always empty on television are behind walls, barbed wire, electric fences and automatic weapons. Okay, I was kidding about the barbed wire, electric fences and automatic weapons. There's no way to get to those seats except through the doors of an overpriced restaurant.