Worst pro sports market in the country (regardless of the team's performance)

[pstokely]

Atlanta- too many transplants, Braves had trouble selling out playoff games, natives more concerned about college and high school sports
2nd place goes to Phoenix- too many transplants there also, Cardinals wouldn't get any better attendance if they didn't consistently suck, D-Backs had trouble selling out playoff games

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. Miami

1. More transplants than Atlanta
2. Big mix of cultures with nothing in common, sportswise
3. About a million other things to do
4. They are major frontrunners/bandwagon jumpers
5. The Marlins and the Devil Rays need to swap leagues (so Tampa can get the Cards and the Cubs, and SoFla can get the Orioles, Red Sox, and Yankees)

[pstokely]

2. Are there more Chicago and Stl transplants in Tampa?

Can the Dolphins sell out when the Jets come?

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. The west coast is still pretty Midwestern

and the Southeast coast is still pretty much NY, NJ, MD, PA.

The Fins sell out the Jets most years, although often there are a fair number of New York fans in the crowd.

Back in the day, the Marlins did good box vs. the Braves, but now it's pretty much the Mets and the Yankees in interleague.

[LeftyMom]

3. Oakland. Raider Nation is a rogue state and the UN should intervene before anybody else dies.

They's big into the brawls and dogpiling people and shit. Also, there's supposedly a football game there. ;)

Plus more people get shanked at the average Raider game than in most prison riots.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Tampa-St. Petersburg

The Rays averaged 30,942 per home date in 1998, their first season, 21,601 in 1999, and they haven't been over 20,000 since and were under 15,000 in three of those years.

What went wrong?

Then again, the Bucs are consistently at or near sellout. :shrug:

[LeftyMom]

6. To quote a wise man

"Nobody in their right mind is going to pay $35 or whatever the fuck it is now to sit in hundred degree heat, drink shitty eight dollar beer and watch them suck."

That's a bit of a paraphrase, but I have a pretty good memory so it should be fairly accurate.

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. Is that from '92?

Man, that was close.

[LeftyMom]

18. No, the fella ranting in his car while we were going to the grocery store.

I think he was mostly offended by the idea of paying good money for bad beer.

[Oeditpus Rex]

24. Ah

Thought you were talkin' about when Lurie was This Close to selling 'em to some Florida fucks.

[LeftyMom]

28. Nah, if I want to start ranting about owners, the phrases "Maloof brothers" and "can kiss my ass"

will be featured prominently. :D

They're still angling for a new stadium, and they still owe money for the last one (and aren't keeping it up for shit.) Greedy fucks.

[Oeditpus Rex]

29. They're from Albuquerque

:shrug:

[enigmatic]

7. They were a AAA team posing as an MLB team

The 1998-2003 stretch of their history was as bad as the 1970-74 Indians and the 1976-79 A's for incompetent ownership (yeah, Charley Finley was a doofus, even w/ the early 70's A's) and idiotic GM-Player moves in MLB recent history..

[Reverend_Smitty]

9. What went wrong, eh?

They're the F'ing Devil Rays...I think that pretty much sums up why they are having attendance woes lol. That and they play in the fugliest stadium known to man, it has all the charm of an industrial warehouse

[Chovexani]

12. LOL

Back when I still got the YES network, whenever the Yankees would play TB in Florida the stands were EMPTY...except for people in pinstripes.

Never failed to crack me up.

[Reverend_Smitty]

13. it is pretty funny/sad...

when the visiting team draws more fans than the home team. I notice this when the Mets go down to Miami to play the Marlins as well

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. I can't imagine why the Fish don't draw

I mean, my goodness — they even have cheerleaders. :shrug:

[Reverend_Smitty]

19. maybe that's why they don't draw...

the baseball gods are smiting them for having cheerleaders...sacrilegious I say! Save that smut for football!


That or their ownership sucks the big one. Who can be sure :shrug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

22. I think they're just being punished for being in Florida

They oughta be kicked out of baseball for that cheerleader shit, though. Sacrilege, indeed. :grr:

[Reverend_Smitty]

25. It's too damn hot to play baseball in Florida past April 1 IMHO

:P

[Oeditpus Rex]

27. 'It's not the heat, it's the humidity'

I keep waiting for a fly ball at Crapitrona to hit a mosquito and explode.

[Reverend_Smitty]

31. very true...

I lived in Florida for a few years when I was a kid, and there ain't nothin worse than Florida humidity. If we weren't right on the beach to provide a bit of relief, I don't think I would have made it to my 13th birthday

[Oeditpus Rex]

33. My ex told me about the skeeters

She lived in Titusville, on the "Space Coast," before she moved to Kollyforniya. Said the mosquito was the state bird. :D

[Reverend_Smitty]

34. Fortunately on the beach they weren't so bad...

but the flying cockroaches known as Palmetto Bugs...well lets just say they are something that I will never get used to

[Oeditpus Rex]

35. Hey, jumping back to Uecker

Did you ever hear him call a real game? He's awful.

The Dodgers opened on the road last year in Milwaukee, and on XM Radio you get the home club's broadcast, so I had to listen to him. He works alone, uses every cliché known to man, repeats himself over and over and has about .01 percent of the personality he had in "Major League."

[Reverend_Smitty]

36. I've never heard him before

I do like listening to other announcers now and then. I think the Mets have a pretty professional broadcasting team but it shocks me to hear how some teams (particularly midwestern teams) have such "homer" announcers

[Oeditpus Rex]

37. I let that slide with the Cubs

Because, hell — Santo's probably got teddy bear-shaped corpuscles.

But, yeah, some of 'em are pretty bad, and it's not just in the Midwest. I HATE listening to San Diego games because of... what's his name? Leitner? HEEbus, that fucker's a SHAMEless homer, and he never. shuts. up.

The best broadcast team in baseball, for my money, is in San Francisco. Krukow and Kuiper and Jon Miller and the kid, David B. Flemming, are a big part of the reason I listen to Giants games.

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. Aw, c'mon — it's got some charm

Where "charm" means "Looks like Godzilla horked up the Astrodome and then sat on it."







Inside, though, it's quite suitable — for a monster truck race.

[Reverend_Smitty]

16. they weren't even trying when they built it...

I mean c'mon the Bucs have a friggen pirate ship in their stadium!

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Meh

The Giants have a Big-Ass Coke Bottle (with a slide inside) and a Big-Ass Glove (that I want to sit in). :P

[Reverend_Smitty]

23. I've always wanted to go down Bernie Brewer's slide

[Oeditpus Rex]

26. Holy shit!

Is that Uecker's seat? :D

[Reverend_Smitty]

30. lol...y'know I wouldn't be surprised if it was

:P

[Oeditpus Rex]

32. 'Oops, I must be in the front roOOOOOWWWWWWWW!'

:rofl:

[LeftyMom]

15. THIS is the fugliest stadium known to man

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/past/CandlestickPark.htm

Pictures don't properly express it's fugliness. It looks like a huge concrete ashtray, it's thirty something years old and still half the parking lot is unpaved, nothing has been updated in fifteen years or so (if you have to run and get a beer, good luck seeing the play on the councourse's 13" CRT tvs,) surrounded by a neighborhood that is a bit reminiscent of postapocalyptic fiction, only more depressing.

The Niners still play there, and the Giants have since moved into possibly the nicest park in baseball.

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. Candlestink?

Hey, it was hella cool in 1965. :D

[enigmatic]

8. Atlanta is a terrible major sports market

I'll second that..

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. When the Braves can't sell out a playoff game...

they automatically lose their right to be called a sports city. It's not even a question with Atlanta