Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't think the Pats comparison to the Boston or Pawtucket Red Sox is valid for attendance. The Patriots play EIGHT home games a season which are almost always on Sunday afternoons (a non working day for most). The Boston Red Sox play 81 home games played on both weekends and weeknights. The PawSox play 72 home games on both weekends and weeknights.
Though baseball is certainly declining in popularity, the paradox is that it's actually more profitable than ever. Far from declining as a business nationwide, baseball in general is booming. I suppose it's successfully transitioning to be a niche product.
Totally off topic, but as a baseball fan who used to be a huge baseball fan -- I don't think I missed a single inning of a single Mets game in 1990, the height of my fandom -- I never really quite got the increasing popularity of football. It doesn't have the non-stop action of basketball or hockey, the play is often hard to follow, the masked players seem hard to connect with. Funny thing is that this seems like it should be baseball's time -- the most individualistic of major American team sports for the most individualistic of times.
Agreed. Soccer is chipping into baseball's popularity as well. Sandsonik posted a little while back that they used to go to Pawsox games lot but now are Revs season ticket holders. A lot of people I know are in the same boat. Soccer is becoming more popular than baseball among kids. It's not surprising since the action really is non-stop even though scoring is less. Still baseball is doing great business.
I'm a big baseball fan. Still. Sox over Patriots for me any day (and I love the Pats). I agree with your take that the football "action" is clunky. Nothing worse than the dreaded Score-Commercial-Kickoff-Commercial-1st Down combo. 10 minutes for 25 seconds worth of game time. There's actually 100 commercials vs. 11 minutes of action on average. Still, it's once a week. It's a spectacle, and I enjoy it. I love baseball for the chess match aspects and football for the same reasons.
Hockey I don't care about until playoffs. Nothing is better than playoff hockey. Regular season? Meh. Basketball means nothing to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MMS02760
I don't think the Pats comparison to the Boston or Pawtucket Red Sox is valid for attendance. The Patriots play EIGHT home games a season which are almost always on Sunday afternoons (a non working day for most). The Boston Red Sox play 81 home games played on both weekends and weeknights. The PawSox play 72 home games on both weekends and weeknights.
You're right, this is the huge difference. It's like going to a Sunday bbq vs. ordering takeout for dinner. One is certainly more of an event you plan your day around, the other is just part of the day. I actually like the regularity of Sox games during the warmer months. I like it on the radio when I'm at the beach or on TV at home in the evening. It's tough to actually get to the majority of them though. I do plan Sunday afternoons around football. If I had tickets and felt like dealing with the traffic, it wouldn't be tough to get to Gillette 8 times per year though. Of course the home games are going to be more of a draw when there are 8 (10 including preseason) and maybe a few playoff games (we're lucky enough to almost bank on those too).
Agreed. Soccer is chipping into baseball's popularity as well. Sandsonik posted a little while back that they used to go to Pawsox games lot but now are Revs season ticket holders. A lot of people I know are in the same boat. Soccer is becoming more popular than baseball among kids. It's not surprising since the action really is non-stop even though scoring is less. Still baseball is doing great business.
I'm a big baseball fan. Still. Sox over Patriots for me any day (and I love the Pats). I agree with your take that the football "action" is clunky. Nothing worse than the dreaded Score-Commercial-Kickoff-Commercial-1st Down combo. 10 minutes for 25 seconds worth of game time. There's actually 100 commercials vs. 11 minutes of action on average. Still, it's once a week. It's a spectacle, and I enjoy it. I love baseball for the chess match aspects and football for the same reasons.
Hockey I don't care about until playoffs. Nothing is better than playoff hockey. Regular season? Meh. Basketball means nothing to me.
You're right, this is the huge difference. It's like going to a Sunday bbq vs. ordering takeout for dinner. One is certainly more of an event you plan your day around, the other is just part of the day. I actually like the regularity of Sox games during the warmer months. I like it on the radio when I'm at the beach or on TV at home in the evening. It's tough to actually get to the majority of them though. I do plan Sunday afternoons around football. If I had tickets and felt like dealing with the traffic, it wouldn't be tough to get to Gillette 8 times per year though. Of course the home games are going to be more of a draw when there are 8 (10 including preseason) and maybe a few playoff games (we're lucky enough to almost bank on those too).
I grew up a Red Sox fan. I was at the last game of the 1967 season as a little kid when the Sox clinched the AL pennant. I stopped going to Fenway when the suits and pink hats took the place over around 2000. I still watch the occasional NESN broadcast and I look at daily box scores but the Red Sox are no longer part of the rhythm of my life.
I get to Gillette occasionally to catch a Patriots game when one of my season ticket holder friends has a spare ticket. It's usually a December "who cares" game. I'd much rather watch on TV. The tailgating is fun but the actual game with all the TV timeouts is much better at home on my plasma panel in my living room with a bunch of friends. I'm one of those Revs season ticket people. $330 including up-close parking. No traffic jam. A tailgate dinner with friends followed by 2 hours in Gillette with a 5th row seat at the corner kick flag with constant action. The PawSox really can't compete with that at their current location. If the Red Sox had built a modern baseball stadium on their own dime in downtown Providence on that 195 land, I'd go to some games.
Interesting development in CT that I had not been aware of. New Britain, which just saw its longtime AA team move to the new ballpark under construction in Hartford, will get a new team (at a lower level of baseball). Both of these teams will now compete for fan attention in the same market which is not ideal.
I wonder if Pawtucket will go this route should the PawSox move. How would the Providence Red Sox be affected if there was another baseball option just a few short miles away?
New Britain conditionally lands new pro baseball team
If anyone knows Worcester, they would be amused given what they would see in the video.
First off, the site they propose for the stadium as shown in the video is the 14 acre former site of Wyman-Gordon on Madison Street which has several issues. The area is near Kelley Square (road design interchange nightmare) and the canal district by Route 290. Wyman-Gordon was a drop forge press that made precision castings for the aerospace industry on the land for 100+ years. It vacated this area over 15 years ago. The site would need extensive and costly remediation work and was described by Worcester City Councilor Gary Rosen as “a terrible eyesore, a hazardous waste cesspool." An EPA report for the long time heavy manufacturing site indicated that contaminants of concern include volatile organic compounds (i.e. chlorinated solvents), PCB's and petroleum solvents.
The other amusing aspect of the video were the shots of the picturesque canal. This canal does not presently exist. The area once was the northern terminus of the Blackstone River Canal. The waterway however was completely covered for its entire length in downtown Worcester over 100 years ago. The canal shown in the video is actually the location of Water and Harding Streets which presently have cars driving down them along with building entrances and businesses fronting these congested roads. While it has long been local urban planners dream to once again expose the waterway, it would be a monumental and extremely costly endeavor.
This video would be laughable to anyone that knows Worcester given all that would be required to make it reality.
Read between the lines. No other city was willing to throw tons of money at them and build them a new ballpark. Of course Pawtucket is now in the mix. Every city in the USA is probably in the mix as well. Larry is just using them all as leverage against one another in the Lucchino version of LET'S MAKE A DEAL. He is the modern day Monte Hall.
Although Grebien said McCoy is the best location for the team, the mayor said a few other Pawtucket locations could accommodate a stadium. One discussed as a possible alternate site has been the Apex building at 100 Main St., and surrounding land, an area the city has worked to develop for years.
Asked about the Apex site, Grebien said he hasn't talked with the owner, nor has the city dug into studying any alternative site because its focus remains on McCoy.
If the team were to insist on building a new stadium, Grebien said he'd consider whether there's room to build near McCoy — or elsewhere in the city — as games continue at McCoy during construction. But those, he said, are conversations to have with Lucchino, whom he stressed is "a great businessman" whose forte is building stadiums.
I do hope the mayor can manage to get the ownership on board with a rehab of McCoy, and one that won't cost the $65M tag they've put on it. When I was there this summer, it was hard to see how they could need that kind of investment. It's a nice stadium as is. There are some things I might tune up with solid economic justification, but it is a fine venue now and a great place to take in a game.
I presume the mayor is keeping all options on the table to keep the team in Pawtucket, but when he pays lip service to building another stadium <<as long as it is in Pawtucket>>, it smacks of desperation. A significant victory was had when the deal to relocate the team to Providence was declared dead. By publicly entertaining the idea of building a new stadium in Pawtucket, I think he gave back part of the hard won battle.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
