Friday, August 25, 2006
It still sucks
Lynx owner Ray Pecor met with Mayor Chiarelli to reportedly announce his intentions to have the team stay in Ottawa for the 2007 season, while no immediate plans have been made for 2008. But, reading between the lines, all that means is that they are actively searching for a new home for the Ottawa Lynx and next year will likely be the final opportunity to see Triple A baseball in this city.
Attendance is rock bottom in the International League at 1,900 per game. The next lowest attended team gets about 4,000. By coincidence, that's the amount Pecor says the teams needs for the team to break even.
Doesn't seem like such a hard task for a team to stay...be the 2nd last team in the league in attendance and you'll be fine. Truthfully, that still may not be enough, but the history of sports teams and Ottawa isn't anything to be proud of. Ottawa fans seem to be extremely finicky and don't want to come out to support their teams. I'm not sure why that's the case. Even myself, who doesn't follow many other sports other than hockey, take the time to catch the odd baseball game. When lacrosse's Ottawa Rebel were in town and the Ottawa Renegades football team came to the city, I watched a couple of games for the atmosphere and good company, and I enjoyed myself.
Some say it's management, price, location, competitiveness, but the Lynx prove Ottawa isn't a sports town. You can go for less than a price of a movie, it's centrally located, and they have an above .500 record and always have a chance to win.
1,900 per game. Terrible. Ottawa is getting what it deserves.
# posted by SBP : 11:59 PM
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Ben,
The Lynx were once the hottest ticket in town. The place used to sell out frequently. And, in one of their first seasons the Lynx broke the International League attendance record.
But baseball just isn't popular in these parts any more. Some if still stems from the MLB stirke in 1994. It was a real double whammy for the Lynx. First, many fans in Canada turned their backs on baseball. Following two consecutive BLue Jay World Series victories and with Les Expos ruinning away with the National league, baseball muight never have been bigger here. But the strike left lots of hard feelings. Many swore they would never watch another baseball game. The strike also signaled the end of the Expos, who were the Lynx MLB affiliation. During the first few seasons, gther team here was really good and whenever someone got 'called up' it was easy to follow their porgress since the Expos were still big news. Now we're associated with the Baltimore Orioles. Ever watch any Oriole games? Ever see your favorite former Lynx plaeyrs on the highlight reels? Very rarely.
Also at the same time, when Howard Darwin owned the team, no outside food was allowed into the stadium. Instead everyone was forced to pay $5 for a coke. Not such a huge deal until....the Expos came to play an exhibition game in Ottawa. The big star then was a surprise, Henry Rodriguez. He startedhammering homers for teh 'Spos and earned the nickname, Oh Henry! Fans would throw the chocolate bar onto the field when he came to bat. When he came here, thousands and thousands of fans were forced to ditch their 'pre-purchased' chocolate bars befoer entering the stadium. Once inside, tehy were free to buythem from vendors for $3 a pop. This was an incident that left a TON of people ticked off and left a mark this team has never been able to erase.
Since then, little has been done to promote the team. For some reason the Sun and Citizen don't cover the Lynx like they cover other pro sports here. Same goes for the Team. So it's the same old story. You can't just put a team here and expect peope to come.
The Lynx were once the hottest ticket in town. The place used to sell out frequently. And, in one of their first seasons the Lynx broke the International League attendance record.
But baseball just isn't popular in these parts any more. Some if still stems from the MLB stirke in 1994. It was a real double whammy for the Lynx. First, many fans in Canada turned their backs on baseball. Following two consecutive BLue Jay World Series victories and with Les Expos ruinning away with the National league, baseball muight never have been bigger here. But the strike left lots of hard feelings. Many swore they would never watch another baseball game. The strike also signaled the end of the Expos, who were the Lynx MLB affiliation. During the first few seasons, gther team here was really good and whenever someone got 'called up' it was easy to follow their porgress since the Expos were still big news. Now we're associated with the Baltimore Orioles. Ever watch any Oriole games? Ever see your favorite former Lynx plaeyrs on the highlight reels? Very rarely.
Also at the same time, when Howard Darwin owned the team, no outside food was allowed into the stadium. Instead everyone was forced to pay $5 for a coke. Not such a huge deal until....the Expos came to play an exhibition game in Ottawa. The big star then was a surprise, Henry Rodriguez. He startedhammering homers for teh 'Spos and earned the nickname, Oh Henry! Fans would throw the chocolate bar onto the field when he came to bat. When he came here, thousands and thousands of fans were forced to ditch their 'pre-purchased' chocolate bars befoer entering the stadium. Once inside, tehy were free to buythem from vendors for $3 a pop. This was an incident that left a TON of people ticked off and left a mark this team has never been able to erase.
Since then, little has been done to promote the team. For some reason the Sun and Citizen don't cover the Lynx like they cover other pro sports here. Same goes for the Team. So it's the same old story. You can't just put a team here and expect peope to come.
# posted by 
: 2:51 PM, August 28, 2006
: 2:51 PM, August 28, 2006
You make some good points, my man Paulie! (I think). Some markets I suppose don't need any effort, like the NFL's Detroit Lions who have a sucky team year in and year out (I don't even follow football and I know this) but fans still pack the stadium to watch them play. Ottawa needs more cajoling and reason to show up.
The Oh-Henry thing reminds me of the Florida Panthers playoff run when the fans tossed fake rats on the arena after Mellanby hit a real one then scored a couple of goals. Then they banned it. For a market that was screaming for fans, this killed a lot of fun out of it for them.
I guess the Lynx had their run, and Ottawa has a stadium that's fully paid for. Maybe if they resurrect that Canadian Baseball League, Ottawa will get another team. (yeesh).
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The Oh-Henry thing reminds me of the Florida Panthers playoff run when the fans tossed fake rats on the arena after Mellanby hit a real one then scored a couple of goals. Then they banned it. For a market that was screaming for fans, this killed a lot of fun out of it for them.
I guess the Lynx had their run, and Ottawa has a stadium that's fully paid for. Maybe if they resurrect that Canadian Baseball League, Ottawa will get another team. (yeesh).
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