Suppose They Held Opening Day - And Only 80% Of Capacity Came?  By Bob Bryant - April 12 , 2006

I had the pleasure of attending the Nationals' second Opening Day with DavidL yesterday, on a glorious day for baseball.

Well, at least it was - if you weren't a Nats fan.

One was actually at the game.

It was great to see fans hurriedly making their way to their seats in a sold-out stadium, lustily cheering their heroes, welcoming them home in yet another rite of Spring only a few weeks after the blooming of the cherry blossoms. There was an air of anticipation; every intake of breath was infused with the pixie dust of expectation, of rebirth, of baseball.

Oh, sorry - I got carried away for a moment; that was what I expected to see. Instead, I think I can sum up the day in one of those pictures that is better left uncaptioned, since it truly serves as something better than any thousand words can recapture:

Nats fans didn't have much to cheer or jeer yesterday, that's for certain. The biggest ovations early on were for Frank Robinson and Placido Domingo's rendition of the National Anthem, the biggest boos for Pedro Martinez and Vice-president Dick Chaney. (Quite the diverse foursome there.)

So what to make of this display of mass ennui, the 5000 unsold tickets, the 10000 empty seats?

There are those who would tell you that the lack of an owner is a big part of the problem. I'm not sure about that one...do fans turn out in droves for a suit? I suppose the reasoning there is that if the team were being more heavily marketed and some money was spent on free agents, the team would generate more interest. But one might ask how much 'marketing' Opening Day, a second-year team in a market that has 'cried for baseball', and a team that played .500 ball against all odds a season ago, requires. And since the Nats' payroll isn't at the bottom, but just slightly below the middle, how much impact was one top-tier free agent going to make on this club, even if the Nats could even attract such an animal?

There are those would would tell you that the TV deal is the problem. Joe and Josie Fan can only see the Nats on TV 20 times, instead of 150. This is certainly a setback, but it didn't kill the attendance last year. Still, I have a solution for all the cable-enslaved fans who want to see the Nats: DirecTV. Just switch, already! It costs the same, for heaven's sake. So quit yer bellyaching and call them up! MASN awaits!

Sure, it takes a long time to build a fan base. No argument there. Knowledge of the Inside Game doesn't come easy, and therein lay some of fan frenzy to be found in other places, yes, even in Loser Baltimore. (David and I both noted the several fans within earshot who were loudly calling for Russ Ortiz to be removed when someone had just gotten up in the Nats' bullpen.)

And then, there is RFK. The 'cellphonies' who had grown accustomed to the wide concourses and advanced amenities of Camden Yards are faced with more primitive conditions at their DC digs. Perhaps they are going to stay home, too embarrassed to have choices limited to chicken fingers, hot dogs, and Italian sausage. Even more horrible for many of them, we suppose, is that there is nothing much to do there other than - watch the ballgame!

So, there is a lot to overcome for Nats' fans, to be sure. And many of them have answered the bell, following their team with zeal and something that will one day blossom into genuine affection, like blind Vernon, who traveled to yesterday's game by himself via bus because he wanted to be at an Opening Day. He and I and later David spent a lovely thirty minutes talking baseball outside the stadium as I waited for David. I'm truly glad for those fans that they have a team to root for of their own, though I wish they had been more willing to have one team in the Major Metro Area to root for instead, like Baltimore basketball and hockey and college basketball fans that all root for DC area teams. But, what's done is done.

There are obviously a lot of Washington Nats fans, to be sure. But yesterday, there were a lot of empty seats, and an atmosphere that felt more like an exhibition rather than Opening Day - and the smallest game attendance of any of the five Nats games I've attended.

The Nats say they expect attendance to be 'down slightly' to 2.6M from last season's 2.7M.

Unless the Nats have another 'Why Not?, Junior' season like last year, color me doubtful.