Say what you want about the frontrunner fans in Philadelphia. That team went through 10, yes 10 consecutive non-winning seasons from 2011-2020, even with Bryce Harper on their roster for 2019 and 2020, and they came back to the ballpark as soon as they signed Harper. Their attendance skyrocketed from 2.158 million to 2.728 million, year over year. They didn’t wait for winning. They were there to support ownership that spent “stupid money” and signed Harper which was really smart money.
The money spent on Harper at a bargain price of only $25.38 million per year was paid off two times over with that attendance increase. That was an increase of nearly 570,000 and that equated to 7,000 more fans for every game that season. The last two years they went over 3 million in attendance.
Do you think the Washington Nationals could sign Juan Soto next week and get an attendance boost of 570,000? Doubtful. Could they even get 400,000 more? Ehhhh, I don’t know. The Nats had Harper along with Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon, and Ryan Zimmerman and other star players, and never sniffed anything close to 3 million in attendance. The Nats had Soto too with all of those names in 2018. The Nats were hosting the All-Star game that season, and could only get to 2,529,604. There were 16 teams this year that beat that attendance — some of them are ranked as small market teams.
The Phillies are swimming in cash. They have a great RSN deal that pays them nearly $60 million more than the Nats, and they crush the Nats at the turnstile.
So while fans on the great social media underground society of (mostly) anonymity can blast Nats ownership, how many fans are cracking open their wallets to support their team? Exactly. There is a group of fans that will scream insults from their computer keyboards but won’t support the team at the turnstile. The Nats attendance tells a factual story that only 1.967 million showed up at Nats Park in 2024. The Phillies beat that number by well over 1 million.
While I do not believe it when people say Washington isn’t a baseball town, the issue is that Nats fans are comprised of too many bandwagon fans. They show up when the team is winning. They show up for Opening Day and events. That isn’t enough. The team and the players want a constant flow of the energy like what they felt when the Yankees were in Nationals Park in August. How do we know that? The players were commenting on the great crowds and atmosphere.
“We’re trying to contend again. It’s going to happen. With this core group, it’s going to happen. We’re heading in the right direction. … The next step is that I don’t want to be close anymore. I want to be there. We’re getting there.”
— Nationals’ manager Dave Martinez said in August
Maybe a lot of the issues with attendance are caused by poor marketing and public relations. That is certainly an issue. On James Wood‘s debut game against the Mets, the attendance was only 26,719. That is pathetic. The only reason it was better for Dylan Crews‘ debut is because it was against the Yankees! Fans were clamoring for their callups, but did they show up for their debuts?
By the way, the term “frontrunner” tagged on the Phillies was said publicly by their own shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, back in 2008.
“They’re frontrunners. When you’re doing good, they’re on your side. When you’re doing bad, they’re completely against you.”
— Rollins said on The Best Damn Sports show
So fine, the Nats’ fans won’t return in numbers until the team is a contender. That seems to be a given. But those are also small market attendance numbers. The lowly Colorado Rockies beat the Nats’ attendance by over 550,000. How? Whatever the Rockies are doing, the Nats need to follow. They lost over 100 games the past two seasons. Their payroll is less than the Nats. What is Colorado doing to get consistent attendance of over 2.5 million?
The bottom line is it is never enough for some fans. Win and they don’t come. Don’t win and they complain. Something has to change in D.C. baseball. There are probably a myriad of issues from crime, to transportation, to the cost of attending games. But baseball is the still the cheapest ticket in town. You can still find seats in Nats Park on most games for under $20. No, that won’t be by the dugout, but baseball is affordable compared to Capitals’ hockey games.
When Soto is figuring out where he wants to go in free agency, can he get the fans back to Nats Park? By the way, I am a season ticket holder for the full season plan and have been a season ticket holder since the start. I put my money where my mouth is.
