There are just some cities that shouldn't have certain sports teams. Sometimes the markets are just too small (I'm sorry New Orleans but you couldn't hold two teams BEFORE Katrina), sometimes the sports are just not relevant in the city(HALF of the NHL teams to fall into this category), and then other times you have a fan base that is just completely and utterly indifferent to sports in general. I am talking about the Phoenix/Arizona/Scottsdale fans.
This is a city with FOUR professional sports teams, and I am here to tell you that four is too many for the state of Arizona to handle.
Oh sure, you can look at the latest Census and find out that Phoenix is the fifth most populated city in America. That's all fine and dandy, but then why does nobody care about the Cardinals, know about the Coyotes (I swear I don't think half of the Arizona population knows what ice is), or watch the Diamondbacks? I'll tell you why. It's because a high percentage of the people in that area are NOT originally from Arizona, and therefore would apparently rather stay home and watch Grey's Anatomy, or The Office tonight instead of watching their Diamondbacks play in the NLCS.
Don't believe me, then why is it that as of this morning there were still 4,000 unsold tickets to game one of the NLCS, and that game is TONIGHT? Any city who even wanted to pretend they cared about their team would have sold out this game. The Diamondbacks themselves must know what kind of nonchalant city the reside in, because they even kept the bleacher seats at nine dollars. And I kid you not, some of these tickets as of this morning, the day of the NLCS game 1, remained UNSOLD. What? NINE DOLLARS FOR BLEACHER SEATS TO THE NLCS AND YOU CANT EVEN GET THAT SECTION TO SELL OUT?! Are you kidding me? In Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston or Baltimore those tickets would have been gone in minutes. All of those cities are SMALLER than Phoenix and oh yeah with the exception of Baltimore, they all have four pro sports teams as well (DC is so close, I'll give the "charm city" a pass).
This is not the first time this happened. In 2001 when the Diamondbacks won the World Series, the ONLY games that sold out were in the World Series, and that was because they played the Yankees. Last series it seemed like over half the sold out ballpark were Cubs fans. MLB better hope the Bo Sox pull it out versus Cleveland in the ALCS, because if they don't, I can't imagine Cleveland fans traveling as well as Cubs/Yankees/Red Sox fans, and then MLB would be in for a real embarrassment when their World Series games aren't sold out and the Stadium shots on Fox look like one of the spring training games played in the area.
It's not baseball's fault if the series doesn't sell out, but it is baseball's fault for giving Arizona a team in the first place. Even those who are Arizona "lifers" may not necessarily like the Diamondbacks, because half of baseball plays spring training in Arizona and up until 10 years ago THOSE were the teams that took the state's heart.
As far as I'm concerned, let Phoenix keep the Suns, and even the Cardinals(they just built a new stadium and the NFL draws fans, EVEN the Cardinals) and get rid of the other two. I'm sure people in Arizona love baseball, they just apparently don't love the Diamondbacks, so move them somewhere else (how about San Antonio, which speaking of city sizes is now seventh in the United States-BY FAR the largest market with one team). Send the Coyotes back to Canada (now that there's a salary cap more Canadian cities should have and be able to afford teams), and go on cheering for your Suns, Cardinals and whoever the hell you root for in baseball, because as far as I'm concerned not supporting a local team when they are in the NLCS and you can get a nine dollar ticket to watch them means you don't deserve to have that team.
This is a city with FOUR professional sports teams, and I am here to tell you that four is too many for the state of Arizona to handle.
Oh sure, you can look at the latest Census and find out that Phoenix is the fifth most populated city in America. That's all fine and dandy, but then why does nobody care about the Cardinals, know about the Coyotes (I swear I don't think half of the Arizona population knows what ice is), or watch the Diamondbacks? I'll tell you why. It's because a high percentage of the people in that area are NOT originally from Arizona, and therefore would apparently rather stay home and watch Grey's Anatomy, or The Office tonight instead of watching their Diamondbacks play in the NLCS.
Don't believe me, then why is it that as of this morning there were still 4,000 unsold tickets to game one of the NLCS, and that game is TONIGHT? Any city who even wanted to pretend they cared about their team would have sold out this game. The Diamondbacks themselves must know what kind of nonchalant city the reside in, because they even kept the bleacher seats at nine dollars. And I kid you not, some of these tickets as of this morning, the day of the NLCS game 1, remained UNSOLD. What? NINE DOLLARS FOR BLEACHER SEATS TO THE NLCS AND YOU CANT EVEN GET THAT SECTION TO SELL OUT?! Are you kidding me? In Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston or Baltimore those tickets would have been gone in minutes. All of those cities are SMALLER than Phoenix and oh yeah with the exception of Baltimore, they all have four pro sports teams as well (DC is so close, I'll give the "charm city" a pass).
This is not the first time this happened. In 2001 when the Diamondbacks won the World Series, the ONLY games that sold out were in the World Series, and that was because they played the Yankees. Last series it seemed like over half the sold out ballpark were Cubs fans. MLB better hope the Bo Sox pull it out versus Cleveland in the ALCS, because if they don't, I can't imagine Cleveland fans traveling as well as Cubs/Yankees/Red Sox fans, and then MLB would be in for a real embarrassment when their World Series games aren't sold out and the Stadium shots on Fox look like one of the spring training games played in the area.
It's not baseball's fault if the series doesn't sell out, but it is baseball's fault for giving Arizona a team in the first place. Even those who are Arizona "lifers" may not necessarily like the Diamondbacks, because half of baseball plays spring training in Arizona and up until 10 years ago THOSE were the teams that took the state's heart.
As far as I'm concerned, let Phoenix keep the Suns, and even the Cardinals(they just built a new stadium and the NFL draws fans, EVEN the Cardinals) and get rid of the other two. I'm sure people in Arizona love baseball, they just apparently don't love the Diamondbacks, so move them somewhere else (how about San Antonio, which speaking of city sizes is now seventh in the United States-BY FAR the largest market with one team). Send the Coyotes back to Canada (now that there's a salary cap more Canadian cities should have and be able to afford teams), and go on cheering for your Suns, Cardinals and whoever the hell you root for in baseball, because as far as I'm concerned not supporting a local team when they are in the NLCS and you can get a nine dollar ticket to watch them means you don't deserve to have that team.
No comments:
Post a Comment