{"id":42626,"date":"2016-08-30T11:54:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=42626"},"modified":"2020-07-23T11:54:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T15:54:19","slug":"the-gwinnett-braves-have-bad-attendance-you-dont-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=42626","title":{"rendered":"The Gwinnett Braves have bad attendance?\u00a0 YOU DON\u2019T SAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

About as easy to predict as rain in Florida<\/a> \u2013 the Gwinnett Braves suffer average attendance drop for the fourth straight year<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes I wonder at what point will people see beyond all the rah-rah rhetoric about how the Atlanta Braves and all their owned affiliates are good for economies, communities and are actually burdens and ballasts to towns that weren\u2019t exactly unanimously ecstatic about their presences?\u00a0 Will a player have to kill someone?\u00a0 I mean, Braves players<\/a> have been busted in various forms of domestic abuse<\/a>, and nobody seems to sour on the organization.\u00a0 The organization has fleeced pretty much every small town<\/a> in which their minor league affiliates exist in, as well as the future home<\/a> of the big club.\u00a0 When will people realize that baseball isn\u2019t just America\u2019s Pasttime, but also a cold, calculated, greedy, money-grubbing business that often acts like a leech on the places they invade?<\/span><\/p>\n

But anyway, about as sure as the sun rises in the morning, the Gwinnett Braves are struggling to draw people to their ballpark.\u00a0 I mean, who would have thought a minor league ballpark that\u2019s barely 60 miles away from the major league parent, with ticket costs equivalent to major league prices and has a staunch no-outside food policy unlike the parent, would suffer weak attendance numbers?\u00a0 I mean, who wouldn\u2019t want to see Sean Kazmar instead of Freddie Freeman, or whenever a superstar visiting player like Clayton Kershaw or Andrew McCutchen comes to Turner Field?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I get it, having the AAA squad within reasonable driving distance allows for the Atlanta Braves to shuttle back and forth auxiliary players at the drop of a hat.\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly a luxury that the New York Mets do not have, as they have to pull players kicking and screaming away from the hookers, booze and blackjack tables of Las Vegas to play in Queens.\u00a0 But at some point, when you do not have a long-term plan, and are actually a little too close for inconvenience, the Gwinnett Braves were bound to suffer.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not impossible for a minor league team to succeed, even in the shadows of the parent club.\u00a0 Look at what Pawtucket is to the Boston Red Sox; they\u2019re located closer to Fenway Park than Gwinnett is to Turner Field, but they\u2019re ever bit of successful and well run than a major league team.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gwinnett Braves claiming that people still associate their location as \u201cThe Atlanta Braves\u201d as justification for dwindling attendance is weak and lacks effort.\u00a0 There are extremely easy ways to boost attendance, even if it means cutting into the bottom line.\u00a0 Sacrificing the bottom line now, to build faith, trust, equity and good will goes a long way into being able to start integrating means into gaining it back later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cut costs.\u00a0 Across the board.\u00a0 The Braves charge to park in just about every single one of their minor league affiliates, except for like, Danville, Virginia.\u00a0 Parking is free at numerous minor league ballparks, and to a person like me, it goes a tremendous distance in being the deciding factor on whether or not I want to go in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cut costs of tickets, concessions and beer.\u00a0 It\u2019s the easiest way to make money<\/em> if suddenly a whole lot of people are paying lower costs for more shit.\u00a0 The Angels did it when Arte Moreno took over the team, and the boost in attendance was instantaneous; and that was just from cutting the cost of beer<\/a>.\u00a0 If people suddenly envision the Gwinnett Braves as the more economical alternative to the Atlanta Braves, they might just show up<\/em>.\u00a0 Think successful phone apps, they make money by giving shit away, but then raking in millions on microtransactions.\u00a0 Nobody is saying sell hot dogs and beers for 99\u00a2, but people would go ecstatic if a Miller Lite were $5 instead of $8.<\/span><\/p>\n

Better promotions.\u00a0 More bobbleheads; and not of their own whisper in the wind minor league guys, but of Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, legends that were Braves that all Braves fans, be it Rome, Mississippi, Richmond or Gwinnett Braves would recognize.\u00a0 More concerts, more theme nights.\u00a0 Bark in the park, and kids days.\u00a0 Getting people to buy a ticket and come through the gates is easy; whether they stay or not is a different story, but irrelevant as long as their money has been pocketed and their ticket has been documented as them having been present at one point.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the big zinger of an idea is truly an outside-the-box thinking for the Braves organization: don\u2019t be the Braves<\/em>.\u00a0 One of the best things about minor league baseball are the occasional cheese-ball names that some teams are.\u00a0 The Akron Rubber Ducks. The Daytona Tortugas.\u00a0 The El Paso Chihuahuas.\u00a0 Iron Pigs, Fisher Cats, Blue Wahoos and Dust Devils.\u00a0 Chintzy, tacky names, that are either derived from very local heritage, or occasionally fan input; but the bottom line is that whether it\u2019s paying homage, or being debated by local residents, it\u2019s engaging those who live in the community, instead of The Braves Way <\/em>of declaring it, taxing it, and building it, with no regard to the lives they might affect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHey what are you doing tonight?\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cGoing to a Braves game.\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cYou sure you want to drive in that traffic getting downtown?\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cGoing to <\/span><\/em>Gwinnett <\/strong><\/span>Braves game.\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201c\u2026You sure you want to drive in that traffic getting to Lawrenceville\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Imagine if Gwinnett changed their names to like the Gwinnett Beavers<\/strong>.\u00a0 Their mascot is already a giant beaver, Chopper<\/a>, and it\u2019s derived from supposedly Beaver Ruin Creek.\u00a0 No, this post did not originate from me wanting to suggest that the Braves should become the Beavers in the absence of the Portland Beavers, or to just use the word beaver like a 14-year old, but seriously, I think it\u2019s a good idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHey what are you doing tonight?\u201d
\n<\/span>\u201cGoing to a Beavers game.\u201d
\n<\/span>\u201cOh shit, it\u2019s Thirsty Thursday, dollar beer night.\u00a0 I\u2019m coming too.\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cYou hate traffic to Lawrenceville.\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cDollar beer, cheap tix, and I can go for a hot dog or four.\u201d<\/span><\/em>
\n\u201cOkay, let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The interesting thing about all these ideas are that they\u2019re completely independent from the actual point of a minor league team, to watch baseball.\u00a0 Ironically, the Gwinnett Braves are actually rich in talent this season, but as is often the case with Braves teams, they still suck, because there\u2019s a whole bunch of talented individuals, but blow as a functional team.\u00a0 Winning games doesn\u2019t always equate to good attendance in minor leagues, and as the Atlanta Braves and the Tampa Bay Rays know, it doesn\u2019t always equate to good attendance in the Majors too.<\/span><\/p>\n

These principles don\u2019t apply solely to the minor leagues, but in the case of the Gwinnett Braves, it would be a great opportunity for the organization to test good ideas like this out, and find out how to apply them across the board.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019ll help improve attendance everywhere.\u00a0 But the Gwinnett Braves making all these bullshit excuses about dwindling attendance is full of shit, and their failures are solely because they\u2019re lazy and stupid.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About as easy to predict as rain in Florida \u2013 the Gwinnett Braves suffer average attendance drop for the fourth straight year Sometimes I wonder at what point will people see beyond all the rah-rah rhetoric about how the Atlanta Braves and all their owned affiliates are good for economies, communities and are actually burdens … Continue reading The Gwinnett Braves have bad attendance?\u00a0 YOU DON\u2019T SAY<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,97,131,66,79,56,64],"class_list":["post-42626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-booze","tag-branding","tag-braves","tag-cashmoney","tag-food","tag-minor-leagues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42628,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42626\/revisions\/42628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}