I covered the Twins game tonight. It was a good game, and there some great stories to tell about it. But there are other sites that do a much better job of that. What got me was the 21,095 fans in attendance.
Actually, not so much them, but the way they were covered on the radio. Granted the station I listened to has its hands pretty deep in the Twin’s pocket, but I continually heard them harassing the fans that didn’t show up. The local sports media has gotten into a habit of chastising the general public because they don’t come out to baseball games. As if there is something wrong with the market, not the product.
With any other product, if it doesn’t sell, observers don’t jump on the backs of the consumers, as if they are not smart enough to buy into the product. Rather they immediately jump to the conclusion the the product, or its marketing is faulty.
But apparently that can’t be the case with the Twins.
The price of admission can’t be too high.
The lost joy of watching baseball outside on a sunny summer evening can’t be the problem.
The fact that the first 25% of the season went untelevised locally can’t be the problem.
The problem, it appears MUST lie with the ignorant fan base.
All sarcasm aside, if the Twins, and their media partners want to build a better fan base, they had best be working on their marketing and positioning. Chastising your customer base is a sign of a desperate organization