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For discussion
I received this email from a listener a while back. We will discuss tonight on Sports Talk.
You can email me: lance@lancemcalister.com
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Lance,
I have been a Reds fan since I was a kid back in the 1960's. (I still have my Jim Maloney autographed bat from one of the bat days)
I lived through the Big Red Machine glory days. I remained a fan, not even abandoning the team during the 61-101 season.
I would attend 10-20 games a year and watch all televised away games back before Sports Channels. Of course, I listened to Al and Joe, and then Marty and Joe on the radio faithfully.
Now, after more than fifty years The Cincinnati Reds have lost me as a fan. I don't watch them, I don't listen to them. I don't even know who most of the players on the team are now.
Here's what the Reds management doesn't get ... I am in my mid sixties, and I AM the Reds fan base. When they lose my generation they have very little left. Just look at the stands ... Mostly empty. I remember going to games and buying SRO tickets. Over 50,000 at a game was not a rare thing back in the 70's.
Now, aside from opening day they can only draw a crowd with free bobbleheads and fireworks.
Today's young crowd is a tough sell. Winning is everything to them, and a team that doesn't win a championship will not sell seats to the younger generation.
Now, they won't sell seats to me. I would think that a club that is so dependent upon the gate would understand that. Like in all businesses one has to spend money to make money. My wife and I joke that Bob Castellini is using the plot from the movie "Major League" as a business model.
This hole that he has dug may be something the franchise cannot climb out of for a long time, if ever.
It's very sad for the oldest franchise to now be a laughing stock.
Steve in Indiana