Blair Lovern Staff

That's not true, lakewooder. Between 1994-2001, the Rangers were either 3rd or 4th or 5th in attendance in the AL. From 2002-2006 they were either 6th or 7th - but that is still the top half of the league when they've had nothing but mediocre teams.

On the other hand, Oakland, which allegedly has good teams each year, consistently ranks near the bottom every year in AL attendance and that stadium is in the middle of a bunch of people.

Baltimore was 10th in the AL in attendance in 2006. That's unheard of in that city.

Location may keep some marginal people away here and there, but it's not the main impediment.

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Mike Orren Staff

Sweet, sweet vindication.

Longtime readers know that I had a real bugaboo about calling the ballpark by the name of the mortgage company:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/blogs/pega...

Also, most folks who know me know that I try to lead by consensus. But this was one issue on which I was intractable. Our staff even held a demi-intervention a couple months back to try to get me to agree to change the name of the venue in our system because they thought it was confusing to users and harmful to search engine rankings on our ballpark page:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/places/the...

I'm generally a reasonable guy who will back down on a point like this in the face of insurmountable logic and opposition. But not in this case. The only budge I gave was in adding this cheat to our search for "Ameriquest" or "Texas Rangers" (pictured below)

The only logical argument I had beyond "that's the way I want it" was that the Ameriquest sponsorship would surely fall apart before the season started. And it has.

So I'm drawing the line in the sand now. We will not alter our pages in the future to note the Viagra-Rogaine Bowl or whatever they call it next.

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Blair Lovern Staff

I don't have the Rangers media guide near me to look up biggest crowds in Arlington. Last sellout? I have no clue, maybe just opening day, some Yankee games. Baseball teams, on the whole, rarely sellout like the NBA or NHL. Add 25,000 more seats to the AAC and see how many sellouts you have.

The Mavs played for the NBA championship last year, the Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. They don't hover at the bottom of the standings, that's why people pay money to see them. It's got nothing to do where the arena is.

The Rangers finished second-to-last or last in the AL West for the past seven consecutive years. Yet they continue to beat more than half the league in attendance. Thousands more people go to Rangers home games than Oakland home games, and like I said, Oakland is allegedly good. But their stadium is a joke.

Is it a coincidence that the three of the four highest season attendance marks in Arlington were when the Rangers made the playoffs? It might have been four out of five if the 1994 season wasn't truncated. And that lone, high attendance season came in 1997, in between division titles.

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )