Cleveland’s a decent comp for us in terms of 2007, but it really begins to fall apart by 2008. They lost Hafner & Victor Martinez very early and were well out of contention before the ASG – a wasted season. Contrast the hard charging 08 Dbacks plus Daren Hanny, coming off the NLDS, in first place for 5 months, numerically close the whole way. Market considerations aside (ie fireworks, weather,pricing,etc), we should’ve drawn more than the 2008 Indians – or the Rockies – whose competitive relevance was much shorter than ours – and strikingly similar to one another. My question to Mr Kendrick stands, “You’ve run the team for four years, been in first place for the better part of the last two. Winning, at gosh darn incredibly low prices, was supposed to fix everything. Where are the fans, exactly?”

The futility of these teams in the Colangelo era certainly helped the Diamondbacks, because they were no real competition for the sports fans dollar in Phoenix.

Nice try. The Suns have played better recently, but the relevant issue is that their attendance hasnt changed in any significant way – in fact the Suns actually drew more in 1998-1999 than since Kendrick took over. The Cardinals are drawing, but suggesting they’ve siphoned off baseball fans from Chase is like me insisting rising theatre prices have paved the way for hordes of film buffs to buy Dback tickets instead, or that the relative invisibility of the NHL has opened the door for Derrick Hall. It’s probably true in isolated cases, but these are fairly distinct entertainments, with distinct (not mutually exclusive) fan bases – clearly none of them are as affected by the fortunes or failures of each other as by the set of their own sails.

[ It was the early sniping about Colangelo and Backman that made fans ask, “Sheesh, who are these owners and do I really want to support them?” ]
Yes – if by "fans" you mean you, azphan and… Well, that’s about it: I really don’t think the vast majority of the fans could even tell you who owns the Diamondbacks, let alone harbors any kind of long-term grudge against them.

I didnt say the “the vast majority” of fans harbored a long term grudge against Kendrick. I said there was a critical mass that decided not to come to games, and rather diplomatically (I thought) volunteered that some of that waning utility originated in, and stems from, the Colangelo era. But if I dare suggest that the second regime even share responsibility for this franchise’s four consecutive lowest gates – all under their watch – I’m met with familiar resistance, reducing factually lower attendance and documented customer dissatisfaction down to, who, me and azphan? I implore you to keep it real, sir.

Beyond attendance, thousands of unique respondants, on azcentral and ESPN, have echoed similar themes of dissatisfaction for three years, any time they get a chance to be heard over Derrick Hall’s well oiled propaganda machine. Too expensive. Not a good value. Dont care for the new ownership or ballpark atmosphere. Did I mention “too expensive”? Virtually nothing about the Coyotes, I can assure you. Your reflexive response? They’re all whiners. Agitators. Not real fans. . They are, as you say, “insignificant” in number. Probably never even went to games. Well, somebody isnt going to games anymore, Jim, despite the winning, not for lack of same. Somebodies who used to go to games without baseball’s so-called “lowest prices”, arent going to games anymore with baseball’s so called “lowest” prices. Thousands of somebodies per game, hundreds of thousands of somebodies per season.

Either that, or it’s all a nefarious plot, hatched by me and azphan, to fool jam packed Real America, with our internets :-)

We already demolished the myth of 2004’s attendance.

Demolished? Gosh, I missed that. If Jerry’s 2.5 million fans were “mythical”, what do you call Kendrick’s draws? Grim fables of prudent profitability? Fairy stories of “Once Upon a Time”?

Given the current owners took over a team that was the laughing-stock of the baseball, and with no financial leeway for improvement, thanks to a quarter-billion dollar of deferred debt…

More exaggerations. They took over a structurally flawed team that was also decimated by injuries and supported by one of MLB’s most asset-rich farms. No financial leeway for improvement? That must explain the free agent purchases of Troy Glaus, Russ Ortiz and Royce Clayton, the enormous financial wherewithall required to retain Dan Uggla, etc. And that’s just 2005. Kendrick’s “quarter-billion dollar boilerplate” is interesting too, considering that, according to him, they’ve been paying off just 30M per year – yet only owe 50M. But what’s a hundred billion dollars between friends, especially after “debt ridden” KK added his own deferred contracts onto the pile?

I think turning things around to a division championship last season and three years of sustained growth in attendance is a very laudable achievement. I guess it all depends on perspective –

I guess it does, I agree with you there. I should point out it’s possible the new owners could have done worse. They could have finished last every year (altho even that might take some doing in the NLW) and charged Yankee Stadium prices to six thousand desert diehards. Further, I actually believe our underlying core is steadily, if slowly, progressing, and am probably more bullish than many of your readers on that. It’s an accomplishment, however, tempered a good deal by really awful competition. I’ll consider it a more worthy accomplishment when they’re no longer one of the ten to twelve worst teams in baseball.

I’ll also acknowledge some of the FO’s gimmicks as improving their value proposition to fans, but must in good conscience stop well short of calling overall attendance strategy “laudable”. In fact, this FO’s inability to cajole more Phoenicians to support winning teams has made the franchise (and by extension, the city) the butt of jokes in the national press two years running. Not quite as big a joke as 2004, I’ll grant you that, but to defiantly deny the snickers is to dismissively wave away reality, like a tone deaf dutchess isolated in her inherited, Sedona Red palace :-)

[j/k]

Cheers

I’m referring to isnt the price to control the franchise. I dont have an issue with Kendrick trying to recoup his sizable investment. The price I’m talking about is the cost to the fans – and their franchise – for the way he went about it. Parlaying a back office ownership dispute and personal rivalry into the birth of a “new” franchise at the expense of the original. Putting operational profitability (distinct from franchise value) above fan satisfaction. That stuff.

Chances that Phoenix would lose their MLB team were nil. It was a bargaining chip floated by Kendrick and associates to emebllish his self-interested (and arguably justifiable) financial motivations to gain control of the enterprise. MLB’s not ditching this market. Trust me.

Could it be as simple as this just isn’t the baseball town we all had hoped it was?

Great question. That’s a good deal what Jim and I are really arguing around. I do believe we’re a better baseball town than Jim seems to give us credit for.