Where The Nats Went Wrong

So I'm sitting at a Nats game this week with crowds of 18-22,000 in paid attendance but I know that there wasn't more than 10-15,000 people there each night. As a former MD resident I remember being ecstatic that a team was coming to DC in 2005. The excitement has been tempered as the team is on its way to its 2nd consecutive 100 loss season. I wondered aloud what had happened to this grand idea. With a brand new stadium and new team everybody seemed all about it.

It's TV's 9th biggest media market. It features 4 of the top 7 highest income counties in the country with populations of 250,000 within it surrounding area in Fairfax (VA), Loudon (VA), Montgomery (MD), and Howard (MD) counties. From sponsorship and sales standpoint DC/MD/NoVA is home to the headquarters of Capital One, Fannie and Freddie Mac, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, Mars, Sodexho, Spring, Black and Decker, Constellation Energy, Legg Mason, AES, and Gannett. That should sell the suites and signs in the place. From there you see that 16.6 million people visit DC and being that home baseball is only half a season for the half the year, you could take a quarter of them as potential Nationals buyers.

So what happened? The Nationals are the only team in MLB who do not own the TV rights to their own broadcast. The own a mere 10% of MASN their regional broadcast company a gain 1% the next 23 years to a mere 33% in 2032. Strike 1. From there they were to build a stadium and in any real estate the words to live by our location, location, location. The stadium is built on the Anacostia river which is on the VA side of DC. This area is barely built up yet and features quite the Metro journey for those in MD trying to make the journey on weeknight. Strike 2. The other next big money for the team should have been their naming rights. The Nationals hired WMG to sell the rights and were seeking $10-15 million a year for an integrated deal with a company that would include a huge stadium deal. In waiting for the right deal as they opened the new stadium, the economy tanked and so did any chance at a big naming rights deal. Strike 3. Many will always point to Jim Bowden's tenous term as GM for details of his deals click below http://http//www.mlbtraderumors.com/files/jim_bowden_washington_nationals.xls

The team can and will turn it around they have to from here. The cards are stacked as they play in one of MLB bEeasts of a divisions with Philadelphia, NY, ATL, and Florida. Here's how I would do it:
1. Continue to pay massively overslot in the draft for talent - Bryce Harper next year
(http://http//www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=1786)
2. Collect young pitching, Strasburg-Lannan-Zimmerman is a start
3. Emphasize defense to help young pitchers (Everett at SS, Polanco 2B next year)
4. Bullpen stability (Calero, Dotel next year)
5. Became a holding ground for 1 year rehabiliton deals (Sheets, Bedard,etc.)
6. Figure out corners later (LF,RF,1B are easiest positions to fill)
7. Hire Bobby Valentine to manage for some much needed buzz
Remember, winning on the field = winning at the box office and off the field...
A. Cut ticket prices
B. Go after the tourists
C. Sell the value not the team
D. Push Strasburg starts
E. Introduce variable ticket pricing on all individual games