May 22 Jackals @ Rapidz

[OttawaBallFan]

Jackals 6 Rapidz 0

Commissioner Miles Wolff was in attendance to welcome the Rapidz in which he was instrumental in making happen. The crowd of 4246 appreciated his efforts of the last two years and was loudly applauded. The players were introduced, the ceremonial first pitches thrown by mayor Larry O'Brien and five city counsellors, the national anthems played and the game got underway.

Local boy Mike Kusiewicz was the starting pitcher. After walking the first hitter on four straight balls, he recovered to strike out two of the next three. Leadoff hitter Jared Lemieux got the first hit. But that would be the only hit until the eighth inning as Aaron Tressler was terrific allowing only that one hit and one walk striking out seven in six innings.

The Rapidz did not do much better against the bullpen gathering only one more hit, a double by Juan Infante in the eighth. They also did not help themselves by committing six errors, two in the second leading to the first Jackals run and three in the eighth leading to four unearned runs. The only earned run was Ramon Nivar's home run in the sixth which went about 400 feet onto Conventry road.

And so went the opening of the newest chapter in Ottawa baseball history, a 6-0 loss. Not what fans had hoped but they are happy to have professional baseball in the city. Judging from Thursday's crowd, the Rapidz will stay for a long time.

Next game: Tonight against New Jersey. Starting for New Jersey, Corwin Malone and Adam Hawes for Ottawa.

[spaggis]

Judging from Thursday's crowd, the Rapidz will stay for a long time.

The key isn't the Opening Day crowd, it's the crowd in the games that follow it. The Lynx had many big crowds on opening day, even in their later years, but that never translated into sustainable support for the whole year.

Using the same 'guestimating' technique I used for yesterday's game, there's at most 1500 tickets sold for tonights game right now. I'd guess the attendance will end up being 2,000 to 2,500.

Let's see how the crowds look after a month or two before making any judgements.

[OttawaBallFan]

I agree Spaggis that one game does not make a season or even a franchise. The crowd however was enthusiastic, even when down by six runs. There is a core of baseball fans in this city and if you entertainment them as they were last night, they will come.

[RapidsFan]

aslong as they promote the product they will get fans...but they need to win to keep fans...thats just the way ottawa sports fans are..if your not a winner you wont be supported...i know ill be heading down to the park for a game this weekend and many more to follow..i wont be making tonights game tho unfortunaly..

P.S its good to see the Rapids got TV time last night...i didn't think they were going to have the game on TV..but they did...hopefully the people that watched on TV liked what they saw and will make it out to the park aswell for following games...games on TV again tonight.

[summerfan]

Here is how i think the attendance will be this weekend.

Friday 5,000
Saturday 7,000
Sunday 4500

[summerfan]

Just to add i heard at noon today 2000 tickets were sold for tonight.

[OttawaBallFan]

> as long as they promote the product they will get fans

Totally agree. It's a product just like any other that needs to be promoted to make sales.

The Lynx got their best crowds on Sundays. I think that will be the big attendance day.

See you there

[spaggis]

summerfan,

I know everyone would love to see the kind of attendance numbers you predict but I just don't see the advance sales supporting that. I've only looked at what's available for tonight and Saturday's games, but I'd expect attendance of 2,000 to 2,500 for tonight and 3,000 to 4,000 for Saturday. Since my guestimate was close but a bit low last night, maybe it'll be a couple hundred more than that. Since Sunday is an afternoon game (and Kid's Opening Day) I'd hope they would get 3,000 to 4,000 for that game.

If they end up averaging around 3,500 after the first 4 games, I'd say it's a reasonable start. Clearly they still need to work the press as much as possible. That's one area where they have done a good job but it takes time to get the level of awareness they need. We can't really know how things are turning out for a couple months.

[summerfan]

summerfan,

I know everyone would love to see the kind of attendance numbers you predict but I just don't see the advance sales supporting that. I've only looked at what's available for tonight and Saturday's games, but I'd expect attendance of 2,000 to 2,500 for tonight and 3,000 to 4,000 for Saturday. Since my guestimate was close but a bit low last night, maybe it'll be a couple hundred more than that. Since Sunday is an afternoon game (and Kid's Opening Day) I'd hope they would get 3,000 to 4,000 for that game.

If they end up averaging around 3,500 after the first 4 games, I'd say it's a reasonable start. Clearly they still need to work the press as much as possible. That's one area where they have done a good job but it takes time to get the level of awareness they need. We can't really know how things are turning out for a couple months.

Your were off last night.As i said the walk up crowd would be about 2500 you said no way.THe total attendance was 4,250 walk up crowd was just shy of 2300.I will say this again ottawa is not a advance tiket market its a massive walk up city for everything.IN this league teams are very happy if they avg 2,000 a game when you get over 5,000 its great but there are other issues that come up with much bigger crowds.

[spaggis]

Your were off last night.As i said the walk up crowd would be about 2500 you said no way.THe total attendance was 4,250 walk up crowd was just shy of 2300.I will say this again ottawa is not a advance tiket market its a massive walk up city for everything.

summerfan,

I said 3,000 to 4,000 for last night so I was not really that far off (and much closer than any other guess that was listed here). I explained how I made that guestimate, which included my estimate that at most 3,300 tickets had been sold in advance. That would put the walkup in >1,000 range (good but not 2,500). If you have other info (that's real info from the ticket office, not just 'I heard'), please let us know.

Note that I posted my guestimates here mainly as a counter-example to the very optimistic estimates that others have posted. I simply think that people need a dose of realism. If people expect huge crowds and the team only gets good crowds, then it can become a negative. I don't claim that my guestimating is perfect (obviously), but I think I could refine it to be reasonably accurate. e.g. One flaw in my guestimating is that I ignore the boxes, since they were largely empty in the last few years of the Lynx. It looked like about a dozen were in use last night. We'll see if that holds up for most of the games.

BTW - The Sens don't have a massive walkup - they sell almost all their tickets in advance. They even run ads that list how many tickets are left for each game.

[RapidsFan]

BTW - The Sens don't have a massive walkup - they sell almost all their tickets in advance. They even run ads that list how many tickets are left for each game.

you have to remember tho the sens are a top team in the nhl so they sell tickets and they promote the product big time in the paper and on TV...there was lots of walk ups for the renegads and the rebel and the lynx..and the 67s have big time walk ups aswell.

[summerfan]

summerfan,

I said 3,000 to 4,000 for last night so I was not really that far off (and much closer than any other guess that was listed here). I explained how I made that guestimate, which included my estimate that at most 3,300 tickets had been sold in advance. That would put the walkup in >1,000 range (good but not 2,500). If you have other info (that's real info from the ticket office, not just 'I heard'), please let us know.

Note that I posted my guestimates here mainly as a counter-example to the very optimistic estimates that others have posted. I simply think that people need a dose of realism. If people expect huge crowds and the team only gets good crowds, then it can become a negative. I don't claim that my guestimating is perfect (obviously), but I think I could refine it to be reasonably accurate. e.g. One flaw in my guestimating is that I ignore the boxes, since they were largely empty in the last few years of the Lynx. It looked like about a dozen were in use last night. We'll see if that holds up for most of the games.

BTW - The Sens don't have a massive walkup - they sell almost all their tickets in advance. They even run ads that list how many tickets are left for each game.

1)The senators do not sell most of there ticket in advance.They have 12,500 season ticket holders.On the avg they sell 4,000 in advance and the rest 4500 are walk ups.

2)Your logic on counting tickets if the system they use was perfect it may have some pull.But not system is perfect as there is a flaws etc.

3)No one is expecting big crowds many would be very happy if they avg 2000-3000 a game.

I am not trying bring your logic down in any way or your posts.

[titanium]

I think if we continue to get the media coverage of the last week or so & the team is competitve, attendance should be sufficient to guarantee a long stay for this team in Ottawa. There was a buzz in the crowd for opening night & I think the owners are doing the right things to promote the team & draw fans. Franchises in this league can be successful by averaging approx. 3300 per game. However, if Winnipeg can average 6,000 per game for their Indy team, I don't see why Ottawa can't. Its nice to see the team bounce back in tonight's game - they are leading 6-1 in the 7th.

[spaggis]

Tonights attendance was announced as 2,561. Fun game to be at.

Both local late news shows gave brief highlights, but CTV did a hachet job by emphasizing the smaller crowd and forgetting to verbally mention tomorrow's game. It will be interesting to see what the Saturday papers say.

[RapidsFan]

nice to see the boys pull out a win tonight...it was a great game for the fans who were in attendance tonight wish i could of made it...caught some of it on TV and seemed like it was fun...might head down to the park for the next 2 games before they head onto the road.