From: trn@warper.jhuapl.edu (Tony Nardo)
Subject: Re: Orioles at All-Star Break
Organization: Johns Hopkins University
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:42:21 GMT

deaven@physics.Berkeley.EDU (David Deaven) writes:

>trn@warper.jhuapl.edu (Tony Nardo) writes:
>>OK, you asked for it. :-)  The top 10 reasons why the Orioles are on a
>>pace to draw more than 3 million fans (some serious, some not):
>>
>>	10) Over 2.5 million tickets were sold in the pre-season, before
>>	    most people knew just how poor some of those "every-view-is-
>>	    perfect" seats really are.

>All I can say is I've sat in seats in parks across the country, and I
>liked Camden Yards the best so far. The bleacher seats are most
>excellent, in particular. This "reason" sounds like sour grapes to me.

Sour grapes, no.  Rancid grapes, yes. :-)

Seriously, I have no qualm with the inexpensive seats.  (In fact, the view
from left center is the best view I've had there so far!)  My gripes lies in
the fact that a seat halfway down the third base line:
	a) faces some random point in center field, requiring the person
	   trying to watch the game to turn his head about 60 degrees right.
	   (This is not an easily sustained position for one's neck, and
	   results in mild to considerable stiffness the next day.)
	b) will have the view of home plate blocked any time *anyone* stands
	   up in the aisles to the right of them.

Do I like the new park?  Yes.  But after watching over $100 million in
*Marylander's* revenues get spent on the park, and after hearing "*every seat*
faces second base" from the media for nearly two years, I expected a little
more consideration for the fans with regard to viewing comfort.  And, after
watching seats get reclassified into higher cost brackets so the owner could
say he trying to hold the line on ticket prices, I expect those seats to
raise the dead, heal leprosy, and walk on water! :-)

Every seat ain't perfect.  There *are* some real clinkers, and they're not in
the cheap seats.

>>	 9) Baltimore and Howard County stubbornly refuse to carry Home Team
>>	    Sports as part of their basic cable package.

>Of course. But folks outside of these areas watch HTS diligently and
>add to the huge support for the O's.

I don't think my point came across.  HTS is a premium service channel in
Baltimore and Howard County.  It is a basic cable channel in other surrounding
counties.

HTS has been negotiating to go from premium cable status (high fees for a
limited subscriber base) to a basic cable channel (lower fees over the full
subscriber base) in those two counties.  Considering the low caliber of channels
which have been added in Howard County to justify a basic rate increase (20+%
for the _Nostalgia_ channel?  Really...), and considering that Howard cable
can't seem to figure out how to hook up a converter box without rendering a
cable-ready TV set's remote control box useless, I'd much sooner see Howard
County boost rates and add HTS as a basic cable channel than have them boost
rates 20+% and add another channel of dubious quality.

> You can't expect Baltimore to
>show HTS without blacking out the home games, these days--that's how
>cable works, like it or not.

You may have sat in the bleachers at Camden Yards, but I don't think you're
familiar with HTS in Baltimore or Howard County.  HTS is not *blacked out* in
those areas; it is merely packaged in a different manner in those two counties.
This packaging is not the result of a decision by Oriole management, but of
policy decisions on the part of Comcast and Storer cable.

As you say, I don't have to like it.  But I don't have to be quiet about
my dislike for that cable decision, either!  After all, there are other
counties which border on Baltimore that are somehow able to provide HTS as
part of their basic package without making the cost of that package
exorbitantly high.

>[3-8 deleted]

>>	 2) Several thousand undiscourageable DC baseball fans hope to show
>>	    Eli Jacobs that attendance at Orioles' games increases as distance
>>	    to DC decreases.

>But, we all know the Baltimore inner harbor is a much better place for
>a baseball park--and think of all the fans that would be killed if
>they had to go into DC--the "murder capital of the country". Fans dumb
>enough to be living in DC can take the light rail line right to the
>gates of Camden Yards.

Agreed!  But there are some people in DC who never give up hope in their
dream of luring a baseball team there.  And I'm not sure that Eli Jacobs would
turn down an offer to relocate the team to the outskirts of Hell itself if
there was a sufficient boost in profits to be realized in the move.

>>and, the number one reason...
>>
>>	 1) Tens of thousands of Baltimore baseball fans have been made
>>	    suddenly nervous by the revelation that the 15 year "lease"
>>	    EBW signed for Camden Yards was not really a lease, but only a
>>	    letter of intent.

>Let us hope that Camden Yards becomes a permanent fixture in the
>harbor... it dure does compliment the area, and it's a GREAT place to
>see a game!

In many ways, it's a better place to see a game than Memorial Stadium --
and I'm sure it knocks the socks off RFK Stadium!  My point is that Camden
Yards is not Heaven Brought To Earth as some in the media have painted it.

There *are* reasons beyond the extra inches of leg room and the spiffy
old-time clock/ironworks/etc. which are bringing people to the park this
season....
--
Tony Nardo,		   INET: trn@warper.jhuapl.edu, trn@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu
 Johns Hopkins Univ./APL   UUCP: {backbone!}mimsy!aplcomm!trn