A wrap-up of the Fan Fest
If ever there was a day to turn a $600-plus million baseball stadium into an indoor carnival, Sunday's FanFest at Nationals Park would have been it.
Sections of the ballpark usually cordoned off to all but the most affluent fans, instead, housed face painting, caricatures, raffles, skee ball and pitching simulations. The concession stands were open, and while I didn't see a guy selling sno cones, it might have been because it's still January, after all.
The purpose of events like these is to create as much buzz and goodwill for the upcoming season as possible, and in that regard, Sunday's proceedings didn't disappoint.
One Nationals player after another talked excitedly about the upcoming season, gushed about the moves Washington's front office had made to improve the team, and approached the 2010 season - during which the Nationals will try to emerge from 205 combined losses in 2008-09 - with an anything-can-happen outlook.
Asked if a .500 season was a good first goal, new acquisition Jason Marquis said, "I don't see why we can't shoot for the stars. Why do you want to limit yourself to 81 wins? Why do I want to limit myself to 15 wins? ... You shouldn't say, 'Oh, let's win 81 games,' because then you're putting a number and you're satisfied with 81 wins. I don't think you should ever be satisfied."
If the afternoon had a surplus of positivity, it lacked the same supply of news. But there were a few things to pass along:
- First, it's clear most Nationals players are hoping the team signs free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson. All the players that spoke to the media--John Lannan, Ryan Zimmerman, Nyjer Morgan, Ivan Rodriguez and Marquis among them--said they hoped the move would get done.
"I think he would be great. Obviously, defensively, (and) you can put him in the lineup anywhere," Zimmerman said. "I think he's a great person, a great team guy. He would kind of help some of the younger guys and all of us come together. He wins. He's been places that win...It's no secret that we want him."
Zimmerman said he hadn't talked with Hudson, who shares an agent with Adam Dunn and is friends with Nyjer Morgan and utilityman Willie Harris. General manager Mike Rizzo said he also hadn't talked to Hudson or agent Greg Genske in several days.
"We're communicating, and we're engaged," Rizzo said. "There's really been no substance to let you know of, nothing different going on."
A report on Sunday suggested Hudson was ready to come down from the $9 million annual salary he's believed to have been wanting, but Rizzo said he hadn't heard anything to indicate Hudson's camp has lowered its asking price.
- Rizzo got a number of questions during fan Q&As about where Stephen Strasburg will start the season. It serves as a window into how high anticipation will be running for Strasburg's first start this spring, and Rizzo is well aware of it.
But what he won't do, he said, is give into it; he said again Strasburg has a chance to make the team if he proves this spring he doesn't need seasoning in the minors, but Rizzo reiterated that the Nationals won't rush the No. 1 overall pick to the majors.
"I can't be affected by the level of excitement," Rizzo said. "I've got to develop this player to the utmost of his ability, and I have to make sure he's developed in the best way to have long-term success."
- Both Nyjer Morgan and Craig Stammen are 100 percent, and John Lannan looked to be in the best shape of his life after staying in town this offseason to work out with Stammen. Lannan said he'd been smarter this offseason about exercise and diet than ever and is seeing 20-15 now after Lasik surgery.
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Categories (click for archive)Ben Goessling | Nationals News |
This Rizzo statement about Hudson. I wonder if it was before, or after Tim Kurkjian decided to run an article saying that the Nats were "close to a deal with Hudson for about 3m + incentives".
Wondering if Rizzo made that statement early today, and then got a phone call from Hudson's agent later in the day.
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Rizzo said that right at the end of the day. Kurkjian was on a panel with Rizzo at the end of the day, so it wouldn't surprise me if they talked then. I haven't seen what Kurkjian wrote, but all Rizzo said to us was that nothing had changed. From what I've gathered, it wouldn't surprise me if that offer has been on the table for a few days, and Hudson is the one moving closer to it. That's been the range the Nats have been looking at most of the time with Hudson, but it appears he could be more flexible than he was earlier.
Ben
My kids actually asked for Sno-Cones as we were leaving!
Sno-cones or no, they had ice cream bars. (And much better pizza in the Stars and Stripes Club.)
I've got to think that if Hudson comes all the way down from $9M/yr to $3M/yr it would have to be for a multi-year deal. Especially since Cabrera just signed for more than that with the Reds. But then again, stranger things have happened. See Jon Garland.
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Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it's two years, or if it's incentive-laden. Either way, I wouldn't say it's quite as strange as Garland--some of it, if it happens, can be explained by Hudson setting his price way too high, and realizing he needs to come down from that to get a contract for 2010. He did get benched for Ronnie Belliard, after all.
Ben
Another great FanFest, however it was so cold. I was jealous of the players knowing that most of them would be heading to FLA in a few days to enjoy warm breezes and sunny days. Kids had a great time and I would say this year was better then last year. Yes I got the vibe too, I think the team is just tired of losing and they know that they are not the Pirates or the Royals.
The only thing that seems to be lost here is FanFest appears to be an exclusive event for STH (of which I am one). Not sure thats the right way to go, but then again the Nats have a long way to make the town think differently so blabbing on about a FanFest won't make a difference until the team starts winning.
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Yeah, I think you'll see a difference if they're good. It will be a better vibe once there's a buzz about the team. I don't think it's exclusive to season ticketholders, but they do sell a finite amount of tickets. What kinds of things did they have different than last year? I was out of town last year, and didn't get to see much else today, other than talking to players and working.
Ben
Riffing on Richard's comments a bit, I'd like to see the Fan Fest open up a bit as far as making more tickets available, and to non-STH as well as to the hard core. Expanding the fan base would be a good thing, would it not? Sure, it would cost money, but they could rent a larger, indoor facility for the day and work on attracting some newbies to the event. It's not like they don't have other exclusive events for STH as it is (ducks and runs).
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Yeah, I think this whole thing is still a little new to them, and having to walk point-to-point in the cold weather is a little cumbersome for fans. I suppose some of the idea is to have it at the ballpark, since renting a larger facility would cost money. But you could get the Convention Center or something and have a much bigger event, all in the same space. Some of that, I think, will come when there's more buzz about the team; it probably doesn't seem worth the cost to them right now to go that way. It's a valid point, though, and it's worth asking the merits of marketing yourself to a larger audience vs. waiting for your own buzz to necessitate a larger scope.
Ben
Re the Fan Fest and whether it should be opened up to non-STH: Um, it is already. STH get four free tix, others have to pay to get in. Some would say they don't advertise it enough, but really how much advertising should they be doing for an event that's basically an advertisement itself? They did have publicity for it even though they didn't buy ads anywhere, e.g. the listing on the main page of events in the WaPo weekend section on Friday. Rather than renting some other facility (instead of using the ballpark that was handed to them for free ) and having it be half empty, why shouldn't they keep doing the event at the ballpark until the crowds and the buzz get so big that it can no longer be handled there?
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This is the other side of natsfan1a's point, and it illustrates the question I have about the whole thing. I'm sure the Nats have done their marketing research on this, and concluded NatsFest wouldn't be big enough (yet) to move it off-site and pay rent for a bigger space. Their philosophy the whole time has been to let the market come to them as they get better--how many times have you heard Stan Kasten say, "We'll get the attendance we deserve?" I've seen other teams do it different ways, preferring to market themselves as a low-cost entertainment option even before they get good. But this market probably necessitates a different approach from that. The question is, is there a happy medium between letting on-field performance create buzz and throwing marketing dollars at the problem?
Ben
Hey, maybe they could rent some other facility to play the games in and draw a bigger crowd. I hear RFK's available...
Also, don't overlook the fact that having the NatsFest at the ballpark allows them to open up spaces to fans who don't normally get to see them. I'm a STH, but the only way I've ever been in the Presidents Club, the PNC Diamond Club, Stars and Stripes Club, the clubhouse, etc, was at NatsFest.
I saw all of those and more on a paid Nats Park tour. I believe that the proceeds go to the Nationals Dream Foundation, so it's all good. ;-)
Points taken, ABM, and I do realize that they make a limited number of tix available for non-STH. I'm just saying, why not consider opening it up even more and drawing in some new fans sooner rather than later? I know, I know, they'll hop on the bandwagon when the time comes, just like they did with the Caps. :-)
I think the number of tickets made available to non-STH was limited to the number of such tickets they could sell. Has anyone heard tell of people wanting to buy tix for NatsFest and being turned away?
Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!