RIP Art Modell

I think the sophisticated sports fans of St Louis prefered the refined beauty of baseball as opposed to the knuckle dragging brutishness of football.

 

The fact the Raiders have faltered in Oakland doesn't make their loss sting any less. And their dismal records for much of their time in L.A. didn't exactly lead to apathy when they returned to Oakland. Years of dismal football have made that happen . . .

More losers people who just love their team so much.

 

The Raiders were getting blacked out at home during their first year back. I'm pretty sure it was by the second home game.

 

That's a great question.

Are football fans more more results-oriented than baseball fans? How about basketball or hockey?

 

See also: Bud Adams and Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans. Another owner who became such a pain in the ass with his demands that the community he was based in said "enough."

 

Attended a couple of those games. There were not blackout-level crowds. In their second year back, Al Davis' insisted-upon renovations raised the capacity by about 10,000, but by then the fans realized they had a lemon clad in silver and black.

 

One of my life's regrets is not getting drunk in the Pound.
There will never be another venue like it.
It was a true relic and a slice of Americana.

 

Very true. Very little lead time, a ridiculous PSL program and a marketing group that couldn't sell snow cones in the Sahara.

 

News reports of the 2011 season note that it was the first time in their Oakland rebirth that they did not have a blackout. And here's a story from October 1995 noting their second blackout in four home games.

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/No-Sellout-Raiders-Blacked-Out-3020899.php


So they were indeed blacked out during their 1995 return -- and actually they weren't all that terrible before that, they made the playoffs in '93 and were 9-7 in '94 and started 8-2 in '95.

A bit of a threadjack, but there really wasn't the groundswell of love for the Raiders' return that Al Davis and his stooges would have you believe there was.

 

I expect nobody got too terribly upset when ownership moved the Chicago Cardinals, St. Louis Browns, Boston Braves, Philadelphia and Kansas City A's, New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and both versions of the Washington Senators moved is because they were underperforming franchises in a market that didn't really care if they survived or not.

The same cannot be said of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts, franchises that were doing well, had wide community support, and had made their owners a boatload of cash and turned them into very rich men. Yet ownership willingly turned their back on those that made them rich in search of more money than they would ever need. That's why O'Malley, Irsay and Modell are/were despised.

I expect the heirs of Ralph Wilson will be equally despised if they sell and move the Bills after Mr. Wilson dies. The fans of Buffalo have helped turned Wilson's $50,000 investment into a $600 million (approximately) enterprise. His heirs can do whatever they want with the team. And if they move, Buffalo fans have every right to hate the family with all of their hearts for the rest of their lives.

 

Baseball is the only sport, IMO, that has actual ambience and is therefore worth going even if the team isn't very good. This has gotten even more pronounced in the age of HDTV, but I think it has always been that way. I am sure there are some exceptions, and those are the places (like Lambeau Field and Arrowhead Stadium) that could fill up even for bad teams, but on the whole the other sports are mostly about what's happening on the field.

 

Apparently, I attended the right games. Crowds were notably larger than they were in the waning years in Los Angeles, but then, so is the typical Thanksgiving gathering.

The Raiders would love to only be 5,000 short of a sellout these days.

Their PSLs were a joke. But PSLs have taken hold completely in other markets. They're not exactly a fan-friendly idea.