When we built Enron Field, Drayton didn't tell us it wasn't good enough and then move away. We did what Bud asked to keep him from moving to Jacksonville. We incurred debt to do it at taxpayers' expense. We did it at the expense of the scoreboard at the Dome, as well. A few years later he threatens to move again...while we're still paying interest on these changes he insisted on. He comes up with a little farce deal pretending the Rockets are involved in a downtown dome. He gets called on it. So he signs an exclusive negotiating deal with TN. We offer him an open-air stadium and he leaves anyway....again, while we were still paying off the changes to the Dome. That's light years of difference. Similar in that they both asked for public money to stay....similar in that both got that public money...dissimilar in that only one stayed after he got it.
well thank goodness they are here it is much better to be able to b**** about a crappy ballclub than to not have one. Also if it was going to be either the Astros or Oilers to leave it was a good thing that the Oilers left because we might have never been able to get another baseball team because mid 90's in Houston was 30+ years of nothing from this club and an empty dome. We atleast knew at some point being a football town we would get another football team and Mr. McNair is as good as it gets as far as an owner.
it's not much, Drayton is NOT a good owner, he got lucky. Young team gelled and went on a nice run then just as they went back a little and the lure of the new ballpark wore off they got clemens and pettitte to come. His streak of good fortune is going to end and that place will be half full be this time next year then we will see what Drayton does
i just explained how it's different. not to mention that one was selling and one was relocating on his own.
you said that same crap last year. they're still on pace to draw 3 million. you told me how they wouldn't be able to draw this year. i'm sure you'll say the same thing next year.
first off its not crap, not sure what your deal is but I am just as much of an Astros/Houston fan as you are and it's an opinion stop acting like your on their payroll second this was not a good team to watch the last three years 2006 coming off a world series + Clemens/Pettitte etc 2007 Biggio going for 3000 + multiple Bagwell and Biggio days 2008 Yanks and Red Sox 2009=nothing special for a non hard core fan to buy into I really think the attendance will start falling off and it will fall off to around 30k or less next year. I think that the days of an empty dome and playoff games not selling out are over but I promise 3 million fans a year will not keep coming out. I think their base of season ticket holders should stay strong but this is due more to all the fortune 500 companies that have offices a few blocks away
Wait a second...you think they're on pace to draw 3 million this season over the course of 81 games because of 6 games played against the Yankees and the Red Sox in June?? Please...that's ridiculous. Of COURSE their base will stand strong because of location. Absolutely!! That was the point of building the ballpark there to begin with. It's why the Cubs drew well for decades of losing baseball...because the ballpark drew in and of itself. In your first post you said "half-full"...now you're hedging to say maybe 30K. The park only seats 40K. I'm not suggesting 3 million fans per season forever no matter the product on the field. I'm suggesting this notion you threw out before this season started..and now again...that they'll be "half-full" (on par to 20K/game or less than 2 million total) is laughable. That ain't happening anytime soon.
those 6 games helped keep many on board one more year with tickets and many plans were purchased around those games I did not say the average will be 20-22k next year ie. half full but I bet many, many games will only draw in the low 20s with actual attendance being high teens I also belive 30k is not where they are going and staying I belive it will dip more. Hell if Drayton would come out and say "we are rebuilding and going to get younger" maybe it will not be so bad but another year or two of trying to patch up a hole here and there peole will realize they are going nowhere and will stop coming.
we've been through this before. i think you're dead wrong. you could be absolutely right about the team on the field. but the ballpark itself is an easy draw for businessfolks and otherwise. it's a weekend trip for out-of-towners. it's still ridiculously affordable compared to other entertainment options.
Drayton's a bad owner. No, he's not. At least we don't still have McMullen or (*shudder*) Ford Motor Credit company. Yes, he is. He's cheap. Drabek, Swindell, Bagwell, Alou, Berkman, Kent, Pettite, Clemens, Oswalt, Lee, Tejada, and in-season costly trades for Johnson and Beltran. Well, we'll never win with Drayton owning the team. In the NL, only the Braves won more games than the Astros from 1994-2006. In that stretch, the Astros made six playoff appearances (only the Braves had more in the NL), reached two NLCS, and reached one World Series. Well, he just got "lucky". Luck favors the prepared. Drayton's no angel and I won't argue he's the greatest in the game, but he is the best owner in the history of this franchise--with two caveats: That admittedly ain't sayin' much! Don't remember Judge Roy or what he was like. Several oft-repeated themes in Astroland that are baseless with regard to facts and moronic with regard to logic: Drayton is "cheap". The Astros are "racist". Lidge lost his mind. We should have drafted VY. The Astros failed because they didn't get player 'X'.
All you did was retell your version of all the events and call the two light years apart. We know both guys weren't happy with the Dome after previously saying it was a fine place to play, one changed his mind and left, the other tried to do the same thing (somehow selling the team is better than moving it in this case) but was forced not to. I guess the thing that makes the two "light years" different is that the city paid for a few extra seats in the Dome a few years prior? Sorry, I just don't see that as a significant difference.
When you understate it like that, of course not. It was not "a few extra seats". It was a massive, costly renovation that took away a Houston icon *and* put us in debt for thirty years. On a building for which we already in debt.
1. Drayton wasn't trying to leave the Dome. He was trying to draw more fans, generally. And ultimately, he was trying to sell the team. The highest bidder was a guy from Virginia. He wasn't moving the team to greener pastures for himself. And at that time he wasn't demanding a new ballpark. He was just a potential seller. 2. You realize we were "guaranteed" a Super Bowl for those renovations right? The county spent in excess of $65 million adding seats and luxury suites and improving the field. We actually paid for that in property taxes...not merely rental car/hotel visitor taxes. That was $65 million in 1987 dollars. This wasn't just adding a few seats.
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