same story with the mavs. except i met a FEW mavs fans...definitely more than rangers fans. not many, though. we could drive up to dallas and get mavs tickets by buying a bunch of tacos at taco bueno. i saw the Rockets kick the crap out of them the last game of the season at Reunion in 1994.
I cringed when I heard Buck or the other guy mention the Astros potential "move" into the AL...like its a GD choice...I still think its BS...
I've lived in DFW for a few summers never spent too much time there. I just dont think they're that differnt. I remember going to the dome and seeing 10,000 people there. This summer sports radio hardly ever talked about the Astros except the pence trade heck Matt Thomas had to beg for calls on his show. I think both cities are bandwagon basketball/baseball and die hard football which is the case in most cities except the northeast and maybe a few select teams.(cubs cards off the top of my head)
we keep giving you examples, rf83, and you keep stating you don't think they're that different. I also lived in exile in the Dallas area in the early-to-mid 90s. Saw a Ranger cap one time. I knew more about their baseball team than they did. The Astros, however, had built a solid core of die-hards even by the 70s. Pathetic existence and all, they had a core of folks who knew Gene Elston's voice like a member of their household. This is a football town for sure, but it has *never* been a "football-only" town. Never.
I will add this: I saw more Astros caps in DFW than I saw Rangers caps. That's changed these days, I'm sure. But your average "Ranger Fan" couldn't tell me who David Clyde is, or Will Clark, or Buddy Bell, or heck even John Wetteland.
Attendance for Rangers 90 25,406 91 28,367 92 27,139 93 27,711 94 43,916 95 27,852 96, 35,448 97 36,361 98 36,142 99 34,253 00 31,956 Attendance for Astros 90 16,184 91 14,767 92 14,956 93 25,736 94 27,150 95 18,942 96 24,394 97 25,269 98 30,351, 99 33,408 00 37,830 early mid 90s rangers dominated attendance http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/rangatte.shtml http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/housattn.shtml
Outside of a handful of teams/cities (Boston, NY, Chicago, etc), you can probably come up with a pretty good formula for attendance by looking at (a) how good the team is / recently has been (b) how new the stadium is and (c) how comfortable / easy-to-get-to the stadium is.
Recently it's been all Astros - 10 of the last 12 years. That's the best comparison because both teams had modern stadiums. It should also be noted that the 2006 Astros outdrew the 2011 Rangers (the season following each team's first WS appearance).
I love it when 2 minutes of an internet search totally bends over the "we know what we're talking about, i used to live in the area" pathetic attempt to distort reality.
lol a 12 week history of this great rivalry with the Cubs they dont "want" to relinquish. Cuz they can be so demanding now. I'm ON the West Coast. Now I'll get to see Astros games right up the highway. And I do NOT WANT an AL move. Not only because of the style of play. But last year Angels and A's baseball TV ratings were in LAST PLACE of all teams. Its tossing in the Stros with a bunch of teams nobody cares about, along with the time zone difference. Darn RIGHT Jim Crane has a right to demand a discount price
Possibly I posted those since people were talking about the 90's. In a few of those years the Rangers almost doubled the Astros attendance. And I'm pretty sure neither team was competing for a title. And both teams had horrific stadiums in the early 90s. There are many factors for the Rangers dominating attendance in the ones i posted new stadium in 1994 good contending teams in those years as well. (though Astros were pretty good too) Astros get new stadium in 2000 and takes off again great teams in the 2000's two huge draws with Roger and Andy etc. Rangers are garbage in those years Hence Astros outdraw the Rangers. Now roles are reversed and Rangers outdraw the Astros. I'm too lazy to add the attendances all together but I'd guess they're about the same. Note- Astros/Rangers both have won 49% of the their games... I still think the fan bases are pretty similar. To say people in Dallas do not care is a huge stretch. I was opposed to the move to the AL but its grown on me I look forward to a true rivalry with the rangers. With us starting from pretty much scratch and the rangers possibly world champions and gives us a target and should put pressure on whomever the owner is. And people pretend here not to care about whats going on up there on 45N but just visit the world series thread and other postseason threads and there are many people rooting/hating against the Rangers and its not even a rivalry yet. Give it a few years and its going to be alot of fun...
they had a brand new ballpark they opened in 1994! we were closing down what had become nothing more than a football stadium where we still played baseball. take those numbers from 2000 on when both franchises were in relatively new ballparks. the 'stros have drawn 3 million fans in 4 different seasons. the rangers never have. other than the florida marlins or the tampa rays, I can't imagine there's been another team that won a pennant and didn't sell 3 million seats the following season in the last 10 years. (i'm sure someone with some time could look that up)
this is the biggest problem for me, aside from my "identity" as an NL fan. the AL West is an absolute afterthought. being in a division with the cubs and cards is at least interesting...fun to be part of. but the mariners? the a's? the angels? seriously, who the flip cares?
http://houston.sbnation.com/houston...py-how-the-astros-were-held-to-ransom-for-50m Tinker, Grocer, Soldier, Spy: How The Astros Were Held To Ransom For $50m Oct 25, 2011 - Unfortunately the United States will not be treated to the new film adaption of John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy until 9 December, but those of us on the other side of the Atlantic thoroughly enjoyed it. Instead we get our own covert drama starring Jim Crane (Tinker), Drayton McLane (Grocer), Bud Selig (Soldier) and Maury Brown (Spy). Just when revelations that Crane would accept a switch to the American League, we get the latest spiel about him wanting $50m in compensation. Drayton McLane certainly is not going to pay it, and why should he? He wants his $680m: "We're not changing the sale price. The engagement is between Jim and his group and baseball. They have not talked to us to reduce the sale price." There are 29 other teams, and it is not inconceivable with revenue sharing and all that they might pony up $1.72m so that the Astros switch leagues rather than them. $50m would be good news, even if it accompanied some awfully bad news (switching leagues). Many Astros fans are worried about the amount of money the Crane-led consortium had to borrow to reach Drayton's asking price. In the short-term this could lead to some even more drastic revenue cutting and revenue dumping over the next few years to pay off the debt. Or the $50m could be poured into the next two or three drafts, both domestically and internationally, helping to further rejuvenate the thin farm system. While this ownership switch and money changing hands makes sense for the other 29 owners, Tinker should be rubbing his hands with glee. This deal falls through and Drayton is put in an impossible situation. The consortium could reform under different leadership, but they probably are not going to offer anywhere near the same amount of money as the world economy flatlines again. Crane should be asking for $100m and perhaps an expansion type draft where he can nick a player of each team while he's at it. Selig could probably pay it with the amount of money he's on these days. Or melt down that gold statue he made of himself outside of Miller Park. Let us step back a bit and look at the actual reports. We might have taken the New York Post with a pinch of salt, but Maury Brown seemingly buys into it, and he believes Crane's approval will go ahead in November. Confused? You certainly are not alone. Now the fun begins as the World Series wraps up, the offseason starts, 40-man rosters get sorted out, free agents fly and maybe this mess will get sorted out, and maybe we learn what has really been going on behind closed doors. Or maybe not.
I guess well just disagree. I've met numerous diehard ranger fans in my few summers there in 05-06. And my time at Tech which is composed of a studentbody that is about 50% from the DFW area... I just cant see how people claim there arent fans there when they almost doubled our attendance a few years when both teams had crummy stadiums. Of course the Astros will outdraw them the majority of the 2000's. Rangers were a joke and Astros were fielding a competive team for the majority of the last decade and have a indoor stadium in the middle of downtown... Rangers outdrew them the last 2 years and will next year to me its obvious whomever has a better team will have better attendance...
Guess we'll have to disagree, as you said. I lived up there for 4.5 years with those folks, and from my experience, Ranger fans and MLB fans generally were very difficult to find in DFW.
Same here, rf83, agree to disagree. I respect your opinion; I just see it differently. A few more points: An average attendance of 27K isn't anything to really brag about The only truly significant differences were in 90-93, when the Astros were losing 90 games a year, and '95, the year after the strike when attendance everywhere was down (guess the new stadium helped attendance for the Rangers). That says more about how bad the Astros were than how great Rangers fans were. I think games Nolan Ryan pitched probably took those average attendance numbers higher than they would have been otherwise. Only once in the early 90s did the Rangers finish below .500. That's not "terrible" as you suggest. Certainly not where the Astros were during this time, though they were coming out of it by '93. There's always more to numbers than just numbers. nothing bent over here, dumbass. I love when morons see numbers, don't have a clue about context, and jump up and down screaming "see!!!11 Seee!!!111" Especially when said morons were too lazy to do the "two minutes of an internet search" themselves. Additionally, if you support all of your positions with knowledge you gain by 2-minute Internet searches, perhaps now we all understand you a little better. Sorry for calling you a dumbass, you dumbass; just sick and tired of your inability to show other people's positions any respect.
