People don't care about the Potomac affiliate or else they would go to the games. Last year by my math, Potomac was in the middle of the pack in the league as far as attendance with 2655 fans per game. That is a low number of people to cater to. Let me ask you this, go to a sports bar, ask 100 people about the Potomac Nationals. I guarantee you that they maybe 2-3 could name a player on the team, let alone give you the progress of the team. Minor league baseball is not relevant in this market because this is a major league market. People might have cared about Potomac in the past only because there was no big league team. We are not some small town in the middle of Mississippi. People have options in this area, and they decided they don't care for minor league baseball much (and major league baseball for that matter).
I absolutely agree with every part of your post, but my emphasis, indeed, my entire point wasn't about the fan base of Potomac. I would just add briefly, I think a significant part of the failure in attendance in Potomac is the stadium. I know they made some improvements to the scoreboard etc, but it's a truly awful stadium.
I'm likewise not saying I expect, nor want the local news to do daily updates on the Potomac Nationals. My point was strictly focused on our local television news broadcasters, and their anti-baseball stance. Whether that is minor or major league ball, the bottom line is they are extremely lax in covering baseball even when there are no other major sports playing. I was trying to make that point regarding this championship. Despite the lack of a fan base or support, and I won't repeat the reasons I listed in my last post, I just think there are enough of those reasons that winning a championship, as one of two professional ball clubs in the area, would merit a five second "And congratulations to the Potomac Nationals who tonight clinched the Carolina League Championship." I think most other large markets with a similar situation would have done so. None of our local stations did.
But to repeat, I am not making this point in regards to the fan base of Potomac. It's strictly in regards to the staff and broadcasters in the sports departments of 4, 5, 7 and 9. They are all, with WTTG being the best of the four and WRC the worst, notorious in not covering baseball (ie the Nationals, major league version.) and feel this is a prime example. Between lack of pro baseball teams, Potomacs history, connection with the Nationals, I guess we just disagree on the rarity of winning a championship being worthy of a blurb on an 11pm Friday broadcast. Perhaps my point is best summed up in that I think if you kept the circumstances identical in every regard including fanbase of Potomac, and this were a Football or Basketball team, it would have received a significant amount of news. And if it were a hockey team, likely a blurb. Winning a championship is extraordinarily rare, and might not happen again for another decade. It definitely would have received a mention in most other markets with a similar lack of professional ball clubs in my opinion.
But then again, none of this matters and I think we've gotten way off-topic. I just tried to use this as an example of how awful this markets sports departments are at covering baseball, Nationals (MLB) or otherwise. High school football teams receive weekly coverage on at least two stations. Is that really more worthy, a weekly high school football team, of news time than a once a decade championship win? I don't believe so. They certainly don't have a larger fanbase than Potomac. That's my entire point, and reason for my original comments.
