After writing that article I got an interesting note on the math at Nats Park. For $10 million a year the Nats can sell a club sponsorship. They'd have to sell about 455,000 tickets to 20 game plan holders in the 400 level to bring in $10 million. The club sponsors pay in big lump sums on four or five year deals, the ~12,000 plan holders need to be coaxed to renew each year. The plan holders require ticket reps, ushers, and reward points, the sponsor just wants signs and some Tweets from the official account.
The Nats got named one of the top 25 most innovative sports franchises in the world last year. (Apparently pitching analytics wasn't one of the criteria being measured.) Guys like Mike Carney probably read posts like this and laugh at the outdated premise that bringing in big crowds matters. A full ballpark is better than an empty one but there is a reason why we have stopped hearing from the various revenue chiefs, their priority is the bigger fish.
