Cardinals sold 2.6 mil tickets already

[BoutToGoHAM]

Why does a different team's attendance matter to the Reds?

Reds fans really need to get over the comparisons to the Cardinals.
They're a successful franchise. Cool.

There's more than one way to run a successful ball club. Look at the Rays, A's, BoSox. All enjoy varying amounts of success, and all do it in different ways.

This obsession with St. Louis is only going to lead to discontent when the Cardinals go farther in the playoffs instead of being excited that the Reds are continuing their winning ways.

[RedTeamGo!]

Reds fans really need to get over the comparisons to the Cardinals.

This obsession with St. Louis .

I certainly would not lump all Reds fans into this group. Most of the people on here are not obsessed with the Cardinals whatsoever. It annoys me when the Cardinals are messaged on this board.

If anything I think it is odd there are so many Cardinals fans on this board.

[Mike Honcho]

I certainly would not lump all Reds fans into this group. Most of the people on here are not obsessed with the Cardinals whatsoever. It annoys me when the Cardinals are messaged on this board.

If anything I think it is odd there are so many Cardinals fans on this board.

It is an oddity, the fascination between the two fan bases.

[PeteRoseDay]

It's not really an oddity. I view the Cardinals as our biggest rivals. Every team has a rival, or more. I think it intensified 10 fold since the brawl a few years back.

And I'm not surprised that people talk about the Cardinals on here a lot. They have been the team to be in the NL for over 10 years now, and are only getting better in every facet of baseball (major league team, depth, minor league talent, money, fan base, etc.)

I love our Reds, but Jesus it must be nice to be a Cards' fan.

[oregonred]

Who else are we going to talk about in the NL Central, the Boring Brewers, the Johnny come lately Pirates, the Lovable Losers? Since the Reds lost their long standing rivalry with the Dodgers, Giants, Astros and Braves in the NL West twenty years back, it's been a tough road to find a rival to consistently hate upon.

[BluegrassRedleg]

The point is, the Cardinals are the franchise the Reds will never be. Attendance, resources, championships, etc...

It's sad, but true.

Eff 'em.

[KYExtemper]

I certainly would not lump all Reds fans into this group. Most of the people on here are not obsessed with the Cardinals whatsoever. It annoys me when the Cardinals are messaged on this board.

If anything I think it is odd there are so many Cardinals fans on this board.

I know in my area of Western Kentucky there are a lot more Cardinals fans than there are Reds fans. Northern Kentucky and Central Kentucky have lots of Reds fans and Southern Kentucky has a decent contingent of Braves fans.

So, seeing some Cards fans on this board isn't too surprising since those fans probably get a lot of Reds games on TV instead of their team.

[markymark69]

Given the absurd prices. I can't see how any fans feel they reserve the right to call out other fans.

I would never tell anyone how to spend their money. Go to the game, don't go to the game! My point was to base going to a game on whether a team wins the World Series is a cop out.

The Reds are about as inexpensive as they come when it comes to a professional team's ticket prices. You can even bring your own food and they don't hold a gun to your head saying "please by souvenirs."

Not counting the ticket (which were $19) I have gone to games and spent less than $15 bucks. It can be done.

[TDogg]

Cards fan here. As a kid I liked the Reds because my mom was from Cincy and I still have kin there. Used to follow the Braves too because I got to hear their games on the radio. But when we finally got cable and I got to see Whitey Herzog and the Cards pretty much daily (and Ted Turner was in loon mode)...I became a full time Cards fan. Never looked back. Still have nothing but respect for the Reds tho.

And I come here because the mods run a tight ship, and baseball is actually discussed here.

[MikeThierry]

People constantly asked for a link to back this story up but it wasn't provided. Here is a link about a spring training telecast where it backs up this info:


http://m.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blo...rd.html?r=full


"Cardinals individual tickets went on sale Friday, and so far the front office has sold slightly more than 2.6 million for the regular season, outpacing last year, reports Rob Fasoldt, director of ticket sales and services for the Cardinals."

[Yadier Molina]

Excellent observation. That is the biggest difference and it can easily be explained by the fact that St. Louis has a much bigger metro area to draw from, while Cincinnati has a bigger expanded areas to draw from.

Both teams have a similar fan base in size, but a large part of the Cincinnari fan base comes from Kentucky, Dayton, Indianapolis, Columbus and all the small towns around it. Most Cardinal fans live within 20-30 minutes do the stadium.

That means, during the week, the Cards have more fans that can see a game and still be home in time to go to bed at a reasonable hour to get up for work/school the next morning. Reds fans from Dayton, Hamilton, etc, can't do that.

Hence, the Cards get more fans for night games during the week.

This is absolutely not true, Cardinals fans are over the midwest going as far north as Iowa, as far east as indiana, and as far south as Arkansas and Oklahoma. St Louis itself is only about 300k in size, the suburbs make it a few million but the reason Cards sell many tickets is that their fans travel from all over the place.

[Yadier Molina]

Is it really disputed that the cards have one of the biggest fanbases? Clearly 1 and 2 are the Red Sox and the Yankees. Dodgers Giants and Cubs are up there as well, but the cards are always in the top 5 in ticket sales.

[Yadier Molina]

For those looking for an explanation for Cinci's low attendance compared to St Louis perhaps its because since 2004 the Cardinals have the most playoff wins with 50, while the Reds during that same time span have 2 wins.

[Kilgore_Trout]

For those looking for an explanation for Cinci's low attendance compared to St Louis perhaps its because since 2004 the Cardinals have the most playoff wins with 50, while the Reds during that same time span have 2 wins.

Golly gee! Thank you for enlightening us, Yadie!

[10xWSChamps]

It's pretty simple. The Cardinals are the Yankees of the NL. They are second in WS wins to the Yankees. And even in current times, the Cardinals have 51 playoff wins in the past decade, ten more then any other team in the MLB, either league.

That's not all of it however. There is a ton of history. Obviously, lots of World Series championships. But also lots of HOFers, MVPs and Cy Young winners. And almost invariably, these players have chosen to stick around the area and are involved with the team even until their death. I don't say we Cardinals fans are anything special, but there is some combination about the team/fans/history/winning-tradition that makes players stick around and get involved with the team even beyond their career. Pujols is an obvious exception but the odd thing is, is that he still lives in St Louis in the off season and still does all his charity work here. I have a feeling that after his Angels contract is done, he'll really find out where his loyalties should lie.

There's the whole Anheuser Busch legacy, with the Busch family themselves owning the team at one point, to having our third stadium named after the brewery and having 100+ years of festivities around the ballpark involving them. People have mentioned the local AM station, KMOX. It has the largest broadcasting area of any radio station in the US and it is also the oldest and has carried Cardinals games for a very, very long time. Cardinals fans ended up growing around a large swath of the midwest and that has translated to fans that have gone all over the country. They probably still cheer for the Cardinals as they keep winning, but look at Cardinals away games, you will see/hear Cardinals fans at every single one even in other huge baseball towns.

Does this boil down to wins/losses? Yes, to a large degree it does. However it doesn't mean fans aren't loyal here. I don't think the fans are fickle, but if the Cardinals suddenly started to suck for a couple of decades we would not still be drawing 3M+ fans.

The St Louis area is probably the most baseball-rabid part of the nation per capita. A winning legacy and loyal fans and good ownership and a city who always embraced the team all plays into this.

Thank god for current Cardinals ownership who has owned the team for like 2+ decades now, because with all of our current success they are the only constant throughout it.