The Royals are a small market baseball team, this has been true throughout their existence. They're sellers at free agency, their farm system gets picked apart by other, bigger organizations, and there are multiple rebuilding seasons between every good year. It's the facts of baseball, and won't change until baseball recognizes it needs that change to stay relevant. A story for another time however, as I want to talk specifically about what exactly the Royals are doing to give their fanbase a presentable product. In my opinion and the opinion of many others, they are taking steps backward. Obviously you can't control things such as weather, which was abysmal on Opening Day, however 28,000 is a pitiful Opening Day crowd for a Major League Baseball team. Let's talk about what can be controlled.
The Royals have always been a "Wait and See" franchise, again they are small market and being a baseball team that's up there with the big dogs such as the Yankees and Dodgers in terms of talent is a pipe dream. However, TV Coverage and fanbase support should not be this hard to come by, and in my opinion? It is an easily fixable problem that the Royals front office refuses to acknowledge. People can't watch their games and they're not doing enough to sell the home crowd into the seats. Bally Sports should be able to be accessed anywhere, it's a crime that a city that pays YOUR bills can't watch YOUR games over something as trivial as Bally Sports being a bad organization. The move from Fox should never have happened, and you're losing fans due to it. Doing things like cancelling Buck Night, overcharging for concessions and parking, and not putting a solid product on the field are also killing this team and further plunging the fanbase into apathy. It is time to put up or shut up for the Royals ownership, and I will assure you that nobody is going to want to build that downtown stadium if this streak of blunders continues. If Bally Sports doesn't want to play ball in terms of contracts or whatever, find somebody else. It's inexcusable and while the problem is staring the Royals' ownership right in the face they do not acknowledge it. Fix it or you have failed your city.
Burn Notice: 10/10 Sunday Scorcher on a Monday y'all!
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