JUSTgottaBELIEVE

I don’t work in Sox ticket sales but the way they responded to last season by lowering ticket prices for this season AND bringing back Soxfest reeks of desperation. I think we will all be shocked by attendance figures in 2025.

Ok but it’s a measuring stick for the fanbase. Do you have a better metric? You don’t think prolonged periods of bad baseball are having a long term impact on the fanbase? That they will just show up again like nothing ever happened once/if the team is ever good again? That seems highly unlikely to me.

Attendance is for sure going to be worse this season than last. Jerry wouldn’t lower ticket prices unless he absolutely has to. How many other mlb franchises are lowering ticket prices this season?

They finished 19th in attendance. Is that supposed to be impressive?

Adding free agents now or next winter isn’t “start with high priced free agents.” The Sox already have a top 5 farm system, one in which 6 of their top 7 prospects will be starting their mlb clock this year. Those guys will be under team control for 6 years if they aren’t extended. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with adding a couple good free agents to 4-5 year contracts now while the payroll is already sub $60M and then adding a few more over the next couple years. Look at the free agent list over the next couple years, it’s not pretty. that’s assuming all those guys actually hit free agency and aren’t extended first.

Not really. 2M isn’t undamaged coming off back to back playoff seasons and major stimulus money pumped into the economy for a consumer desperate for any and all forms of entertainment.

Of course attendance peaked spring the World Series but drawing 1.75-2M between 2010 and 2016 was a perfectly acceptable level by historical standards. Attendance has really fallen off since 2016 outside of the one year in 2022 and the deterioration is accelerating. Attendance in 2024 was the lowest it’s been since 1999 and I expect it to drop further the next couple years.

Lux apparently had more trade value than most thought…

Being shitty for 25 years outside of a 4-5 year period. Their fanbase is permanently damaged imo, especially now that they have increased competition for market share in the form of the Nationals.

Were they a consistent 70 win team in the 90s and 2000s? And yea, the Sox were still drawing close to 2M fans prior to the 2016 rebuild, even during seasons in which they’d win 70 something games. They’ll be lucky to draw 1M in each of the next few seasons. Hand wave it away all you want but they are going serious long term damage to the fanbase, damage that it may never recover from.

Yes, it’s a real post because it shows what happens to a second rate fanbase even after they start winning again when the on field product has been terrible for so long. The bears can get away with it. The bulls can get away with it. The Sox cannot.

Orioles were once a great franchise. When I was growing up in the 90s, they were drawing 3M+ fans in the late 90s and early 2000s. Then they went on an extended draught and gradually their fanbase deteriorated. They had some success between 2012 and 2016 and the fans slowly came back. Attendance peaked at 2.46M in 2014 after bottoming at 1.73M in 2010 but then shortly thereafter they started intentionally tanking again. I believe those extended periods of shiftiness have permanently damaged the fanbase. The Sox have been doing the same thing but the fanbase destruction is really accelerating right now. All this be patient talk isn’t going to work when the fanbase is falling off a cliff. There’s more at risk here than I think lost realize based on the comments I’ve seen on this forum. They absolutely need to find a way to be competitive on the field again within the next few years or they risk a fate similar to the A’s. That might sound dramatic but it’s reality.

No, they shouldn’t have been shitty for so long by intentionally tanking and lost a large chunk of their fanbase.

And to my point above, the Orioles did their rebuild the “right” way. Problem is they’ve been shitty for so long that they couldn’t even sell out their home playoff games in 2024. Awesome. https://baltimorepositive.com/why-are-there-so-many-empty-seats-at-camden-yards-not-full-for-an-orioles-playoff-game/

Oh trust me, I won’t be tuning in much at all this season just like I watched less white Sox baseball in 2024 than I have for any other season in my adult life. Sadly, many are doing the same and it’s resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy as Jerry destroys the franchise. I wonder if there will be any fans left as they patiently wait another 5 years for the Sox to win 85 games.

60 wins is still a 100+ loss season

And yet, they won the division 3 times as well as a World Series between 2000 and 2008. That’s about the closest thing to sustainable success you’re going to see from a White Sox team owned by Jerry. It’s been a complete black hole since then.

Spot on. And he’s even convinced a number of loyal fans this is the way. It’s unbelievable.

I hear you. My pops is in his mid 70s and I have three kids under the age of 12. f*** this mindset of waiting another 4-5 years before trying to win again because we’re worried about losing a 2nd round pick or “blocking” marginal prospects. Maybe some fans are fine with losing 100+ games for another 2 or 3 years but I can assure you most aren’t, at least of those that still remain.

How’s that any different than the past 10 years?

These people arguing let’s rebuild the “right” way, it’s like they didn’t watch the Sox the past 15 years. What makes them think that will lead to anything other than another lost 15 years? People ripped on Kenny for much of the 2000s when it seemed like he was just throwing s%*# at the wall every year without a long term plan but man I’d kill for those days again.

Good luck beating the west coast teams on any worthwhile Japanese signings. When’s the last one we signed? Iguchi? That free agent list also shows me that it’s going to take several offseasons to maybe sign 3 or 4 productive major leaguers. The options are very slim. Sometimes you can’t just sit and wait to thread the needle on the perfect window when you’re a franchise like the Sox. You have to be proactive rather than always reactive.

Good point. We’re worried about the potential consequences of signing productive major league players when the team is about to embark on its third consecutive 100+ loss season? 😂

Can’t teach an old dog new tricks so you have to operate within that framework. I guess it’s a lost cause and the team will never win the division again under Jerry?

You still haven’t answered my question. You said next winter would be the time to start these types of signings. So who are you signing to start the long road back to competitiveness? Keep in mind, it appears the franchise fully intends to start the clock on 6 of its 7 top prospects this year so the clock is already ticking.