Hartford's Stadium Expansion Received Mixed Reception

[Fishermen]

Full link:https://pebabaseball.com/mixed-reception-on-hartfords-stadium-expansion/

Following a successful season that brought Hartford into the playoff once again, the Harpoon organization had recently expanded the stadium for an extra 5,000 seats. Despite entering the wild card once again, this move is considered a risky move as the team was far from having the best attendance in the league. In fact, last year they had around 3.1M in attendance. While that was a significant boost from their 2.2M attendance a year before that, they were still below the league average in attendance. Their stadium was not fully packed for most of the games and the fans couldn't help but question the motive of this expansion...

"I don't get it. If the club has the money, how about using them to resign the best batter last season and our favorite player, Luis Cedeno? The man led Harpoon through this difficult time, became the team figure only to be allowed to test free agency freely. They really think 5,000 more fans are going to the stadium without Cedeno? Get the f*** outta here, man!" said a clearly disappointed fan in an old-school Cedeno jersey.

"It's not like they are trying to keep their ticket price low to pack the stadium either. They charged us premium price once again this season, like look at the price of the seasonal ticket online, like do it now." The fan stared furiously into the camera. "Like just do it, explain to me why the price rocketed back to the sky after just a lackluster wildcard run? Don't they read their fan letters?! We asked for a lower ticket price because it's ridiculously high before, like they charged us West Virginia or Shin Seiki level of price, and now they are back to that again with 5,000 extra seats. Yeah, have fun with your empty bleachers." The fan added.

"I am sad about the departure of Luis Cedeno but I can understand if the team can't afford him. I mean, this man signed a forty plus millions contract elsewhere, that's a lot of money. I value loyalty and I am giving him that kind of money if I were the GM or the owner, but I am not. One thing I don't understand though, is that we are not signing back everyone. German Hernandez, gone, I don't even know how to explain the player option a single year in. What kind of move is that? The man can clearly still go for a few more years. Then, we also did not sign back Orlando Garcia. The freaking two-way player of our own. We gave them chances at-bat, the club sold the idea that 'you might see him at-bat if you come to this game!' throughout the entire season to encourage fans to get to the stadium. We loved him, still love him now and he's gone too. He only needed like ten plus millions and he pitched so well, why are we not signing him? If the club wants to rebuild in the middle of this chaos with all the compensatory pick, then why are they expanding the stadium? I don't get it. I don't get all the moves."

As some fans were questioning the Hartford's offseason moves, some others remained supportive of their team. Sure, top talents were leaking out of the team but they had great players coming in through trades and free agency too.

"I am not too worried about the stadium expansion. If the team is challenging the playoff several years in a row, those bleachers will eventually be filled. Even the Field of Dream starts empty, it showed their confidence in the team's competitiveness if you ask me. I don't buy the rebuilding theory, not when they acquired Matthias Ouellette, Tom Patton, and Takanobu Shirai. Also, they resigned Matt Brown on a long term deal -- you cannot ignore that. A team surely won't resign a closer for that long without thinking about their chance going forward. Matthias Ouellette is not Luis Cedeno, not a single third baseman is - and there are a lot of them in this free agency - but he is young and hopefully plays well for us. More importantly, the club decided to get him and not get a prospect up right away. We have some great third baseman prospects in Ed Black and Taylor Titmus. If the team is rebuilding, they don't have to acquire someone as costly as Ouellette and can just either move the prospect up right now or have a veteran play that spot for a season. I don't get Tom Patton though, does it mean our Gin & Tonic is about to not be our outfield duo anymore? Man, not gonna lie but that sucks. We barely see them last season with Winston down with a massive injury in the middle of last season. He played so well in his 68 games that I was really looking forward to seeing him on the field again this year."

"I have my doubt about the team all the time. Harpoon is not a franchise for the fans who just want prolonged success. We are not one of the big franchises with like infinite money so I understand every offseason is tough. There are moves I agreed and disagreed with our two-years GM, but he has done okay so far. We will see about the new season. The extra seats are going to make coming to the playoff games so much easier, I don't disagree with the expansion, but we will see."

Most fans have moved on to the spring training by now though. All the questions and doubts of their recent offseason were washed away by the excitement of a new baseball season. Perhaps spring training is the best thing to determine whether the expansion is a good decision. If the fans like their new team, they are surely coming for the games. Recent reports have shown that the team had indeed sold more season tickets than before even with a price increase. They estimated the season tickets sales to go down with the departure of local favorite big names, but the statistic proved otherwise.