Washington Nationals Dry Delay
First of all, I want to apologize for not blogging for awhile. My husband and I went on vacation to Virginia and Washington, D.C. We happened to be there for an epic fail in baseball.
If you read this blog regularly, you may also be the kind of person who follows what is going on in baseball. You might know that the Nationals/Mets game on Wednesday, July 5, was cancelled after a two hour rain delay. We had tickets to that game. One of our goals is to visit all of the major league parks, so, since we were in D.C., we thought we should catch a game. Now, on the fifth, it rained. The rain started a few minutes before game time and continued for several hours. It really rained. I have no problem with the Nationals cancelling the game. They simply weren't going to play that night. We stuck it out to the bitter end, partially because the Nationals made no sort of announcement about what was going on. The only reason we officially knew there was a rain delay in the first place was because of Twitter. They made no announcement in the park at all.
Since we knew we wouldn't be able to use our make-up game tickets, we decided to exchange them for the game the next evening against the Braves. We checked the radar. It was supposed to rain later, but not until 2 hours after game time. They should have been able to get a complete game in in that time. So, we went to the park, paid extra money for worse seats(because for some reason the Thursday game was more expensive than the Wednesday), and settled in to watch the game. There was no tarp on the field ad everything, including the radar, looked good. However, about 25 minutes before game time, they announced a delay due to incoming rain. However, they didn't even bother to put the tarp on the field. Obviously, they were not really concerned about rain. After waiting it out for more than a hour, we gave up and went back to our room. The fans were upset and complaining. We went to the ticket office where we were told that since they hadn't cancelled the game, there was nothing they could do. Plus, tickets are non-refundable. We didn't really expect them to do anything for us, but other fans in the ticket office were starting to get rowdy as they demanded refunds. Once again, after the initial announcement, there was nothing from the Nationals. The hashtag #NationalsRainDelay was a trending topic on Twitter.
After 3 hours without almost any rain, the Nationals did end up playing. However, almost everyone had left. The game didn't start until 10 pm on a work night, and the D.C. transit closes at 11:30, which would make it hard for people to get home if they did stay. The next day, the Nationals released a statement that, frankly, was terrible. In fact, weathermen were ticked off because they made it seem like it was the fault of a weather service. You can read an article by one weatherman here.
Overall, we were very disappointed in the whole Nationals organization. They treated their fans very poorly (except for an awesome usher we had the second night who kept us entertained as was as frustrated as we were). I know the Nationals are not the only team who has called off a game without actual weather. Yes, I know the Cubs did so this season. But at least the Cubs didn't keep fans in the ballpark for hours making money on people who got plenty hungry and thirsty waiting for a game, or at least an announcement that never came. If the Nationals want fans to spend money and cheer for their team, they need to treat their fans better.
If you read this blog regularly, you may also be the kind of person who follows what is going on in baseball. You might know that the Nationals/Mets game on Wednesday, July 5, was cancelled after a two hour rain delay. We had tickets to that game. One of our goals is to visit all of the major league parks, so, since we were in D.C., we thought we should catch a game. Now, on the fifth, it rained. The rain started a few minutes before game time and continued for several hours. It really rained. I have no problem with the Nationals cancelling the game. They simply weren't going to play that night. We stuck it out to the bitter end, partially because the Nationals made no sort of announcement about what was going on. The only reason we officially knew there was a rain delay in the first place was because of Twitter. They made no announcement in the park at all.
Since we knew we wouldn't be able to use our make-up game tickets, we decided to exchange them for the game the next evening against the Braves. We checked the radar. It was supposed to rain later, but not until 2 hours after game time. They should have been able to get a complete game in in that time. So, we went to the park, paid extra money for worse seats(because for some reason the Thursday game was more expensive than the Wednesday), and settled in to watch the game. There was no tarp on the field ad everything, including the radar, looked good. However, about 25 minutes before game time, they announced a delay due to incoming rain. However, they didn't even bother to put the tarp on the field. Obviously, they were not really concerned about rain. After waiting it out for more than a hour, we gave up and went back to our room. The fans were upset and complaining. We went to the ticket office where we were told that since they hadn't cancelled the game, there was nothing they could do. Plus, tickets are non-refundable. We didn't really expect them to do anything for us, but other fans in the ticket office were starting to get rowdy as they demanded refunds. Once again, after the initial announcement, there was nothing from the Nationals. The hashtag #NationalsRainDelay was a trending topic on Twitter.
After 3 hours without almost any rain, the Nationals did end up playing. However, almost everyone had left. The game didn't start until 10 pm on a work night, and the D.C. transit closes at 11:30, which would make it hard for people to get home if they did stay. The next day, the Nationals released a statement that, frankly, was terrible. In fact, weathermen were ticked off because they made it seem like it was the fault of a weather service. You can read an article by one weatherman here.
Overall, we were very disappointed in the whole Nationals organization. They treated their fans very poorly (except for an awesome usher we had the second night who kept us entertained as was as frustrated as we were). I know the Nationals are not the only team who has called off a game without actual weather. Yes, I know the Cubs did so this season. But at least the Cubs didn't keep fans in the ballpark for hours making money on people who got plenty hungry and thirsty waiting for a game, or at least an announcement that never came. If the Nationals want fans to spend money and cheer for their team, they need to treat their fans better.
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| The radar at almost game time. The little bit of a system you can see was very slow moving. |
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