Nats Play to Empty Seats at RFK

Not As Many Fans Are Being Taken Out to the Old Ballgame

Friends Jack Moline and Doug Tanner had nearly an entire row of orange seats to themselves yesterday at the Washington Nationals game.

The row in front of them was fairly empty, too. And behind them.

"I'd very much rather have this extra space," said Moline, 53, a rabbi from Alexandria, as he stretched his legs over the seat in front of him at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. "No one crowds you."

"There's a better view, too," added Tanner, 59, a clergyman from the District.

Moline and Tanner weren't in the upper bleachers or the obstructed-view seats under RFK's overhanging top deck. They were in prime real estate: lower box seats just 20 rows from the field behind the first base dugout. It was the fourth inning of the Nationals' game against the Cincinnati Reds.

At RFK these days, good seats are easy to come by. The Nationals announced a paid crowd of 19,380 yesterday in the 43,500-seat stadium, and entire sections of yellow and red seats in the upper deck were empty.

While fans buzzed with noisy anticipation last year early in the team's inaugural season at RFK, the vibe at yesterday's game was relatively quiet, especially since the Nationals got just one hit in a 5-0 loss.

In their first eight home games, the Nationals have drawn four crowds that were smaller than any at the 81 home games last season. They have sold an average of 25,304 tickets in their second season in Washington, well under last season's average of 31,051 through eight games. The actual number of fans at games is lower, since most major league teams usually have thousands of no-shows each game.

Team officials caution that April is traditionally the most unpredictable month of the season, in part because of uncertain weather. Saturday's game was rained out -- the first postponement since the team came to Washington -- and Friday's contest was delayed more than two hours.

Nationals President Tony Tavares said the team has sold about 16,000 season tickets for 2006, down from nearly 22,000 last year. With that lower base, team officials are relying heavily on individual game and day-of-game walk-up sales.

Tavares blamed several factors for contributing to the lack of bodies in the seats: the off-season fight between Major League Baseball and D.C. officials over a new stadium, the legal battle between Comcast and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos that has kept games off television for most area cable viewers, and MLB's delay in picking a team owner -- who could spend more money on marketing and promotions.

"Think about it this way: A TV game is essentially a three-hour infomercial for your product," Tavares said. "We're missing that every night."