Atlanta Braves need to make fans love them again
Fans of the Atlanta Braves are growing impatient, and not so much with the losing, as the connection this team once had with its community.
Rarely do you see a city fall in love with a team the way fans fell in love with the Atlanta Braves. It was never about winning, pennants, or rings. It was about a team, owner and front office who were connected to a community.
Longtime fans of the Braves know the feeling. They know the feeling of losing 80, 90 or even 100 games and still being enamoured with the team.
The decades of the 1970’s and 1980’s saw the first losing decades the longest continually operating franchise in baseball had seen since the 1940’s in Boston, but fans in Atlanta – and around the nation – embraced the Braves. It was a love affair few could explain.
That feeling has been lost, and the Braves need to find it again.
This isn’t about attendance. It’s about a feeling … a Dirty Dancing “guh-gung” heartbeat which has been missing. Bodies in the seats? Attendance numbers can be manipulated and easily boosted. The bond between fans and a team can’t be faked.
That bond accounts for a lot more than just wins and losses.
There isn’t a fan in Atlanta who wouldn’t be willing to suffer through a fifth straight season below .500 and a fourth straight season of 90-plus losses if they believed in this team and were once again symbiotic with its struggles and triumphs.
Atlanta Braves
Five straight losing seasons isn’t as hard to swallow when fans feel ownership is vested in the team and the community. Four straight seasons approaching 100 losses is tolerable when fan-favorite players who leave it all on the field are rewarded, not with riches, but with the loyalty and respect of the organization.
Fans who followed the team during the lean years in the 1970s and 1980s still had their heroes. Bob Horner, Dale Murphy, Phil Niekro, Rick Mahler and others were going to be there. There was never a question of “if they come back next year”.
It was still fun watching Horner blast dingers on a 90-loss team, or to watch Niekro’s knuckleball buckle the knees of hitters when there was no postseason in sight, and even with only 9,000 people in the stadium.
Yes, baseball is a business, but it’s also a romanticized pastime, where the fans are an integral part of the game like no other sport. Fans can’t be left out of the equation, or the structure will crumble.
In recent years, Braves fans have been completely discounted.
Braves fans have seen more negativity and ultimately questionable decision-making out of this team in the last four seasons than in the first 47 years the franchise called Atlanta home. Make all the jokes you like about some of Ted Turner‘s oddities, never before were the Braves wrapped up in a front office scandal as was seen during this past offseason.
The so-called rebuilding of the Braves farm system looks to have been as slickly and craftily (mis)handled as recruiting for a blueblood NCAA basketball program, with absolutely none of the stealthiness.
John Coppolella, the former Braves general manager who was looked at as a young and upcoming prodigy, turned out to be the scourge of MLB front offices everywhere, and someone who was willing to step on whatever throats were needed to reach his personal goals.
Cheating, in-fighting, disloyalty … this is not the Atlanta Braves who stole the hearts of America. This is not the franchise to whom fans pledged their undying loyalty. This is a dysfunctional front office at odds with fans and the best interests of the city.
The move from Turner Field to SunTrust Park only exacerbated an already growing fissure between the Braves and fans.
The new digs in suburban Cobb County – while filled with corporate perks and lots of eye candy – has yet to become a true home for fans. Many once-loyal followers of the team have yet to even cast their shadow inside the ballpark.
It feels like a structure and surroundings dedicated to consumerism rather than baseball.
It’s missing heart.
It’s missing soul.
And those things come from the fans, not from wifi connectivity, multiple bar areas or a mixed use retail plaza.
Ballpark bells and whistles be damned, Braves fans want to be able to cheer for and feel proud of this team, win or lose. They cheered for this team and even filled up dingy, dank Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium through a lot of losing seasons and some magical World Series runs. They reveled in the classic brick structure of Turner field and how it felt like a real city neighborhood baseball stadium.
Right now, SunTrust is viewed as merely an annoyance to commuters and a burden to those who pay property tax. An unnecessary expense plopped down into one of the most congested traffic areas of the city, filled with broken promises and the stench of backroom deals.
It’s going to be tough to create memories there without loyal fans.
The 14 consecutive division titles seems like an eternity ago. The 1995 World Series win is a distant memory after over 20 years. The Jim Leyritz crushing blow to Mark Wohlers‘ confidence and career is but a faded echo. The “Baby Braves” are all grown up now, and most completely out of the game, if not on the verge of retirement.
The Braves and their fans need a marriage counselor. Someone who can mend the wounds and bring the two sides together. Unfortunately, Ted Turner isn’t putting his name on the owner’s door anytime soon.
The new Braves regime has to get it right. Every member of the Braves front office – from the partners at Liberty Media on down – should sit down with a copy of former AJC columnist Jack Wilkinson’s book Game of my Life to get a feel for what this franchise really should mean to the people of Atlanta.
But spring training has arrived. Spring is a time of renewal, and it can be for the Atlanta Braves and its heartbroken fanbase. New heroes can emerge, and the romance can return if the front office will do the right things.
Liberty Media needs to finally come to the realization the Braves are more than just part of a portfolio, they represent a city and its people. They must embrace the fact that they bought a baseball team, not a stock option.
Braves management needs to turn away from attempting to fill seats with ill-conceived promotions and after-game concerts until they’ve regained the trust of the fans. Focus on baseball. Focus on community. Focus on making Atlanta love this team again.
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The wins will eventually come, but the same can’t always be said for fans and their feeling for a team. Somehow, some way, that feeling needs to come back. The city of Atlanta needs that love affair to be rekindled.