Finebaum - "The LSU passion for baseball is really unmatched anywhere in the SEC"

[HSVDawg]

Nashville also has a lot more entertainment options than Baton Rouge and they have a AAA team in a newly renovated stadium. If you are a casual baseball fan and you want to take the family out for an evening and watch a game- would you expect fans to choose a modern state of the art stadium with pro baseball players most of whom have at least played in MLB before. Or a small ballpark with some asshole constantly whistling the entire game?

If you are in Baton Rouge and you want to take the family out for an evening and go to a game your options are LSU, driving several hours to Houston, or driving an hour and a half to NOLA for AAA baseball.

First, Nashville and the surrounding area has enough people to fill up 3 AAA stadiums, all the bars / restaurants, every westen karaoke bar on Broadway, Bridgestone Arena for a Preds game or concert, and a 6000-7000 seat SEC college baseball stadium (if such a stadium existed for Vandy) every Friday and Saturday night and still have plenty of folks left over. There is not a limiting factor of population in that area for any activity.

Secondly, whether or not a AAA team with a "nice stadium and atmosphere" exists for the casual baseball fan is totally irrelevant to this discussion. If we are talking about most passionate fans, then why would it need to even be addressed if there are other options for casual fans? Fact is that Vandy has been a Top 5 program for probably 15 years now with a natty to boot, and have been either the best SEC team or second best SEC team (behind only USC) over that period depending on the metrics that you use. They play in the middle of a huge city within walking distance to everything in the Broadway / West End area. They have every reason to be able to pull a minimum of 7-8k per game if their stadium held that many people. Yet, they play in a cracker box and are lucky to even fill it up with 1500-2000 fans for an SEC Fri / Sat game. Nobody cares.

The whole overall point is you can't create a large passionate fanbase with a big city, you can't create it just by winning (looking at you, Vandy and UF), you can't create it by building a nice shiny new stadium, and you can't even create it by combining all of those things. It takes something extra. State, LSU, and probably USC all have it. The rest of the SEC is playing catch up.