The “ancients” in this case being me in 2006.
I denigrated the team’s plan to cut over-the-air games and I predicted scaling back free tickets to lesser games for good students would be eating the seed corn–diminishing their fan base for quick profit.
And, lo, twenty years later, the prophecies have proven true, and the Cardinals might be turning that ship around, but probably too late:
So far, so (largely) good with the Cardinals’ efforts to increase their television and streaming viewership levels.
The club has been experimenting this year with placing a handful of its locally produced games on over-the-air television after an absence of a decade and a half, and also is making all its local telecasts available for direct purchase via streaming for the first time.
The developments have led to significantly increased viewership and although the rise is not at blockbuster levels, an extreme bump seemed unlikely at a time of fan discontent with the team as evidenced by a significant downturn in home attendance even before the club’s recent slide.
To bad they sacrificed what might have been salvaged from that whole missing generation.
