Williams reiterates effects of home attendance
By Adam Berry / MLB.com | 05/28/12 4:30 PM ET

ST. PETERSBURG -- General manager Ken Williams gave a simple answer Monday afternoon when asked whether he'd like to see more people at U.S. Cellular Field.

"The answer to that is, 'Yes.' Who wouldn't?" Williams said. "It's our crowd. When they show up en masse, they create a lot of energy. I don't know if they truly realize the effect that can have on a club on a day-to-day basis -- that energy, that electricity, that extra little push is a heck of an advantage when you have that kind of support.

"Absent of that, we'll just keep trying to go through our day-to-day grind and hopefully at some point in time, we'll get people's attention."


Following a 5-1 homestand, during which the club put up outstanding offensive numbers, the White Sox ranked 27th in the Majors in attendance, ahead of only the A's, Rays and Indians, with an average home crowd of 20,662.

While Williams first noted the effect a big crowd can have on the field, he admitted attendance figures could also impact how the front office approaches the July 31 Trade Deadline.

"Every day that you don't fill the seats, at least to a greater degree than we are, is a day that it hurts. But we've been able to find ways creatively over the years to try to improve the team. It's just par for the course, I guess," Williams said. "That's nothing that's going to stop the creative juices from flowing to try to get something done.

"People have to understand sometimes that if you can't monetarily make something work, sometimes you have to do it with a greater cost to your talent. We've had to do that sometimes over the years. It's not something that we terribly are comfortable with, but it is what it is."

Does KW own a mirror?

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Jesse Jackson knows shakedowns. Kenny is no Jesse Jackson. Everything Kenny said is true.

_________________
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

If you dont show up and buy tickets, we wont try and win this year


I think that qualifies as a Shakedown

Good for Kenny.

"The more money we make" = "The more money we can spend". Makes sense to me.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Seems kinda like a small market move to me.

Certainly not a team from a major market like Chicago

The White Sox have to act like a small market when 2/3rds of the city is for another team.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

He does this every year. Come see our team and if you dont we will trade everyone at the deadline and be shitty for the second half. This shouldnt even be a story anymore, it is more a sign of summer arriving than Memorial Day.

_________________

Huge BigFan vibe.

That's not a shakedown. That's reality.
He didn't say they wouldn't try. He said the would be restricted. Again, reality.

_________________
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

I guess so.

How much money would be made in extra tickets being sold between now and July 31st?

_________________

Id say about a 4th starter's worth

Yes I am now writing for MLB under the name Adam Berry.

_________________
"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

You truly are a talented man.

I heard the interview. I forget who asked the question but he was clearly trying to bait Kenny into blasting the fans for not coming out. Kenny didn't bite. He simply said it would be nice to have the place full every night. That isn't really saying anything at all, is it? Then the guy followed up by trying to get Kenny to say the Sox couldn't add players if the attendance didn't go up. He didn't do that either. He simply said he's always been creative and that if he feels the Sox need something he'll do his best to get it. No controversy at all.

I don't want to hear guys like Spiegel and Goff who get free tickets ordering anyone to go to a game or trying to figure out people's finances for them. People have the right to do what they want. It's on the Sox to provide something people want to see, not on the fan to make a sacrifice for the team.

A guy called in today and pointed out that he's a regular fan who goes to the games but when the World Series came around, he couldn't get a ticket. bernstein's take on that is "Too bad, I'm sorry you're poor". The team can do what it wants, but it has to realize that so can the fan. It seems pretty obvious to me that the rich guy rushing in to buy up the postseason tickets is NEVER coming except those occasions. So now they want the regular guy who they pissed off to come to these empty games against the Royals? Fuck you! Go harrass Jim Belushi and John Cusack. Maybe they'll come.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

CSFMB Sox outing... Kenny needs this to happen...

_________________
team Mully & Hanley
team Meatpants

I'll be there 6/7 if anybody wants to meet up.

That shit annoys me too. They're telling me I'm a bad fan, while they sit for free in their prime scout seats.

_________________
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

Where have we heard this before?

I am with Reason here. Sox fans should be ashamed. Kenny went on a spending binge a few years ago, and not enough people showed up. Now the team is playing well, and the crowds are sparse. What does he have to do to get a consistent crowd.....he can't spend money the team doesn't have.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

White Sox radio voice Ed Farmer always mentions TICKETS SOLD when giving attendance for every individual game, but even I was surprised & disappointed that Sox fans didn't exactly fill U.S. Cellular Field over the weekend to watch these Sox sweep the first-place Indians. Folks, even though Cleveland is a first place team by just 1/2 game, guess what? The Indians aren't exactly a box office draw either and closer Chris Perez did the same thing last week.

I hope you have 2 editors and 2 proofreaders.

_________________

The difference between this year's team and last year's team...The team a year ago was supposed to be "ALL IN" and was supposed to contend from the getgo. There were no such expectations this year for White Sox fans to "Appreciate the Game" and Robin Ventura's managerial style in his first season on the job. In plain English, Sox fans are still very skeptical this team is ANY good.

the sox choked in late 2010, sucked ass in 2011. now they win 10 of 12 and they're supposed to be selling out? that's not how it works for sox fans.

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

And then your team becomes a seller. That's fine. I still watch and listen to Cubs games and will go to them as well. I know that makes me a lemming. Sorry I like (bad ) baseball, and the Cubs are my team.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Don't ask me why I was watching, but I was watching the NESN feed of Tigers/Red Sox during a rain delay at Fenway Park last night on the "MLB Extra Innings" package. Peter Gammons, the Hall-of-Fame scribe from the Boston Globe, MLB Network/NESN analyst & regular Friday mornings on The SCORE's "Mully & Hanley" morning show, was talking about the upcoming July 31st Trade Deadline as a "seller's market". He believes that a team like the Cubs, for instance, will get a lot in return for Matt Garza, who could very well be the kind of player that helps a pennant contender go far into October.