Wednesday, April 4

Hyperbole, Meet Graph

"While the Mariners successfully co-exist with the Seahawks and Sounders in the adjacent CenturyLink Field, Lincoln notes that an NBA arena will need to host 200 or more events a year to be financially viable and would thus dramatically change the road and parking situation in an already-congested area."

(via Pravda)

Graph below shows scheduling of hypothetical NBA, NHL, and MLB teams in Seattle. Dates used for NHL are from the Vancouver Canucks in 2010-11, the OKC Ahem in 2010-11, the Seattle Mariners for April 2012 and the Texas Rangers for October 2011 (playoff data for Mariner games is slightly outdated).


Note that in the entire calendar year, there was one date (April 13) where a regular season Mariner game overlapped a regular season NBA game and no cases where a regular season MLB game overlapped a regular season NHL game. Note that there were six instances - in total - where a regular season/post-season MLB game overlapped a regular season/post-season NBA/NHL game.

In other words, in a typical season where the Mariners miss the playoffs and the NBA/NHL teams leave by the second round, we're talking about three or four days a year where a scheduling snafu might arise.

Not exactly 200, but, then, why let the truth get in the way?

3 comments:

GU said...

From the stuff I've read and/or heard on the radio, I think the concern from the Mariner brass is more about those non-NBA/NHL events that would be in the new arena (concerts and such).

Regardless, thanks for the graph. There is much less actual crossover than I would have guessed.

Anonymous said...

I understand that the M's would be concerned about concerts, but even if you include non-NBA/NHL events into the equation, the math still doesn't add up. Here's a list of the maximum number of dates necessary in a calendar year, assuming all four teams advance to the playoffs, and assuming multiple pre-season games for the NHL and NBA teams.

M's home games: 85
Sounders home games: 25 (?)
Seahawk home games: 12
NBA home games: 55
NHL home games: 55

TOTAL: 232 days

That leaves more than 130 days EACH YEAR for religious festivals, Bon Jovi concerts, and Democratic Presidential Nomination Conventions. I just don't see how in the world the Mariners can justify their objections using traffic as the reason. I'm pretty sure that there are two real reasons for the M's to object:

1. They are concerned about market share
2. They want better infrastructure surrounding Safeco Field, and feel that by acting like assholes now, they can cave in later and appear conciliatory after they get their pound of flesh

Just really lame no matter how you slice it.

Peter said...

They could also have the summer concerts when the m's are in the road. The same thing you would do when you have concerts in the nba and NHL seasons.