The Denver Post’s Troy E. Renck reports the Colorado Rockies have cancelled their annual Winter Caravan.
The caravan, abandoned and launched again a few years ago, canvassed the state and parts of Wyoming with coaches and players made available to sign autographs and answer questions about the upcoming season. Last winter, it was used to help familiarize fans with players at the core of the Gen-R marketing campaign, such as shortstop Clint Barmes, right fielder Brad Hawpe and catcher JD Closser.
“It’s not that our fans aren’t a priority, because they are,” Hurdle said. “We just wanted to devote all of our attention to the summit, to our goals. We had a lot of players get experience last year who are ready to take that next step.”
The Rockies drew 1,914,389 to Coors Field last season, over 400,000 fewer than in 2004, and ranked 14th out of 16 National League teams in home attendence. This is the same team that led the NL as recently as 1999, drawing nearly 3.5 million despite finishing last in their division.
I suppose it isn’t that the Rockies don’t see the need to reach out to their fans. They’re just having trouble finding enough of them to bother.