misterManager wrote:I've never been too sold that a new stadium is the universal cure for poor performance on the field.
Well..... yes and no.
Going back to the opening of the Skydome, omitting the Nats because there are too many variables with them (coming from Montreal/San Juan, spending time at RFK first), and also omitting the Rockies (also spent time at a football stadium first, the new ballpark wasn't "new" for the franchise so much as the franchise was new to the market)...
Anyway, with all of those qualifiers, the average bump for a team in a new ballpark since the Skydome opened is .003 pythag in their first 3 years compared to their last 3 years in their old park. It's .006 pythag across 5 years. In both cases, it's less than a win per season. Over 5 years, it's .972 of a win per season.
But here's the kicker. Back in the 90s, there was real ground to be made with a new ballpark. From 1990 to 2000, the average bump in the 3 year window was .034 and it was .038 over 5 years. That's 5.5 wins per season in the 3 year window, and 6.1 in the 5 year window. Cleveland, the Giants, the Mariners, the O's, and the White Sox were all huge success stories with anywhere from 8 to 26 more wins per year in their 3 year window compared to the old ballpark, and 6 to 19 in the 5 year window. Even the Braves- who had just won a World Series the year before moving into their new ballpark- got a light bump.
From 2001 on... different story. Only 3 teams (out of 10 with new ballparks) have seen a better pythag in either their 3 OR 5 year window... including the Cardinals, who got tons worse. The Cardinals had the worst 3 and 5 year window of any team post-new ballpark since 1990, and it's not even close. The average team since 2001 actually LOSES ground- 4.5 wins in the 3 year window and 4 in the 5 year window.
Now, obviously a lot of this is anecdotal. And the economics of the game have changed drastically since Baywatch filled the airwaves and Planet Hollywood reached its icy fingers across the country. So I don't mean to imply that "YES! Actually teams DO win more with a new ballpark!" But I do think it's fair to say that they used to win more with a new ballpark.