By STEVE DeSHAZO
WASHINGTON--Colin Mills isn't the reason the Washington Nationals' new ownership team is refurbishing RFK Stadium.
The Reston resident is the president of the Nationals' fan club and part of a die-hard group that waited three decades for baseball to return to the nation's capital.
But on behalf of the less fanatical, he appreciates the effort made by the team's new owners,
"There's a hard-core, solid base that would show up no matter where they played," Mills said yesterday. "They could play in a garbage dump in the middle of Southeast [Washington], and people would show up.
"But to get to the level of a highly successful team, you need 30-35,000 fans per night. You need to get the casual fans who would not necessarily think of going to games. And there are a number of people who consider RFK a drawback."
That's why Mills was pleased to hear of incoming team president Stan Kasten's plans to upgrade 45-year-old RFK Stadium, beginning with next weekend's series against the Chicago Cubs.
The team has dubbed it "Grand Re-Opening Weekend" and announced several upgrades during a press conference yesterday at the ESPN Zone in downtown Washington.
Kasten hopes the commitment will pacify fans until the Nationals move into their new Southeast D.C. park, scheduled to open in 2008.
"We've left no stone unturned to make the experience new and fresh, and to let the fans know that this ownership will put their experience at the top of the list," said Kasten, who expects Theodore Lerner's group to assume control of the team from Major League Baseball within the next week.
"We know RFK will always be RFK, and there are some limitations. The fan experience will never be what it's going to be at the new ballpark. But we've made every effort to make the fan experience at RFK the best it can be."
Mills loves RFK's sight lines, but he (like many fans) got tired of the long lines, overpriced food (with little variety) and the stadium's smell.
"Not to say RFK is the eighth wonder of the world. It doesn't need to be the eighth wonder of the world," he said "But it's old, broken-down, and the food is lousy."
The most significant changes are expected to come in concessions. The team announced a major expansion in both the number of stands and the variety of foods that will be available.
New menu items will include cheese steaks, bratwurst, Italian sausage and potato knishes. There will be three new grill locations, and the Capitol View Terrace will be converted to a multithemed food court.
"I was getting pretty tired of eating Dominic's hot dogs every night. That was the only thing that was halfway decent to eat, but you get tired of the same thing night after night after night," said Mills, who estimated he has attended roughly half of the Nationals' home games in the past 1 seasons.
"This is very exciting to me. If you're a vegetarian, there was almost nothing edible at RFK. If you don't like hot dogs, you're pretty much out of luck."
Besides the expanded menu, the Lerner-Kasten team plans several beautification touches outside the stadium, including new flower beds, light-pole banners and team-colored tennis court netting.
Inside, there will be an upgraded video board with new music. More numbers of more experienced ushers and vendors will be on hand. And the team has undertaken what Kasten called a "massive cleanup program."
"I think you'll notice a difference as soon as you walk into the ballpark," he said.
There will also be a "Fan Fest" outside the stadium for next weekend's games, with food and beverage vendors and interactive games for youths. The team will give away red caps on Friday, red T-shirts on Saturday and red towels on Sunday to commemorate "Paint the Town Red" weekend.
Perhaps most importantly, Kasten said the team will slash ticket prices for 2,000 upper-deck seats per game. One thousand seats that had sold for $11 will go for $5; 1,000 $7 seats will now cost $3.
"We want to make this the most affordable possible four hours you can spend," said Kasten, who has spent time walking the concourses and listening to fans' input since the Lerners won the right to buy the team in May.
Washington drew 2.7 million fans last season (an average of 33,728 per game), thanks in part to a team that stayed in the National League wild-card race until the final two weeks.
This year, with the Nationals (38-52) mired in last place in the NL East and the novelty wearing off, the average has dropped to 26,506--a projected 2.1 million.
Kasten, a former president of the Atlanta Braves, grew up in New Jersey, watching the Yankees draw roughly 1 million fans per season. But in the 21st century, with skyrocketing payrolls, that's not nearly enough to keep a team competitive.
"One million paid the freight, but it doesn't pay it anymore," Kasten said. "You need 2, 2, 3 million. You need seniors, kids and women--all kinds of demographics who are not traditional fans."
One of the Nats' traditional fans thinks the effort will pay off.
"These changes show that the ownership cares about doing right by the fans," Mills said. "This should help reconnect the team with the fans that tried it the first half of last season.
"It would have been easy enough to say, 'We're building a new stadium; hang on for a couple of years.' This shows they're listening to the fans."
To reach STEVE DeSHAZO:
Email: sdeshazo@freelancestar.com