Washington Nationals Tickets

Washington Nationals Tickets

The Washington Nationals are a baseball team based in Washington, DC and are members of the Eastern Division of the National League of the MLB. Their name comes from the former baseball team of the same name (sometimes also referred to as the Senators). Their nickname is the Nats, which was also used by older baseball teams.

The club was originally created in Montreal, Quebec in 1969. Then called the Montreal Expos, they were the first major league baseball team in Canada. The team was purchased by the MLB in 2002. For the 2005 season they were relocated to DC and renamed the Nationals.

The team's move was dependent on a financing plan for a new stadium. This was controversial at the time since many residents felt the multi-million dollar subsidy given to a private sports concern could have been better spent on schools and hospitals. At the time a survey showed that over two thirds of residents were opposed to the planned Nationals stadium.

Given the history of other baseball franchises in the capital many doubted whether a team was viable in the state; in fact, many thought that Montreal would be a better market for a professional baseball team. However the MLB did not harbor any such doubts arguing that the failure of previous franchises had more to do with poor financial management than on a lack of support for baseball.

Some analysts argue that the capital may be a poor choice of cities for a baseball team because of its primarily African-American population while others say that this is a less important factor today than it was in the 1960s. Nonetheless, the Washington Nationals only finished in the first half of the American League for attendance numbers in only 9 out of 71 seasons which is the worst record of any team in MLB history that has played for more than two seasons

Nationals Tickets