Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the position held by the front office of the baseball franchise?

Question

A minor league baseball franchise experienced a drop in attendance this week after they suffered three losses by margins of ten runs or more last week. Many spectators of those games wrote letters to the editors of the local sporting news, complaining of the poor play of the team in those three losses. Nevertheless, the front office of this baseball franchise maintains that the team’s poor play in those three losses has nothing to do with this week’s decline in attendance.
Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the position held by the front office of the baseball franchise?
(A) The spectators who wrote letters to the local sporting news were long-standing fans of this minor league baseball team.
(B) Many minor league baseball franchises attribute a drop in attendance to the quality of play of the team only after a string of losses.
(C) Other minor league teams in that region of the state reported a similar drop in attendance this week.
(D) This was not the first time this team suffered multiple lopsided losses in a single week, prompting similar letters to the local sporting news.
(E) This minor league team is over four hours from the closest major league team, so many of the minor league team’s fans do not often attend major league games.

Answer 1

       The front office of the baseball franchise dissociates the string of losses suffered by the team the previous week from the drop in attendance the following week. They do not attribute poor attendance to the three losses by a margin of 10 or more runs. They do term it poor play. Only they don't think the drop in attendance was because of that poor play.

 

       Choice C is correct. This choice states that other minor league teams also reported a similar drop in attendance thereby pointing to the possibility of a reason other than poor play for the drop in attendance. If other teams also suffered a similar drop in attendance, then the drop was the norm rather than the exception. The drop in attendance for the team need not necessarily have been caused by the poor performance. Therefore the argument of the front office is supported by this statement.  

 

       Choice A is wrong. If the spectators who wrote the letters were long standing fans of the team, that is no support for the contention of the front office that the drop in attendance was not because of poor play.   

 

       Choice B is wrong. If many minor league baseball franchises attribute drop in attendance only after a string of losses by their teams, it does not necessarily mean that all of them do. The team's franchise may be an exception. Moreover losses may not necessarily be because of poor play. A team could play very well and still lose matches. Unwillingness on the part of the franchises to call the quality of play as poor unless there is a string of losses is not the question here. The team's franchise already accepts the play as poor.

 

       Choice D. This answer states that the team had suffered similar losses before and that letters had been written to the local sporting news in those instances also. However, no support for the contention of the front office, that poor play had nothing to do with the drop in attendance, is found this statement. It is not known whether the similar losses and letters were followed by a drop in attendance as well.

 

       Choice E is incorrect. Whether the minor league team's fans attend major league games is immaterial to the argument of the front office that poor play was not the cause of the drop in attendance.