The Washington Nationals are once again hosting a series of post-game concerts during the summer, with a lineup featuring Plain White T’s, Austin Mahone and Martina McBride.

The concert games are an extra level of fun, but for the second year in a row the artists involved aren’t exactly high on my list.  My brother agrees.  He sent me a chart that’s been going around the Internet in the past few weeks showing the fees certain artists get for doing shows, which of course gives me the opportunity to re-imagine what the NatsLive series could be.

First, let’s take a historical look to figure out what sort of budget the team is using.  Here are the acts from 2012-2014, with the lowest end of the prices from the chart (which several articles note may be inflated):

So it seems like we’re basically working with $200,000 and three concert dates.  Obviously the team wants to attract people to buy tickets to the game, and ideally wants those who otherwise wouldn’t be coming that night or perhaps not even attend a game all season.  My brother and I have discussed the optimal mix of acts to achieve this goal, and we think you want a rock band that appeals to people 25-40, a country-ish artist, and some sort of up-and-comer, perhaps more on the pop side who skews younger.

With all that in mind, I threw together three lineups I think would achieve those goals within that budget:

I think 311, Incubus and Paramore would be KILLER in this concert format.  The best one I’ve seen so far was Third Eye Blind, and each of those bands would easily do just as well at Nats Park, and likely better.

Of course we don’t know how much the Nats are actually spending, and there’s the huge question of availability.  There are a lot of music venues in the DC area, and if you have a tour swinging through in July, you’re not cannibalizing your audience by play Nats Park in August. 

That said, we can dream, right?