This is a team that was built to win in the now in 2011 and signed some high priced contracts. That team absolutely failed down the stretch and the FO and coaching staff was blown up.
They brought in Bobby V to right the ship in 2012, but that only alienated all of the players and brought them to a .500 record at the AS break. They decided to completely blow up that team with a ridiculous trade to the Dodgers.
The next year, they made some shrewd short term moves and struck lightning in a bottle with Koji and Papi in October. Those two should have statues outside of Fenway for eternity.
In 2014, they brought back the WS team and struggled due to age, injury and other factors. When the team needed replacements, the upper farm system was barren so they wound up in last place again and fans stopped watching after the team gave up on the season with the Lester trade.
In 2015, they brought in some high profile free agents who promptly s*** the bed and struggled from April on. By the time Farrell was sick and replaced by Lovullo, that majority of fans were sick of the middling baseball and stopped watching. The kids put up a good fight down the stretch but still wound up in last place due to a lack of pitching.
In 2016, they come back with largely the same team except that they brought in a guy to finally replace Lester. I'm not sure why the common fan would be excited about this considering the recent track record. Most normal people (i.e. not obsessives like us) have little to no idea who Travis Shaw is. Another year of suckitude would wreck the bottom line (attendance would be down, concessions would be down, viewership would be down), which is arguably more important to ownership than winning. They want to field a competitive team today and it's hard to blame them for that...