First Half Standings and Attendance Recap

With the first half over, it's time to look at the standings and attendance to see how the Fireflies are doing. First, the standings:

North Division
	Team	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	AWAY
	Hagerstown Suns (WSH)	43	27	0.614	-	26-11	17-16
	Delmarva Shorebirds (BAL)	42	27	0.609	0.5	22-11	20-16
	Greensboro Grasshoppers (MIA)	38	32	0.543	5	19-16	19-16
	Hickory Crawdads (TEX)	38	32	0.543	5	16-17	22-15
	West Virginia Power (PIT)	35	34	0.507	7.5	19-16	16-18
	Lakewood BlueClaws (PHI)	29	40	0.42	13.5	18-19	11-21
	Kannapolis Intimidators (CWS)	24	46	0.343	19	10-25	14-21
South Division
	Team	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	AWAY
	Charleston RiverDogs (NYY)	42	27	0.609	-	23-13	19-14
	Greenville Drive (BOS)	37	32	0.536	5	19-16	18-16
	Augusta GreenJackets (SF)	36	34	0.514	6.5	19-15	17-19
	Columbia Fireflies (NYM)	36	34	0.514	6.5	16-18	20-16
	Asheville Tourists (COL)	34	35	0.493	8	19-15	15-20
	Rome Braves (ATL)	27	42	0.391	15	10-26	17-16
	Lexington Legends (KC)	25	44	0.362	17	12-20	13-24

Unfortunately our rivals, the Charleston RiverDogs, won the first half South Division title. Last time they did so was in 2005 which I believe was their first year as a Yankee affiliate, so they were bound to do so at some point. The Yankees aren'ta team that invests much in their minor league system, but they seem to have placed their prospects they do have in Class A more so than the Mets have. Fireflies have to win the second half to make the playoffs, or if Charleston also wins the second half then just have to overtake the Drive in the overall standings. We played 70 games, which most SAL teams did not playing 69 instead because baseball is a sport where you can just cancel a game and let it affect the standings as it did in the North Division where Hagerstown beat Delmarva by half a game. The Fireflies finished with a losing record at home but a winning record at home. So if there is a bright spot to playing two more games on the road than at home in the First Half race it's that it helped our team who can't seem to do well in Spirit Communications Park on a regular basis. Rome however was even weirder in that regard though, finishing a game above .500 on the road but playing extremely poorly in NW Georgia going 10-26 at home. The Fireflies' comeback win in Asheville allowed the Fireflies to finish right in the middle of the standings at 36-34 for whatever it's worth. Now here's a look at the attendance:

Team	Average	Rank	Capacity	Percent Capacity	Rank
Greensboro Grasshoppers	5,037	1	7,499	67.17%	3
Lakewood BlueClaws	4,937	2	8,000	61.71%	4
Greenville Drive	4,817	3	5,700	84.51%	1
Charleston RiverDogs	4,362	4	6,000	72.70%	2
Columbia Fireflies	3,747	5	7,501	49.95%	11
Lexington Legends	3,721	6	6,994	53.20%	8
Delmarva Shorebirds	3,157	7	5,200	60.71%	6
Augusta GreenJackets	2,727	8	4,822	56.55%	7
Rome Braves	2,607	9	5,105	51.07%	9
Asheville Tourists	2,462	10	4,000	61.55%	5
West Virginia Power	2,249	11	4,500	49.98%	10
Hickory Crawdads	2,230	12	5,062	44.05%	12
Kannapolis Intimidators	1,544	13	4,700	32.85%	13
Hagerstown Suns	1,094	14	4,600	23.78%	14

Those attendance numbers still aren't great. Considering the cost of going to a game is much cheaper than Charleston (or USC games for that matter), the Fireflies need to be averaging somewhere between 500 and 1,000 better for their first season. The team was hoping to do even better in averaging over 5,000, which was probably an unrealistic goal. I think the marketing goal of relying on group outings may not be the best, as a lot of those fans in groups may not be interested in coming back. The Fireflies sold out opening night, now they need to cultivate repeat customers. The Fireflies however are still crushing the old Bombers in attendance as well as the recent Sand Gnat teams in Savannah, which meets the minimum expectations. That said the current team in Savannah, the Bananas of the CPL, are also crushing the old Sand Gnats in attendance. But Savannah also has a smaller stadium and the CPL has fewer games. Based on percentage of capacity filled which I included in this chart, the Fireflies are doing fairly poorly at 49.95%, 4th worst in the SAL (though just 0.03% behind West Virginia). That said the reason you build bigger stadiums is to get better attendance, which gives the Fireflies an edge over teams like Asheville. And I also like having space as a fan. To be honest Firefly games would be less pleasant to go to if we had 4,000 season ticket holders and averaged over 6,000 fans per game. My biggest problem with going to USC games across town is that they more often than not sellout the regular chair seats with only bleachers and berm left over in the outfield. The fact that you can get an affordable infield seat on a nightly basis makes the Fireflies more enjoyable. So if the ownership group is happy, then I'm happy. The only thing that remains to be seen is if Hardball Capital is happy with the numbers so far.