| Midwest League | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Division | |||||
| Team | Affiliate | W | L | PCT | |
| South Bend | Cubs | 31 | 20 | 0.608 | |
| West Michigan | Tigers | 29 | 19 | 0.604 | |
| Lake County | Indians | 30 | 22 | 0.577 | |
| Fort Wayne | Padres | 28 | 25 | 0.528 | |
| Lansing | Blue Jays | 26 | 24 | 0.52 | |
| Bowling Green | Rays | 26 | 25 | 0.51 | |
| Great Lakes | Dodgers | 22 | 28 | 0.44 | |
| Dayton | Reds | 13 | 39 | 0.25 | |
| West Division | |||||
| Team | Affiliate | W | L | PCT | |
| Cedar Rapids | Twins | 29 | 22 | 0.569 | |
| Peoria | Cardinals | 27 | 24 | 0.529 | |
| Clinton | Mariners | 26 | 24 | 0.52 | |
| Beloit | Athletics | 25 | 26 | 0.49 | |
| Kane County | Diamondbacks | 25 | 26 | 0.49 | |
| Burlington | Angels | 24 | 27 | 0.471 | |
| Wisconsin | Brewers | 24 | 28 | 0.462 | |
| Quad Cities | Astros | 22 | 28 | 0.44 | |
| South Atlantic League | |||||
| North Division | |||||
| Team | Affiliate | W | L | PCT | |
| Hagerstown | Nationals | 32 | 19 | 0.627 | |
| Hickory | Rangers | 29 | 21 | 0.58 | |
| Delmarva | Orioles | 28 | 21 | 0.571 | |
| West Virginia | Pirates | 27 | 24 | 0.529 | |
| Greensboro | Marlins | 26 | 26 | 0.5 | |
| Kannapolis | White Sox | 20 | 31 | 0.392 | |
| Lakewood | Phillies | 20 | 32 | 0.385 | |
| South Division | |||||
| Team | Affiliate | W | L | PCT | |
| Charleston | Yankees | 30 | 20 | 0.6 | |
| Asheville | Rockies | 26 | 24 | 0.529 | |
| Columbia | Mets | 27 | 25 | 0.519 | |
| Greenville | Red Sox | 26 | 25 | 0.51 | |
| Augusta | Giants | 25 | 26 | 0.49 | |
| Lexington | Royals | 21 | 31 | 0.404 | |
| Rome | Braves | 20 | 32 | 0.385 |
Now here is a look at all 30 Class A teams by attendance, with a
note on each:
1. Dayton
7,562
The Dragons have sold out every game since
opening their stadium in 2000, a far longer streak than what the Fireflies did
to start. It's actually kind of scary that there is a community that devoted to Minor League Baseball.
It would be interesting to know if Dayton fans are better than MiLB fans
generally, which wouldn't take much. That said, the Dragons aren't selling out
the berm much this year (which they don't count as part of their sellout
streak). That's probably partly because it's early, and also in part because
the Dragons have been pretty terrible this year.
2. Fort Wayne 5,283
Fort Wayne is also owned by Hardball
Capital, and Spirit Communications Park was modeled off Fort Wayne's stadium.
This is what Columbia leaders had in mind for the Fireflies when devloping the
team and stadium. But so far the Fireflies have lagged far below Fort Wayne in
attendance. Not sure what the problem has been for the Fireflies as far as why
Fort Wayne has been able to sell themselves better with the same owner.
3. Greenville 4,892
The Drive have done better in attendance than Mississippi, the AA team that took their team for Greenville forcing Greenville to steal a team from Columbia. The Class A team has done a lot better than the AA team in attendance, which is kind of weird. Is Fluor Field really that much better than Greenville Municipal? I think it comes down to marketing, which the AA team was behind in while the Class A team has been more aggressive in its approach.
4. Greensboro 4,883
When I went to school at High Point I
routinely attended Grasshopers games, who seem to exaggerate their crowds. But
Greensboro is one of the biggest cities in Class A, so you would expect them
high on this list. Supposedly Bank of the Week Park was built to be expandable
to AAA standards, but trying to get an IL team would be a stretch. The AA
Southern League would have been more realistic until they pulled out of the
region and are almost exclusively a Gulf South league now.
5. Lakewood
4,752
The BlueClaws, at the northeastern edge of
the SAL in New Jersey, are usually the attendance kings of the SAL. Lakewood
isn't a big city, but the Jersey Shore is densely populated and not too close
to New York for the MLB teams to get in the way. Their attendance woes are
probably because northern teams tend to struggle in that regard until the
summer solstice. They could very well still lead the SAL in attendance again by
the end of the season. While they are very far away from here, it's somewhat
too bad that the Fireflies and BlueClaws don't play at all this year given
Lakewood's poor record.
6. Kane County 4,405
Kane County, in the suburbs of Chicago, started the awful trend in the 1990s of suburban counties feeling entitled to a second (or third) professional team in their market. And yet the Cougars are a Diamondbacks team! The Cubs never affiliate with them in order to grow their reach in other Midwest League cities, and the White Sox seem to like having a base of teams in North Carolina. Kane County always does well in attendance, just because there are enough fans priced out of making regular trips to the big city 30 miles to the east.
7. Charleston
4,366
Not the city in West Virginia, but our
hated rivals to the south. Unlike most teams, Charleston's attendance at Joe
Riley Park continues to slowly inch upward every year. Joe Riley Park is even
outdated by MiLB standards, having a large amount of bleacher seating and a
concourse that isn't very fan-friendly. Apparently sound effects every pitch,
exorbitantly high ticket prices (about 50 percent higher than the Fireflies),
and obnoxiously little detail to the game except Yankees Yankees Yankees has a
lot of appeal fans, at least to the drunks who seem to fill the stadium
nightly. It really stinks that these guys are on the verge of running away with
the SAL South First Half title. The Yankees are going to have some players they
will want to trade for older guys now.
8. South Bend 4,087
Now here is where the Cubs put their Class A team in order to take hold of the Indiana market. The marketing with the Cubs seems to work in South Bend, which has a relatively older stadium (built in 1988). South Bend is best known for being the home of Notre Dame, but the minor league team outdraws the Irish baseball team which has occasionally been successful in the past. But Notre Dame still provides year-round competition in the sports market so they can be seen as a model for college cities like Columbia.
9. Columbia
3,768
And here we are, 9th out of 30 in
attendance! Now that's not so bad is it? But we should be high less than two months into opening the stadium. The attendance goals of the team translated into about 5300 per game, which no SAL team is currently on pace for right now and only two Midwest League teams are (with one only barely so). As I've said before, I hope Hardball Capital doesn't take out their own problems on Columbia like they did with Savannah. In the end, I think the Fireflies may end up like Bowling Green (another newly built stadium in a college town) or Augusta. Lexington may be a best case scenario unfortunately. But as long as the stadium is popular and gets good use, all should be well as least for the remainder of the 2010s.
10. Lexington 3,657
Now here is Lexington, a successful Class A team that has been around 15 years now which like Columbia has a SEC team in town. UK isn't one of the more successful SEC programs historically, but they are still in the SEC and Lexington supports all of its teams very well just like Columbia does with USC. This should be the Fireflies' model of success.
11. West Michigan 3,643
West Michigan is in the suburbs of Grand Rapids, one of the largest metro areas in Class A and one that is often forgotten outside the Midwest. The Whitecaps get good community support from throughout the area and market their Tigers affiliation well. It is also a very large stadium for Class A, seating over 10K which makes it comparable to a AAA stadium. This helps maximize crowds on nights with good attendance.
12. Lansing 3,600
Lansing has a major college team in its suburbs in Michigan State, though the Big Ten generally lags behind the rest of the P5 in baseball. Overall the Lugnuts do very well as the chief baseball team in Central Michigan, which typically waits for warm weather before they come out.
13. Delmarva 3,107
The Shorebirds when they debuted in the mid-1990s were one of Class A's biggest draws. Eastern Maryland is a bit isolated from the inland parts of the Mid-Atlantic, so having a baseball team that feeds into the Orioles is a really big deal. Over the past 20 years the Shorebirds have faded somewhat in popularity, but are still doing as well as realistically possible in one of the SAL's smallest markets.
14. Quad Cities 3,007
There are many teams in the Midwest League in eastern Iowa and Quad Cities is by far the most successful, in part because having four cities as their name suggests produces a better attendance base than their rivals do. The stadium is on the Mississippi River, which helps out for scenery (and marketing) but also leaves the River Bandits prone to flooding.
15. Peoria 2,875
Now we're reaching the classic minor league baseball markets, which we could see Columbia slide into after the novelty of Spirit Communications Park wears off. Peoria has some competition from mid-major sports in Bradley with Illinois State not too far away either but the Chiefs are chief in baseball for this part of Illinois. The Cubs and Cardinals have both over the years affiliated with Peoria as this is a market those two have to fight for.
16. Wisconsin 2,778
Wisconsin is located in suburban Appleton, and takes hold of the northeastern Wisconsin market including a NFL city in Green Bay (though GB itself has a college summer league team). Without much college baseball in the region, the Timber Rattlers have to do.
17. Augusta 2,772
The Fireflies' closest rival even though they are out of state. They soon may be in this state however as they are pushing for a new stadium in North Augusta. These actions are what turn fans off to pro sports, as the GreenJackets have a perfectly nice 22-year old stadium with respectable attendance numbers.
18. Rome 2,741
The Braves have a tendency to move their affiliates around for their own marketing of the MLB team, and the R-Braves are no exception having moved from Rome to Macon a little under 15 years ago. Even my own town of Sumter once had this franchise! Rome is a bit small for a new MiLB market but the Braves serve it well, though their location away from I-75 prevents people from the NW Atlanta suburbs from possible checking them out.
19. Bowling Green 2,718
Another potential model for the Fireflies, as Bowling Green is a college town (though WKU's baseball popularity isn't exactly USC's) and the Hot Rods are being used as part of urban revitalization as Columbia is hoping the Fireflies will bring. But Bowling Green is a much smaller town which is why their attendance numbers haven't knocked it out of the park since opening about 8 years ago now. BG is basically the low bar for the Fireflies to try to reach.
20. Lake County 2,273
A classic suburban team whose bubble has burst, similar to Gwinnett in AAA. The Captains were successful upon opening about a dozen years ago in the NE suburbs of Cleveland. But trying to be a cheaper version of the Indians isn't going to cut it in the long term, especially when trying to appeal to the rich people Cleveland lacks is futile. Perhaps the Captains should be a warning to owners looking to seek suburban markets, but greed will always prevail.
21. Asheville 2,221
Asheville has a simple, yet nice ballpark and a mid-sized market. And they perfectly happy with that, and don't clamor for a modern ballpark to boost their consistently below average attendance numbers. And you know what? That's great. We need more Minor League Baseball teams to behave like the Tourists do.
22. Hickory 2,201
Like Delmarva, Hickory was a small market success story in the mid-1990s. Lately they have been trying to scrape by avoiding the bottom tier of the SAL in attendance. The Crawdads are still a valuable part of the Western NC Piedmont community, yet seem to be now more of a small-town team. But that is also perfectly fine, as while the stadium is only 23 years old it fits in with the roots of Minor League Baseball.
23. West Virginia 2,105
West Virginia got a boost when they built a new stadium 11 years ago, but their attendance has slipped back to that of the old Charleston Alley Cats. It's why building a new stadium isn't a long-term solution to attendance problems. That may be an issue affecting the Fireflies in comparing them to the Capital City Bombers, but once again it comes down to marketing which separates teams like Greenville from teams like West Virginia (which is also a fairly small market for being located in the state's biggest city).
24. Great Lakes 1,904
Not good attendance numbers, but they are one of the northern most Class A teams so can't count them out yet as the weather will get better there (and worse here of course). They are not too far from Midland Berryhill, one of the most successful programs in American Legion Baseball. Not sure if they have the power to draw away from the Loons or not.
25. Cedar Rapids 1,842
Cedar Rapids is a mid-sized city in Iowa with a decent stadium. Again like Great Lakes, I expect their attendance to rise faster than the SAL parks come summer. But Cedar Rapids is sort of like Hickory in the SAL, decent tradition and support from the region but a bit small to be a giant in attendance stats.
26. Clinton 1,555
That number looks terrible but again it's early and actually respectable considering Clinton is one of the smallest markets in Minor League Baseball above Rookie League. It's a small town team, so if they are content being one then these numbers work.
27. Kannapolis 1,543
They always have struggled somewhat in attendance, even when they debuted as the Piedmont Boll Weevils in the mid-1990s. I was skeptical of their ability to stay afloat when the AAA Knights moved from Fort Mill to downtown Charlotte located only about 25 miles SW of Kannapolis. And that might have taken a toll as they struggle to carve out a niche as the team of Charlotte's NE suburbs. They are trying to get a new stadium, which if successful could give them a boost at least on a temporary basis. If that falls through, they could become the next SAL team to relocate.
28. Hagerstown 1,013
That's actually not down from recent years particularly, the Suns have just drawn that bad. It really hurts when you state your intent to move to Fredericksburg, Virginia, only for that new stadium's plans to fall through. It's why Hardball Capital always acted like Savannah could salvage its team when Spirit Communications Park was being built to lure them away. Savannah's final attendance numbers didn't plummet as bad as Hagerstown's has. Hopefully something will work out for somebody, either for Hagerstown or Fredericksburg.
29. Burlington 746
The Bees might draw less than Burlington in North Carolina which is in the Appalachian League. Like Clinton, Burlington is in a very small town but has an even more outdated stadium which my dad 60 years ago as a batboy for a traveling Colt League all-star team went to. It's impressive that they still have Minor League Baseball.
30. Beloit 590
Really? Less than 600 fans per game? Even in a small town in southern Wisconsin that sounds absurdly low for Minor League Baseball. The Snappers have been trying to improve their stadium situation, and if those numbers stay where they are I don't see them staying. That would be a pretty bad attendance number for a college summer league team, much less Class A professional baseball.
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