Standings and Attendance Through July 5

Here is the updated SAL Standings through last night:

Team	Affiliate	W	L	PCT	GB
Northern Division
Hagerstown*	Nationals	50	33	0.602	--
Delmarvra	Orioles	48	34	0.585	1.5
Greensboro**	Marlins	48	35	0.578	2
Hickory	Rangers	43	40	0.518	7
West Virginia	Pirates	42	40	0.512	7.5
Lakewood	Phillies	34	48	0.415	15.5
Kannapolis	White Sox	32	51	0.386	18
Southern Division
Charleston*	Yankees	47	34	0.580	--
Augusta**	Giants	44	39	0.530	4
Greenville	Red Sox	42	39	0.519	5
Asheville	Rockies	41	41	0.500	6.5
Columbia	Mets	40	43	0.482	8
Rome	Braves	34	48	0.415	13.5
Lexington	Royals	31	51	0.378	16.5

* = First Half Champion
**= leads Second Half

As I've mentioned before, it unfortunately looks like baseball at Spirit Communications Park will be taking a long hiatus after Labor Day. This could give the Fireflies and the City of Columbia time to shop Spirit Communications Park for other uses such as football games which would be weird to see in a baseball stadium. Right now I just want to see the team's .425 winning percentage at home catch up with the .535 winning percentage on the road.

Now let's look at the attendance numbers:

1. Greensboro 5,195
2. Lakewood 5,101
3. Greenville 4,859
4. Charleston 4,405
5. Lexington 3,975
6. Columbia 3,939
7. Delmarva 3,190
8. Augusta 2,660
9. Rome 2,611
10. Asheville 2,567
11. West Virginia 2,270
12. Hickory 2,240
13. Kannapolis 1,636
14. Hagerstown 1,188

The good news? Thanks to overselling the stadium on the 4th, the Fireflies' attendance average is by about 150 from recent weeks. The bad news? Lexington got more weekend games near the 4th to pass us in attendance, meaning the Fireflies are now 6th of 14 SAL teams and barely above the league average. With that said, I don't see any of the 8 teams below the Fireflies catching up this season in attendance. The Fireflies said they were shooting for 375,000 fans on the season and are on pace for just over 275,000. Anything above 300,000 seems unrealistic at this point. I just hope that the Midlands are3n't punished for failing to meet a quota that was probably unrealistic to begin with.