Northern League should expand and here are some examples

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MattyBVIP		#201	[-]
Posts: 19 (11-May-08 16:26:17) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	...Why Ypsi? ....If you are going in that direction, why not Ann Arbour? they are both college towns about 15mins apart and Ann Arbour is much bigger. (115,000 aposed to 22,000) you still seem to be drawing at straws beerbaron, the FL already has 3 teams in Michigan now, It seems more sensible for an owner in the Detroit ( SE michigan area) to want to be closer to those other franchises. Matt
sask1		#202	[-]
Posts: 43 ( 5-Jul-29 02:10:52) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	according to the www.ballparkdigest.com , if you read the article about simmy venting at the bottom it mentions the Northern league is scouting out Lakeville & Burnsville MN and also some where in Wisconsin.
JohnU11		#203	[-]
Posts: 224 (12-May-08 03:03:28) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	We seem to be laboring under the perception that America is craving still more minor league baseball. Is that true? Maybe we've maxxed it out. We are indeed a trendy nation and to invest millions in ballparks in places that may or may not want them is risky business. The last thing we need in Gary is another relic to a failed dream. I'd much prefer staying pat instead of expanding into areas that further deteriorate the league and the individual franchises. Teams that don't pay their bills are doomed. If somebody thought Ypsilanti was good for baseball, or had heard anybody agree with that idea, it would seem they'd be moving in that direction. It's not like the leagues aren't a known commodity by now. Terre Haute has been there for a couple of hundred years. They've had minor league ball in bygone years and certainly have heard of it. No team there would suggest something. Concrete doesn't get cheaper. I go to indy ball because I enjoy the night out. Having more teams in the league would do nothing to modify that.
beerbarons		#204	[-]
Posts: 106 (13-May-08 03:44:52) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	JohnU11, how many night outs can you have playing the same team 30 times in one season? Remember your NL team only has 5 other teams to play against. And who said anything about building new stadiums at the risk of pursueing a dream? I am only picking places that currently have stadiums.
beerbarons		#205	[-]
Posts: 107 (13-May-08 03:46:47) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	MattyBVIP I would not say grasping at straws. What I am doing is finding places with stadiums that do not have a pro team playing in them and taking their geographic location into play. I am also looking at the area and ballpark from Google earth.
nlfan	Burnsville? Lakeville?	#206	[-]
Posts: 5672 (13-May-08 05:41:54) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The BPD feature on Simi's rant about the decline (and fall?) of the NoL (was discussed here already). They add their own comments (completely in line with my own) about NoL expansion possibilities: Really, we don't know where the league can expand; Clark Griffith, whose role in the league has been scaled back to scouting out new territories, reportedly has been looking at Wisconsin and Minnesota (the southern suburbs of Burnsville and Lakeville, specifically) locales for a new ballpark. We don't see it happen: between the Northwoods League and the Midwest League, virtually every good market (except maybe the Milwaukee suburbs) is occupied. Lakeville's been discussed before in these forums before (though those threads are gone).... fuhgeddabowdit. The Milwaukee suburbs were pretty well clobbered when Waukeshaw turned down the efforts there. And short of a "sweetheart deal," the FL will be hard to keep away from the table. As for the latest crazi-ness: Yes guys, America still likes minor league baseball and it is still expanding... No town "needs" baseball clubs. They want them and are willing to work to draw them into them. The proof is all over BPD with their reviews and announcements about the many new ones in the works. "Yes," there is a craving for more minor baseball in the U.S. --it is still our "national pastime" unlike Canada-- and the efforts are there to see. The growth is "slowing" in some areas like the GCL where there wasn't enough to sustain it, but there remain areas that lack inexpensive baseball options since MLB tickets currently run 3-10 times that of an indy league ticket. Wichita shows another side of the equation where a community that's had a MiLB club is valued enough to replace it with indy. Michigan options... Ugh... Detroit has been discussed many times. Pontiac was even set up with a franchise providing they came up with a facility in 2000 --I personally asked Miles Wolff about it during the 2000 NoL championships in Duluth. We discussed Michigan options here in 2003, and 2005 when Clinton, Holland and South Bend were brought up, and again in 2007 with Port Huron. I hope that those links alone would help people realize how old these expansion options are and how little has (ever) come of them for the NoL.
cra218		#207	[-]
Posts: 393 (14-May-08 04:35:27) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	and back to more mrbillness of "they want them and are willing to work to draw (give away the farm) them in" . as for michigan options that you mentioned pontiac / oakland county will probably get a team in 09', port huron wont back a hockey team in an existing arena and holland would get its $$$ butt handed to them via the west michigan whitecaps Last Edited By: cra218 16-May-08 18:10:42. Edited 1 times.
JohnU11		#208	[-]
Posts: 235 (14-May-08 04:58:19) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	My nights out at the ball park are pretty much limited to 10 or so over the course of the summer, if I am lucky. I do get into a JackHammers game every so often with my pal. So a 6-team league supports my need for baseball. That is strictly from a fan's viewpoint, somebody who just likes to sit back, drink a cola and watch 9 innings of competitive baseball. From a pennant race point of view, yeah ... 6 is fairly lame and playing the Flyers and Hammers 30 times would get old if I were to have season tickets. And I can believe that America can absorb more minor league ball IF the public isn't being asked to plunk down a bunch of TIF money or tax breaks or tax increases to finance the infrastructure. You can create a demand for almost anything if you market it properly. Baseball is about as easy as it comes. Hell, the mascot will sell 1,500 tickets! I do think that people who seek expansion almost always run into the loudest naysayers early on. If they can battle that, get the park built and the team established, the folks who want the product will come out for it. Naysayers always come up with the argument that it's money better spent elsewhere, never really explaining what "elsewhere" happens to include. Just for the thought of it, has anybody wondered what it might be like to have two teams in the same league from the same town sharing the same ballpark?
MJHankel		#209	[-]
Posts: 193 (14-May-08 05:37:01) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	JohnU11 wrote: Just for the thought of it, has anybody wondered what it might be like to have two teams in the same league from the same town sharing the same ballpark? That is currently the standard in the Hawaii Winter Baseball league. The Honolulu Sharks, and the Waikiki BeachBoys are both based in Honolulu and they both play out of Les Murakami Stadium. The North Shore Honu and the West Oahu CaneFires are both based in Waipahu, Hawaii based out of Hans L'Orange Field. It seems to work for them, but independently speaking the New York State League tried to have a four team league all based at the same stadium and that didn't last, they are now looking elsewhere.
JohnU11		#210	[-]
Posts: 237 (14-May-08 05:51:01) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I only threw it out for discussion since it would seem like having the ballpark occupied every night of the year would be an attractive proposition for people who want to put in restaurants, etc ... such as might be the case in Gary, though clearly Gary could and would not support that much baseball. But a suburban area like Schaumburg could manage it if all the ducks were in a row. It would seem like a logical stop-gap if for example, a league were to add one team but needed another ... the Road Warrior concept could come into play.
MJHankel		#211	[-]
Posts: 195 (14-May-08 08:03:36) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I really don't get why the Gary politicals won't accept and embrace the fact that the stadium and the railcats did what nothing else could do for years, bring people to Gary.
JohnU11		#212	[-]
Posts: 241 (14-May-08 08:34:04) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	They get it all right. They just don't benefit from it. I saw how these people acted when the city had a CBA team, which at the time was a very viable basketball league. The city bought 1,500 season tickets the first 2 years to give the team credibility at the gate, and whatever happened to those tickets has been the second biggest mystery of all time, right after the Bermuda Triangle. Somebody had the tickets. Nobody used them. Like, school groups, church groups, neighborhood groups ... all could have gone to the games FREE. The Steelheads played before crowds of 850 fans. Who did that? It was the core of people who are generally connected to the Gary power circle. The RailCats aren't connected to that power circle and the city administrators are jealous, envious and probably would do whatever it could to dismantle the team, just because of ... that's just what they do. So, a lot of my ranting on this board is pretty clear ... I want this ball club to survive and play ball in Gary because I think we, as fans, are better off because of it. I worry that the league might fold or that the team will leave town. I have reconnected to baseball since the RailCats have come to town and I really feel much better about it as I advance in years. Winning was nice, yeah. Just going to the park is worth the trip. I guess I have a lot more to say on this topic but that tends toward whining. Not necessary for me to do that.
beerbarons		#213	[-]
Posts: 109 (15-May-08 05:46:27) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Gary had a CBA team? If what you are saying is true, then they city totally wasted those tickets as ticket giveaways are a great way to promote the team.
JohnU11		#214	[-]
Posts: 245 (15-May-08 06:13:30) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Gary's CBA entry was in around 1998 when Isaiah Thomas was involved. I can't recall the specifics, but he and his investors "owned" the league and he had to divest when he took a job with the Pacers, owing to conflict of interest. The league went kaflooey a year or so later and reorganized in, I think, 2001. The Steelheads stayed in it until about 3 years ago and left because they didn't come up with the entry dough. They pittered around in some league last year and are currently in an International League. They still have a pro team but the CBA sort of lost its strength with the NBA-D league becoming the premier league. I don't pay much attention to it now as a result of all those changes. I think this current arrangement is fairly decent, though. http://www.steelheadshoops.com/
nlfan		#215	[-]
Posts: 5689 (16-May-08 23:25:56) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	When it comes to the Steelheads, Ken (often a regular here) would know best since he was a big fan. Whatever the case, the Steelheads and Genesis Center are more indicators on things sometimes don't go right in Gary.
JohnU11		#216	[-]
Posts: 250 (17-May-08 03:32:46) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The Steelies are a genuine product. The problem is that front office there is inept, and gets by on assuming that the population of Gary is "naturally" drawn to basketball. Promotions are zilch. Their mascot and players are seldom out in the community. The old CBA team made no effort to promote itself and blundered lots of chances to grow its interest. Genesis is a great place to see a game. But a community has to have some identity quotient with the players. Connecting that to the RailCats, any gate success that team will have this year relates to having brought back three or four very popular players.
beerbarons		#217	[-]
Posts: 112 (21-May-08 22:12:44) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I will agree with you johnU11, it sucks when such a good product like the CBA is ran by a poor office. I have seen this many times in the past where a great team in a great market is ran to the dirt by a poor office.
beerbarons		#218	[-]
Posts: 122 (11-Jun-08 10:56:16) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Sorry to wake up a sleeping dog, but I see nothing wrong with this feild. In fact, it looks like a great feild. http://www.eteamz.com/saskatoontigersbaseball/ http://www.eteamz.com/saskatoontigersbaseball/images/Cairns_1.jpg
MJHankel		#219	[-]
Posts: 199 (11-Jun-08 11:09:01) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	That pic has been shown here before. The key here is not the field quallity, so much as, it is the stadium quallity that is the problem.
beerbarons		#220	[-]
Posts: 123 (11-Jun-08 11:16:19) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yea I know. I just have hope that it will one day be upgraded.

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Northern League should expand and here are some examples

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