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To be honest, I sort of like the 3,000 or so ...
What we typically get at the games is a predictable crowd, which is perfect for an unpredictable league/sport.
This may be accepting the reality and rationalizing it, but frankly, the RailCats would have to step it up a notch if the crowds were consistently much bigger.

Traffic control after the game would need to be better, the parking would certainly need to be upgraded.

In that respect, we might need to be careful what we wish for.
All the same, the city/state/nation/world really does have to get some kind of a clue on guns and violence. I don't plan to skewer off on that topic, but it's obvious Gary has a big problem, though I can't say it's worse than other cities.

I guess it depends on who you count and why. I do believe Rockford had a few shootings this year, and Zion maybe did as well.

It's a good point, Billy ... as I wrote on the shootings at the wedding in Indy, no ... it was not near the ballpark.
And it does beg the question about the types of businesses that the ball club wants in the area around the Steel Yard ... night clubs, restaurants, or just candlestick makers and tattoo parlors.

I do know that I tell everyone, "hey, it's safe at the Steel Yard," and they look at me, roll their eyes and say, "well, maybe, but I'd still be afraid to go there at night."

Headlines like shootings/Bennigans are what folks see and what they remember.

Gary needs to establish a polished downtown, then crime will be put into its perspective.

It's hard to argue with this but the Gary political administration has something resembling no clue on how to attract, or keep, anything that could be considered "business."

I guess I could say more on that but it would be of little value. If the team fails, it will be just another business failure and Gary will hobble along as it always has.


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To suggest that this violence happens in Gary is unfounded and detrimental to the image they are trying bring back to the city.

Sorry to argue but this statement makes no sense. The violence in Gary is unfounded? Why are we even discussing it, then?
It's detrimental to the image they are trying to bring back to the city? Yeah, that would be correct.
Who is "THEY" in this sentence? The ball club? They can't even pave a parking lot. Whoops, that lot belongs to the city, as does the tavern where the shooting occurred at 3 a.m. because the city thinks a 3 a.m. closing time for a bar in a city where a lot of violence occurs is an acceptable closing time.

Agreed, there are 10 killings a year in Hammond, or less than one a month, as I stated earlier. Your statistic, Kenneth, proves me correct.
The 6 shootings in East Chicago ... yep, Latino gang, no different from the same kind of people who shoot up parking lots.

You folks seem to dwell on the nature of the people at 3 a.m. Hey, I live in Valparaiso and there hasn't been a random street shooting here in at least 10 years, and that in a grocery parking lot by a deranged ex-husband, hardly a trend if that means anything. There is NEVER a street shooting at 3 a.m. because our city thinks 2 a.m. is a more sensible closing time.

Valpo, Portage, Merrillville, Crown Point, Munster, Highland, Griffith ... all mostly crime-free and, btw, the source of most of the RailCats fan base.

Here's where your argument falls apart. Billy suggested originally that the shooting wasn't good for the city's image.
Now as often as he and I dispute each other, I agree that he is spot-on in that assessment and if you want to dispute his point, you need to stop bringing up the issue that "it's not just a Gary problem" or "well, it happens at 3 a.m." ... yes, it is Gary's problem and there is really NO-body who is trying to "bring back a safe image." They've had 30 years to accomplish that and the killings continue. About one, sometimes two, a week, which is a lot more than they have in Hammond, the "second-most" dangerous city in America.

We have a Bennigans in Merrillville. Nobody got shot there this week. The reason the one happened in Gary is because it's in Gary, I would guess.
Dismissing this as irresponsible journalism is bull crap. Irresponsible journalism would be to defer it and say it was "near the mill." It is not the duty of journalism to paint a pretty picture of Gary just to make up the notion that the place is safe and totally deserving of a rosey cheeked baseball team.

The softball tournament was NOT even close to being played in Gary.

You really do need to bring some facts to the table, baseballfanatic.