Baseball in Bowling Green, Kentucky

This article popped up on the radar a few days ago. But, I am just getting around to it now. It was going to go into the previous post as a roundup, but after further review it deserves it's own post.

The Bowling Green Daily News did a story about the attempt to bring a Class A minor league team to Bowling Green, Kentucky. The writer, Justin Story, also compares successful and unsuccessful franchises in cities of similar sizes to Bowling Green. Among the examples are a city with a current Mariner affiliate and a city that had a Midwest League franchise.

Baseball success will be in details

Look at similar cities shows endeavor has potential, if team’s ownership is savvy and fans buy into vision

A new 4,000-seat baseball stadium that would host a minor league baseball team is one of the cornerstones of Bowling Green’s $226 million downtown redevelopment plan - but how successful the franchise will be once it begins play will depend on more than just the quality of concessions.

Stories about the business travails of major league sports have been covered in great depth - witness the woes of the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics as the team’s Oklahoma City-based ownership attempts to wriggle out of its lease with the city to their home arena, fueling speculation that the Sonics will eventually relocate to the Sooner State.

Increasingly, though, the business of minor league baseball has taken on major-league significance.

Art Solomon, owner of the AA Fisher Cats in Manchester, N.H., has pledged to purchase a Single-A minor league franchise to bring to Bowling Green to begin play in 2009.

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At the end of the 2005 season, it seemed all but assured that the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx would leave Jackson, Tenn., for a stadium in Mauldin, S.C.

Lozinak Baseball Properties, which owned the franchise, had sought to break its lease with the city, citing operating losses of more than $150,000 for two consecutive years and poor attendance at the stadium, which is operated by the city of about 60,000.

The poor gate performance triggered a clause in the lease that freed ownership to relocate the Diamond Jaxx, but a move was averted after Minor League Baseball denied the ownership’s request to move.

Jackson Mayor Charlie Gist was the city’s public works director during this period and had played a big role in bringing the AA Southern League franchise to Jackson in 1998.

“It was quite a laborious chore that required a lot of patience just in bringing a franchise to Jackson,” Gist said. “Just the fact that other cities already had stadiums built and did their homework prior to us really getting involved in the process set us back somewhat.”

A general obligation bond of $8 million helped put construction of Pringles Park on the fast track.

Gist said efforts to bring minor league baseball were criticized by some, who argued that the Jackson metropolitan area did not have enough people to sustain such an endeavor.

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This month, it was reported that a group of Nashville-based investors will buy the Diamond Jaxx, hoping to shore up popular support and draw enough fans to break even.

The Diamond Jaxx claim to need 200,000 fans to attend in a season to break even. In 2007, the team drew 113,351 - the worst in the Southern League. Still, the team’s current lease with the city guarantees at least one more season in Jackson.

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Imagine this: Your family needs something to do one Friday night during the summer, and you happen to spot a newspaper ad promoting the local minor league baseball team.

Anyone who buys a ticket to that night’s game will also receive a dollar for their troubles, the ad reads.

Incredibly, this was a losing proposition in Battle Creek, Mich.

The Southwest Michigan Devil Rays tried this promotion, as well as a 3-cent ticket night, to lure fans to see the Class-A Midwest League team.

Now based in Midland, Mich., and known as the Great Lakes Loons, the former Devil Rays played in Battle Creek from 1995 to 2006, changing their name four times during that span.

Jeff Hovarter, longtime parks and recreation director for this city of 53,000, said the support just wasn’t there in terms of fans in the stands to make the franchise feasible.

“Frankly, the expectations of ownership for this franchise were unrealistic,” Hovarter said. “The owners would cry, ‘We’re losing money, the fans don’t come out.’ We just didn’t have as many people to draw from.”

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This year, the stadium hosted the Battle Creek Bombers of the Northwoods League, a summer league for NCAA baseball players.

“We have a long history of hosting amateur baseball tournaments in the city, and this is a better fit for us,” Hovarter said.

As part of an overall redevelopment district, he said a baseball franchise would provide a “hell of a value immediately in terms of quality of life.”

He warned, however, that a distinct possibility exists that taxpayers could be repaying bonds for several years afterward if a franchise fails.

“Can a team operate successfully over the life of the bonds to be paid back?” Hovarter rhetorically asked. “In my opinion, not a chance.”

There is a positive example in the Hickory Crawdads to conclude the article.

Will this happen? Or, will it be something along the lines of the unlikely rumor of the Beloit Snappers moving to Dubuque, Iowa? Wait and see. For the record, Bowling Green, Kentucky is about ten hours south of Appleton. According to the city website, Bowling Green has a population of 51,294 and Warren County has a population of 98,960.