Hungry

Oh, it's not just an episode of The X-Files. It's a trend in sports.

Good blog post from The Saginaw News, but maybe the worst headline I've seen in a while.

Some teams are doing well they can they can to draw bigger crowds

Saginaw Spirit fans prefer to watch their Ontario Hockey League team play than eat as much as they can while watching the game.

Those who make their way to Dow Diamond in Midland to catch the Midwest League Great Lakes Loons in action feel the same way.

That's not true of some Kansas City Royals' faithful as well as those at a handful of other major league ballparks.

The newest trend in professional stadiums is reserving sections for fans who want to eat all they can while the games takes place. That luxury comes with a price, of course, with the average single-game ticket costing anywhere from $35 to $65 depending on the venue.

There is some stuff about the teams that have adopted all-you-can-eat sections. Then, there is this about how the Saginaw Spirit, a Major Junior Hockey team in the OHL, won't be doing an all-you-can eat section and this about the Great.Lakes.Loooooooooooooooooooons.

Loons President Paul Barbeau acknowledged he and his staff have looked at the trend at the major league-level, but haven't seriously considered adding such an option at Dow Diamond.

"The one thing you have to look at with major league teams is they have an inventory of different seats they have to move," Barbeau said. "They have to find different ways to move them. In our case, he have only a certain number of seats and they are in demand. We don't have to go our of our way to attract fans.

"We offer a wide range of plans that everyone from the casual fan to die-hard fans can find something that works for them."

Where does the writer of the post lean? Here's how the story wraps up:

The trend isn't surprising in today's bigger-is-better portions at restaurants, and it will only continue to grow as more and more professional teams see the wisdom of putting fannies in seats, no matter how.

But I agree with Goslin and Barbeau that at their level the all-you-can-eat craze just don't work. You need 50,000 or more seats to make it viable and the last time I checked Wendler Arena had just 5,527 and Dow Diamond 5,500 seats.

Besides, what happened to the games being the draw, not the extras?

Hello. Minor League Baseball.

Seriously, though. These sections do work at this level. The Miller High Life Home Run Porch was used as a one of these sections at times during 2007. I remember it being pretty popular.

Other teams in the Midwest League have done all-you-can-eat nights. Beloit has done Hungry Like the Wolf Nights for the whole stadium instead of just one section. The time I was at Pohlman Field for that kind of night, the stadium was jam-packed.