Healthy Choice: Minor League Baseball Thriving In U.S.

Minor league baseball is "as healthy as it's been since the height of its popularity in the late 1940's," according to ESPN's Mark Schwarz on ESPN's "Outside The Lines" Sunday. Schwarz added minor league baseball "is on a roll," as attendance has doubled since '86, and has "increased steadily for the last three decades, nearly quadrupling since 1969." Schwarz added, "The minors are moving up to modern ballparks, in bigger cities. It's now less about the game, and more about the so-called fan experience." Single A Midwest League Lansing Lugnuts co-Owner Sherrie Myers: "I would say we're in the entertainment business. We did an exit interview, actually, a couple of years ago, and found that only 50 percent of the fans left the game knowing what the score was." An unidentified male, when asked if he had "any idea who's winning," said, "Nope, don't care either." Lansing Mayor Dave Hollister said the city is "growing, we are thriving, and the Lugnuts were part of turning it around, and they are a bigger part of keeping it going" ("Outside The Lines," ESPN, 7/22).

HOW MINOR LEAGUE FRANCHISES CAN GROW: "Outside The Lines" also examined how the quality of facilities is playing a larger role for minor league teams. The National Pastime President & Exec Dir David Chase said the "smaller cities just can't compete, and it really doesn't have a lot to do with the desire of owners or the greed of owners, it has more to do with the quality of the facility." Chase: "(MLB) clubs are here to grow prospects. To do that, they have very high demands on the facilities now and without public money or a large influx of corporate dollars (small-market teams can't survive)." But Chase said because of the success of the movie "Bull Durham," minor league baseball "now has a national licensing agreement that was not in place before the movie" and "logo-mania has exploded across minor league baseball" ("Outside The Lines," ESPN, 7/22).

ATTENDANCE COUNT: Attendance at minor league baseball games has increased 2.8% for 5,520 games played through June 30. That increase is based on the average crowd per playing date for the comparable period in the '00 season. The Triple A Int'l League is the top-drawing Triple A league with an average crowd of 6,085 (THE DAILY).