■ TEAMS (FIRST SEASON): California League Inland Empire 66ers (1987), California League High Desert Mavericks (1991), California League Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (1993), California League Lake Elsinore Storm (1994), ECHL Ontario Reign (2008)
■ VENUES (YEAR OPENED): Mavericks Field at Stater Bros. Stadium (1991), LoanMart Field (1993), Lake Elsinore Diamond (1994), San Manuel Stadium (1996), Citizens Business Bank Arena (2008)
The Inland Empire’s wide geographic area, with broad variance in local economies and different levels of fan and municipal support, makes for a unique sports climate among markets measured in the survey.
At the geographic center of the sports region, a fan could drive three miles from the Quakes’ LoanMart Field to the Reign’s Citizens Business Bank Arena, then hop on I-10 and travel east, pass by Auto Club Speedway, which hosts an annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and a Verizon IndyCar race, and be at the 66ers’ San Manuel Stadium in 20 minutes. The person next could head 40 miles north (to Adelanto, Calif.) to see the Mavericks play, or could travel the same distance south to Riverside, home of the Storm.
So there’s no shortage of team options for local sports fans, but economic hurdles over the past few years have affected the region’s teams.
The city of San Bernardino on May 29 filed its bankruptcy exit plan, a major step in its economic recovery after being granted bankruptcy protection under Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in August 2012. Meanwhile, the city has not been able to commit any funding to renovate San Manuel Stadium. The Quakes saw a slight attendance increase last year compared with 2013, but that figure was still down 11 percent compared with the preceding five-year average.
Similarly, in Adelanto, the per capita income is $11,049, barely one-third of the state’s average, unemployment is still hovering near double digits, and the city and Mavericks are in a dispute about the sharing of parking revenue. On the other hand, the club last year had its best attendance since 1998 and registered the largest year-over-year attendance increase (59 percent) in all of MiLB last season among clubs not moving into a new ballpark.
The Reign last season led the ECHL in regular-season attendance for the fifth time in six years, drawing 280,872 fans, while the Storm saw its total attendance dip 3 percent in 2014 compared with the previous five-year average.
Put it all together, and the Inland Empire is a community that has built an identity that’s all its own.
“There is an overwhelming sense of pride that lives inside all of us that grew up in the Inland Empire,” said Landon Donovan, an Ontario native who went on to become the U.S. men’s national soccer team’s all-time leader in scoring and assists. “I suspect that it comes from people telling us our entire lives that we’re ‘not really from Los Angeles.’ That feeling of being an outcast seems to have formed a bond between all of us from the Inland Empire.”
Donovan said that although he attended only one minor league baseball game as a child, “I felt like the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes were ‘my team.’”
