The success of a second fall league for minor league baseball players may depend on the weather as much as anything, organizers and club officials say.
The California Fall League for Class A and Class AA players begins play next month, replacing a Maryland circuit that in its only season last year was plagued by rain and cold weather.
Major League Baseball moved its lower-minors counterpart to the successful Arizona Fall League to Maryland after several seasons in Hawaii, which it abandoned because of declining attendance and rising costs. The Arizona league is stocked with Class AAA players.
The Class A California League has signed on to manage the circuit for three years, and four of its franchises — San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, Lake Elsinore and Lancaster — will host teams stocked by 27 of the 30 major league clubs.
Under an agreement reached this month, the clubs will keep all merchandising, concessions and parking revenue while splitting ticket and sponsorship income with the California League. Profits above a certain level will be shared with Major League Baseball.
The players' parent clubs will pay the players, and MLB will pay some of the travel costs, said California League President Joe Gagliardi.
With Arizona taken, "the only place in the U.S. where this could break even is southern California," Gagliardi said. "The weather was the biggest problem in Maryland."
In its lone season, the Maryland loop averaged about 900 fans a game. Team officials said the CFL must average about 600 fans a game during the week and 1,000 during the weekend to break even over a 42-game schedule that runs from Sept. 23 to Nov. 5.
The new league will also give the clubs a chance to merchandise. The teams will carry new names and logos, and San Bernardino Stampede general manager Todd Rahr, who will oversee the Sand Dragons of the CFL, said the new gear should give the teams a revenue boost.
"Any time you do anything brand-new, the initial part will be strongest," Rahr said. "What we do in three years, we'll have to think about that. Maybe you do a different color or a different cap."
To get fans to the games to buy the gear, the league has set up a membership card for season-ticket buyers that allows them to enter any other park for a league game for $1. Team officials said they would use the fall season to try out other promotions for use during next year's regular season.
Despite the league's official optimism, Lake Elsinore Storm President Kevin Haughian, who will oversee the Surfers, said he can't predict whether the league will succeed. He said a lot will depend on whether — like him — fans consider football and basketball "filler" sports during baseball's off-season.
"Will people be in the mood for baseball that time of year?" he said. "I don't know."
