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Greenville Drive Baseball

g-vegasman

By g-vegasman
in Greenville Coffee House

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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Excellent work, Fiddlestix, especially this quote:

There's still 70 games to play. Same promotions. Same fans. For him the equation doesn't move in terms of shifting the league affiliation. The time to shift is when you're looking to build a new stadium and you can sell the government bodies on the elusive mystique of a higher level of baseball and the status that goes with it as part of the stadium-welfare extortion scam. That's what the DiamondJaxx tried to pull with Mauldin -- extracting more perks simply because they were a higher level of baseball. There are some fans who care...but over the course of a season, I doubt that extra status fills more than 200 seats that wouldn't otherwise get filled...at best. And the Low-A versus A distinction would have even less impact.

The average attendance of the AA Southern League in 2005 is 3,517. The Greenville Braves never averaged more than than 3,600 and change for a season, and that was 1991.

The low single A, SALly league averaged 3,225 per game in 2005.

The high single A, Carolina League averaged 2,833 fans per game in 2005.

It's better, strictly based on averages, to be in the SALly over the Carolina League.

So if local governments are being enticed, as you so well put it, into the stadium-welfare extortion plan, they need to ask themselves how much is, on average, 300 extra fans worth? Certainly not the $18 million that Time Warner was asking for a new G Braves stadium.

The city's deal with the Drive, of only using $5 million or so in infrastructure improvements is a gem that a lot of larger cities would drool over. The city of Charlotte is trying to figure out much of a bill they will be stuck with for a new minor league stadium downtown, and it's not looking pretty.

Craig Brown and the Drive have built a showcase of a ballpark, in a thankfully, former decrepit part of the city, that fans can enjoy for years to come, regardless of afiliation. Plus the fact that the stadium is modelled after Fenway forever tags this organization with some connection to the Red Sox.

The SALly League is fine. It gives Greenville a natural Yankees/Red Sox rivalry with Charleston, and other local cities like Asheville, Savannah, Rome and Augusta. It's a good deal and a marvelous one for the city, unappreciated maybe by the general public.

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gman430
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Now, the organization is cooperating on a project to turn Field Street into a convertible entertainment area that would be renamed "Jackson Way," after Greenville baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson.

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Does this mean we could see them move up to AA? Stay tuned: https://greenvillejournal.com/2019/10/24/greenville-drive-safe-from-mlb-cuts/

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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I can't even get the live audio play-by-play to play. :blink: Of course, the game was over by the time I got home from the game (I left in the 6th inning because my kid had to get home and go to bed - school night).

Another great game tonight! I'm guessing the attendance was around 3900 to 4000. That's pretty good considering it was a Thursday Night and the skies looked pretty threatening at the start of the game. :thumbsup:

Reedy Rip'it was pretty cool (sorry, no photos - was afraid of getting the camera wet if it rained). (Julie Turner?) from the Greenville Journal managed to find a moment where the FOX Carolina camera man wasn't in front of her and got a cute photo of a couple of boys with Reedy Rip'it, so look for it in next week's Journal. :lol:

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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I can't even get the live audio play-by-play to play. :blink: Of course, the game was over by the time I got home from the game (I left in the 6th inning because my kid had to get home and go to bed - school night).

I'm listening to the play-by-play now..waiting for the rain delay to end. It's pretty cool. The funny thing is that I was just at the ballpark a half hour ago, and I learned two things while there this evening:

  1. Don't buy a bottle of coke at the 500 Club. It's only 12 oz and $2.00 whereas you can get a 20oz bottle for $1.50 at the other concessions :angry:
  2. 5000 people don't all fit under the awning at once during a Rain Delay :rofl:
I know...I know...I had intended on taking my son to the Grrrowl Playoff Game this evening; however, my wife insisted that I take him to the ballgame instead (due the the entertainment value of the Drive Games vs. that of the Grrrowl Games). It sounds like I'm missing a scoreless thriller that's getting ready to go into overtime.

Before the rain:

132623086_e3508b7ec4.jpg

After the rain:

132623090_eb8ce62427.jpg

Edited by RestedTraveler
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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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You guys went to a baseball game that got rained out after like 2 innings instead of going to the hockey game, which was probably the best one of the entire year. That's hilarious :rofl:

Yea - I guess it would have been worth the $48 + $3 parking for my son and I to go to that hockey game, after all. Silly me, I spent $5 and got to watch people run for cover. :rofl: That's OK..we'll make it down to the Bi-Lo Center tonight.

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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An attendance note...

This weekend, Downtown hosted Artisphere, three Drive games, and two Grrrowl games.

I haven't seen an estimate of the crowd at Artisphere, many of whom I'm sure attended a Grrrowl or Drive game.

But, the Drive had over 5300 in attendance at the start Friday night, announced over their internet web cast, over 5700 in attendance for the Saturday double header, and I'm sure over 3000+ on a Sunday afternoon.

The Grrrowl had crowds of 2500+ and 2300+ for their two games - again, minor league playoffs historically draw smaller crowds, even when they are not competing with city festivals and minor league baseball blocks away.

So for the second weekend, in the last three, when the Drive and Grrrowl are playing at the same time, the city drew over 18,000 to games, and probably many thousands more for Artisphere and other activities. Not bad and it does show that downtown is more than capable of hosting multiple events at once.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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But, the Drive had over 5300 in attendance at the start Friday night, announced over their internet web cast, over 5700 in attendance for the Saturday double header, and I'm sure over 3000+ on a Sunday afternoon.

Drive Official Attendance Figures for this past weekend vs. the Savannah Sand Gnats:

Thursday: 3,863

Friday: 5,748

Saturday: 5,712

Sunday: 4,394

Attendance at Artisphere on Saturday was fair, but not stellar (at least during the hours I was there). Today (Sunday), it was wall-to-wall people. I strongly suspect that had the Drive game been scheduled for 5:05pm (after Artisphere officially ended) instead of 2:05pm, today's game would have been 5,700, too.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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If anybody is interested, Furman University will be playing the University of South Carolina at West End Field on May 16th at 6:00pm. All tickets are $6.50 General Admission for the game.

For More Information, visit: http://furmanpaladins.cstv.com/ot/drivebaseball.html

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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Thanks guys for the information. Then that means over 24,000 attended sporting events downtown since Thursday. Which is outstanding.

Hopefully the Furman v USC game will be the first of many college games at West End Field, and I'm hoping my Clemson Tigers can participate and I would really hope that the ACC Tournament could return to Greenville.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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There's no reason why Greenville can't be a regular in the rotation for the ACC Baseball Tournament. Heck, the So-Con may even consider relocating their baseball and basketball tournaments to Greenville from Charleston.

I recall making the trek with the other 5000 "screaming coal miners" to Asheville from Huntington, WV back when Marshall was winning the So-Con Basketball titles on a regular basis. If Asheville can host that tournament, then Greenville certainly can.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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Thanks guys for the information. Then that means over 24,000 attended sporting events downtown since Thursday. Which is outstanding.

No problem. The days of the week above are hyper-links to the MiLB site where the official box scores of each game are archived. This is also from where the attendance figures come.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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First Horizon Park is another beautiful new ballpark, not unlike our own. I followed its construction here on Urban Planet as well, thanks to cityboi's posts. That's what gave me the impetus to go out and photograph construction of West End Field.

They're simply on another plane of existance over in Greensboro though, with a capacity of 7,500. It's going to be tough to beat their attendance draw, but then again, they're an outlyer. :lol:

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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I noticed Greensboro didn't put any landscaping outside their ballpark like we did. Personally, I think our ballpark looks better than theirs, but thats just me. Pics of Greensboro's ballpark: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8109

Cityboi has a web site dedicated to First Horizon Park too: http://www.downtownstadium.org/

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