Addition Of Minor League Baseball To Communities example essay topic

Minor League Baseball: Boom or Bust to Communities? Despite the occasional disappointment, minor league baseball provides many communities with economic development and an improved quality of life. Communities as small as Elizabethtown, Tennessee or as large as Phoenix, Arizona have shared the common bond of being the homes of major league farm teams. Thesis referred to as the National Association of Professional Baseball, or more commonly known as the "minor leagues". As the popularity of major league baseball seems to be decreasing due to the recent player strike, free agency, and anti-trust labor laws, minor league baseball has generated excitement that can only be associated with baseball in the good old days.

This excitement is a purity of spirit which the majors no longer possess. "It is baseball in its simplest form -- just ball, bats, gloves, and lifelong dreams. The parks are generally small, the players, hardworking young men whom local fans are likely to run into the next day at the mall or maybe the corner bar. A family of four can see a game, eat dinner -- maybe even pick up a souvenir or two -- without having to consider a second mortgage.

No lockouts, no holdouts, no five-dollar beers, and the umpire is the only one who can call a strike. "Just the national pastime, played the game it is", says one editor of The Minor League Baseball Book. There are currently 156 teams that are part of the National Association of Professional Baseball. This number will grow in the next few years with the addition of two expansion teams at the major league level. There have also been a number of independent leagues formed which are said to be the "future of minor league baseball". The success of these teams have shown how the value of these franchises have grown over the past ten years.

In the past, class teams would sell for three hundred thousand dollars while a smaller class A team went for fifty thousand. Today the class teams are being sold for as high as five million dollars while class A teams are going for around one million. The best example of the fact that franchises have grown in value over the years is the Reading Phillies. Joe Buzas, a minor league baseball entrepreneur, has owned and operated twelve minor league teams in seventeen cities since 1956. In 1976, Buzas bought the Reading Phillies franchise for $1.

Ten years later in 1986 he sold it for $1,000,000. The addition of minor league baseball to communities can provide many benefits. The greatest benefit is the overall economic lift that minor league baseball brings to a community. Minor league baseball provides additional jobs. Initially, local individuals build the stadium. This project takes from six months to a year.

An average of 15 full-time and 125 part-time individuals ranging in age from high school students to older, retirees are employed at the stadium. The stadium will be beneficial if it's useful for the baseball fan a swell as any resident. For approximately seventy nights a year, a stadium will provide an opportunity for the baseball fan to view professional baseball up close, to identify future stars and to follow their careers, and to get a glimpse of current major league players who occasionally are assigned to a minor league team for rehabilitation purposes or who are in the last stages of their career. The stadium, however, should be more than that. It should be a community facility that provides many types of recreational resources. A new stadium is capital improvement and should have a life of more than two decades.

If the stadium and team are to be evaluated as a true community resource, they must serve the entire community. If a stadium is utilized during the winter months, when baseball is not played, not only will a community's quality of life be enhanced, but the economic development function of the stadium will be maximized as well. The addition of minor league baseball to an area can be an important tool in revitalizing an area. The best example that comes to mind is the Harrisburg Senators located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1980, after three decades of decline, Harrisburg was one of the most distressed cities in the nation. It had lost its credit rating and faced bankruptcy. By 1988, under the leadership of Mayor Stephen Reed, Harrisburg had become the leading city in economic growth among those with a population 50,000-75,000. The turn around of the city gained recognition when Harrisburg was named the second best investment city in eastern United States. Harrisburg officials have identified several benefits that the city has derived from the presence of the Harrisburg Senators. The most important benefit has been the redevelopment of City Island.

City Island was Reed's announced site for a future stadium. The mayor anticipated using the stadium as the centerpiece for the redevelopment of City Island. The mayor viewed the stadium as the anchor for an economic development project that would be highly visible and would help attract large crowds of people to the island. This would lead in making other events on the island more feasible. Reeds dream became a reality in 1986, when they began construction of Riverside Stadium on City Island. In March 1987, the Pittsburgh Pirates class AA team began play in Harrisburg.

Harrisburg's inaugural season was nothing short of spectacular as the Senators won the Eastern League championship and attracted 223,000 fans their first year. Their attendance in 1988 and 1990 was the highest in the Eastern League. The success of the Senator's made the revitalization of City Island possible. The city has constructed another sports field, where a minor league football team and community soccer team play.

Concerts also are held on this second field. Riverside Village provides a number of food stands that attract downtown workers and residents and city visitors to the island. A marina and a riverboat, which presents an hour-long cruise, have been established off the island. City officials estimate more than 600,000 people visit the island annually. The most activity, however, takes place from April to December. The Harrisburg Senators remain the principal attraction, but other features and activities on the island are becoming established in their own right.

Minor league baseball also brings tourists and visitors to the community. In addition to the game itself, many travelers will visit local attractions as well as stay in nearby hotels. The visiting teams brings a strong following with them to many road games. These are tourists that would not be visiting the area if minor league baseball did not exist. These baseball fans would not be supporting local restaurants, stores, gas stations, if minor league baseball did not exist. Although minor league baseball has been a dream come true for cities like Harrisburg, it has been a nightmare for other communities.

In Hudson Valley, New York, the community found its case of baseball fever has turned into a "financial jam and it may not find the way out for a long time". Hudson Valley was a community that was still suffering from a 8,000 job losses from a recent IBM downsizing effort. The prospect of luring a minor league baseball team sounded like a good way to boost the local economy. A nonprofit organization was formed, and a plan was immediately developed to build the stadium. The cost for the stadium would be 3.75 million paid by the county, and an additional 1.75 million would be financed by the private sector. "It was supposed to be the world's greatest public-private partnership, now, everybody wants the county to pull their chestnuts out of the fire", Dutchess County legislator Woody Klose said.

Although the team has been a rousing success and routinely sells out the 4,000 seat stadium, the group constantly finds themselves in financial debt. Many people in the area blame it on time. The time factor was the biggest limitation. The big push to get the the stadium built as quickly as possible forced an overrun of nearly two million dollars. "In the time most people built a house, we built a stadium", said David Aven ius, an assistant to the Dutchess County Executive.

Klose said that it is extremely important to get the stadium financing up front. He still has a recommendation for other communities that want to lure a minor league baseball team. "Go into therapy", Klose said. "Deep, deep therapy" (Slavin B 1). Some communities that have had financial success, have suffered the loss of their team because of franchises relocating. Corporations abandon communities where they have been located for many years, leaving those communities and their residents with a weakened economy and social structure and without any compensation or resources to assist recovery.

Unfortunately, relocation has played a part in minor league communities leaving cities with an abandoned stadium. Local officials often cannot respond positively to an team owner's demands because of the limited resources available in smaller communities. This demonstrates the importance of stadiums in city-team negotiations, and they show how the business interests of team owners and local officials often conflict. Location decisions of owners tend to be business decisions that a redesigned to maximize their financial interests. Joe Buzas, owner of the former Fresno Suns, chose not to remain in Fresno because of competition from the university for the fans and advertising dollars. The Fresno Suns had been playing in a run down stadium that received minimum financial support form the city.

Fresno State University agreed to let the Fresno Suns play at their modern facility. However, the university wanted half of the ticket revenue and all of the concession revenue the Suns would receive. In 1988, after receiving permission from the California League, Buzas moved the franchise to Salinas, California. To this day there is no professional baseball being played in Fresno, California (Johnson 133). Franchises Relocating have also been based on a community not meeting the needs or the demands of the owner.

Charlotte Knights owner George Shinn wanted to build a stadium that would be capable of hosting more than a minor league baseball team. To make his stadium plans work, Shinn had to avoid use restrictions of this stadium and consequently needed more land than he could obtain in Charlotte. Shinn and Charlotte officials negotiations eventually failed because both parties had conflicting side issues and agendas. City staff members struggled to control the stadium issue. They were primarily concerned about protecting the city's investment in the new coliseum. Shinn, looking beyond Class AA baseball, dreamed of a stadium that could potentially accommodate major league baseball, professional football, and other forms of entertainment.

Later, he viewed the project as a revenue-generating real estate deal. He was not interested in a stripped-down stadium (Johnson 121). An important benefit that has been seen first hand by individuals is the quality of life minor league baseball adds for the community. It provides affordable family entertainment by charging fans low ticket costs. In Ottawa, Canada, the ticket prices range from just $4.20 to $8.40 -- the least expensive seats cost less than one-fifth of the equivalent for Ottawa Senators hockey games. "This is affordable family entertainment.

You can't make the excuse you can't afford to come and bring the kids too", says Ottawa Lynx owner Howard Darwin (Allen 48). In Frederick, Maryland, and in Hagerstown, Maryland, any child who comes to the ball game in any sports uniform gets in free (Morgenson 40). In Scranton Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, home of the Class Red Barrons, ticket costs are $3.50 for bleachers, $4.50 for upper grandstand and $6.50 for lower box seats. While in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home of the Major League Phillies, tickets range from $5 for bleacher seats at to $16 for level seats behind the box seats. The contrast in ticket prices between the minor leagues and the major leagues have been seen all over the United States and Canada. Minor league baseball has also done a tremendous job of providing good quality baseball as well as providing entertainment at the game.

This has been done with a wide range of promotions. In some stadiums around the United States and Canada, promotions have been the major reasons for fans attending the game. In Prince William, Virginia, home of the Class A Cannons, general manager Kenneth Shepard has come up with a valet car wash and a preferred parking pass for season ticket holders. For $2, you can have your car washed while you " re watching the game; and for $75 a year, fans can have their own assigned parking spot (Morgenson 9).

Robert Rich, Jr., president of Rich Products Corp. in Buffalo, the nation's largest family owned frozen food manufacturer, has owned the Buffalo Bisons since 1983 and was among the first to make his games "events". He puts on a weekly fireworks display, sponsors at least three major concerts a season -- last year the Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, and Huey Lewis and the News came to town -- and dreams up contests where fans participate on the ball field. Rich explains, "Thursdays are Pizza Hut Pop-up Night. Before the game, contestants come out onto the field and try to catch three pop-up fly balls. If someone catches all three, everybody in the stadium gets a free pizza from Pizza Hut" (Morgenson 9). In Wilmington, Delaware, promotions include the Dizzy Bat Race, Dirtiest Car of the Game, Frisbee Toss, and minor league baseball's version of "Let's Make a Deal".

There is no limit to the creativity that they have come up for promotions at minor league baseball games Another aspect that has played a part in adding to the quality of life has been the attitude of the fans. Unlike the fans at the major league games who seem to keep to themselves and have intolerable attitudes, fans are unusually friendly at minor league games. Leanne Pagliai is Vice-president of the High Desert Mavericks, a Class A San Diego Padres farm team in Adelanto, California. Pagliai has a theory: "Our commuter society is so splintered today, citizen's can't bond as much as a community anymore; minor league baseball is a chance to get together with your neighbors". Darwin explains, "Away from the world of world-class, people behave normally. They are decent and friendly.

They have time to chat. The fans are not impatient with the ball players. The ball players, paid salaries that are smaller than those of many fans, are approachable and nice. They give balls to kids". Darwin also credits his success in Ottawa because he was able to spot a desire by the fans to be part of something small (Gordon 9).

In Durham, North Carolina, minor league baseball has had an impact on the community both positively and negatively. They were an established franchise that began to head in the wrong way. Durham, like many communities that have face "hard times", learned from their mistakes and bounced back to become the most nationally known minor league team. Durham is located in North Carolina and is part of the 'research triangle' along with Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

In the 1980's, Durham's economic image began to struggle. In the mid 1980's, the North Carolina Symphony moved its home from Durham to Raleigh. Thiswas believed to be caused by Durham's lack of respect in the Carolina region and harmful intercity competition. Another problem was the prohibition by the state legislature against Durham annexing Research Triangle Park. This was also due to the declining city image. Durham in the 20th century had a rich tradition of minor league baseball.

Durham housed the headquarters of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues from 1933 to 1947. The Bulls were one of the most successful teams in the minor leagues in the 40's, 50's, and most of the 60's. However, towards the end of the 60's, Durham began to experience some 'hard times. ' Thiswas due to poor management and the decadence of Durham Athletic Park (DAP). In 1971, Durham began its final season as the home of the Durham Bulls. In 1980, Miles Wolff brought minor league baseball back to Durham.

Wolff spent $2500 for the rights to the team and $25000 to restore Durham Athletic Park. In 1988, the Durham Bulls and minor league baseball got national attention with the success of the movie 'Bull Durham. ' A year before 'BullDurham', Raleigh officials tried to lure the Bulls from Durham in hopes that a higher-level team would be brought to the Raleigh-Durham area. This attempt failed and baseball in Durham remains to this day. The Bulls were one thing that intercity rivals Raleigh and Chapel Hill did not have.

This was recognized as substantial to the city of Durham's image. Durham to this day is the most recognized minor league baseball team. It has led the Carolina League attendance for the past five years and has built a new stadium where the Bulls began playing last year. Their old stadium remains a historical minor league baseball landmark where high school and local college baseball games are played. The Bulls are also the leading memorabilia seller in the entire minor leagues. Not every community will achieve the success of Durham, North Carolina, because there is no 100% guarantee in minor league baseball.

However, the majority of towns and cities throughout the United States and Canada hosting minor league baseball teams have experienced many benefits. Economic growth and development, community identity and pride, affordable family entertainment, and an improved the quality of life indicate that minor league baseball is here to stay.