January 15, 2008
Keeping Triple A Close
The Braves decided to move their AAA franchise into their backyard. J.C. Bradbury lists reasons why this won't hurt the Braves attendance. I'll just add two things.
- The Braves can arrange the schedule so that the AAA team and the major league team are not home at the same time
- Having their AAA close by hasn't hurt Red Sox attendance.
And I agree with J.C. that a minor league team is a great way to introduce young children to professional baseball. That way, they become fans for life, and are more likely to attend a major league game as adults.
Having your AAA team and your big club have opposite schedules defeats the whole purpose of having your AAA club close. In fact, I would want to do just the opposite so that you can shuttle players back and forth more easily.
The Red Sox haven't been affected because of the extreme lack of ticket supply at the ML level. In fact, the minor league teams have probably been positively affected by the cost and lack of supply of tickets here. In cases where there is excess supply of ML tickets, I would expect a cheaper alternative to potentially affect gate revenues at the ML level. I don't know if that applies to the Braves.
Just another local sports team Atlantans won't support. I'll bet it works for the Red Sox because their fans actually want to go to their games. Braves fans should be ashamed of themselves.
For awhile, Montreal had their AAA team in Ottawa, which is less than two hours away...of course, neither of them drew anyone, so that doesn't really prove or disprove anything...
Nobody in Boston considers Paw close.
It makes a great deal of sense for a team to cluster their minor league operations around them, as Cleveland does with Buffalo, Akron and Lake County. It builds a regional fan base, because the local papers and TV stations follow the team. And once you see a promising kid in the minors and make the prediction "He's going to be a star!" you acquire a kind of vested interest in his success. My father talked about seeing Ted Williams play for the Minneapolis Millers and Ron Cey for the Albuquerque Dukes.
But a suburb seems much different than a neighboring media market. Does Gwinnet have its own newspapers or TV stations? Don't the folks out there get their news from Atlanta outlets, which won't see much reason for covering AAA?
JJ - Gwinnett is truly a suburb; it has no real newspaper or television station. I live in the next county over (Forsyth) and there is a local weekly paper, but nothing of substance.
But as to the move, the round trip to the Ted from the Hwy 20 / I-85 area where they are building is - at best with no traffic - a two hour round trip. And unfortunately traffic in Atlanta is designed so that if Gen'l Sherman ever comes back, he will never be able to make it down town to commence the burning.
With two pre-teens who like going to games, but don't have the patience for a six hour committment, this is tailor made for me. I am thrilled by the rumor. It almost makes me forgive the Braves trading a #1 pick for the decaying hulk of Kotsay.