WizSkinsO's Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Most of you I'm sure, if you're baseball fans, mainly go to O's or Nats games. The appeal of minor league games, college summer league, etc. is for the most part, aside from a few top prospects that draw a crowd, for the family environment, crazy promotions done to get all sorts of people to come out for one night and hopefully back again, etc. Say you're one of these sort of minor league teams. As a fan, what would really make you want to come out of the ballpark, within reason? Really, anything not offensive and not impossible is within reason...a certain person on a bobblehead, an appreciation night for a certain someone, a contest at the ballpark, a giveaway, a theme for the night, etc. Additionally, what is a type of experience missing at a major league game that you think might be cool to have at a minor league game? Something like all fans run the bases after every game--what would make you likely to go to a much smaller budget team more often? Your ideas/input on fan experiences at baseball games or things you want to see happen is much appreciated. Now's your chance to be a Veeck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drockvb Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 The Tides (Oriole's AAA) in Norfolk need to do something to get fans to come out. Ever since the Mets left the Tides, the attendance has gone down. I prefer going when i get some free hats or something. Ticket prices are still low, $6-$12 a ticket is a bargain these days, but i still enjoy getting a free hat. When they do jersey giveaways they need to offer more than just a couple of them. They need to giveaway at least 10 of them to give people a shot at winning one. I do not go on "turn back the clock night". It's too crowded then. The line for .25 hot dogs is ridiculous, and they aren't good to begin with. :mad: More hats, more jersey giveaways, and more quality baseball-- because the Tides suck. :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WizSkinsO's Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 Bump. Appreciate the response, would like to hear from more of you now that people are awake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan2k Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 We had a the president of the ironbirds speak with us about this matter. In Minor league its about the promotions and not the players Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WizSkinsO's Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 We had a the president of the ironbirds speak with us about this matter. In Minor league its about the promotions and not the players That's right. So what kind of thing would make you want to go out and see a team with obviously less-known and not as good players? What are some promotions you've seen that you thought were great? What are some that you'd do if you were a GM of a minor league team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 We had a the president of the ironbirds speak with us about this matter. In Minor league its about the promotions and not the players The obvious answer is to promote the players. Build actual fans, not just people who come out for a family evening of fun once in a while when there's an interesting gimmick. Turn them into people who are checking box scores the next morning, following the team in the standings, people who could become season ticket holders. Everyone knows you can see a MLB star on a rehab assignment, but the fact is these guys don't care, they're just there doing time until they go back up. So make the fans care about the other guys, the star in the making, the guy who's hungry, the veteran who plays for the love of the game. There's stories there. Play them up. Make the town care about their ballplayers. Do promotions away from the ballpark, get to know the local community by becoming part of it. Maybe set up some events with local bars and restaurants to meet and greet people, have the highlights of the team playing on all the TVs, give away some tickets, some t shirts and hats. Play up the local boy angle, get folks interested because it's part of their town. Play up the Americana aspect of it,, seriously, what is more down home America than minor league baseball? Kids kids kids kids kids. Team up with Little Leagues, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, any good kids organization, and get them in the ballpark as many nights as you can. Discount tickets, discount hot dogs and lemonade for any kid wearing their little league uniform at any game. I'd even go so far as to have the players do workouts with the local little league teams, make them available for that sort of thing,, take batting practice with Big Joe Palooka.. You know set something up where Big Joe Palooka goes and works out with the 10 year old little league Rangers from the town, shows up with hats for the kids, maybe a t shirt and a package deal for the team to go to a game.. have him work with the kids about an hour on fielding, stealing a base, whatever.. by the time he leaves, every parent of every kid will be hearing them all scream how much they want to go to a game. Do that with ten different teams or ten different leagues, and suddenly that's a lot of kids and their families at the park. Maybe even some events at the ballpark where kids could come and take actual batting practice on an off day or something,, have Big Joe there, a hitting coach.. do it on a somewhat regular basis and soon the kids are flocking to the park. ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chascougs Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Charleston Riverdogs have made national new a couple times with their promotions (Mike Veeck is the guy that came up with these). We had a "Win a Free Vasectomy" night...a lowest attendance night (they didn't let anyone into the park until after the 5th inning...had closed circuit tvs and ladders to climb up and look over the walls lol...quiet night where they asked everyone to refrain from speaking or yelling, passed out placards with stuff like "Go Team" and "Let's go Dogs" for fans to hold up....a "Bring you dog to the Riverdogs" where you can bring your pet...a water park day where all are encouraged to wear bathing suits and bring squirt guns while grounds crew routinely turns the hoses onto the stands....you get the idea. The motto of the Riverdogs is "Fun is Good". They routinely sell out or nearly sell out every home weekend game have a solid gate the rest of the week while routinely finishing in the lower half of the standings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WizSkinsO's Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 The obvious answer is to promote the players. Build actual fans, not just people who come out for a family evening of fun once in a while when there's an interesting gimmick. Turn them into people who are checking box scores the next morning, following the team in the standings, people who could become season ticket holders. Everyone knows you can see a MLB star on a rehab assignment, but the fact is these guys don't care, they're just there doing time until they go back up. So make the fans care about the other guys, the star in the making, the guy who's hungry, the veteran who plays for the love of the game. There's stories there. Play them up. Make the town care about their ballplayers.Do promotions away from the ballpark, get to know the local community by becoming part of it. Maybe set up some events with local bars and restaurants to meet and greet people, have the highlights of the team playing on all the TVs, give away some tickets, some t shirts and hats. Play up the local boy angle, get folks interested because it's part of their town. Play up the Americana aspect of it,, seriously, what is more down home America than minor league baseball? Kids kids kids kids kids. Team up with Little Leagues, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, any good kids organization, and get them in the ballpark as many nights as you can. Discount tickets, discount hot dogs and lemonade for any kid wearing their little league uniform at any game. I'd even go so far as to have the players do workouts with the local little league teams, make them available for that sort of thing,, take batting practice with Big Joe Palooka.. You know set something up where Big Joe Palooka goes and works out with the 10 year old little league Rangers from the town, shows up with hats for the kids, maybe a t shirt and a package deal for the team to go to a game.. have him work with the kids about an hour on fielding, stealing a base, whatever.. by the time he leaves, every parent of every kid will be hearing them all scream how much they want to go to a game. Maybe even some events at the ballpark where kids could come and take actual batting practice on an off day or something,, have Big Joe there, a hitting coach.. do it on a somewhat regular basis and soon the kids are flocking to the park. ~Bang Appreciate the post Bang, and you're absolutely right and in the scheme of things for most minor league teams that would work great. However, haha...say we're talking about a college summer league team here that only plays around a 40-45 game season with like 25-30 home games. The players are not paid and are doing it just to play ball over the summer in front of nice crowds and good coaching. There's plenty of opportunity for kids to have instruction from the players with a kids camp. Maybe an event where the first 25 kids get to play catch with a player on-field before the game or something would be exciting. More or less though, we already do a decent job drawing kids and they get in for either $3 or free. The problem really is finding those gimmicky promotions to get adults who couldn't care at all about these college talents they've never heard of to come out and see them play for just one summer at a time usually. Thanks again for the ideas though and I really appreciate it. Unfortunately though, for the organization I'm thinking of, getting adults to come out to the field, ever for one night, is a bigger problem. We hope that maybe if we get them to come out for one night and show that it's not only for the little kids, they'll come back again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Bikini night,, women in a bikini get in free... ~Bang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28rdsknsfn28 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Two words "FREE GAS" See if a local gas station will work some kind of deal where any time a player hits a home run someone wins $20.00 of gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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