Bad news for college baseball

Speaking of college baseball in the West, I believe there is more fan interest in the top teams in the Big West (Fullerton, Cal-Irvine) than at most of the Pac-10 schools.

And I'll chime in with the rest of my southern brethren, baseball at every level, from coach-pitch to college, is a HUGE deal to our readers.

 

Florida State does well.

 

Albert, I would say that competitively the Big West schools are at least in a same, ahem, ballpark as the Pac-10 but I don't know if they are big draws either.

But I'll say this, they may be comparable to similar southern conferences in terms of attendance. In other words, Cal State Fullerton and Louisiana-Lafayette draw about the same.

Here are the numbers from last year. Top four are in the SEC. Arizona State, which is tops in the Pac-10, would be tied for seventh in the SEC with Florida:

http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2011/01/06/2010-ncaa-baseball-attendance-leaders/

 

I have to note -- and hey, I appreciate college baseball -- that a full ballpark of 10,000 or 12,000 people or whatever the biggest college parks hold means 10,000 or 12,000 people, and doesn't translate into tens of thousands or hundreds or millions of users to a national website.

 

College hockey fans from across the nation mourn the loss.






Or not.

 

You are correct. But what's disappointing is, by all accounts, the strength of the web is its ability to target and reach a niche. Yahoo did not have to sell national advertising for college baseball nor did it need to have a national audience. Did it fail because the biggest potential advertisers for college baseball -- Louisville Slugger, Marucci, and others -- are in the hinterland of fly-over states and thus were "unreachable" for advertising?

 

I've been to Pac-10 games where you could count the fans in the stands in a couple minutes...we're talking maybe 100 people in the bleachers

 

Interesting thing is the top four teams in Conference USA (Rice, Southern Miss, East Carolina and Tulane) are all in the 2800-3300 range, which is better than every Pac-10 and Big 12 team, except Texas, Texas A&M and Arizona State.

 

It's actually rare for an SEC program to draw 7,000 for a game, although Arkansas did it for awhile. The numbers listed here and on the link are ticket sales, not warm bodies, but in NCAA and SEC language, ticket sales = attendance.

And ... oh, never mind. Nobody gives a shit.

The sad thing about language that misleads is when someone actually draws 7,000 or more, it's not considered remarkable because on paper it happens "every night."

When I'd travel as one of the few college beat writers to see the home team play 50-56 games a season, people would ask what it's like to be at home games for crowds of "8,000 a night." I'd say "I don't know" and burst their bubble. The box score said attendance was 8,000, so it was "fact" and urban legend all at once.

Bravo to the few SIDs who still make the distinction between ticket sales and attendance, even if they mask it with such wildly meaningless terms as "paid attendance" and "actual attendance."

I used to love to ask if the score on the box was the final score or the "actual" final.

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't say I always liked Kendall and his work. Being around him and Aaron Fitt, John Manuel and Will Kimmey was always fun and enlightening. Hate to see Yahoo go oppo.

 

You don't think your team drew 7k a night? I was thinking 10k sold and 7k, on average, actually in the seats. The odd 3-4k midweek against Centenary gets offseat by packed houses for the big weekend battle with Arkansas or Georgia (or whover is good in a particular year) for first place.

Maybe I'm wrong.

I'll put it like this. The 7k at the baseball stadium is a hell of a lot more than the 7k at the basketball arena ;-).

 

True, dat last one.

But I tracked the numbers from 2000-08, and the crowds topped 7,000 so few times, you could count it on one hand.

Perhaps the new stadium has made a difference, but still not enough for it to be considered anything but unusual for 34 home dates. Maybe five to seven times a year.