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Stepping Up to the Plate
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Business New Haven
9/4/2000
By: BNH
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We like sports. Do you?
It's hard to tell. By the numbers, statistics regarding greater New Haven's support of paid-attendance sporting events are definitely indefinite.
Last month's Pilot Pen women's tennis tourney did pretty well, drawing 8,000 more fans than the 1999 event. Weather certainly was a factor: Previous events at the Connecticut Tennis Center were dogged by rain, but this year's event lost just one day to inclement conditions.
That's good, because it means promoter Butch Buchholz might stick around for 2001, and give the event room to grow. (If he can lure more than two top-ten players next year, he might do even better.)
On the flip side of the coin, attendance at New Haven Ravens home games continues to sag. The AA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners lagged the Eastern League in regular-season home attendance in 2000 despite its first-place status in the league's North Division for much of the season.
To add insult to injury, the Mariners announced last month that they would seek a new home for their AA players, citing dissatisfaction with Yale Field and high player-housing costs as negative factors.
Ravens owner Ed Massey announced that he would seek a new major-league affiliation. Nevertheless, Elm City baseball fans ought to begin to steel themselves for the prospect of a short-season A league club resident at Yale Field for 2001 - at best.
Good team, good baseball, empty seats - what gives? The Ravens apparently can catch flies - but can't draw them. By contrast, the Bridgeport Bluefish of the non-Major League-affiliated Atlantic League had drawn nearly 260,000 fans through 60 home dates at the hermetically sealed Ballpark at Harbor Yard - miles beyond the 175,000 the Ravens had drawn at home through 63 dates.
This begs an important question: Do fans really go to baseball games to see the field? In every possible comparison between the Ravens and Bluefish, the Ravens come out ahead - except for their home facility. Harbor Yard is three years old, clean, tidy and you can park right next to it. Yale Field is 73 years old - clean, tidy and you can park right next to it.
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. has pegged New Haven's marketing niche as arts and entertainment. “Entertainment” surely includes spectator sports. But do those of us who are already here want to pay for more sports - or even the sports we already have?
There is no clear answer. The next few months will provide additional evidence, as a new UHL hockey team takes up residence at Veterans Memorial Coliseum and, perhaps, the Continental Basketball Association's Connecticut Pride franchise as well.
All these are private, for-profit enterprises, and must do more to win our allegiance than simply to exist. They do not merit our “support” solely by being. But at this key juncture New Haven-area sports fans have an opportunity to define their market and, in fact, define themselves by the choices they make and the tickets they do - or do not - purchase.
Do we really want to have to look up to places like Pawtucket and Pittsfield? If the answer is no, then our behaviors have to change.
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