A rising tide
Posted by Carl on February 5, 2008
Hopefully, the addition of a second Canadian team will boost the prestige of the League and act as an incentive for fans to come out to the competition’s ballparks when Ottawa comes to town. The Sussex Skyhawks saw their total attendance go up last year (101,638 fans), but because they played more games, their average attendance fell from 2006 (from 2,183 to 1,993). Stats may be for losers, but no matter how you want to frame it, attendance matters. Neate posted earlier about the hiring of Hal Lanier as the new Skyhawks manager, but what I didn’t realize until yesterday was that it came on the heels of the team firing the entire coaching staff after the end of the season. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t cheer quite as vociferously against our opponents from Sussex.
The Skyhawks make their home at Skylands Park in Augusta, New Jersey. The facility, built in 1994 seats 4800 - in my opinion, a perfect size for Indy ball. The ‘hawks have been in the Can-AM since 2006, finishing their inaugural season with a record of 32-58, last for the second half of the season. Ottawa will have this in common with Sussex: Both teams entered the league immediately following the departure of an existing team. Sussex followed the MiLB short season affiliate New Jersey Cardinals, Can-AM Ottawa the AAA Lynx. Like Ottawa, Sussex saw their team move to a city in Pennsylvania (State College), with the Cardinals being rebranded the “State College Spikes”.
There’s an eerie familiarity in this:
In addition, with the arrival of competition in the form of additional teams in the New York metropolitan area, attendance began to slip. The Cardinals drew a league-leading 156,447 fans in their inaugural season, but just 115,342 in 2004.
Unlike Ottawa, Sussex draws on a local population of around 150,000 people - meaning that in 2007, a little more than 2 out of every 3 locals went to at least one game (obviously, not an exact stat, but you get the idea). With a population close to a million, a 2/3 figure would put Ottawa in a very favorable position to set a league attendance record. In another dissimilarity, the ‘Hawks face regional competition for sports entertainment dollars from two other ball clubs (The Somerset Patriots and The Newark Bears) and within a 60 mile radius they have Allentown, Scranton and the elephant in the room (hell, the elephant on the planet), New York City to contend with. This must bring a whole world of additional challenges for the Skyhawks marketing people.
Back to the “like Ottawa” category, the Skyhawks have abbreviated television and radio coverage - which is quite obviously, not a desirable situation. It does appear that the local TV affiliate gives complete “highlight” reel coverage for their evening newscasts, something that I view as critical for Ottawa; we need more than just a three second soundbite, relaying the game score.
Here’s hoping that our friends in Sussex have a succesful season both on, but mostly “off” the field.
February 5, 2008 at 10:56 am
Hi folks,
I’m John Leahy, and I broadcasted radio last year for the now-defunct North Shore Spirit in the Can-Am League . I wanted to personally welcome Ottawa into the league this season.
For the record, Sussex has no radio or Internet coverage. I talked to their GM in the offseason, Ben Wittkowski, and he indicated to me that the Skyhawks have no plans to broadcast their games this season.
I have submitted my portfolio to Mr. Wolff and to Mr. Charrette for consideration to become Ottawa’s radio broadcaster. I hope it works out! Best of luck to the team in 2008.
February 5, 2008 at 1:32 pm
So how much (or little) tv coverage did the Lynx get in their last couple seasons? Was there highlights or just a “by the way, the Lynx won/lost earlier this evening 5-3″
February 5, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Carl,
Very well written. I’m of the opinion that’s its good for everyone in the league to have all 8 teams as healthy as possible financially. Take a look at the ABA, an independent basketball league:
“The 2007-2008 season has seen nearly twenty teams fold within its first five weeks, and rumors suggest that the remaining teams may leave the ABA to either form their own league, or join other existing leagues.” -Wikipedia
The visiting team is as important as the home team in projecting a professional baseball experience. Yeah its fun to win in a blowout every once in a while, but repeated blowouts aren’t good for anyone.
-Bob
February 5, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Thanks Bob. I agree - with only eight teams, it’s a lot like the CFL where you don’t want any team to be a “weak sister”.
Welcome to the blog John, and thanks for the clarification on the radio broadcasts.
Coach, sadly, for the most part (save the Ottawa Citizen) coverage was limited to “by the way, the Lynx won/lost earlier this evening 5-3″.
February 5, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Select games were broadcast on Rogers (local community channel) but like Carl says, little to no coverage in print. CTV-Ottawa was a bit of a supporter thanks to Max Keeping and Terry Marcotte. Also helps that a former Lynx staffer works there as well (Chris Day).
February 5, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Having the Ottawa Can-Ams on radio would go a long way in promoting the team in my opinion. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening. No radio station in town was ever interested in broadcasting the Lynx in 15 years. There were a few games here and there, a French station did some home games a few years back, but you need to broadcast all the games.
The best we can hope for is Internet radio. Mr. Leahy, let us know if you hear anything regarding this from Mr. Wolff. And if you need a partner, I know just who can fill those shoes.
February 6, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Didn’t they attempt to broadcast on the Team 1200 at one point? There was something on the radio because I recall my mom saying that all the announcers did during the game was talk hockey.
February 6, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Sparky, I think that was the 2006 season. There may have been other seasons in the past, I don’t recall, mainly because I don’t recall ever seeing advertisement for Lynx games on radio.
The rumour I heard was, because the Lynx were now broadcasting on the Internet, Team 1200 now all of sudden wanted to do the same. As with the initial Internet “broadcast”, games on Team 1200 were only home games. It also depended as I recall on scheduling with other sports such as the Blue Jays and the Senators. So in effect, not ALL home games were on radio.
Shawn McCart was the Internet announcer and was also in charge of finding sponsors. He did a great job and by mid-May, he found enough sponsors to justify the expense of broadcasting away games. That was the only time in Lynx history that fans could listen to live Lynx road games.
As I recall as well, the Lynx basically told Team 1200 that if they wanted to broadcast road games, they were welcome to do so. But I think the Team objected in using Shawn McCart, wanting instead their own announcers.
In 2007, Dan Carle was the announcer and once again, only home games were on the Internet. Not sure why road games were not broadcast. Dan, as far as I know, still lives in Ottawa.
February 8, 2008 at 10:06 am
The Lynx actually had some radio road broadcasts early in their history (probably between 93-95) - they didn’t have their own announcers but picked up the home team broadcast.
A little FYI - Sussex has two former Lynx on their roster - Yohanny Valera (2000) and Brian Rios (2003).
February 8, 2008 at 11:54 am
I hope that some of the stadium can be “tarped off” to make it more intimate. Possibly some images of Ottawa, Canada, Expos baseball can make the tarps more attractive. I would suggest the outer reaches of the upper deck (but not under the boxes). As far as TV and radio, I agree, we need coverage. I believe the death of the Expos STARTED when the national radio network was abandoned.
With the track record in Ottawa (imagine, the Lynx never having radio broadcasts!), I don’t know how you do it. Perhaps some unconventional thinking like giving a minority stake in the club to one of the radio stations and even cable television could make it happen (of course, in exchange for complete coverage of games). There is NO better way to follow a club (and create fans) than having every game available on the radio, and some TV.
February 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Dave, I agree about the Expos death being due in part to not retaining the national radio network.
As for tarping off part of the stadium, yes it would make it more intimate. Also, in my opinion, it could help increasing attendance if it makes getting a ticket tougher to get. But it could also have a reverse effect “why sell 5,000 tix when the stadium holds 10,000?”
Tricia, I don’t remember the Lynx being on radio in the early days. If they were, it was not all the games, I’m sure. I do remember coming back to Ottawa from Trois-Rivieres in a snowstorm the night of the first Lynx home game with my father. He wanted to catch the game on radio, if possible. I remember telling him there was not going to be radio (at least not that night). That’s why I’m saying there was never regular broadcast of the games except for the 20 or some home games during the season. I don’t remember away games at all.
Given the saturation of radio stations in this area, I never understood why no station ever picked up all 142 Lynx games. I undertand that playing music is cheaper but not one was ever interested in the Lynx? What’s more, the Lynx NEVER made money with radio broadcasts. They never sold broadcast rights. In fact, they had to pay money for the station to do so. That means that advertising revenue was almost pure profit for the station.
That’s why I won’t hold my breath for any of them broadcasting the Can-Ams. Trying Dave’s suggestion of offering them something won’t work. No station will be interested. They are not in the business of investing in sports teams.
Some other idea is needed.
The only thing I can think of is the Can-Ams setting up their own micropower station. These are typically 100 watts or less (and often less than one watt). Not sure of the range of such low power, maybe 5-10 km. Also, this is regarded as pirate radio in the US and I’m not sure what the CRTC’s position is on micropower.
February 8, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Some other idea is needed.
I’m toying with the idea of podcasting games if there isn’t an internet broadcast.
February 8, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Actually Carl, no reason the team can’t let anyone doing an Internet broadcast if they don’t want to do it themselves. It wouldn’t cost much and revenues could be generated with ads. I ran numbers a few years ago and the last two Lynx seasons proved it can be done.
But I would still prefer a radio broadcast.
February 8, 2008 at 5:59 pm
The radio will broadcast if they can make profit but the team doesn’t have to make profit out of it. The team could pay tha radio station what they need to be satisfied and take charge of advertising and of course keep the revenues. As long as the team doesn’t lose too much money this could work. I believe that’s what the Québec Capitales do. I know that’s what the CBL did with the TV station The Score (may not be a good exemple).
February 9, 2008 at 10:35 am
We use “micropower” FM at the Port Elmsley Drive-In down here in Perth/Smiths Falls (www.portelmsleydrivein.com - 45 min. from Ottawa - shameless plug). We’re required to set our transmitter so that there’s very little “bleed” from the property. (Since you can’t really stop radio waves at the “border”.) 1 watt would cover 5-10 km and 5 watts would cover most of Ottawa if your antenna were high enough. We need less than a 1/4 watt. But you’d need a license to go off property, perhaps it’s worth seeing if we could get a “community programming” slot, but there would be requirements to broadcast every day of the year for certain hours. I wonder if there’s a university or college station that would want to cover the games that already is on the air. There is one other option, some minority language stations operate on a “piggyback” signal of mainstream stations, and I believe the listeners need some sort of “converter” to listen in, pretty cumbersome I’d think….
February 9, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Dave, great info. I was hoping someone would knows more about this to chime in.
I did some research on this last night. I figured a 7-foot whip antenna on top of Lynx Stadium with 100mw of power could reach 8-10 km, enough to reach Orleans but not Kanata. There are few big buildings around so maybe it could go farther.
You mention 1 watt. I was under impression the limit was 100 mW.
A community college station would be good. Does CKCU still exist? I know Algonquin has courses on radio broadcasting but I don’t think they actually have a station.
I really think this could work and the transmitter could also be used as Dave says for community programming year-round. I figured costs would be low, even doing road games and could be covered with ads.
Are we in business?
February 9, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I’m almost positive that you would need a license for any sort of transmissions beyond the stadium, and then you’re into fees and programming requirements full-time. Very low power broadcasts are unregulated for stadiums (like the Expos used to do at the Big O), churches (hearing impaired), real estate info (attached to houses), and drive-in theatres. I think you’re right, there is an arbitrary limit and it could be 100mW, but in reality, they don’t want you broadcasting outside your property. So that’s the issue. As far as the equipment, very high quality transmitters which go 0-5W with matching tunable antenna (you need one) which would definately get out to Kanata can be had for $1,500. or so. They can be set at any wattage you want, up to around 5.
Maybe Baseball Canada, the club and others could actually obtain a community broadcast license and set up shop right there at the ballpark. It could focus year round on baseball, offsetting the other “sports” station with it’s 24-7-365 hockey coverage. Or, focus on “anything not Senators”. Can’t imagine baseball in February could be nearly as boring as hockey talk in July.
One thing’s for certain, baseball was MADE for the radio, and vice versa.
February 9, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I remember growing up listening to Dave Van Horne announcing Expos games on the radio. There’s nothing quite like baseball on the radio.
Pierre, not all the games were on the radio back at the beginning, and definitely not all of the away games, but either the Team or CFRA picked up some of them, at least later on in the season.
February 10, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Dave van Horne and Duke Snider were sure a good duo with the Expos. I must have listened to 1,000 games at home, at the cottage. I agree, nothing like baseball on the radio while you do other things.
As for college and university stations, CKCU still exists of course (they had the Expos for a year or two) on 93.1. Algonquin College is on 107.9 (CKDJ), not sure how far their signal goes. Even U Ottawa has a station on 89.1 (CHUO) and I don’t know how far they go either.
Problem is, would their license allow to broadcast baseball games? More important still, are they allowed to have commercials? Are they able to cover costs? I know CKCU asks for donations on their site.
Team 1200 would be a good choice but other commitments may mean a lot of games not broadcast. CFRA is the only station I can think of with the opportunity to fill their schedule with baseball games at 7:00 pm, 1:00 on Sundays. Being news/talk however, they may not be interested.
Tricia, when did CFRA pick up Lynx games? Did they not do Expos games in the 80s?
Looks like Internet is the way to go for starters and try to get one of those stations to come on board.
February 10, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Pierre, I found some old media notes from 1994 (apparently I keep way TOO much) where they refer to a couple of games on CFRA. I know they broadcast a few more. They even broadcast the Expos exhibition game on CIQC and CFRA. (I also found the notes from a Columbus game with Andy Petitte, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter on the roster.)
May 20, 2008 at 9:05 pm
The Ottawa Rapidz have announced that all games will be broadcast by CJRC FM in french only.However they are also working on an English broadcast and may have some news soon