Primary competition

Even though we live north of the 49th, most of us not living under a piece of granite (blogger: get it? Granite?  At least I try…) know that the New Hampshire Primary was held yesterday.  How many will remember (or care, for that matter) who won come November?

Nashua looks to figure into our summer Syracuse-Cooperstown-Vermont road trip - although the girls aren’t completely in love with the agenda (i.e. Chiefs-Baseball Hall of Fame-Lake Monsters/cycling).  Having said that, Bekah is convinced that the Nashua Pride logo is actually one of the “My Little Pony” ponies.  

                                                   

Go figure. 

Moving on.  Interesting to note that the Pride play in a state with roughly 1.25M people - a total population not much larger than the National Capital Region.  Nashua finished last in attendance in the Can-AM league (blogger: Hey.  Someone has to finish on the bottom, right?) with an average of 1,553 fans over the 52 home games.  Still, the numbers are disappointing for a team that went on to become league Champions last year.  Some of you may recall that back in September there was talk that Nashua’s team might actually end up in Ottawa.  Baseball in Nashua faces stiff competition from the N.H. Fisher Cats (playing in Manchester - a scant 18 miles to the north) and the Lowell Spinners (playing in Massachussetts, 30 odd miles to the south).

2007 marked Nashua’s second season in the Can-AM League; like the Surf, the Pride roots are in Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.  Nashua plays out at Holman Stadium.  It seats just over 4,300 people after some recent upgrades which included luxury boxes.  In 1946, the then Nashua Dodgers (Class B affiliate for the Brooklyn Dodgers) broke the color barrier when they accepted two players, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, who had been refused by the only other team in the Dodger organization that wasn’t in a segregated state, Danville, Illinois.  A history of which to be proud, quite definitely.

Famous alumni include Curtis Pride, Dante Bichette, Jeff Juden and current pitcher, Rich Garces.

A quick look at Nashua’s digs:

And you only thought it would be cold in Ottawa!

Surf’s up!

With temps at a balmy -23C here in Ottawa, we can permit ourselves to dream a little about May.  Following the Jackals, Ottawa’s next opponent is the Atlantic City Surf.  For those of you who want to go on an early season “roadie”, Ottawa will be in Atlantic City for their home opener on May 26, the first of a three game series.

2008 marks only the second season that the Surf have played in the Can-AM League; prior to ‘07 Atlantic City spent nine seasons in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.  Making their home in the 5500 seat Bernie Robbins Stadium, the Surf drew 105,149 fans in 2007, putting them just ahead of Sussex for sixth spot.  Attendance over the 50 home dates averaged out at just over 2,100 a game.  The team closed out 2007 with a loss to the North Shore Spirit in the first round of the playoffs.

Like the Jackals, it appears that they’ve got webcasts of their games, but no TV arrangement in place.  They’ve also got stiff competition for the entertainment dollars of tourists, but you would think that the 40,000 (or so) citizens of Atlantic City proper aren’t likely spending a great deal of their leisure time at the casinos.  In the sports arena, it appears that their only other competitor is the Atlantic City Diablos, a lower tier professional soccer team.

Couple of other items of note:  Director of Operations for the Surf is none other than Hoffman Wolff, too bad Ottawa wasn’t up and running in time to snag him.  AC has hit the ground running - their 2008 Promotions schedule has already been posted (even though it’s mis-labelled as “2007″).  Interesting promotion that the Ottawa franchise should consider stealing adopting: every Sunday game is designated “Church Bulletin night” and fans with their church bulletins get $2 off on the cost of a ticket.  Alumni of note: Jim Crowell (who had a very brief stay here in Ottawa last year) and Ruben Sierra (who spent no time in Ottawa, but a long time in the majors).

And what post would be complete without a little Youtube?  If nothing else, a glance at the signage on the outfield wall gives an idea of the corporate support for Atlantic City.  The quality of the play-by-play is very good - it’s not Vin Scully, but still…

The competition

We begin our look at the seven other teams in the Can-AM League with the Opening Day opponents, the New Jersey Jackals.  The Jackals make their home in Montclair, New Jersey, population 11,000 and they share their field, Yogi Berra Stadium, with the Montclair State University Red Hawks.  New Jersey had a great first half of the season in 2007, with a record of 31-15 - tops in the 8 team league.  Given the post-season structure in the Can-AM League, this guaranteed them a playoff spot and may account for their second half record of 18-29, worst in the league.  The Jackals were bounced in the first round, best of five playoffs, 3 games to 2 by eventual champs, Nashua.

Perhaps of greater interest to me are things like levels of corporate and community support, promotions and media exposure.  How big is their market? Do they have any competition for their fans’ sport/entertainment dollar?

Obviously, community support is best gauged by one key measurement - ATTENDANCE.  The Jackals finished fifth in the league with a total of 107,663 fans passing through the turnstiles over 49 games, an average of 2197 per game.  Given the size of the immediate community they’re drawing from, this is pretty impressive.  Can-AM ball faces stiff competition from the Atlantic League Newark Bears (another Indy league ball team) and Somerset Patriots.  The big league Mets and Yankees aren’t that far away either.

2007 marked their tenth season in Indy ball, with the Jackals beginning play in the Northeast League in 1998 (which later merged with the Northern League).  In 2005, NJ joined the fledgling Can-AM League which was primarily made up of teams from the old Northeast League.  Interesting note: The Jackals won the league championship their first year in existence.  FLP alert: Blog non-favorite, Napoleon Calzado played in Montclair last year.  He was recently traded to the Pensacola Pelicans of the Independent American Association.

There’s currently no radio broadcasts of Jackals games, although they did have radio coverage up until 2006.  Games are now webcast only.  Corporate sponsorship looks strong though, as evidenced by the team’s website and the outfield wall in this Youtube video:

I’ll try to add a bit more later.