Travis R. Martin, CPA

If the student-athletes at your school are playing in front of more empty seats than filled ones, maybe it is time to get creative.

Nearly everything I was seeing in the Minor League Ballparks – the wacky promotions, the entertaining mascots, and the carnival-like atmospheres – could easily be applied to high school athletics. Here’s how.

The smoking bull has relocated to a new $100 million dollar ballpark in downtown Durham, but the old Durham Athletic Park lives on. It is currently undergoing a $6.3 million renovation that includes a new playing surface and upgraded seating in the grandstand.

The Hall holds a special place in the hearts of baseball fans, and rightfully so. The museum is packed full of artifacts from every era of baseball, many of which make you drop your jaw and say “how did they get that?”

There’s a bizzaro-world of Minor League promotions. A twilight-zonesque place where fans are given their freebie on the way out the door. A place where elderly ushers dressed in drag escort fans to their seats. A place where half-eaten hot dog buns are tossed into the stands. And yes, God help us, a place where the music of David Hasselhoff is used to pump up the crowd.

Modern Woodmen Park combines classic stadium architecture, modern amenities, and dramatic river views to create a ballpark experience that is one of the best in all of Minor League Baseball.

In professional sports you have big market teams and small market teams. And then you have the Beloit Snappers, a Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, who play in a market so small, it almost warrants classification as a micro-market. Indeed, if there were a baseball franchise version of life-support, the Snappers would be on it.

“People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of [...]

Elfstrom Stadium – Geneva, IL

Opened: 1991 with renovations completed in 2009
Capacity: 7,100
Ticket Prices: Kane County has a tiered ticket pricing system with regular, prime, and premium dates ranging from $8 to $14 depending on the type of seat and date.
Parking: Free and ample parking next to stadium on a beautiful brick paved lot
Dates Visited:
June 18 [...]

48 miles of interstate. That is all that separates Minor League Baseball’s Kane County Cougars from the friendly confines of Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs. Add a few more miles of Chicago streets and the Cougars’ market includes no fewer than five more major league franchises – the White Sox, Bulls, Bears, Blackhawks and [...]