Goldeyes still pack 'em in -- sometimes Fans slumping, average down

Enlarge Image

Make no mistake, the Fish still draw fans and plenty of them. But the number of empty seats has been on the rise in recent years at Canwest Park. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

The economy has been bad. The weather has been worse. And, let's face it, how many times can you expect someone to pay to watch Fargo skipper Doug Simunic waddle out of the dugout?

Put it all together -- tight money, cold, rainy weather and a tiny six-team league -- and the Winnipeg Goldeyes are set to record their worst season at the gate in a decade this summer.

And what's worse is that while some of the circumstances that have led to a big drop in Goldeyes attendance this season are unique, the overall trend is not. Indeed, since average attendance for a Goldeyes regular-season game peaked in 2003 at 7,161, attendance at Canwest Park has been on an almost uninterrupted slide ever since.

Now, it bears noting that even with the declines, the Goldeyes will still lead the Northern League -- and all of independent baseball, for that matter -- in attendance this year and remain an unmitigated success off the field and a very profitable enterprise.

"Winnipeg is a hockey and football town," Goldeyes general manager Andrew Collier said Tuesday night, "and we're selling professional baseball and beating hotbeds of baseball all over the U.S.

"Nobody really gave us a shot to begin with, to even be around after a year or two years. So to lead independent baseball (in attendance) for nine, 10 years in a row is pretty good and everyone who works here and the fans who buy tickets should be proud of that."

Indeed, it's also worth noting that the Goldeyes will still attract over 270,000 regular-season spectators this year -- more than the Blue Bombers and rivalled locally only by the Manitoba Moose.

Still, there have been an almost unprecedented number of empty seats masquerading as Goldeyes fans this summer.

Through 39 home dates this season heading into Tuesday night's contest with the Joliet Jackhammers, the Fish have averaged 6,070 fans per game -- their lowest average attendance since the first year of the downtown ballpark way back in 1999, when they averaged 6,061 per regular season game.

It's all a far cry from those heady days back at the turn of the millennium, when the Goldeyes sold out virtually every game, the ballpark was the place to be seen and tickets practically sold themselves.

Indeed, things were so good back then -- and the optimism running so high in the Fish front office -- that the team invested in a multi-million dollar expansion of the park just four years after it was built, adding another 1,400 seats down the right field line in 2003 to bring the park to its current capacity of 7,481.

That seemed like a great idea back in 2003 when the club attracted 7,161 per game -- and even the next season when they averaged 7,027. But the numbers have been going only one way ever since and this season the Goldeyes have topped 7,000 in attendance just five times.

"It's absolutely a downward trend," says Collier. "I never like to make excuses for anything and we need to do a better job of selling.

"And when I see where attendance will end up this year, all that does is give me more motivation."

Collier said the addition of two more teams to the Northern League next season will make a noticeable difference after a year that saw pre-season sales down five per cent in large part due to cancellations by fans frustrated by having to watch the same visiting teams over and over and over again.

The economy is also expected to improve into 2010. And the summer weather? Well, it couldn't be worse, right?

As for Collier, he says his expectations remain high that the Goldeyes will once again become a must-have ticket in town. "There's a market here to put 7,400 (spectators) in the park every night," he says.

Maybe, but it's been awhile since the Fish even got close. And the team's been getting further -- not closer -- to that mark every since.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Peanut, Cracker Jack

sales declining

Here's the average attendance at a regular-season Goldeyes game since the team moved into Canwest Park in 1999:

1999 -- 6,061

2000 -- 6,465

2001 -- 6,491

2002 -- 6,200

2003 -- 7,161

2004 -- 7,027

2005 -- 6,867

2006 -- 6,504

2007 -- 6,542

2008 -- 6,464

2009 -- 6,070

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 26, 2009 C4