Fish Hooks

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/06/2009 (6144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THEIR record — 21-7 — sounds

more like a football score and

their winning percentage — .750

— sounds more like the size of the

container you’d take with you on a fishing

trip.

And yet there it is, in black and

white, next to the name of the Winnipeg

Goldeyes atop the Northern

League standings these days.

With the season approaching the onethird

mark — the Fish will formally

reach the 32-game point of a 96-game

season this Saturday at Canwest Park

against Joliet — Winnipeg is threatening

to make a mockery of the 2009

Northern League season.

Just consider: Heading into last

night (Winnipeg was playing in Fargo

in the second of a three-game set), the

Fish had a five-and-a-half game lead

over the second-place Schaumburg

Flyers, who were 15-12.

After that, the drop is precipitous.

Gary trails Winnipeg by eight games,

with a 14-16 record; Kansas City trails

by eight-and-a-half games at 12-15;

Fargo is a full nine games back at 12-

16; and then there’s lowly Joliet, who

trail Winnipeg by 11 games despite

having beaten Winnipeg twice earlier

this week.

Put it together and you have a sixteam

league with just two teams above

.500 and one of them running away

with the whole thing. And it’s mid-

June.

So it all raises the

question: Is

there a point

at which

too much

winning

can

become a

liability for the Goldeyes as a business

enterprise, where they actually are so

far ahead of everyone else that fans

start to lose interest and attendance

drops?

“I’ll never say it’s a bad thing to

have a winning team,” Goldeyes GM

Andrew Collier said Wednesday. “It’s

always more fun to watch a winner.”

Nothing drives fan interest — and

ticket sales — in the major leagues like

a pennant race, but Collier said marketing

a minor-league team isn’t the

same and promotions, at least as much

as the standings, can drive sales.

“There’s a big difference,” Collier

says. “Winning sells tickets in the

major leagues. In the minors, it’s more

about what else you have going on,

what else you’re offering.

“Having said that, winning is

never going to hurt you — but

losing might.”