Maritime Park YMCA Officially "Dead"

Sal wrote:

Louisville built a minor league ballpark when I was living there. Over a decade later, it's still successful. As you said, attendance has dropped off a little from the first year, but it's the opposite of a boondoggle. I think there are several reasons for its success. It's a beautiful and well-maintained park, tickets and concessions are reasonably priced, and they cater to both families and young singles with a variety of features and attractions. In other words, good management.

Here in Tampa, we have a couple of minor league parks from which to choose.

The Tampa Yankees' park has expensive and poor quality concessions, a boring layout, and nothing to offer families. They can't give tickets away.

The Clearwater Threshers' park is absolutely gorgeous, they have delicious and reasonably priced concessions, and they are constantly hosting family-friendly promotions. They are setting attendance records.

I don't have a dog in your fight.

Just pointing out that these parks aren't always and inevitably failures.

Bob wrote:

Sal wrote:

Louisville built a minor league ballpark when I was living there. Over a decade later, it's still successful. As you said, attendance has dropped off a little from the first year, but it's the opposite of a boondoggle. I think there are several reasons for its success. It's a beautiful and well-maintained park, tickets and concessions are reasonably priced, and they cater to both families and young singles with a variety of features and attractions. In other words, good management.

Here in Tampa, we have a couple of minor league parks from which to choose.

The Tampa Yankees' park has expensive and poor quality concessions, a boring layout, and nothing to offer families. They can't give tickets away.

The Clearwater Threshers' park is absolutely gorgeous, they have delicious and reasonably priced concessions, and they are constantly hosting family-friendly promotions. They are setting attendance records.

I don't have a dog in your fight.

Just pointing out that these parks aren't always and inevitably failures.

I went last year because a friend spent about 1500 clams on two season tickets and there were many times he loaned them out.
He isn't buying them this year.
Tell you what. Let's pick this conversation up again at the end of this year's season. And then compare last year's attendance to this year's.
And then we won't have to speculate about this. lol

Yella wrote:
But I'll go to a game or two this summer since it makes me feel wealthy paying 8 bucks for a beer and 7 for a hotdog. I went one time with Bob and he had 2 or 3 beers and on the way out he said he felt as wealthy as Bill Gates.

Bob wrote:

Yella wrote:
But I'll go to a game or two this summer since it makes me feel wealthy paying 8 bucks for a beer and 7 for a hotdog. I went one time with Bob and he had 2 or 3 beers and on the way out he said he felt as wealthy as Bill Gates.

But remember that was back in the dark days when I was always carrying two ten ounce flasks of Canadian Mist in my pocket to augment the 2 or 3 beers. After twenty ounces of liquor and 2 or 3 beers I could be entertained by watching the grass grow. Which is actually what happened because, as you'll remember, I usually ended up passed out in a lawn chair all night in the backyard doing exactly that. lol

Hallmarkgrad1 wrote:I'm not making any predictions here.

I know nothing about the specifics involved with the Pcola ballpark other than what I skim through here, and know nothing about this Studer character other than he's a rich dude that Hallmark has a hard-on for because he's in AA and owns a ballpark that sells beer.

Just pointing out what I highlighted in red above.
Good call. You got me pegged on that one. But there is much more to all this than just a ball park. It is a power struggle that Pensacolains play. That is what invalidates the simple solutions that Mr Oats provides. It is just drama. People love it. People like Mr Studer come in and play for awhile then move on to do something else. Really no one is hurt by any of this.
The sad truth is that many people think the natives are impressed with all the Hoop Ha. We are not.

Just a show, a drama, a play nothing more.

Bob wrote:I now remember coming home after one of those games and passing out in the lawn chair. I woke up at about 4AM when I started feeling the rain hitting my head. I looked down and the bluetooth had fell out of my ear and was lying on the patio soaking wet. lol

I remember going to another game and it started raining about the 2nd inning.
By about the 3rd or 4th inning it was really raining and the whole crowd left except for me, my designated driver, and a few others who were so drunk they couldn't get out of their seats to leave.
Since everybody had left, we noticed all the seats behind home plate had been vacated. So we left the cheap seats and watched the rest of the game in the rain from behind home plate.
One guy in the stands was so drunk that he kept shouting obscenities and they had to eject him from the stadium.
I remember they waited until after the 7th inning to call the game because if they wait that long they don't have to give people a ticket to another game. lol

Bob wrote:I now remember coming home after one of those games and passing out in the lawn chair. I woke up at about 4AM when I started feeling the rain hitting my head. I looked down and the bluetooth had fell out of my ear and was lying on the patio soaking wet. lol

I remember going to another game and it started raining about the 2nd inning.
By about the 3rd or 4th inning it was really raining and the whole crowd left except for me, my designated driver, and a few others who were so drunk they couldn't get out of their seats to leave.
Since everybody had left, we noticed all the seats behind home plate had been vacated. So we left the cheap seats and watched the rest of the game in the rain from behind home plate.
One guy in the stands was so drunk that he kept shouting obscenities and they had to eject him from the stadium.
I remember they waited until after the 7th inning to call the game because if they wait that long they don't have to give people a ticket to another game. lol

Yella wrote:

What if we bought some cool wigs and went as the Three Stooges, each carrying a large large mallet like they bashed each other with? We could holler and scream and brandish the mallets at opposing team players when they get on base. Other spectators would think we were part of the show until The Stooderville cops marched us out.

Bob wrote:

Yella wrote:

What if we bought some cool wigs and went as the Three Stooges, each carrying a large large mallet like they bashed each other with? We could holler and scream and brandish the mallets at opposing team players when they get on base. Other spectators would think we were part of the show until The Stooderville cops marched us out.

I'm up for it. But I'll have to get tanked up first to be able to do it. And this time I'll need a reclining lawn chair. It's getting too hard on my back to sit upright in a regular lawn chair all night.

Yella wrote:

We could three carry the canvas chairs that fit in a bag. We could sit upon the patio area and still watch the game and also look for Studerites wandering around.

Hallmarkgrad1 wrote:I Think we should get Bob to dress up like Mr Stooder. Mr Yellar and I could carry clip boards and take notes as Bob(IKA Stooder) bosses us around....

Hallmarkgrad1 wrote:Maybe he could run a special and you get a free beer with your AA Token..