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While I know they can and do co-exist in many cities with a significant college presence, I don't think Columbia will "need" pro sports until enough citizens demand a professional alternative.
I think your last statement is true. I see a lot of Columbia residents blaming Carolina for anything related to athletics and preventing the city from getting a baseball/hockey team. In reality, the city/county needs to decide if it wants a team and work towards getting one instead of blaming Carolina. Columbia easily has the demographic base to support a team (Kannapolis even has a single A team), it is a matter of deciding what it takes to get a team. A single A stadium along the river in the Vista would be terrific.
You must not have visited Carolina Stadium Skyliner. It is better than most AAA level parks.
I did not deny that it is a very nice ballpark (of course it is), but the claim that it is the "best in SC" is debatable because we have at least one other ballpark in SC that has garnered superlative accolades from experts on the subject as well. I doubt any of us here are legitimate experts.
Being new to the Columbia area, I am beginning to question if USC "secretly hinders" professional sports as they want to be the only "games" in town?
Look at Charleston and Greenville. Both have very good professional baseball and ice hockey teams yet Columbia has nothing.
Food for thought.
Columbus, Ohio is the same way with Ohio State. Columbus is a larger metro area than both cleveland and cincinnati who have NFL franchises. so why no NFL in CBus? well the nfl powers know better to be honest. an nfl franchise could never compete with OSU even in a large market like Columbus.
now on to Columbia. to my knowledge columbia has minor league hockey and i thought they had baseball, could be wrong on that.
Greenville lost their minor league hockey team for a couple years b/c the market "went away" or lost interested, but now the team is back and ive been to a couple games and the Bi - Lo center is still only half way full on game day. they do a great job promoting the team though.
the Greenville Drive Single A followed suit with what a lot of similar sized cities across america did 10 years ago. build a nice downtown ball park near all the bars and restaurants, make the stadium look double or triple Aish but field a single A team. The Toledo Mud Hens AAA team did this 10 years ago. they built a nice downtown park, TOO NICE for a AAA in my opinion and the team and downtown area bars and restaurants flourish each spring and summer because of it. Dayton, ohio with its AA team did the same thing.
Charleston River Dogs have the added benefit of all the vacationing dads and dons who wanna catch a game on vacation during the summer. Nobody vacations to Columbia, SC LOL. sorry
besides who wants to watch single A ball when you can watch the gamecock baseball team and im being serious.
You must not have visited Carolina Stadium Skyliner. It is better than most AAA level parks.
been to it. its not better nor worse than riley or flour in charleston and greenville. in fact the vast majority of SEC ball parks are VERY nice and are comparable to single A stadiums. check out UF, UGA and Bama. they all ave amazing parks as well.
to say Carolina Stadium is nicer than a Triple A park is putting a little too much stock into it. check out fifth third field in toledo, ohio a triple A ball park.
Greenville lost their minor league hockey team for a couple years b/c the market "went away" or lost interested, but now the team is back and ive been to a couple games and the Bi - Lo center is still only half way full on game day. they do a great job promoting the team though.
The Grrrowl folded because they couldn't lower ticket prices enough to sustain profits due to the unusual financial agreement they shared with the BI-LO Center. The attendance levels were adequate for most ECHL teams at that time, but they were not able to maintain a successful profit margin in the end. The attendance you have seen this season is not bad for an ECHL team, but needs to improve next season. The arena is a bit large for hockey in SC, but it serves other purposes as well.
I sat and watched a 90% empty pro baseball stadium yesterday while waiting on Sports South to switch over to a packed Carolina Stadium yesterday. Washington and Atlanta were playing a game that apparently no one but the anchors cared about. That level of enthusiasm is what the minors have to look forward to if they ever make it to the majors? At least college baseball has the College World Series coming up.
I think USC does not want competition. That is not a crime. I wish we could get hockey and minor league baseball back. I find it hard to believe that any stadium is nicer than USC's. I am not a USC grad or fan, fwiw.
The Grrrowl folded because they couldn't lower ticket prices enough to sustain profits due to the unusual financial agreement they shared with the BI-LO Center. The attendance levels were adequate for most ECHL teams at that time, but they were not able to maintain a successful profit margin in the end. The attendance you have seen this season is not bad for an ECHL team, but needs to improve next season. The arena is a bit large for hockey in SC, but it serves other purposes as well.
personally even with a large influx of midwest and northern transplants minor league seems to have a tough time surviving in gville. being from toledo, ohio which has a team in echl, the attendance ive witnessed at the bi-lo is sad. but you're right the bi-lo center is larger than most minor league venues and serves other purposes. below is a link to some stats regarding the road warriors. pretty sad as gville is below average. not sure your statement about gville's attendance being "not bad for an echl team". with that being said love the new team, love watching games at the bi-lo and its decent hockey for the price. **when you look at the chart keep in mind that even though gville's attendance is way up, this is a typical trend with new concepts. grant it minor league hockey isn't totally new to gville but its rebirth has a lot to do with its enormous jump in attendance.
The official 2010-2011 season attendance records are available on the ECHL's website. Honestly, I didn't expect Greenville to have good attendance this season (brand new team, plus a bit of local skepticism after losing the Grrrowl), but was pleasantly surprised by the steady support -- not that I ever doubted the region's ability to support the team. It always helps when a home team performs well on the rink/court/field.
I wish we could get hockey and minor league baseball back.
I don't mean to be selfish, but I'd rather see a minor league baseball team back in Sumter than Columbia. We already have the park for it (although it would need some updating), the small bit of revenue would probably benefit Sumter businesses more than it would Columbia's, Sumter residents need entertainment venues more than Columbia's do, plus it would be far enough away from Columbia to not be a threat/in competition with (not that I necessarily think it would) Carolina Stadium but close enough for Columbia residents to make the drive if they wanted to catch a game.
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