Why isn't baseball more popular?

[HerdBot]

Think about this. Baseball is huge in the FM area. We play in one of the best stadiums in the midwest and the Redhawks draw well and they play in a league with only 6 teams. Why is it that they can draw 2-3K people per game and we can't even crack 1,000 for the Gophers? We drew 173 people for the last game.

Is it weather? Is it the fact that they are day games in the middle of the week? Is it poor maketing? It's strange because when I want to bring my kids to a baseball game, the Redhawks are the first thing I think of when we have a D1 Baseball team right here in Fargo.

EDIT: Looking at the schedule most of the games are Friday-Sat-Sunday. Maybe they need some more night games if possible during the week or on Friday?

Thoughts?

[AKBison]

I am a huge college baseball fan so perhaps I can provide a few answers. The first and most obvious thing is that we don't have a winning tradition here. It all comes down to the W's and we are struggling in that department. The second thing is that we have something like 3 total scholarships available for baseball at NDSU. That probably averages out to $500 a player or something. So all of our guys are basically walk ons and any premium talent is likely to go somewhere else where a heftier scholarship would be available. Until we fully fund the program we won't really have any prolonged success.

I do not buy the weather argument as a reason people don't go to games. Fans at Nebraska, Wichita State and Oregon State have to endure some pretty nasty weather in Febuary and March but the fans still come out in droves. People in Fargo are used to the cold if they had the desire to go to a game they would be there.

Until we fully fund the program and take it serious we will continue to draw crappy crowds. nobody wants to go freeze their arse off to watch crap baseball. With all that said, we can't fully fund baseball right now for a variety of reasons so we are stuck where we are. We would need to add another Womens sport like Tennis in order to have some leeway with Title IX.

The short answer to your question is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[roadwarrior]

The weather has sucked for the most part the past two springs.

Very little marketing, although I did hear radio spots for the MN game.

Teammaker members get into baseball games FREE, but I guess not too many pay attention.

Winning tradition or lack of definitely plays a part.

I'm pretty certain that the number of scholarships is now up around 9 for baseball.

[coldspot]

they need to bring in some more local flavor to the bison baseball team. i counted zero fargo natives and one moorhead native on the roster this last year. yeah there are kids from grafton, bismarck, the twin cities metro area, but people in the fm area and going to want to come watch kids from the fm area play more than kids from 200 miles away. luckily there is some local talent coming to the team this year in bryant larson and kyle kingsley. two stellar pitchers and if youve read the forum lately following post 2, bryant is 2-0 with 26 strikeouts, no walks, and four hits allowed through 13 innings.

[HandoEX]

they need to bring in some more local flavor to the bison baseball team. i counted zero fargo natives and one moorhead native on the roster this last year. yeah there are kids from grafton, bismarck, the twin cities metro area, but people in the fm area and going to want to come watch kids from the fm area play more than kids from 200 miles away. luckily there is some local talent coming to the team this year in bryant larson and kyle kingsley. two stellar pitchers and if youve read the forum lately following post 2, bryant is 2-0 with 26 strikeouts, no walks, and four hits allowed through 13 innings.

Just wondering, because I honestly don't know....how many kids from Fargo are playing D1 baseball right now?

[coldspot]

Just wondering, because I honestly don't know....how many kids from Fargo are playing D1 baseball right now?

tom ebert (who was drafted in the 19th round by the red sox), bryant larson, and now kyle kingsley.

[HerdBot]

I am a huge college baseball fan so perhaps I can provide a few answers. The first and most obvious thing is that we don't have a winning tradition here. It all comes down to the W's and we are struggling in that department. The second thing is that we have something like 3 total scholarships available for baseball at NDSU. That probably averages out to $500 a player or something. So all of our guys are basically walk ons and any premium talent is likely to go somewhere else where a heftier scholarship would be available. Until we fully fund the program we won't really have any prolonged success.

I do not buy the weather argument as a reason people don't go to games. Fans at Nebraska, Wichita State and Oregon State have to endure some pretty nasty weather in Febuary and March but the fans still come out in droves. People in Fargo are used to the cold if they had the desire to go to a game they would be there.

Until we fully fund the program and take it serious we will continue to draw crappy crowds. nobody wants to go freeze their arse off to watch crap baseball. With all that said, we can't fully fund baseball right now for a variety of reasons so we are stuck where we are. We would need to add another Womens sport like Tennis in order to have some leeway with Title IX.

The short answer to your question is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Good post. I didn't realize it wasn't fully funded. I don't think the average joe knows that either so it shouldn't matter. I think we can still be good with the local players. We've had some really good wins over the last few years when we beat Minnesota and Oral Roberts. More scholarships would be huge but obvioulsy that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I think we need to take advantage of what we have and that is a great baseball stadium with the potential of a great atmosphere. Newman is sweet so we should take advantage of it.

They just need to market better. It can be done without spending a fortune. Someone just needs to be smart about it. Do they advertise it at football, volleyball, or basketball games? I really liked the idea of playing the Redhawks and I think they should make than an annual thing. It sure got my attention and I was going to go. (until it got rained out) I would prefer to take the kids to an NDSU baseball game over he Redhawks because it's a heck of a lot cheaper and it's still a good level of competition.

D1 baseball has a ton of potential with the stadium and D1 status. Even with very few scholarships.

[Herd]

IMO . . . the women's sports are in good shape, except for getting soccer back on target.

Ramping up baseball scholarships, IMO should be a top priority for NDSU, along with the basketball arena, and getting the football team to the top of the Valley.

I agree, FM could be a huge baseball hotbed if the program can start winning. This should be a top NDSU athletics priority!

[imabison]

Think about this. Baseball is huge in the FM area. We play in one of the best stadiums in the midwest and the Redhawks draw well and they play in a league with only 6 teams. Why is it that they can draw 2-3K people per game and we can't even crack 1,000 for the Gophers? We drew 173 people for the last game.

Is it weather? Is it the fact that they are day games in the middle of the week? Is it poor maketing? It's strange because when I want to bring my kids to a baseball game, the Redhawks are the first thing I think of when we have a D1 Baseball team right here in Fargo.

EDIT: Looking at the schedule most of the games are Friday-Sat-Sunday. Maybe they need some more night games if possible during the week or on Friday?

Thoughts?

I like to go to occasional game. The last couple years the Gopher game, and either SDSU or ORU. Now my schedule changed so I miss half the games during the week. I try to hit a weekend game if I am not doing anything.

[ndsubison1]

Baseball is a sport that I want to see more exposure of and more funding for our program. Even though we live in the upper midwest where we don't have great weather for it, I think it has a lot of potential. There are not many other D1 baseball programs around this area and the midwest is pretty underrated when it comes to baseball talent (Minnesota has plenty of talent and ND has some players that can play for us every year). Not to mention College Baseball is getting more exposure and better marketing around the country every single year. It's getting vastly more popular. We obviously have the facilities and talent close by, now lets take advantage and give the program more resources to work with