Wind Surge

[NCAABound]

Well it looks like everyone went to the opening night and now the stadium is empty again.

I purchased a month of MiLB.tv for 12.99 to watch...but the video is terrible if I want to watch it on my TV. First off...no casting option so I'm just using my screen mirroring. Then it is just choppy as hell. Runs great just on my tablet. Don't have this issue with other sites. So will probably get rid of it.

Edit...Not as choppy through my phone but still no true casting option. Screen mirror just isnt the same.

[SubGod22]

Midweek games are probably going to be hit and miss and I doubt we should expect a lot of sell outs. How they do over the weekends is what will be interesting. I haven't seen attendance numbers and have no actual expectations for what they may be.

And I'm not surprised that MLB would screw up streaming options. Surprised they don't have blackout restrictions for MiLB.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I can only imagine that getting dropped to AA took the wind out of the sails (no pun intended but what a happy accident) of the fanbase. I know it did for me. While I was planning a trip to come back to town for a AAA game, it's hard for me to justify such a trip now for AA ball.

[MikeKennedyRulZ]

Didn't I see that the surge GM resigned yesterday?

[wufan]

I can only imagine that getting dropped to AA took the wind out of the sails (no pun intended but what a happy accident) of the fanbase. I know it did for me. While I was planning a trip to come back to town for a AAA game, it's hard for me to justify such a trip now for AA ball.

I actually prefer AA to AAA. Every young guy comes through double A, whereas triple A is peppered with guys just trying to hang on for another year.

[NCAABound]

Didn't I see that the surge GM resigned yesterday?

Yep

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I actually prefer AA to AAA. Every young guy comes through double A, whereas triple A is peppered with guys just trying to hang on for another year.

I totally get that. From a pure developmental perspective, AA is better. You watch future stars in AA; has beens in AAA.

I guess it’s just hard for me to get excited about playing teams from freaking Midland and Springfield. AAA just has a bigger feel, with teams in actual honest to God cities.

[Shockm]

Didn't I see that the surge GM resigned yesterday?

Anyone know why?

[NCAABound]

Another pretty sparse crowd on a Friday night. Disappointed in a new team with opening week being so empty. Figured at least Friday of opening week would be good with the newness still prevelant.

[ShockerFever]

Another pretty sparse crowd on a Friday night. Disappointed in a new team with opening week being so empty. Figured at least Friday of opening week would be good with the newness still prevelant.

Still pretty cool out there for some for night time baseball.

[Veritas]

It didn’t help to drop from AAA to AA with drawing crowds.
The casual fan isn’t going to get excited about playing Springfield or Amarillo in contrast to the AAA teams.

Some of the AA teams might draw better than others but a pretty big let down IMO.

A quick look at box scores indicates Wichita has higher attendance than nearly all the AA teams and is in line with most AAA teams (Memphis v Nashville had about 10,600). Wichita seem to be outdrawing AAA St Paul. Maybe if that continues MLB will bump up Wichita at the expense of some other team.

[pogo]

It didn’t help to drop from AAA to AA with drawing crowds.
The casual fan isn’t going to get excited about playing Springfield or Amarillo in contrast to the AAA teams.

Some of the AA teams might draw better than others but a pretty big let down IMO.

A quick look at box scores indicates Wichita has higher attendance than nearly all the AA teams and is in line with most AAA teams (Memphis v Nashville had about 10,600). Wichita seem to be outdrawing AAA St Paul. Maybe if that continues MLB will bump up Wichita at the expense of some other team.

One would think that MLB would pay attention to to attendance of games but like any other big corporation to make a change after supposedly spending lots of time and money on the reorganization of the minor league system any change at this juncture would be an admission of a mistake.

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

At least the Baby Cakes had a pool deck in the outfield you could rent for groups to hang out and watch the game. It always seemed like there were more people in that area than the rest of the stadium.

[SHOCKvalue]

Finally was able to poke around the stadium last night. It does show very well. Nice place. Still would love to see a full accounting of where the extra 50% of cost went as compared to comparable new build stadiums in modern history. Where did the ped bridge go? It's nice but not 50% nicer. Not to sound like a tin foil hat guy, but I think there's some legitimate corruption in this town any time public money commingles with private or public-private developments. This "$75M" baseball stadium and the "$200M" 15K seat arena would shout as much to anyone who cares to do some comparative analysis.

While I was there I couldn't help but feeling like what a huge miss it was that we lost AAA. It's not about the talent on the field at all - it's about playing clubs from Memphis or OKC or even approximate peer towns like Omaha or Des Moines, instead of clubs from places like Springpatch and Amarillo. I'm not saying Wichita is anything special (sorry if that offends) but we "married below our station" by being a metro of 700K and building this grandiose minor league ball park only to end up with the AA consolation prize again. There's a lot of "wearing your wedding tux to the junior high social" vibe to the whole thing now. Wichita doesn't attend stuff outside of Wichita State basketball and baseball. I'm afraid this will be more of the same after the new wears off. I'd be shocked if it didn't.

[shoxlax]

The last two nights the crowds at the Wind Surge games have been fantastic. Get out to see them if you have the chance. Riverfront Stadium has a nice vibe to it. More and more people living in and around downtown might be providing a solid attendance base we haven’t really had before.