Then why involve colleges at all? Just let minor/independent/summer leagues take over that gap between high school and paid ball. They would have a baseball only focus and no NCAA to limit scholarships or conferences. They have better facilities in a lot of cases and can cater to the fans without having to deal with the red tape of a university.Quote:
3. Which brings me to my third point, minor league baseball is sadly going to take a huge hit due to COVID-19. There will be a sports void in many small-medium sized markets where teams go defunct. Think about SEC country alone. Fans in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and Arkansas will be hungry for sports in the summer if there is no minor league baseball for a family of four to attend. This fills that void and even then some.
The average temperature goes up like 10 degrees a month in a lot of those places. One issue is snowfall, which often peaks or is near-peak in February in much of the north but then falls off a cliff in March.ensign_beedrill said:
Is it really appreciably warmer in March than in February? Come on. Those teams will still have to practice in February. It's not fair for them to have to do that. Start the season in late April at the earliest.
Where does it end?
...in the third inning. Topped off at 103.W said:
for the classic 2011 regional final between A&M and Arizona on June 7th...
I believe the Olsen scoreboard thermometer hit 101 degrees
Meanwhile in AprilAnonymous Source said:...in the third inning. Topped off at 103.W said:
for the classic 2011 regional final between A&M and Arizona on June 7th...
I believe the Olsen scoreboard thermometer hit 101 degrees
California weather is great...and attendance is abysmal on the west coast. UCLA with all of its recent success is lucky to get 500 people at their games with some of the best baseball weather in the country.TexAgs1992 said:
Huge fan of the idea for a number of reasons.
1. I do feel some sympathy towards the programs up north that spend the first four weeks traveling down south and to the West Coast to play games. It takes a toll on the kids. I know because a couple of my good friends played at Villanova and Siena and were apart of this experience.
2. Attendance would certainly see an uptick across the country. College baseball relies minimally on student attendance. But it does rely heavily on alum and families in many of these markets. Nicer weather up north will drive families across the midwest and Northeast to college games
3. Which brings me to my third point, minor league baseball is sadly going to take a huge hit due to COVID-19. There will be a sports void in many small-medium sized markets where teams go defunct. Think about SEC country alone. Fans in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and Arkansas will be hungry for sports in the summer if there is no minor league baseball for a family of four to attend. This fills that void and even then some.
4. It's hot in June and doesn't seem that much hotter in July across the South.
5. Weather delays are a fiasco at the beginning of the year. There always seems to be cancellations, postponements, and double headers having to be played often the first month of the season. I would presume a later start reduces this.
Looking at the big picture, this makes a lot of sense. Glad college coaches are coming together on this and presenting this as a possible proposal.
TXAggie2011 said:
Perhaps moving the start to the beginning of March could be a nice compromise.
A lot of teams up north start to host games in mid-March when its time to start conference play. Moving the start to mid-March would allow them to potentially spend 2 or 3 weeks of non-conference play at home, or near home.
If you take non-tournament home games into account, UCLA averaged 700 fans a game with no games over 1000 fans in non-conference play. And we're talking about a recent CWS winner and Top 10 program. I think my point is valid that simply weather will not significantly increase attendance at northern schools.Aggie said:
I wouldn't say 500 at California schools games ..
midweek games around 1000 and 1500-2000 at weeekend series
this year at the Southern California baseball Classic UCLA played 2 home games
# 5 Vanderbilt vs # 2 UCLA at 6pm on a Friday night with 60 degree weather and had 2215
Then they played TCU on Saturday at 2pm with again temps in the 60s and had 952 people
Sunday UCLA and USC played at USC and just over 2000 attendeed.
2000 is a really good crowd for California college baseball
UCLA super regional vs Michigan last year they had right at 2000 for each of the 3 games
Now NE schools.. yes 500 is a very good crowd .. even late in the season. So to me weather has nothing to do with it.
4. It's hot in June and doesn't seem that much hotter in July across the South.TexAgs1992 said:
Huge fan of the idea for a number of reasons.
1. I do feel some sympathy towards the programs up north that spend the first four weeks traveling down south and to the West Coast to play games. It takes a toll on the kids. I know because a couple of my good friends played at Villanova and Siena and were apart of this experience.
2. Attendance would certainly see an uptick across the country. College baseball relies minimally on student attendance. But it does rely heavily on alum and families in many of these markets. Nicer weather up north will drive families across the midwest and Northeast to college games
3. Which brings me to my third point, minor league baseball is sadly going to take a huge hit due to COVID-19. There will be a sports void in many small-medium sized markets where teams go defunct. Think about SEC country alone. Fans in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and Arkansas will be hungry for sports in the summer if there is no minor league baseball for a family of four to attend. This fills that void and even then some.
4. It's hot in June and doesn't seem that much hotter in July across the South.
5. Weather delays are a fiasco at the beginning of the year. There always seems to be cancellations, postponements, and double headers having to be played often the first month of the season. I would presume a later start reduces this.
Looking at the big picture, this makes a lot of sense. Glad college coaches are coming together on this and presenting this as a possible proposal.
The 4 years I lived in South Dakota it always seemed like it snowed more in March than in February. A quick google search showed that several northern states still have 70-80% of their Feb snow fall in March. Not a big enough difference in my opinion to push the regionals into June and CWS into July.TXAggie2011 said:The average temperature goes up like 10 degrees a month in a lot of those places. One issue is snowfall, which often peaks or is near-peak in February in much of the north but then falls off a cliff in March.ensign_beedrill said:
Is it really appreciably warmer in March than in February? Come on. Those teams will still have to practice in February. It's not fair for them to have to do that. Start the season in late April at the earliest.
Where does it end?
Also, I hate parades of horrible arguments...
Aggie said:
Moving the season up is not going to change the attendance of college baseball in areas affected by weather.
Fact is college baseball is just not that popular In those regions of the country .
Aggie said:
Are we gonna move the start of football season because it's too hot in the South in September?
College baseball start date has already been moved up once.. Games used to start the 1st week of February.
And if you go into June that is going to greatly effect the college summer leagues. Which have a limited window as it is.
student attendance would suffer for games after classes end.. overall attendance would suffer IMO for regular season games played
Not a great idea