With long-term future in question, Bravehearts hit attendance high
Photo/Grant Welker
The Bravehearts' final regular season home game for the 2018 season. The team ranked sixth highest nationally in attendance among collegiate summer leagues this season, with the highest average attendance in the team's five seasons in Worcester.
The future of Worcester Bravehearts collegiate summer baseball is in doubt if the Pawtucket Red Sox end up moving into a proposed new stadium in Worcester, but fan support for the Bravehearts was never higher than this year.
The 2018 season drew an average of 2,502 fans per game, good for sixth highest among collegiate leagues across the country, the website Ballpark Digest reported Aug. 13.
That attendance figure puts the Bravehearts among the best of any collegiate league team in the Northeast. The team plays in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, which has teams in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
This year was an improvement from the 2017 season, when the Bravehearts ranked seventh nationally, with 2,356 per game, according to Ballpark Digest. Attendance for the Bravehearts, who play at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field at the College of the Holy Cross, has increased in each of the team's five seasons in Worcester.
In the team's inaugural year, it drew 1,749 a game, which was good for 18th nationally.
Their predecessor, the Worcester Tornadoes of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, averaged 1,704 fans per game in their final three years in the city.
The PawSox were 21st nationally among minor league teams last year, with 6,406 per game, according to Ballpark Digest.
The Bravehearts ownership sent a letter to fans last Friday after the city announced a plan to borrow $101 million to build a 10,000-seat ballpark to attract the Pawtucket Red Sox to the Canal District. The ballpark, which would open for the 2021 season, is envisioned by the city to anchor another 650,000 square feet of mixed use space in the Canal District. The plan requires approval from the City Council, among others.
The letter from team president and owner John Creedon had a somber tone, even has he appeared determined to keep the team for at least for the next few seasons.
"I hope that people can understand and pardon my family and me for respectfully not sharing in the elation at this time where the impact of all this on the Worcester Bravehearts’ business operation remains to be seen," Creedon wrote.
"In many ways, Friday’s announcement knocks the wind out of us and pauses the magical momentum we have generated over the last five years. It will be hard for our small, family-owned and operated baseball team to compete with the prestige and resources of the Triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. However, we do not shrink from adversity or back down from a challenge. That is not what Worcester people do," he wrote.
"In the meantime, though," Credon added, "you can rest assured that the Worcester Bravehearts will continue to operate with vim and vigor, and continue to play with zest and zeal at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field next summer and beyond."
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments