Confirmed this morning with the International League office that….
There has not been a decision made in regards to where the 2012 SWB Yankees will play their home games.
While many think it would be a great idea to have the Yankees in the Lehigh Valley… there are a few questions and concerns I have with the idea.
1. 72 additional games played at the park.
Wear and tear on the park. Imagine field conditions if there would be a game played there every single day. Imagine the food stands, the seating area the fatigue on game day employees. A potential for new jobs? A potential for more hours for exisiting workers?
2. Front offices.
We’ve got one, they’ve got one. From promotions to giveways to ticketing to rain outs to parking to fireworks. (Get ready Allentown hotels) Imagine the marketing nightmare if there are conflicting team sponsors. Will there be an office sharing plan, a trailer park set up in the parking lot or will they move into an empty office building in the area?
3. Ticketing / Scheduling
Scheduling would be difficult, even as the schedule is most likely in place at this point. Scheduling SWB games on IronPig away dates isn’t a problem but figure travel into that. These schedules are made to minimize travel costs and fatigue. Think about the July 4th weekend rule that says every team must have a home game over that weekend. We end up with one home game on Friday, an away game on Saturday and a home game on Sunday.. all against the same team.
4. SWB Fans
I’ve met many great SWB fans in our trips to Moosic. How many of them would be willing to drive the hour south for every home game? I would not be happy as a season ticket holder.
5. Revenue from Coca Cola Park
Who gets the cash? Ticket sales, concessions, parking.. team store. Who gets the money? Will there be a section of our team store filled with SWB Yankees gear? Could there even be, gasp, Yankee signage in our beloved CCP?
With any scenario I can run through my head, I can’t see the SWB Yankees making a dime in 2012 if they play their home games at CCP. I think it’s more likely that the Yankees will split time between several fields. Even if it turns out to be a local college field or a few games in their other minor league parks, (Trenton/Staten Island) they could create a barnstorming-like tour of their system to prove more profitable than just squatting in the IronPig’s backyard.
My apologies for looking at this from the business perspective rather than a fan’s outlook, but I felt it more appropriate to address this as business reasons will be the factors for the final decision.
How soon should we expect a decision? Well, the league is gathering in New Mexico this week for league meetings. The AAA Championship game is happening on Tuesday. I would think we should know soon after all the details are worked out.
OinK
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
The Yanks will not split times at different stadiums, and truthfully the Yankees do not care about any minor league revenue. It looks like Yanks will play at night when Pigs are on road, but play day games when Pigs are home. This is a good things, yes more hours, but also more jobs!! Let’s hope they are here for 2012-2013, then we get HOCKEY!!! GO PIGS GO YANKS—-
I assume the Yankees also have store (of course nothing like our own Majestic Clubhouse Store) so a place to merchandise is in order. No way they can share the current store. Of course they can always pull up with a carny wagon….
sorry, I missed the part were you highlighted this under revenue
From a fan’s perspective, CCP could be a baseball mecca in 2012, but your right, from a business standpoint it could be both a blessing and a nightmare having 2 teams share the same field. Makes you wonder how New York did it in the ’70’s when Yankee stadium was renovated and the Yankees and Mets shared Shea Stadium. Granted that’s the Majors not the Minors and in a different era but it still makes you think. Our grounds keeper would be working alot of overtime to keep the field in tip top shape. And on game day who controls the stadium, the Pigs or Yanks and yes were would they stay?? Hopefully the IL will make a final decsion soon! One things possible, the IronPigs could be playing at least 8 “road” games at home.
Oink Oink!!
The idea of more swb Yankee fans coming down from up north sounds great to me, the idea of more regular bandwagon yankee fans from from the surrounding area does not.
I agree with you whole heartedly on that one. SWB Fans are great people.. the bandwagon folks, well they aren’t always.
That makes 3 of us.
The one thing everybody that’s reported on this has said… the decision will be made in the next two days (19, 20)… you’ll know quick enough…
1. It’s ALWAYS about the money.
2. That might mean higher “rent” for this year and more revenue? The county owns the stadium, right?
3. My experience is that there may be more NYY fans here in the Lehigh Valley than in the S-WB area. S-WB is Phillies country historically, and there are probably more New York transplants here rather than there. Yankees at CCP would draw the local Yankees fans out more than S-WB commuters–which is probably better for numbers, anyway.
4. Funny story (I probably told it before): Buddy of mine at the game with me, to the Yankees Hooligan trashing the IronPigs in our section: “You know it’s not the REAL Yankees, right?”
5. Sponsorships is a good question: Pepsi? Miller Lite? Cracker Jacks? MMMMMMM! Not complaining about what we have, but the grass is always greener, you know?
I certainly agree with Dan’s thoughts – they are all quite valid. With that said, I would offer the following perhaps differing points of view:
1. 72 additional games played at the park.
Field conditions are certainly a concern but who’s better than Bill Butler? I would imagine there would be quite a potential for new jobs (concessions, cleaning staff, etc.) Perhaps some SWB employees will be offered a position to travel south.
2. Front offices.
Not sure of the inside configuration of CCP but there may be space available for temporary offices. Certainly office designed trailers or other temporary office space are options and while an inconvenience I don’t see this as a stopping point. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of what happened with conflicting team sponsors when SWB played games at CCP in the past.
3. Ticketing / Scheduling
Depending on the SWB schedule they may have already taken travel into consideration. It’s certainly not like the Yankees and Mandalay Entertainment Group doesn’t have the cash to pull this off. At the same time, there may be exceptions made and rules adjusted if a team’s home stadium is unavailable due to renovations.
4. SWB Fans
In 65 home games in 2011 the SWB Yankees drew 298,098 for an average of 4,586 per game – less than half of the IronPig’s average. My guess is the fact that it’s Coca-Cola Park and certainly closer than Ottawa, I bet they probably meet or at least beat last year’s attendance with the inclusion of (albeit a few) local residents who will most likely attend these games. During some past issues with drainage at PNC Field I believe there were 9 games moved to CCP. I’m not familiar enough with this to comment on the attendance for those games.
If I were a season ticket holder I would much rather drive to Allentown (134 miles RT) than Trenton (246 miles RT), Staten Island (270 miles RT) or Rochester (532 miles RT) which was also mentioned.
5. Revenue from Coca-Cola Park
To the best of my knowledge AAA baseball fields have a set configuration that must be followed (capacity, dimensions, etc.) Again, there may be exceptions made when your home field is unavailable so it’s certainly possible other locations may be used. Some of the same issues would possibly arise at the other minor league locations as well.
In my opinion, this is an economic boon for the IronPigs and CCP. Certainly the Yankees (Mandalay) aren’t going to use the Park for free and I would guess there would be a revenue sharing agreement regarding concessions, ticket sales, maintenance fees, etc. Think of the extra profits Aw Shucks, The Philly Pretzel Factory, and the Gyro Company could pull down.
At the end of the day (and this is strictly a guess), I think we’ll see a combination of locations for the SWB home games and Coca-Cola Park just may be included in the mix. I’m hoping for at least a home “away” opener on April 5th and an extra eight games would be a cool bonus. If it’s so, get your tickets early…
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I spent time overlapping the schedules yesterday (not as easy as it sounds as SWB, PAW, LOU, NOR have no scheduled posted or “released” for 2012). There are, best I can figure, 19 dates of home games where SWB and LV overlap. With minimal effort I was able to move some games around and got that number down to 9 conflicts. Clearly the IL has better staff and resources to juggle these things, so the conflicts could be removed with minimal effort (fun fact, May has 0 conflicts and July only overlaps on 7/1). Not having to make many changes won’t do much to add travel/fatigue to the team either.