The past two night’s the NY/NJ Comets faced the Akron Racers at Coca Cola Park right here in Allentown. I attended both games. Attendance last night was reported as “Over 800” and tonight’s crowd looked about the same.
800 fans.
800 tickets sold.
800 concessions customers.
800 people spending their hard earned money at Coca Cola Park.
800 smiling faces with memories of Coca Cola Park.
800 people who showed up despite very little public marketing.
We can do this Lehigh Valley.
Sure there will be obstacles. It’s a baseball field and softball fields have different dimensions. Some temporary fencing and temporary bases solved that problem very easily. The pitcher’s mound.. well that’s a bit more difficult but I have a solution. Softball pitchers do not really pitch off of a “mound.” It’s more a big circle with the standard pitcher’s plate centered in it. The NPF currently uses an artificial turf mat that is pinned down over the grass in front of the baseball mound. How do you solve that? Go back a few years and think about what the infield looked like in older baseball parks.
Image from the first game at Ebbets Field in 1913.
Library of Congress
Check out that dirt pathway to the pitcher’s mound. Looks like a softball pitcher would easily fit while adding a bit of nostalgia to the park.
Granted, 2nd base would probably be permanently surrounded by grass but hey… it’s Coca Cola Park.
Moving along, the IronPigs use Coca Cola Park for roughly 72 days a year. Sure, other stuff might go on but that’s 293 days where it is NOT being used. It’s NOT generating revenue. It’s NOT making anyone happy.
The NPF has a 44 game season. That’s 22 home games that could be applied to using Coca Cola Park to generate more revenue. We saw how easy the field was transformed into and out of softball mode. Almost not an issue. Comet team staff handled ticketing while I observed IronPig field and concessions staff working as well. So the IronPigs get something out of this too! Concessions amount for a lot of cash.
800 people showed up without significant marketing. Imagine how many would show if there was a 22 game schedule set early in the year? Imagine how many youth softball teams would sign on to group nights at the park? Imagine if there was TV/Radio/Print marketing letting folks know about these games? How about bus trips? I am among many who would travel an hour or more to see minor league baseball in Reading before we had the IronPigs. There is no Reading or Scranton Wilkes Barre that would compete for a softball team. The drawing area would be much, much larger.
So you’re thinking.. yeah yeah, we heard this before. The Philly Force team crapped out. They couldn’t pull in 100 fans a game. I hear ya there. I attended many of the Force games myself but this is much different. The Force played at Bicentennial field which had the amenities of… well, there wasn’t much. Poor concessions, small parking lot in a difficult area to get to. They were out of the way and an inconvenience.
Coca Cola Park is thee Gem of Minor league baseball parks. It is set just a short distance from both the City of Allentown and Route 22. Coca Cola Park (even with only a few of its many concession stands open) has better concessions than most parks around. Coca Cola Park has beer!
Beer! Yes, Beer!
I’m going to use this as a tool to send a message to our local civic leaders and the management and ownership of the NPF, Coca Cola Park and the IronPigs…
YOU can make this happen. YOU can benefit from this. YOU can work together in a fair way beneficial to all parties.
We’d appreciate it if you gave it some consideration.
That’s what I have to say about that… What do you think?
noisenation.mlblogs.com 
BREAK EVEN POINT FOR THE STADIUM IS AROUND 4000 FANS–WILL NEVER HAPPEN————BUT LET’S GET SERIOUS—-PIGS LEAD IN THE WILD CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know about that 4000 fan break even point. I would think that’s based on overhead and sunk cost. Stuff like Rent due to the county, Full IronPig staff salaries, full stadium staffing. The 4,000 a game might be calculated by spreading the needed income across the 72 game IronPig season. I really think there would be an opening for softball to bring some revenue in without incurring losses.
I think it would be great if we could attract an NPF team to CCP. Unfortunately I couldn’t make either of the games, but I enjoy softball tremendously (used to play in a league, too) and would certainly go to a lot of the games.
First of all, it’s unfortunate that the first of the two games at Coca-Cola Park was scheduled on the same night as the Lehigh Valley Softball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies at Patriots Park which likely had some impact on the Wednesday attendance at Coca-Cola Park, especially among the old-time softball players in the valley. Congratulations to Bill “Reds” Condit, Mike Ohl, Shannon Williams, Jenn Shellhammer and Gina Lindenmuth Miller on their inductions.
While I’d love to see a women’s professional softball team in the area I don’t think it would be financially feasible. Without thinking it through too thoroughly, these are a few of my initial thoughts.
When District XI made the deal to have the high school District baseball finals played at Coca-Cola Park this year it cost them $8,000 to rent the facility for 2 days, that’s $4,000 per day, not 4,000 fans. In a Morning Call article dated April 16, 2013 Ironpigs General Manager Kurt Landes said the $8,000 fee the IronPigs charge District XI for the two-day use of the facility is only to cover costs and does not generate profits.
Let’s assume a pro softball team at Coca-Cola Park could average 1,000 fans a game at $12 per ticket. That’s $12,000 times 22 games equalling $264,000. At $4,000 a game to rent Coca-Cola Park it would cost $88,000 for 22 games. The NPF website says the average salary for a player in the NPF is $5,000-$6,000 from June to August, so a conservative estimate for player and coaching salaries of $75,000 brings the total expenses to $163,000. That still leaves approximately $100,000, but then add in the expense for uniforms, bats, balls, helmets and other miscellaneous equipment, umpire costs, travel expenses including hotel accomodations when they play in Akron, Chicago and Kissimmee plus meal money and you easily go over that $264,000 gate total. I’m afraid the Ironpigs have most of the summer corporate advertising dollars already in their pockets so generating additional income would be difficult. And I seriously don’t think 1,000 fans a game is very realistic. Over the course of an entire season I would guess that attendance figure would be closer to 500 per game. Even 500 is well over what the Philadelphia Force used to draw at Bicentennial Park. Once all those youth softball teams have been to a game once or twice you won’t see them again until the next year. I doubt the number of season ticket holders would be very high and if there would be interest in opening the Picnic Patio or Party Porch to group sales, the cost of renting Coca-Cola Park would go up. Finally, a family of 5 would be paying $60 to see a softball game. That same family can go see an Ironpigs game with plenty of entertainment and giveaways thrown in for less money, even with the cost of parking thrown in.
Personally, I think the best scenario is to try to get the NY/NJ Comets to play more than 2 home games at Coca-Cola Park. But that would depend on what kind of attendance they have at their other venues. With hockey coming next year I’m afraid another full time league might be spreading the Lehigh Valley sports dollars too thin. I would hate to see a full-time professional softball team come to the Valley and fail due to lack of support. Let’s not go overboard. Baby steps is a better approach than diving head first into the deep end of the pool.