Minor league baseball in Normal?

[Banedon]

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/09/14/news/doc46e9c0ae9bcae290172150.txt

 

The article says the league would be privately owned, but I think they mean that team would be privately owned...I've emailed the reporter for clarification about that...

[Keener98]

I dont know if they could survive in Normal. Normal is built around ISU and IWU mainly, and I really dont see college kids going to a bunch of games(not to mention that most of them wouldnt even be there since it would be summer), and the proximity to Peoria probably wouldnt help either.

[Banedon]

I dont know if they could survive in Normal. Normal is built around ISU and IWU mainly, and I really dont see college kids going to a bunch of games(not to mention that most of them wouldnt even be there since it would be summer), and the proximity to Peoria probably wouldnt help either.

 

Well we have a minor league hockey team that's getting very good support even though we're close to the Rivermen in Peoria. Normal may be built around those colleges, but Bloomington is built around State Farm. There's a lot of people with too much money on their hands and not enough entertainment in town. I'm guessing there would be plenty of attendance.

[UK1679666180]

Good rivalry between them and Peoria, I'd rather one see up in Lake Cty, but there are enough non-supported MWL teams to merit possible moves.

[karenmac]

An independent franchise appears to be the only avenue for securing professional baseball in the Twin City market. Midwest League President George Spelius said the Peoria Chiefs oragnization, a Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, has territorial rights that would preclude a Major League farm team from taking root in Bloomington-Normal.

 

I can understand why this is, but I hope it's not really a mistake. I know hockey has been there and done this and found that the local rivalry thing is advantageous. It's not an accident that teams are moving *to* Quad Cities and Rockford from spots further west. Perhaps the business models are different. It would be a great opportunity to build a great facility that could be shared with Heartland (or IWU or ISE) and a team. Interesting to be sure though!

[UK1679666180]

An independent franchise appears to be the only avenue for securing professional baseball in the Twin City market. Midwest League President George Spelius said the Peoria Chiefs oragnization, a Class A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, has territorial rights that would preclude a Major League farm team from taking root in Bloomington-Normal.

 

I can understand why this is, but I hope it's not really a mistake. I know hockey has been there and done this and found that the local rivalry thing is advantageous. It's not an accident that teams are moving *to* Quad Cities and Rockford from spots further west. Perhaps the business models are different. It would be a great opportunity to build a great facility that could be shared with Heartland (or IWU or ISE) and a team. Interesting to be sure though!

 

Heartland is going to put up some nice baseball facilities, they have a hell of an Athletic Director there who I know will get it done.

 

I love Wesleyan's field, the worst one of the group would likely be Redbird Field.

 

Minor League Baseball would do well there. As far as territorial rights, baseball did well in Rockford and Beloit, now it's not doing as well in Beloit since Rockford left.

[Keener98]

I dont know if they could survive in Normal. Normal is built around ISU and IWU mainly, and I really dont see college kids going to a bunch of games(not to mention that most of them wouldnt even be there since it would be summer), and the proximity to Peoria probably wouldnt help either.

 

Well we have a minor league hockey team that's getting very good support even though we're close to the Rivermen in Peoria. Normal may be built around those colleges, but Bloomington is built around State Farm. There's a lot of people with too much money on their hands and not enough entertainment in town. I'm guessing there would be plenty of attendance.

 

True I forgot about the hockey team over there now. Also true about State Farm, and to a lesser extent even DiamondStar. I guess it could work with the attendance, I guess I just jumped the gun a little.

[MPC]

if they have a thirsty thursday promotion, the college kids will come out from april-may and late august-september. it worked in peoria before the chiefs moved downtown

[ChiefsVoice]

This, or any team in Bloomington-Normal can ONLY be an independent team (Frontier/Northern League). The Chiefs have territorial rights for ANY Affiliated team be it MWL, AA or AAA. The closest Cities that could have an affiliated team in IL are Springfield (which has tried a few times), Champaign-Urbana and Quincy...

[NCCubFan]

This, or any team in Bloomington-Normal can ONLY be an independent team (Frontier/Northern League). The Chiefs have territorial rights for ANY Affiliated team be it MWL, AA or AAA. The closest Cities that could have an affiliated team in IL are Springfield (which has tried a few times), Champaign-Urbana and Quincy...

I remember once upon a time the Cubs had a team in Quincy. I believe it was class A (maybe the Midwest League; I'm not sure because I wasn't following the minor leagues closely back then).

[Derwood]

I dont know if they could survive in Normal. Normal is built around ISU and IWU mainly, and I really dont see college kids going to a bunch of games(not to mention that most of them wouldnt even be there since it would be summer), and the proximity to Peoria probably wouldnt help either.

 

State College is built mostly around PSU and our minor league team (Short-A, Pittsburgh) has done very well in it's first two years

[transplanted_suburbanite]

The old blue hairs in the twin cities don't seem to like anything new or any form of change in this town. I'd love to see it but as usual people will complain.

[BDWeav71]

The frontier league is also thinking of Champaign-Urbana as a possible location.