CSNbbs

From the Cleveland PD yesterday:

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/04...sebal.html

Chillicothe? NE Ohio has several nice stadiums in Lake County and Akron where they could play to an alumni audience like the basketball tourney. But in Buckeye country? Should have left it on a campus instead...

I agree it should be left on Campus... With it being turf, it should help limit rainouts atleast right?

The Flash Wrote:Should have left it on a campus instead...

People said the same thing about the football championship game. In hindsight, I think it has worked out very good at Ford Field.

i love this idea! then again i only live about an hour or so from Chillicothe!

There are plenty of good sites that would work better than Chillicothe, and would allow for better attendance. I think that either the Lake County Captains' stadium outside of Cleveland would be nice with a capacity of over 7,200, and Canal Park stadium in Akron is a perfectly sized place for an event like this and is a very nice facility. Canal Park seats over 9,000 which is more than double what VA Memorial stadium can offer.

Not to mention the fact that there's actually other things to do at these sites. Chillicothe doesn't exactly provide the amenities that can be found in downtown Akron or Cleveland. There are probably other good sites in Michigan or Indiana as well, like a farm team stadium for the Tigers or Cubs/White Sox.

Classic Park (Lake County Captains):




Canal Park (Aeros Stadium)

How bout the the two-time minor league park of the year and the home of the world famous Toledo Mud Hens??? Fifth Third Field in downtown Toledo.

The basketball tournament provides a home court environment for Kent State and Akron. I have no problem with that. It has been very good for the conference. But I think it would be unfair to the rest of the league to move another MAC tournament to the area, especially one that does not command or require a big fan turnout.

Why this tourney in the far SE corner of the conference, I can't imagine. If they want a neutral site with a more central location, the Ft. Wayne Wizards minor league park would be good.

I'm guessing that the Chillicothe facility rental fee is next to nothing. I believe that the stadium has already been used by several college teams for no charge.

The stadiums listed above are obviously very nice, but I wonder what would be the cost for the league to use any of these facilities? Unfortunately, the attendance for the MAC tourney hasn't historically been that high.

Another factor could be that the other minor league stadiums above are already in use during the end of May time period.

If the tourny was at 5/3 Field in Toledo I would definitely go, along w/ a lot of other people I bet

MidnightBlueGold Wrote:If the tourny was at 5/3 Field in Toledo I would definitely go, along w/ a lot of other people I bet

Most baseball fans would go to the tournament if it were in their hometown.

I'm mixed on this. I'm not sure why they did it. If they thought it was going to take away from a home advantage then that's partly true but it's still going to be mostly Ohio MAC fans showing up. They should have it somewhere in Northern Indiana. That would be a lot better location-wise.

At the risk of repeating what I wrote at MHT . . . .

While I bow to no man in my ability to disparage Rick Chryst, this one makes some sense to me. Find me a MAC team -- *any* MAC team -- that averages more than about 1,200 a game, and I'll be pleasantly surprised. My guess is that the tournament hasn't been drawing much more than that even at school sites. If that's true, Chillicothe offers the following advantages:

-- It's a low cost (perhaps even free) way to try out a neutral site. Minor league parks in larger cities would charge a higher rental fee.

-- Be serious. Not many folks are going to travel for a low-major conference baseball tournament north of the Mason-Dixon Line. You could pay more to play the tourney in Akron, Dayton, or Toledo, and probably draw the same number of school-affiliated fans.

-- This will be the biggest thing that happens in Chillicothe the entire month of May. You might turn out more locals there than you would in some other market where the event got lost in the shuffle.

-- Playing on turf makes sense since, IIRC, the past three or four MAC tourneys all have been plagued with amounts of rain that cause squirrels to pair up and start marching toward boats.

epasnoopy Wrote:I'm mixed on this. I'm not sure why they did it. If they thought it was going to take away from a home advantage then that's partly true but it's still going to be mostly Ohio MAC fans showing up. They should have it somewhere in Northern Indiana. That would be a lot better location-wise.

I agree, Northern Indiana would be a great choice location wise. All we need now is the right sized stadium....maybe in Fort Wayne, probably more importantly at the right price (nearly free).

I think we should not bash this too much and wait and see what happens. As DG said - this will be the biggest thing in the Chillicothe area on the horizon. While their are plenty of OSU fans in that area, don't sell short the OU connection to that area.

Crebman Wrote:

epasnoopy Wrote:I'm mixed on this. I'm not sure why they did it. If they thought it was going to take away from a home advantage then that's partly true but it's still going to be mostly Ohio MAC fans showing up. They should have it somewhere in Northern Indiana. That would be a lot better location-wise.

I agree, Northern Indiana would be a great choice location wise. All we need now is the right sized stadium....maybe in Fort Wayne, probably more importantly at the right price (nearly free).

I think we should not bash this too much and wait and see what happens. As DG said - this will be the biggest thing in the Chillicothe area on the horizon. While their are plenty of OSU fans in that area, don't sell short the OU connection to that area.

especially given that we have a regional campus in Chillicothe!

Many cities had their shot at the MAC basketball tournament before it found a home in Cleveland. Chillicothee may or may not work. As DG said, this may be the biggest thing to happen in that area in May and maybe they will adopt it and support it. College baseball would be a hard sell, IMHO, in Toledo, Cleveland, or Akron. Also, it is about time a tournament is held in a different area than Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland. I personally have attended the MAC baseball tournament 3 or 4 times over the years, having it at a predetermined site makes it more likely that I will make reservations now and attend if Miami gets their act together and starts playing better baseball. I would rather spend 4 days in Chillicothee than in one of the big cities.

What is the mustard situation in Chillicothee? Is it delicious yellow/real mustard, or disgusting Cleveland style brown? Because if you are going to have a proper baseball tournament then you need to make sure that the ball park is serving proper mustard. Past that I don't care where they have the thing. If MAC fans made more of an effort to travel this would be an issue, but as it is they need to move these events to anyplace that they will get a decent gate.

Liam9903 Wrote:What is the mustard situation in Chillicothe? Is it an authentic, delicious, brown real mustard, or that disgusting artificial yellow plastic-looking mustard? Because if you are going to have a proper baseball tournament then you need to make sure that the ball park is serving proper mustard. Past that I don't care where they have the thing. If MAC fans made more of an effort to travel this would be an issue, but as it is they need to move these events to anyplace that they will get a decent gate.

Here, I fixed your typos for you.

Be careful my friend you are on very dangerous legal ground here.

li·bel

1. anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.
–verb (used with object)
2. to misrepresent damagingly.

Eight teams is too many in the Tournament though. You're going to have bad teams going to the Tournament or postseason that don't belong. MAC Baseball doesn't go eight deep. I'd be surprised if the top 6 usually have winning records.