Apologies for the lack of Deep in the Hole activity last week folks, the Defensive Specialist was busy celebrating actually making an accurate prediction for the first time during the Claxton Shield competition. Congratulations to the Victorian Aces who swept the boys from South Australia in tidy fashion to capture the shield for 2010 – exactly as the Defensive Specialist called it!
Rather than rehash the finals series a week after it took place, the Defensive Specialist thought it might be more interesting to take a look at some of the key issues during the Claxton Shield and see how they will affect teams during the inaugural ABL season.
Facilities
Perth and South Australia seem to be fairly settled in their respective ballparks while Victoria and New South Wales cant seem to decide where they actually want to play. Holloway Field seems a little ratty around the edges from all of the photos that the Defensive Specialist has seen.
Lets start with the Heat. They have set up a tidy little ballpark that comfortably accommodates 2000 people and has the capacity to take more. The playing surface and facilities are above average and after some mid season cosmetic surgery, the centrefield wall is now reachable where before it was a space that hammered fly balls went to die (important to note – while the fence still reads 400 to straightaway centrefield, there is no way that it is more than 380). The biggest down side to Baseball Park (Aside from the fact that no one could come up with something more original than ‘Baseball Park’) is that it is located some distance from the Perth CBD and there is no accommodation remotely close to the ballpark.
South Australia is back at Norwood Oval, an old school football ground that features wooden grandstands and an old time feel. The Defensive Specialist isn’t going to lie – he’s never stepped foot in the place but a quick survey across a number of players and coaches that have visited the yard revealed that the conditions and atmosphere were above average and it was a great place to play in 2010.
The Victorian Aces played a significant number of their games at the Geelong Baseball Park (another sensational piece of facility naming). The park was extremely impressive with high quality facilities. Unfortunately it’s located over an hour out of the Melbourne CBD which rules out a large proportion of the Victorian baseball population. The Defensive Specialist could envision a team being based out of Geelong and fully utilising the splendid facilities. While the Aces continue to travel to Geelong to play their games however, crowd numbers and revenue will be affected.
The Patriots also have a great stadium to play in – Blacktown Olympic Park but chose to shuffle their games to a regional location from time to time. While this may serve to ‘share the wealth’ and ‘spread the message’, it makes the team somewhat rudderless. Feedback from visiting players when playing in Campbelltown was that it didn’t feel like a ‘real” Claxton Shield game (the fact that that team lost the series may have contributed to the negativity). The Blacktown facility isn’t exactly close to the Sydney CBD, which in turn impacts crowd figures.
In the name of full disclosure the Defensive Specialist must admit that he has never been to Holloway Field in Queensland and based his ‘ratty’ comments on web photos and feedback from players who didn’t have glowing comments on the facilities or playing conditions.
So what does this all mean? Well first and foremost in establishing a new professional league, a consistent location with fan and player friendly environments is crucial. Teams need to attract players and fans to the game by offering a great experience. An added bonus is to have the facility relatively close to the CBD so that fans and teams have easy access and going to a ball game isn’t an overnight camping trip. Secondly, teams will be hoping to attract professionals from the US to compete in this league so the facilities and amenities must be of a high calibre to ensure that MLB teams are comfortable sending their prospects down under.
Marketing
With the ABL set to launch late in 2010, it will be imperative for clubs to aggressively market themselves in order to boost attendance and drive commercials. The league needs to get up and running quickly to ensure that teams are financially viable and can support themselves as soon as possible. The Defensive Specialist must admit that from the Deep in the Hole Headquarters situated in Sydney, Australia there wasn’t a great deal in the way of promotional material being tossed around encouraging people to attend Patriot games.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that teeball numbers are increasing again in Australia so this is one area to absolutely bombard with events and propaganda. Encouraging the young and up and comers to attend their local games will hopefully increase the transfer through to baseball. Local clubs also need to be armed with information around series so that it can be disseminated to club members and the grass roots of the game fall behind their state team.
Fan Support
The Defensive Specialist has touched on the fans in both facilities and marketing. In the first incarnation of the ABL, teams were creating fantastic baseball environments and attracting strong fan bases. The key for each franchise is expediting the growth of their fan base and ensuring that they are pulling maximal crowd numbers as soon as possible. It is important that a solid product is put out onto the field as well as an entertaining experience for those people shelling out their hard earned.
There are a number of young Australia professionals on the cusp of the big leagues that teams must tap into in order to promote the game. The Defensive Specialist has to admit that he is often baffled at how a team like the Perth Heat with 2 Claxton Shield titles to their name continually promote the likes of Graeme Lloyd who hasn’t played in Australia for over 10 years. Don’t get the Defensive Specialist wrong, what Graeme Lloyd achieved in his career was fantastic, but in reality, no kid is coming out to watch Graeme Lloyd the Perth Heat coach and while many of their parents will vividly remember Lloyd in his glory days, the Defensive Specialist is fairly confident that they aren’t overly enamoured watching him stroll to the mound to talk to a pitcher. Kids attach themselves to the players they see out on the field hitting homeruns or throwing fuel. Teams need to embrace their talent and stop living the dream.
The Defensive Specialist is rapidly approaching the 1500 word mark, so lets take a break from the season analysis and pick it up again on Thursday morning. Before the Defensive Specialist signs off, 2 more things:
With the Claxton Shield now over, the Defensive Specialist is looking for volunteers to contribute to Deep in the Hole content during the offseason. The loyal readers have always shown a real taste for behind the scene action so the Defensive Specialist is calling for input from those guys toiling away in professional baseball, college baseball, independent leagues and even the umpiring ranks. It can be a brief paragraph or a voluminous post discussing any array of baseball action. Email the Defensive Specialist at thedefenisvespecialist@gmail.com. Rest assured if you aren’t blessed with the greatest literary skills – the Defensive Specialist will edit your work to make you look like the second coming of Hemingway.
On another note, the Defensive Specialist has started up an AFL Dream Team league and is welcoming all challengers in the 2010 season. Register your team at http://afl.virtualsports.com.au/ and enter league code 625080. Be warned, you’ve witnessed the Defensive Specialist’s incredible brain power during the baseball season – it ratchets up approximately 88% when it comes to Dream Team so make sure you bring your A game if you sign up.
D.S.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about NSW playing at Gilchrist, not only is the ground not up to it but it also leaves NSW wanting for a true home park. Blacktown Olympic Park is the perfect venue for it. I know you have only been in Sydney for a few years and your claxton sheild experience is limited but they did experiment with playind ABL games closer to the cbd when they moved the blues, storm, patriots, whatever they were called at the time from Parramatta staduim to the show grounds and it was a major failure, not only because the facilities were poor but beacause most baseball fans are from the west and not willing to drive in to the city and pay exhorbitant prices for parking etc to see a game that is only just a higher standard than a regular first grade game that they can see for free. If they are serious about expanding crowd numbers they will stick to putting the best athletes in the best ball parks and advertising it amongst the BASEBALL COMMUNITY so people know when and where they can watch the best of the best run around.
P.S. it wouldn't hurt if the best of the best did play to help promote the game here. Yes I'm Talking to you Brad Thomas, Trent Oeltjen, Richard Thompson, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Chris Snelling. Memo guys look at Peter Moylan, what you do here can and does matter.