The Fresno Grizzlies climbed back to .500 last night when they started an eight-game homestand with a 12-3 victory over Nolan Ryan's team, the Round Rock Express.
With their sixth straight win, the Grizzlies climbed within one game of Pacific Coast League South Division-leading Sacramento.
There oughta be a roar coming from Chukchansi Park, right?
And yet, there were visibly only a few hundred fans, at best, in the house last night.
The announced attendance was 3,740. But that's counting the number of tickets sold, not the number of folks who came through the turnstiles.
Still, the Grizzlies' average through 17 dates of 5,718 ranks the franchise seventh in the 16-team PCL. The boys from Round Rock know best about playing before big crowds -- the Express is averaging a PCL-leading 8,610 through its first 20 dates.
All this talk about attendance got us at the Buzz wondering -- what's it take to put fans in the stands?
Seven-year-old Chukchansi Park is a great place to watch a game. Service is good. The between-innings shenanigans are entertaining. The weather is right.
And, heck, the team's winning.
Why aren't you going?
Sound off with a comment on this post.
It'll be good practice for you. Check back tomorrow when we'll announce a sweet ticket giveaway for Sunday's game.
Ownership is the reason why I will not be attending any games. They have screwed the city on both The Legacy Project and the Falcons, and yet they seem to be getting a pass from the city on both counts. Unless this current group sells the team, I will not be attending any more Grizzlies games.
Never have - never will attend a Grizzlie game because:
1. The ownership screwed over the Falcon fans in general, and the STH in particular
2. The Grizzlies parent team is 'Frisco Giants. Why in the world would any city located in the southern part of the State (geographically speaking) want to be represented by a team from northern California?
3. And finally, any sane person knows that for a team to represent Fresno, their uniforms must have the word "State" following "Fresno". Anything less is just a beer league pick-up game - not worthy of my time or money.
On a positive note, at least their mascot isn't named after Al Gore's wife.
After what the Grizzlies ownership did to the Falcons, I will never attend a game. I encourage everyone I know to not support them.
Besides, who would pay to watch illegal immigrants on steroids run around and hit a ball. Doesn't sound like entertainment to me.
As long as the current ownership remains in place, NONE of my friends or family members will attend an event at Chukchansi Park.
As for the grizzlies -- it's the ownership. These guys folded the falcons, mid-season, still owe vendors tons of money, have defaulted and defrauded the city in contracts relating to the Legacy project, the Falcons/Selland Arena, and others, and have the city subsidizing their money-losing baseball franchise. They renegotiated their contract for Chuckchanci just days before they killed the Falcons -- they worked out a deal where running the Grizzlies is fully subsidized by others. Get Glover and Cummings away from the Grizzlies and you might see some interest in the team.
To ArgieFB: FYI, geographically, San Francisco is also in the southern half of the state.
No big surprise here. The owners are frankly a bunch of crooks. They have done nothing but screw the City of Fresno (who still lets them get away with murder and rewards them while doing so). They screwed the Fresno Falcons which have been around for so very long. They blamed the economy for lack of attendance. It was really more like pi** poor management. No advertising, no offices etc. I could go on and on.
Frankly I'm thrilled to see people boycotting the Grizzles. If and when Cummings and Glover get out of the picture I'm sure attendance will increase.
After the way the Grizzlie ownership screwed over the Fresno Falcons hockey team/fans, why should anyone support these idiots? I personally don't want to attend any games as long as Glover and Cummings are involved with team. And the drive by's give the ownership a pass on everything! They should have been investigated once they shut down the Falcons, but all we got was, "worst economy ever".
Well, hopefully this will run these guys out of town, and to be honest, I really don't care if they team folds. They didn't care about the Falcons, so I don't care about them.
And this is from some one who would have considered at least a partial season ticket plan, but no more!
SHUT THEM DOWN!!!!!!
I will only be attending one Grizzly's game this season, and that is ONLY because my nephew's T-Ball team gets to go out on the field. I am one of the many Falcon's season ticket holders that was screwed by the owners, but right now my nephew is more important than my grudge. Rest assured I will not be attending any more games. If I do attend a game, I won't be paying for it. I will continue to travel to Stockton to cheer on a team with a city that actually cares about their teams.
Why is attendence down?? Where are they?? Well after what the owners Brian Glover & Chris Cummings did in mid-season to the Fresno Falcons rest assured you will never see me in those seats. At every opportunity I get I tell people to boycott the Grizzlies, tell them what they did and tell them that I as a STH still have not received my refund!! I was told I have to prove I paid for my tickets. Yet sources close to the inside have told me again and again that NO tickets were ever given out unless it was signed off and payment was confirmed. I have my tickets in my hot little hands and yet that still isn't good enough for them to refund my money. They are crooks and the City of Fresno in my opinion is no better for allowing them to get away with screwing the City out of money that they had a contract for. What does that say about the City of Fresno?? I too will travel to Stockton to spend my hard earned money on a Hockey team with owners/management who've welcomed myself and other Fresno Falcons fans with open arms!!
I agree with the above comments. I will definitely not give another penny to this group of owners that took down our Falcons and managed to leave a bunch of bill for the city to pay as a newly renovated Selland Arena that will get little to no use now that the Falcons are gone. True we will have the Monsters hockey team next year but that is half that dates the Falcons would have taken and it will be no where near the same level of hockey that we are accustomed to seeing here in Fresno.
THESE GUYS GET NO MORE OF MY MONEY!
I also make my viewpoint on this issue clear to all my friends and co-workers when they mention they might want to go. I let them no not to give these guys their money.
They have a tough sell in front of them at this point, there are a lot of very ticked off people right now. The best thing IMHO at this point would be if a new ownership group took over the club. I would attend a few games but not until there is a change in ownership.
I love minor league baseball. I have the ability to attend games for free if I wish, but I will NEVER attend another game in Fresno as long as Chris Cummings and Brian Glover have anything to do wih the team. I will go to Cal League games in Visalia, Bakersfield, and Modesto. I am willing to attend PCL games in Stockton, but Fresno is out of the equation until they get new ownership. It's that simple.
It's nice to see everyone from the Falcons message board made their way over here. How many games did you all go to before you were "screwed"?
Made it to all the games this year except one. I very much miss the Falcons, but there you go. Hopefully things will work out for the best over time and we'll get a decent ownership group who gives pro hockey a better shot at things here in Fresno in the future!
Best of luck to our new junior team who will be playing at Selland next year!
GO MONSTERS!
BEAT THE GULLS!
We used to get group plans several times a season.
The owners can kiss that money goodbye. Many of my friends used to get group packages and give tickets to their friends and clients. They will not be doing that again until there is new ownership.
In business, if you make enough people mad, word gets out. They should have thought of that.
I just want to clarify that the post here by "Freddie Falcon" is NOT from the person who actually played the character the last two seasons. I understand your frustration, but please also understand that I have a legal agreement with the Falcons regarding public statements made by myself or made by me on behalf of "Freddie". I appreciate you understanding.
je/ff