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Post by kersting13 on May 26, 2022 10:51:57 GMT -8
There is no way that this tournament can happen in a major league park. Or a minor league park. Those teams get handed their schedules by the leagues and those league have zero interest in shuffling the schedule around to accommodate our tournament. But that leaves one strong alternative . . . FORMER minor league parks. With the cutbacks in teams, there are a number of parks potentially available. They are the right size for college baseball, and although the locations aren't flashy, some of them have pretty decent weather in May. Candidates include Boise, Keizer, Bakersfield, and Colorado Springs. I'm sure there are others. The Boise stadium seats 3500, Keizer seats 4200 and is a little newer/nicer. Colorado Springs is even newer and nicer and seats 8500. These are all REALISTIC alternatives to Scottsdale, and I'm sure there are some others out there. At first glance, Colorado Springs looks really good. I'm not sure where you came up with this idea. Back in the days of "multi-purpose" stadiums, where a majority of NFL and MLB teams shared a venue for 2 months of the year, they used to be able to figure out a way to coordinate their schedules. It really wouldn't be a problem for minor/major league team X to say: "We need to be on the road May 25-29" to the schedule-maker. |
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Post by alwaysorange on May 26, 2022 10:53:04 GMT -8
So just wondering when big concerts book their tours at big league or minor league ballparks do they wait to see what's open after the baseball team schedule is set or do the teams/league work the schedule around these concerts and other events?
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Post by rgeorge on May 26, 2022 12:19:45 GMT -8
Yep... Eastern Oregon/WA and southern Oregon in AAA Legion. It's a regular occurrence at 90-95+... you hope for the early or late games in summer tourneys. Regular season double dips are typically started at 6pm or after so less of an issue. Kids of all ages play in the heat all summer long, and a multitude of sports. And, many don't get to go into a dugout half the time. |
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Post by rgeorge on May 26, 2022 12:21:26 GMT -8
Yeh, I have - and after the game took a swim and then played tennis for an hour.... Golf here in AZ is like 70-90% off depending on the course... with carts, ice water coolers. Easy to get overheated... only if you're a putz and don't use your brain. |
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Post by rgeorge on May 26, 2022 12:25:52 GMT -8
There is no way that this tournament can happen in a major league park. Or a minor league park. Those teams get handed their schedules by the leagues and those league have zero interest in shuffling the schedule around to accommodate our tournament. But that leaves one strong alternative . . . FORMER minor league parks. With the cutbacks in teams, there are a number of parks potentially available. They are the right size for college baseball, and although the locations aren't flashy, some of them have pretty decent weather in May. Candidates include Boise, Keizer, Bakersfield, and Colorado Springs. I'm sure there are others. The Boise stadium seats 3500, Keizer seats 4200 and is a little newer/nicer. Colorado Springs is even newer and nicer and seats 8500. These are all REALISTIC alternatives to Scottsdale, and I'm sure there are some others out there. At first glance, Colorado Springs looks really good. I'm not sure where you came up with this idea. Back in the days of "multi-purpose" stadiums, where a majority of NFL and MLB teams shared a venue for 2 months of the year, they used to be able to figure out a way to coordinate their schedules. It really wouldn't be a problem for minor/major league team X to say: "We need to be on the road May 25-29" to the schedule-maker. MLB stadiums do not make the MLB schedule. MLB schedulers do take into account seasonal events that have been a long standing tradition. Pac12 baseball is not that. Plus, what incentive is there for them to have it there?? What to draw maybe 3-4k fans into a venue holding 30-35k+. It's a huge hassle to run and staff a tourney and MLB teams/stadiums would have little reason to do so. |
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Post by Judge Smails on May 26, 2022 12:31:22 GMT -8
Yep... Eastern Oregon/WA and southern Oregon in AAA Legion. It's a regular occurrence at 90-95+... you hope for the early or late games in summer tourneys. Regular season double dips are typically started at 6pm or after so less of an issue.Kids of all ages play in the heat all summer long, and a multitude of sports. And, many don't get to go into a dugout half the time. Kids are soft now days. We started Legion double-headers at 1 pm in S. Oregon when I played. Had one game where it was 108 at game time. I would say that the soccer players had it worse. Running around for 90+ minutes straight in that kind of heat is a lot tougher than playing in a baseball game. |
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Post by rgeorge on May 26, 2022 12:35:29 GMT -8
Yep... Eastern Oregon/WA and southern Oregon in AAA Legion. It's a regular occurrence at 90-95+... you hope for the early or late games in summer tourneys. Regular season double dips are typically started at 6pm or after so less of an issue.Kids of all ages play in the heat all summer long, and a multitude of sports. And, many don't get to go into a dugout half the time. Kids are soft now days. We started Legion double-headers at 1 pm in S. Oregon when I played. Had one game where it was 108 at game time. I would say that the soccer players had it worse. Running around for 90+ minutes straight in that kind of heat is a lot tougher than playing in a baseball game. In Eastern part of the state our late starts weren't due to weather as much as allowing players time to play. Kids working 8-10 hours on farms beforehand. |
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Post by Judge Smails on May 26, 2022 12:37:09 GMT -8
Kids are soft now days. We started Legion double-headers at 1 pm in S. Oregon when I played. Had one game where it was 108 at game time. I would say that the soccer players had it worse. Running around for 90+ minutes straight in that kind of heat is a lot tougher than playing in a baseball game. In Eastern part of the state our late starts weren't due to weather as much as allowing players time to play. Kids working 8-10 hours on farms beforehand. My last year of Legion, I worked fighting forest fires for the State of Oregon. After I was off, I would come and pitch the 2nd game of a double-header. That sucked. |
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Post by alwaysorange on May 26, 2022 13:56:20 GMT -8
There used to be football practices in the day that didn't allow water breaks. Didn't mean the players were more tough or studly. Meant the coach often didn't know the health consequences or maybe didn't care. Because things were done a certain way years ago doesn't mean they were right. Geez not long ago if a football player took a hit to the head the player would get smelling salts and put back in the game. Thankfully things change for the better.
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Post by wilkyisdashiznit on May 26, 2022 13:57:17 GMT -8
Once again the P12 shows its utter ineptness. However, the announcers yesterday mentioned that the WAC and WCC (or maybe it was the MWC), are also holding their conference tournaments down there at the same time. So maybe we're not the only stupids. Let's brainstorm some better locations... - neutral ballpark - good weather (not too hot, not too wet) - ? The Mountain West Tournament is at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego. San Diego State as the 2021 regular season champion got to select where the Tournament would be held, the home stadium of San Diego State. The Western Athletic Conference Tournament is at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa. It is the current Spring Training location for the Oakland Athletics but was the Spring Training for the Cubs until 2013. It has a generally nicer seating area than Scottsdale Stadium. Outfield seating is not nearly as nice, though. It also is in Mesa, as opposed to Downtown Scottsdale. The West Coast Conference Tournament is in Stockton, California. Several of the other Cactus League stadia would be better than Scottsdale Stadium for sitting and watching a ballgame. However, none can really match the location. |
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Post by Henry Skrimshander on May 26, 2022 15:09:41 GMT -8
They also had 11 inches of snow in Colorado Springs last weekend. So what, it's perfect this weekend. Weather changes.......... That was a rare storm. There are probably similar rare historical weather events you can find for every destination mentioned which would not be conducive to baseball games. If you ask anyone who has lived in Colorado for any length of time, May snowstorms are not that unusual. Pretty sure no one in Scottsdale can remember a May snowstorm. Or an April one, for that matter. Charlotte and Hoover can be almost as hot, and about 10 times as humid, as Scottsdale this time of year. It was pushing 100 in North Carolina last week. The best place would be Sunken Diamond. Great weather, cooler nights, excellent facility, always available, easy access from San Jose/SFO. But you can't give Stanford that much of a homefield advantage. |
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Post by Ruh Roh Beav on May 26, 2022 15:14:27 GMT -8
In Eastern part of the state our late starts weren't due to weather as much as allowing players time to play. Kids working 8-10 hours on farms beforehand. My last year of Legion, I worked fighting forest fires for the State of Oregon. After I was off, I would come and pitch the 2nd game of a double-header. That sucked. I bet that you were in good shape..... |
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Post by Judge Smails on May 26, 2022 15:16:46 GMT -8
My last year of Legion, I worked fighting forest fires for the State of Oregon. After I was off, I would come and pitch the 2nd game of a double-header. That sucked. I bet that you were in good shape..... Those were the days. Now, I work a desk job, play slow-pitch softball and drink beer afterwards........that doesn't seem to get you in the same kind of shape. |
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Post by nuclearbeaver on May 26, 2022 15:33:19 GMT -8
Lots of good ideas here. What I see is that there are two major directions you can go. Either make money or minimize loss. The conference making money on the tourney is a long shot and probably dependent on TV deals. Minimizing loss would probably revolve around a place with all the infrastructure but not currently in use.
Ideas on how to make money:
1) host it in a big city or exceedingly ‘baseball city’ that is P12 friendly. For places that are not miserable at this time of year Seattle, Reno, LA, San Francisco and San Diego all punch the card. Add Vegas to the list if they build a roofed stadium. If they can get an average attendance of 4-6k per game they can probably net out on hosting costs. So put it somewhere nice that people will travel to.
2) make it a venue for non-direct fans. Host it in Seattle and give discounts to early games to schools for field trips, family discounts, whatever. Make it an event beyond showing up for your own team. Make it so locals might show up
3) mess with the scheduling some more. See if you can have the championship on Sunday but the bulk of the games are fri-sun. Even if the championship game was a double header morning/night. You have to make it so people can travel they have families and jobs.
4) negotiate with Oregon to shift our school schedule. Everyone else is on break and I can’t pull my kids out of school for a tournament! August blows anyways! It’s just smoke!
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Post by beavoracity on May 26, 2022 16:07:17 GMT -8
Once again the P12 shows its utter ineptness. However, the announcers yesterday mentioned that the WAC and WCC (or maybe it was the MWC), are also holding their conference tournaments down there at the same time. So maybe we're not the only stupids. Let's brainstorm some better locations... - neutral ballpark - good weather (not too hot, not too wet) - ? If they could find a way to work it with the Mariners schedule, Seattle would be a good location - roof would guarantee no rainouts. Only thing is, I don't like giving the Doggies any home-field edge. But on the other hand, a lot more OSU fans could make it up there. I was thinking about your suggestion last night looking for a PAC 12 city that would not give any team the advantage. Boom work a deal with the Colorado Rockies. Denver has a beautiful downtown and other nearby attractions. I would be more likely to travel to Denver than LA, Seattle or the greater Phoenix area. |
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