What Erie needs is a person to take over their website
that knows what he's doing. Very unorganized and
rarely updated from what I've seen.

--- Mike Sopp <mikesopp@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Franchise player
>
>
> Erie Mayor Rick Filippi says the city is working
> with the SeaWolves
> to make changes that could attract visitors and
> corporate support at
> Jerry Uht Park, which has seen declining attendance
> in the past few
> years. (Erie Times-News photo by Jack Hanrahan)
>
> Zoom
>
>
> Read More Local News
>
> By John Dudley
> john.dudley@... PETER
> PANEPENTOpeter.panepento@...
>
>
> Chuck Sokolowski is far from a fair-weather fan.
>
> Sokolowski, the president of the Erie SeaWolves'
> booster club, is in
> the stands for nearly every home game — rain or
> shine.
>
> Too often, however, he feels like he is almost
> alone.
>
> Jerry Uht Park, the team's 8-year-old stadium, is
> often less than
> half full with spectators for the team's home games.
>
> And with each passing year, attendance continues to
> sag — a fact that
> could threaten the franchise's long-term future in
> Erie.
>
> "It would be an embarrassment for us to have the
> opportunity to have
> a Double-A franchise for five years and then lose
> it," Sokolowski
> said. "It would be a total embarrassment for the
> city. There are only
> 30 Double-A cities in the United States, and we're
> one of them. This
> team should be showcased and taken care of and
> treated like a
> diamond, because that's what it is."
>
> Erie secured the SeaWolves, a full-season franchise
> in the Double A
> Eastern League, in 1999, replacing a short-season
> Single A team that
> played at Jerry Uht Park.
>
> The new franchise meant more home dates and a better
> brand of
> baseball for local fans.
>
> It also gave the city of Erie added credibility.
>
> SeaWolves' attendance peaked at 246,404 in 2001 and
> has dropped each
> of the past two seasons.
>
> The team drew 211,899 fans in 2002 and 197,656 this
> season, the
> lowest total in its five years in the Eastern
> League.
>
> Four of its competitors in the Eastern League,
> meanwhile, drew more
> than 400,000 fans in 2003.
>
>
>
> Even with those numbers, the SeaWolves' immediate
> future in Erie
> remains secure.
>
> The team has a lease on Jerry Uht Park that runs
> through 2005, and
> Erie Mayor Rick Filippi said he has been told the
> team is committed
> to fielding a full-season team in Erie for at least
> the next year.
>
> The team also is chalking up some of its 2003
> attendance decline to a
> home schedule that had a heavy dose of games in
> April and May and few
> in June, July and August.
>
> And when the team was home during the summer, the
> weather didn't
> cooperate.
>
> Still, rumors have been swirling for months that the
> team's new
> owner, Mandalay Sports Entertainment, may already be
> looking to move
> to another city.
>
> Mandalay — a division of Mandalay Entertainment,
> which, among its
> many enterprises, produces and distributes Hollywood
> films — bought
> the SeaWolves in July.
>
> Because the baseball team is a private business,
> financial terms of
> the sale were not disclosed. The team also doesn't
> reveal information
> about annual revenues and profits.
>
> Mandalay already has bought and moved one Class AA
> franchise from
> Shreveport, La., to Frisco, Texas, outside Dallas.
>
> And a recent report in the Trenton Times of New
> Jersey suggests the
> company might have similar plans for the SeaWolves.
>
> The newspaper, citing two unnamed sources with
> knowledge of the
> Eastern League, reported that the SeaWolves had
> sought permission
> from the league to look into relocating to another
> city.
>
> Mandalay Sports Entertainment President Hank
> Stickney, in an
> interview with the Erie Times-News in April, said he
> wasn't prepared
> to address the franchise's long-term future in Erie.
>
> "I really can't say what will happen in Erie,"
> Stickney said. "If the
> Yankees called and said they wanted me to move to a
> new stadium in
> New York and wanted to know if I was interested, yes
> I would be. Am I
> looking for something like that? No. But I really
> can't say what will
> happen two to five years out. I just can't do that."
>
> Stickney did not return messages left at his Los
> Angeles office this
> week.
>
> Statements by Eastern League President Joe
> MacEachern are equally
> cryptic.
>
> MacEachern would neither confirm nor deny that
> Mandalay has
> approached the league about moving the SeaWolves.
>
> "I would not be at liberty to share any of that
> information about
> contact that occurred or didn't occur with the
> league," MacEachern
> said in a phone interview from the league office in
> Portland, Maine.
>
>
>
> Filippi said he believes the team would be able to
> stay in Erie long-
> term if average attendance exceeds 4,000 per game.
>
> The team's average attendance in 2003 was 3,188.
>
> To get more than 800 fans attending each game,
> Filippi said the team
> needs help from other businesses and from the city.
>
> The SeaWolves have already solicited that help,
> calling on Filippi
> and Jake Rouch, chief executive of the Erie Regional
> Chamber and
> Growth Partnership, to work with the team to improve
> its fan base.
>
> "If we recognize they are an asset to our community
> and they are
> asking for our support, then we need to partner
> together to help that
> business succeed," Rouch said. "They're like any
> other business.
> We'll sit down and do what we can to help them be
> successful."
>
> Several factors make the SeaWolves important to
> Erie's overall
>
=== message truncated ===


=====
Adam Riggleman

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