by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville opened its doors Thursday night and the only thing missing was the baseball.
That may sound like a vital component of an enjoyable evening at the ballpark, but the Jacksonville Suns management thinks it’s found an acceptable substitute: cheap beer.
Dollar beers are a Jacksonville Suns Thursday night tradition stretching back to the early days of Wolfson Park, the team’s old home. The Thirsty Thursday promotion — now known as the Thursday Night Throwdown — has been so successful in drawing fans that the team is going to keep them going even with the team on the road.
The team is testing a limited run of dollar beer nights without baseball. The “baseball-less” Throwdowns will continue until Sept. 8 provided enough fans turn up to make the weekly events profitable. Gates will open from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. For a $2 cover, fans get the dollar beers and live music. The rest of the concessions are regular price.
Suns Assistant General Manager Kirk Goodman said the team is trying to capitalize on the momentum generated by game day Throwdown Thursdays. The promotion has consistently drawn the largest non-weekend crowds. The Thursday night games draw about 6,000 fans, close to what the team averages for weekend games.
“We got a sense from people that Thirsty Thursdays are the place to be downtown,” said Goodman. “It’s more of a social atmosphere anyway, so why limit it to just game days? People can come out here, drink cheap beer, hang out with friends and listen to some music in some really nice surroundings.”
The idea for continuing the promotion came to Goodman and Suns owner Peter Bragan Jr. while watching the crowd at a Thursday Night Throwdown game. The joke around downtown is that the beer stands generate more interest than the action on the field. That looked to be true to Bragan and Goodman.
“Half the people who come Thursday nights don’t watch the game,” said Goodman.
The team needs to draw only a few hundred fans to cover operating expenses, said Goodman. But he’s hopeful the allure of cheap lager will bring out at least 1,000 fans.
“It’s certainly worth giving it a whirl. If nobody shows up, we’ll stop doing it,” he said.
The team and City, which owns the park, are looking for uses beyond baseball for the $34 million Baseball Grounds. The ballpark has drawn rave reviews from fans, players and even the Suns’ Southern League, which held its annual Double A all-star game there two years ago.
The ballpark played host to concerts and corporate parties during Super Bowl week. If the new Thursday night promotions are a success, it could prompt more use of the ballpark when the team is out of town and even during the off season, said Goodman.
There’s little doubt about the drawing power of cheap beer. Goodman said he “hated to think” what the team’s Thursday night attendance would look like without it. On Mondays, when the beer is regular price, the team typically draws less than 2,000.
Similar promotions are sweeping across minor league parks all over the country, said Goodman. His previous employer, a Triple A baseball team in Portland, used to draw crowds of 10,000 with discount drink promotions.
“At field level you’d see a couple hundred people and the line around the beer stands was jam packed with 400 people waiting in line,” he said. “It’s becoming an epidemic in minor league baseball.”