by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The 2005 season has been good for the Jacksonville Suns on and off the field. They won the Southern League’s South division first half and trail the Birmingham Barons by two games with five games to play in the second half.
Off the field, the Suns, despite weather issues, are drawing large crowds once again.
“Things are going well,” said Suns assistant general manager Kirk Goodman. “Our sponsorship dollars are higher than ever and we are leading the league in attendance again. We are averaging about 1,000 more than the second place team (attendance-wise) and we will top 350,000 today.”
To date, in 65 home games the Suns have drawn 349,097 for an average attendance of 5,370 — more than a thousand better than the Birmingham Barons, the team the Suns are trying to chase down for the second half title. Goodman said persistent rain and unexpected late afternoon showers have hurt those figures.
“Attendance is down about 10 percent from last year and that’s because of the weather,” he said. “Last year, everything fell into place so beautifully. This year, we had two rain-outs on the Fourth of July weekend. We expected about 40,000 that weekend and got about 10,000.”
Hosting the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament back in late May helped bring attendance figures at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville back to last year’s numbers and also boosted concession sales. Goodman said the fact the Suns are still leading the league in attendance despite the rain-outs and rain-affected games is a sign that Jacksonville has really taken to the team this year and the newness of the ballpark hasn’t worn off.
“It’s a real testament to the people in this town. Montgomery is playing in a ballpark that’s two years old and Mississippi is playing in a new park,” said Goodman. “Those parks are smaller, but after three years, we are still vastly outperforming teams with new parks.”
Suns playoff tickets have already gone on sale. Depending on the outcome of the regular season, the Suns may host at least three games in the first round — games 1, 2 and 5. If they can catch the Barons, the Suns would also host game 4. Goodman said season ticket holders get first dibs on both playoff tickets and their regular season seats. Goodman says there hasn’t been a rush on playoff tickets yet, but playoff games generally mean a good walk up crowd.
Other factors have helped the Suns this year.
“We have had great media coverage,” said Goodman. “But how good a minor league baseball team is helps a little. Most fans couldn’t tell you our record, who we are affiliated with or who’s playing. We feel like we provide an affordable, safe, fun event.”