STOP LAMENTING THE LYNX ALREADY... SAY HELLO TO THE "CAPITAL BANDITS"

(Originally posted Monday, Sept. 4.)

Sunday's Ottawa Sun (by now you know I work there, but not in the sports dept.) had an Erin Nicks column lamenting the slow death of the Ottawa Lynx, the soon to be dearly departed Triple-A baseball team which played its next-to-last season finale today against the Buffalo Bisons.

(DIGRESSION: It was Sens Day at the ballpark on Monday. A couple of the hockey players took batting practice, perhaps marking the first time a Senators player has ever hit something when a Buffalo team was in town.)

There's nothing wrong with Nicks' sentiments. She's 100% right in saying there is no "universal, cover-all-the-bases reason" (in her phrasing) for what killed the Lynx. Then again, when is there ever a universal, cover-all-the-bases reason for why something happened the way it did?

It all comes down to finding a good question to answer: Namely, is Ottawa viable as the home of an independent-league team? Yours truly isn't objective enough to answer this question, since I have a vested interest -- I want to be able to have a cheap night out at the ballpark, drinking a couple beers and keeping score under a summer night sky.

There's the Winnipeg Goldeyes example. The Northern League team regularly draws 7,000-plus fans with a top ticket price of $15. (Compare that with Ottawa -- a similar sized market averaging in the 2,000s with a top ticket of $11, which almost no one pays.) Is that an aberration, or a beacon?

The founder of the Goldeyes, Sam Katz, now Winnipeg's mayor, sold Manitobans on the experience of going to the ballpark as much as the root, root, root for the home team aspect. Could that work here? If nothing else, the attendance goals could certainly be met.

Lynx owner Ray Pecor said more than once the team needed to draw 4,000 fans to break even in Ottawa. The Lynx drew about half that this year-- 2,000 paid attendance. Average that over the 72 home dates a team has in Triple-A (granted, there are a few doubleheaders in there), that's 144,000 spectators.

In the Can-Am League, teams play about 90 games, with the season beginning around the end of May. (In Ottawa's case, that would eliminate two Lynx drawbacks -- cold spring weather and competing for fans' attention when the Senators are doing their annual revue of The Dying Swan In Padded Shorts.)

If those 144,000 spectators were compacted into 45 home dates, that works out to an average attendance of more than 3,000 -- top end for the Can-Am League. Presumably, the owners would control more of their own revenues, since they wouldn't have to sign an affiliation agreement with a major-league team. Overhead, particularly on travel and salaries (indie-league players make Tim Hortons wages), would be lower.

In the short term at least, there might be the curiousity/fresh start aspect, since people would be more open to checking out a new team rather than the old one that's been ignored for a decade.

It's not fail-safe. There's a lot of vagaries between the Ottawa and Winnipeg markets, so the latter city's success story may not be easy to duplicate. Calgary and Edmonton, cities that previously lost their Triple-A clubs, both play in the Northern League and are struggling to get 1,000 fans per night.

Evidently, some people can't get past the knowledge that none of the players they're watching are going to blossom into major-league stars on par with Edgar Martinez or Tim Salmon, whose routes to major-league stardom both went through Alberta. (Apparently some in the media in both cities can't get enough of pointing out the latter.)

The question that needs to be put out there is whether it's worth it for Ottawa to take a stab at an independent-league team in 2008 or '09, playing in a spruced-up, retrofitted ballpark (since there'll be no need for 10,000 seats). This author can't answer it, but it's not too early for others to ask that question.

(By the way, here's why I would not be a good sports promoter. The only team name I can think of for a new ballclub here is "the "the Capital Bandits." That would NEVER fly in irony-impaired Ottawa, although Mayor Bob Chiarelli would make a good honorary coach-for-life.)

Related:
Ottawa Lynx Will Soon Be No More; Insert Cheap Baseball Metaphor Here (Aug. 29)
Saving Ottawa Sports, No. 3 (Aug. 26)
Cutting The Lynx To Triple-A Baseball (Aug. 25)
Oh, It Be So: The Sens Are Done Tonight And The Mayor Is None Too Bright (May 13)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.