Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Ballparks’

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

Work to raze the Memorial Stadium began in earnest Monday, but cranes and a wrecking ball won’t tear into the ballpark until next week.

 The demolition brings an end to the stadium’s 16-year life along Coliseum Boulevard and the St. Joseph River. The stadium helped bring minor league baseball to Fort Wayne but is no longer needed now that the TinCaps have moved into Parkview Field downtown.

As the also recently renamed Winston-Salem Dash work toward their ballpark construction, the Winston-Salem Journal explored it in comparison to other similar projects currently under way. Fort Wayne TinCaps Vice President – Marketing & Promotions, Michael Limmer is quoted in discussing the business plan, which includes improvements for reaching out to more patrons and families who might not normally come to a baseball game.

“You want to give people as many reasons to come as possible,” Limmer said. “It can’t just be seats and a field…. You want it to be a destination regardless of whether there’s a game going on or not.”

…

Limmer said that families come to minor-league games in part because they like baseball, but also in part because the stadiums are fun for children, some with moon bounces, hot dogs, slides and mascots. A better stadium brings bigger crowds, he said.

“These towns and cities want something to showcase, something to show off,” he said. “If you’re going to do it, you do it right. So if you just put up a community field, a glorified high-school field, you’re not going to get the sponsorships or the people.”

Judging by the comments on the article, that project (and team name) is just as contentious as the Fort Wayne project.