What is Dayton's secret?

[Reds Freak]

Point me in the right direction if this topic has already been discussed...

Last week, the Dayton Dragons played in front of their 500th consecutive sellout, passing every other professional sports team after the Colorado Avalanche's streak was stopped at 487. They were ranked in SI as the 10th hottest ticket in all of sports.

I'm studying sports management in school and this sort of thing intrigues me. What is their secret? Sure, they have a wonderful ballpark but it is in its 7th year and the novelty hasn't come close to wearing off. Sure, they do the gimmicky minor league promotions but so does every other minor league franchise. I want to know how they do get 8000 people in that ballpark every night. How can a Single A franchise so close to a major league city be leading all of professional sports in consecutive sell outs? Any ideas?

[flyer85]

An extremely large metropolitan area for a Low A baseball team combined with a really nice ballpark in an area that was thirsty for professional baseball. In addition, it is a lot less expensive than a night at GABP and the franchise really goes out to entertain the fans. Gem and Heater are a lot more entertaining than Gapper and Mr Nerd, that's for sure. Businesses really stepped up to support the team as well.

[dougdirt]

Good product, big city, nothing else in the city to do.

[Heath]

One year the Dayton Dragons outdrew the Expos and the Marlins.

In fact, Peter Angelos jokingly suggested moving the Expos to Dayton.

I think the deal for me (a season-ticket holder) is that the game is still good, it's less than 30 minutes away, and the stuff is cheap.

I know why they are in the Midwest League, but an 8,000+ stadium is big enough for AA or AAA - but the deal is they have to be a Reds farm club. I wouldn't mind playing Akron or Binghamton, et. al in the Eastern League.

Edited here for Doug's remark - yep - pretty much so.

[bucksfan2]

What is the capacity? The way I understood it was that the seats are always sold out but you can buy a ticket and sit out in the outfield grass. I think why they are successful is that there really isn't another draw within 30 minutes, they have a great stadium with an intimate feel, and a good atmosphere. Dayton is a model of minor league baseball.

[dougdirt]

Im pretty sure Fifth Third Field holds roughly 7800 + grass seating areas.

[dougdirt]

Last season the Dragons had 582,903 fans enter the park. They play 140 games in the midwest league, so they averaged over 8300 for each game.

[JaxRed]

I live in Jacksonville. Bigger City, bigger league, newer ballpark. Great teams the last few years.

Attendance in 2006: 404,000

the difference in my mind is the ballpark experience. I was stunned at how much better an experience going to a game is at Dayton than Jax.

We have LAME promotions/gimmicks. (Trust me, you can only see "Hillbilly Horseshoes" with toilet seats a few times before it gets old. But you will see it every, single, stinking game at Jax)

[OesterPoster]

They're slowly building up the area surrounding the stadium too. It's really amazing how successful the park has been, considering the insane number of vacant buildings still in that area. There are still only 2 places to eat within walking distance of the park (Canal Street Tavern and Brixx), if memory serves me correctly. Hopefully with Sandy Mendelson moving all of his business somewhere else, those buildings will be opened up for restaurants/apartments/condos.

I usually make it to 2 or 3 games a year, but only because I have business connections for free tickets. I'm not sure how I'd get tickets without the connection.

[tbball10]

I live in Jacksonville. Bigger City, bigger league, newer ballpark. Great teams the last few years.

Attendance in 2006: 404,000

the difference in my mind is the ballpark experience. I was stunned at how much better an experience going to a game is at Dayton than Jax.

We have LAME promotions/gimmicks. (Trust me, you can only see "Hillbilly Horseshoes" with toilet seats a few times before it gets old. But you will see it every, single, stinking game at Jax)

but baseball's never been hotter with the Jacksonville Suns!!!!!!

i used to live in jacksonville when players like phil nevin, juan encarnacion and my all-time suns favorite, frank cattalanatto played!!

[jimbo]

There just isn't much else in the Dayton area as far as sports, especially during the summer. Dayton has loyal fans who embrace the teams they do have. Just look at how the Dayton Flyers basketball program does. With limited recent success, they average something like 11,000 fans a game, and the NCAA play-in game that's played there every year brings a good 7-8,000 fans.

The Dragons have done a great job at promoting their product with a great stadium, and coupled with having a hungry devoted fanbase they were destined to be successful.

[Reds Freak]

So comparing with Jacksonville here, is it the fact that there's not much else to do in Dayton? Looks like for a lot of folks it is the cost as well. However, IIRC, aren't concession, parking, etc. pretty comparable to the Reds?

I hear a lot about "ballpark experience" as well. That's a nice term but I wonder what does that actually mean? Stadium, atmosphere, proximity to the players? I'm sure if you ask 10 people you get 10 different answers. Thanks for the input, this is something that interests me and I might do a little more research on it for my field of study.

[JaxRed]

Jacksonville, Dayton ..... I've lived both places. I've been to games at both places. You can find plenty to do either city. The difference is the atmosphere at the park.

[Redman15]

Brixx is a great place to go before and after the game. I was in Dayton last week for the 1st time. The stadium and all around atmosphere is awesome. I can see why they sell out every day. There is not much to do in Dayton. The air museum was pretty awesome. I went out to Youngs Dairy and had some ice cream. I would like to get back out there again later this year. Any other suggestions on how to spend my days in Dayton?

[tbball10]

Jacksonville, Dayton ..... I've lived both places. I've been to games at both places. You can find plenty to do either city. The difference is the atmosphere at the park.

i have never been to dayton, but i want to go if its that much better, because ive always had fun at the suns' games.