Jacksonville Suns Attendance Skyrocketing

[RiversideGator]

This is great news for the Suns and is an indication of the level of baseball enthusiasm (as well as the good marketing of the Suns) in Jacksonville. I think a jump to AAA is in order with a jump to the majors possibly down the road. The Suns are averaging about as much as the Expos did in Montreal.

From the Jacksonville Daily Record, July 25, 2006:

• Fan count has never been hotter with the Jacksonville Suns. For the fourth straight season, the Suns have eclipsed the 300,000 mark in attendance. The Suns have consistently led the Southern League in attendance and have ranked at the top of all Double-A teams for four years running. Through 49 official openings, the Suns have drawn 313,652 fans, averaging 6,401 fans per game. That’s nearly 100,000 fans more than the next closest team in the Southern League.

SOURCE: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=45577

[Jason]

Excellent news! I've only been able to catch a couple games this season but was proud to see our hometown boys win every game I attended :D

I can also vouch for the attendance, although not sold out, they still have very good turn-out.

[Jason]

Here is a pic from the jaxsuns.com website showing the crowd...

http://www.sunsbaseball.com/images/crowdshot.jpg

[Jim]

Wow. I knew it was high but not THAT high. AAA is a definite bet now.

[RADIO TALK SHOW HOST]

ITS THE beerman

[fsujax]

The Suns Games are a great family outting. I always have a good time at the Baseball Grounds. That venue is truly something we can be proud of. I believe the pricing is fair and the entertainment is great.

[danno]

The products the Bragan family have been providing for many years is pretty much the same it is the facility that has drawn so many more people than the average baseball fan.

[RiversideGator]

This does illustrate the importance of having a good venue for a sports team. Now imagine the impact on downtown if the Baseball Grounds had really been located in downtown (instead of on the far periphery of downtown in Fairfield). See the Memphis stadium for proof of what can happen. Imagine the effect on neighboring bars and restaurants. Too bad Delaney dropped the ball on this one (as I predicted at the time). Oh well, this is still good news.

[copperfiend]

The Suns have a new stadium, good ownership and blue chip players. Those three are the recipe for a successful minor league baseball team. Getting a AAA team would be great but not a given. Everything is in place to support one. But the oppurtunity has to become available. Jacksonville would have to be a prime candidate to get one if it did become available.

[demmeri]

it's great to see jacksonville come out and supprot the team but....

why the heck won't we just go into AAA baseball??? charlotte and indianapolis have AAA teams, so why can't we?

we've hosted a superbowl, yet our baseball team plays freaking chattanooga...what the heck is that?

and we shold be playing in the AHL, not the ECHL...

i want to see jacksonville step up and stomp with the big dawgs.

[Keith726]

I am not a baseball fan,but ? how would that affect the Suns^^^^

[backinjax]

For a triple A team we need to make the stadium a little larger. And while 300,000 is nice Buffalo usually gets more than 1,000,000 a season to watch them play. Of course, we have more to do than folks in Buffalo.

[Captain Zissou]

It wouldn't be that hard to expand the baseball grounds. As you can see in the picture, there is plenty of room on site add on to the stands. All they would need to do is extend them down the third baseline and increase the height. it would be nearly as dificult as expanding the football stadium, which the city has done a number of times.

[cafeexpress]

Last nights game was awesome even though they lost, we needed more people there to scream yell and cheer. Too bad we couldn't sell out a playoff game. The attendance for the year has been great though

[RADIO TALK SHOW HOST]

The suns lost three in a row to montgomery To all that went I hope you had fun