Syracuse Lacks Professional Sports Teams

Syracuse-April 21, 2008- With spring in full swing and summer just around the corner there are very few professional sports teams available for people to go see in Syracuse.

Going to a Syracuse Sky Chiefs game and enjoying a warm weather day doesn't cost a lot of money. But what if you don't like baseball and want to watch another sport this summer in Syracuse? Well, you can't. The Chiefs and the Crunch are the only professional teams left in town. Last year, the Raging Bullz ceased operations after playing only two home games. The ABA franchise cited poor attendance as the reason.

Fans Let Down

But one former team had the fan support. The Syracuse Salty Dogs drew some of the largest crowds in the league but folded nearly four years ago because of financial problems. Shane Sutliff went to a lot of their games and he was less than happy when they left.
"I was furious about the Salty Dogs," he said. "I was just ticked off."

College Town

Syracuse University athletics are understandably the big dog in town so it's no surprise the two successful professional teams in Syracuse play sports that the university doesn't offer on the division one level. Even the Chiefs have problems drawing many people. So why does Syracuse have trouble keeping professional sports teams? "Probably like a lot of towns where college is a big deal or certainly a big part of the community here, the college sports become the main attraction at least for the sports that do well," Nolan Weidner, writer for The Post-Standard said.
Rochester has 7 professional teams, ranging from basketball to arena football. The Rochester Razorsharks draw about 5,000 fans per home game. So what do these franchises do that future Syracuse teams can copy?
"We went after the soccer moms, and the soccer dads, and the young families that are just experiencing soccer, the music at the games, and the mascots, and we try to make it more family fun," Sam Fantuzzo, VP for the Rochester Rhinos, said.

Ways to Succeed

Sutliff says the playoff-bound Crunch are a model of how a professional team can succeed in Syracuse.
"They started marketing the team from the get-go and not marketing just in the Syracuse area, they nationally marketed the team, all over the place, throughout the whole American Hockey League," he said. And even though the Salty Dogs are long gone, Shane still has his memories. At least that can't be taken away from him.