Where the Green Grass Grows

Brad Seal NCC News

April 19, 2008

Syracuse, New York--Spring time means it's baseball season in Syracuse, but you'd never know it by looking in the stands. Syracuse ranked near the bottom of the division in attendance last year. This year the Syracuse Chiefs organization hopes more fans will turn out to see a renovated baseball field.


What's Changed

The Chiefs spent 1.5 million dollars in Onondaga tax money to tear up the old artificial turf field and in it's place went a combination of 4 types of Kentucky bluegrass. The Chiefs also moved the bullpen from beyond the outfield wall to first and third baselines.


The Reaction

The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Fans used many different adjectives to describe the old turf and none of them were pleasant. Chiefs season ticket holder Jacob Fikes said that the old turf made Alliance Bank Stadium look like a "graveyard".


Does it Matter?

That is the real question: Will the new field bring in fans for the Chiefs? Chiefs general manager John Simone says that only two things will bring fans to Alliance Bank Stadium: good weather and a winning team. Syracuse residents know about the weather; it can snow in May here which makes it very hard to play baseball during the early part of the season. There is nothing the Chiefs can do about that.

Unfortunately, the Chiefs can also do very little to control the winning team part of the equation. Major League parent organization the Toronto Blue Jays have a very mediocre farm system and the players that do turn out to be good players are sent up to the Blue Jays fairly quickly. That doesn't leave many up-and-coming stars for Syracuse fans to watch.

It also doesn't help that the Blue Jays play in Toronto. Syracuse has New York and Boston fans, but no too many Toronto fans. Several fans we talked to discussed the rumor about the New York Mets sending its Triple A team to Syracuse next year. The Syracuse contract with the Blue Jays is up at the end of the year so that remains a possibility, but as of now it is still just a rumor.

The Chiefs haven't had a winning season in seven years and there is very little happening to make fans believe that will change anytime soon. Looks like the Chiefs are zero for two on Simone's recipe for bringing fans to Alliance Bank Stadium.