Tuesday is a BIG day for baseball in Mississippi

[Todd4State]

The stadium people in Biloxi are going to vote on the bond issue to build a new minor league stadium there. I hope it passes.

The stadium won't be ready until 2015 now though. 2014 was just totally unrealistic unless they were OK with playing games at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College or at USM for about a year.

[Esmerelda Villalobos]

Ill keep everyone updated if it passes.

[TopDog58]

Do the Braves ever draw over 2k anymore? I haven't been in a while but the last few I did you could just about count by hand.

[bully99]

Minor league baseball will have a very hard time on the coast. The minors are struggling all over the country. They hide the real attendance numbers with phony numbers. Go ask the Mississippi Braves. It's no secret that the Atlanta Braves have been very unhappy with attendance in Pearl. The M-Braves can't even draw during June and July. Great stadium and location but it's mostly empty. The same thing will happen on the coast.

[Todd4State]

Do the Braves ever draw over 2k anymore? I haven't been in a while but the last few I did you could just about count by hand.

4th of July and when the Atlanta Braves played.

[Todd4State]

Minor league baseball will have a very hard time on the coast. The minors are struggling all over the country. They hide the real attendance numbers with phony numbers. Go ask the Mississippi Braves. It's no secret that the Atlanta Braves have been very unhappy with attendance in Pearl. The M-Braves can't even draw during June and July. Great stadium and location but it's mostly empty. The same thing will happen on the coast.

I think part of the problem this year was they had it so that if you wanted to see the Atlanta Braves exhibition game, you were guaranteed a ticket if you bought season tickets. I think the Jackson media should have done a better job of promoting them as well. They had a good year and made the playoffs- but it's like no one knew about it. Back in the day of the Jackson Mets- Mike Christenson did a great job as the Mets beat reporter.

[Todd4State]

Also, I think a team in Biloxi would help the M-Braves out a little bit, and vice versa. I remember the Jackson Bandits and the Mississippi Sea Wolves having some really intense games when they were around. The M-Braves having a Mississippi rival would be cool.

[Will James]

http://www.baseballnation.com/hot-corner/2013/6/3/4392678/bill-james-on-how-to-fix-minor-league-baseball

This will help the Minors everywhere

[Will James]

I know it will never happen but I would LOVE for a soccer style Promotion/Regulation system with baseball teams. That would greatly increase baseball popularity and would result in everyone competing all year long to avoid the drop.

[bully99]

The Pearl Biloxi angle is just windowdressing. That's gonna do nothing to the long-term problem baseball has . I started going to Smith Wills stadium when the Jackson Mets came to town in 1975. The area has never drawn huge crowds contrary to what
most people think.

Con Maloney publicly warned 20 years ago when he sold the Jackson Generals that pro baseball was unsustainable with the demographics in this market. Over the years when you went to a game at Jackson or Pearl you could count the number of black people on one hand. That's fine black folks can do what they want with their money but when half your potential fan base has zero interest in your product it makes it very difficult to generate crowds in a market that size. Con tried hard to get blacks to the park. He said he advertised heavily in black media but to no avail. Of course today baseball has to compete with HD TV internet and such. I think the M Braves would move if they could but there's really no where to go.

[Todd4State]

The Pearl Biloxi angle is just windowdressing. That's gonna do nothing to the long-term problem baseball has . I started going to Smith Wills stadium when the Jackson Mets came to town in 1975. The area has never drawn huge crowds contrary to what
most people think.

Con Maloney publicly warned 20 years ago when he sold the Jackson Generals that pro baseball was unsustainable with the demographics in this market. Over the years when you went to a game at Jackson or Pearl you could count the number of black people on one hand. That's fine black folks can do what they want with their money but when half your potential fan base has zero interest in your product it makes it very difficult to generate crowds in a market that size. Con tried hard to get blacks to the park. He said he advertised heavily in black media but to no avail. Of course today baseball has to compete with HD TV internet and such. I think the M Braves would move if they could but there's really no where to go.

Huge crowds relative to what we draw at Dudy-Noble? No. Respectable crowds, yes.

Con Maloney sold Jackson baseball out so that he could make a buck. His lack of advertisement killed the product- and I believe he did so intentionally. Even if I am wrong, that means he wasn't progressive enough to keep up with the Joneses. He could have very easily told the Jackson City Council to shove it and then threatened to move to Pearl or whatever suburb, but he sold us out to Nolan Ryan. His business, his choice- but save me the sob story about how you really want baseball to be here and then become a part owner along with your son of some team in Round Rock, Texas.

I'm actually glad he did move the team- it allowed us to get into the Southern League which I like much better than the Texas League- come watch the Jackson Generals play arch rival Midland, Texas!. We built a really nice ballpark that has brought the Atlanta Braves- a team that is a perfect fit for the area, has brought the C-USA Tournament to Mississippi as well as an Atlanta Braves exhibition game and perhaps most importantly has allowed the Governor's Cup to be played in a stadium that doesn't royally suck. Along with the other college games that are played there.

As far as the long term baseball problem- that's a national problem- not just a Jackson problem.

[bully99]

That's nonsense. Yeah Con's a business man and he didn't like losing his ass on declining attendence and a falling apart baseball stadium. Even when they had stars likely strawberry; Dykstra and roger McDowell a big crowd would be 1500. I was there many times. Threatened the Jackson city council that you were gonna move. That's a good one. Advertising? The last few years the M Braves advertise and promote nonstop. That's all I hear during the summer is Braves ads. That's really working well. Con did a damn good job as owner of the team. Of course you never addressed my main point of the demographics and why baseball doesn't do well. Not the only problem but it's a huge factor. And Con didn't get anywhere close to the financial help that is behind the braves. I like baseball ,you like baseball so we will just have to disagree. But the m braves have problems.

[Todd4State]

I will address the demogrpahics by saying this: Con Maloney shouldn't have focused so much on trying to sell people that weren't likely to buy his product because of their demographics- more specifically income- and should have spent more time focusing on the suburbs where the demographics to buy his product were. In the meantime, the M-Braves have consistenly outdrawn Maloney's teams and while near the bottom in attendance this year, were still better than three other Southern League teams in similar sized cities- Jackson, Tn, Mobile, Al, and Huntsville, Al. This despite not having the "demographics" to support a baseball team.

He could have equally stuck it to the Jackson City Council by moving the team to Pearl- a place that was very eager to get the Braves and it has helped that city tremendously. I imagine they would have been equally open to Con Maloney in 1999.