Pro Sports Franchise Follies
Most cities are blessed with professional sports franchises who do great things for their cities. They connect with the people, the fans pack the stadium or arena night in and night out, and people say they are top-flight organizations, class all the way.
And then there are the ones that don't know what they're doing. Worse yet, they won't admit that they don't know what they're doing and they burn every bridge to the community that one can think of. Here in Syracuse, we happen to be blessed, or shall I say cursed, with one such team.
The Syracuse SkyChiefs have been a part of this community for 45 years now, and for many years, they were a great organization with winning teams and intelligent leadership. Unfortunately, the leadership has lost its way, intelligence has given way to stubbornness and frugality, and the true losers are the fans. Some would trace this back to the late 1970s, when the then-Chiefs were the top farm club of the New York Yankees. The Yanks were building a championship team, and Syracuse was the place to see these parts on display. Thurman Munson, Ron Guidry, and others had toiled here, and in 1976, the Chiefs won the championship. Two years later, the Yankees were gone. Depending on who you ask, it was either pigheadedness by George Steinbrenner or pigheadedness by Tex Simone, the Chiefs' general manager. For years, Chiefs fans figured it was The Boss' doing, that we were screwed over like so many fired Yankees managers.
When you look at what has passed through this town since, you may be tempted to think otherwise. When the Yankees left, we became the top farm club for the Toronto Blue Jays. Many a future star came through here as Toronto built its championship teams of the 1980s and early 1990s... but they didn't do much winning here. And the future Jays of recent years haven't won much here either. In 29 years with the Jays, Syracuse has enjoyed just 8 winning seasons. So when they had a chance to dump the Blue Jays this year at the end of their player development contract... they stuck with them.
In June, the SkyChiefs Board of Directors voted to keep Toronto as its parent club. Three months later, the Mets and Yankees were available, as they broke ties with their respective Triple-A homes in Norfolk and Columbus. Instead, the Yankees went to Scranton, and the Mets turned out to be the odd team out in a large-scale affiliate swap, stuck with 2 years of having their top prospects playing half a continent away in New Orleans.
So the Blue Jays' prospects will continue to play here, and it relative obscurity at that. The SkyChiefs spend close to zero money on PR... you wouldn't even know there was a team here unless you drove past the stadium on I-81 on a game night. Incidentally, you would go that way because in 1996, they built their new stadium right next to the old one on the North Side, rather than putting one downtown like most other teams have done. At the time, I thought the stadium should be on the North Side; it was tradition, the old stadium had a nice neighborhood ballpark feel to it, and we thought there would be a big revival on the North Side. Instead, the new stadium looks out of place, IS out of place, and the only thing that's gone up on the North Side in the last 10 years has been weeds.
What seems to have gone down has been the amount the team spends on, well, EVERYTHING, and the amount of respect the team has has for the community. Tex Simone has retired as GM but still is very much a presence at Alliance Bank Stadium, and his son is now the GM. Tex driving around to recycle balls hit out during batting practice is the stuff of legend, son John temporarily banned playing such ballpark favorites as "YMCA" because (sit down for this one) he was sick of hearing them, and they and the aging Board have thumbed their nose at any suggestion to fix things. They fought the county on a plan to bring pro soccer to the stadium (despite the massive popularity of a previous franchise here), they are a year behind on installing new turf. Attendance is way down... except on the stat sheet, where the SkyChiefs count the "paid attendance" which includes all the tickets they give away to local establishments (because nobody will buy them). The one night I went to a game this year, the "paid attendance" was over 8,000... and there were barely 4,000 in the seats. Early in the season, the paid attendance each night was in the 3,000-4,000 range, but you would have to subtract a zero to get the count of the actual number of people there.
The Post-Standard's Matt Michael, a great writer who I have had the pleasure of meeting in the past, has spent the last couple years blowing the lid off all of this. However, he can only do so much. He reported today that barely half of the 25 members of the SkyChiefs' Board of Directors attended the vote to re-up with the Blue Jays. When one of the board members mentioned that they have to have 3/4 of the board there to have a quorum, Michael asked to see the by-laws to see if the vote was valid. The SkyChiefs rejected his request. And of course, neither of the Simones is talking, despite the claims of "inside information" that Tex had which caused the Board members who did attend to vote to keep Toronto. Tex having "inside information" is like saying I know all the details of Iran's nuclear program.
Undoubtedly, we will soon hear from many a grizzled old Syracusan throwing himself in front of the Simones and reminding people of how the team has managed to stay here for so long under their guidance so why mess with it. Typical Syracuse. However, it NEEDS to be messed with, because it IS a mess. How long can a team be viable in this state? And furthermore, why would the SkyChiefs stonewall on matters such as the validity of their vote if they didn't have something to hide? It could come to pass that the vote was NOT valid, and that means Toronto could move their affiliate elsewhere and we'd be stuck with NOTHING. For two years. Sadly, it usually takes an Armageddon like this for anyone in this town to do something. When that happens, we ALL lose.
And then there are the ones that don't know what they're doing. Worse yet, they won't admit that they don't know what they're doing and they burn every bridge to the community that one can think of. Here in Syracuse, we happen to be blessed, or shall I say cursed, with one such team.
The Syracuse SkyChiefs have been a part of this community for 45 years now, and for many years, they were a great organization with winning teams and intelligent leadership. Unfortunately, the leadership has lost its way, intelligence has given way to stubbornness and frugality, and the true losers are the fans. Some would trace this back to the late 1970s, when the then-Chiefs were the top farm club of the New York Yankees. The Yanks were building a championship team, and Syracuse was the place to see these parts on display. Thurman Munson, Ron Guidry, and others had toiled here, and in 1976, the Chiefs won the championship. Two years later, the Yankees were gone. Depending on who you ask, it was either pigheadedness by George Steinbrenner or pigheadedness by Tex Simone, the Chiefs' general manager. For years, Chiefs fans figured it was The Boss' doing, that we were screwed over like so many fired Yankees managers.
When you look at what has passed through this town since, you may be tempted to think otherwise. When the Yankees left, we became the top farm club for the Toronto Blue Jays. Many a future star came through here as Toronto built its championship teams of the 1980s and early 1990s... but they didn't do much winning here. And the future Jays of recent years haven't won much here either. In 29 years with the Jays, Syracuse has enjoyed just 8 winning seasons. So when they had a chance to dump the Blue Jays this year at the end of their player development contract... they stuck with them.
In June, the SkyChiefs Board of Directors voted to keep Toronto as its parent club. Three months later, the Mets and Yankees were available, as they broke ties with their respective Triple-A homes in Norfolk and Columbus. Instead, the Yankees went to Scranton, and the Mets turned out to be the odd team out in a large-scale affiliate swap, stuck with 2 years of having their top prospects playing half a continent away in New Orleans.
So the Blue Jays' prospects will continue to play here, and it relative obscurity at that. The SkyChiefs spend close to zero money on PR... you wouldn't even know there was a team here unless you drove past the stadium on I-81 on a game night. Incidentally, you would go that way because in 1996, they built their new stadium right next to the old one on the North Side, rather than putting one downtown like most other teams have done. At the time, I thought the stadium should be on the North Side; it was tradition, the old stadium had a nice neighborhood ballpark feel to it, and we thought there would be a big revival on the North Side. Instead, the new stadium looks out of place, IS out of place, and the only thing that's gone up on the North Side in the last 10 years has been weeds.
What seems to have gone down has been the amount the team spends on, well, EVERYTHING, and the amount of respect the team has has for the community. Tex Simone has retired as GM but still is very much a presence at Alliance Bank Stadium, and his son is now the GM. Tex driving around to recycle balls hit out during batting practice is the stuff of legend, son John temporarily banned playing such ballpark favorites as "YMCA" because (sit down for this one) he was sick of hearing them, and they and the aging Board have thumbed their nose at any suggestion to fix things. They fought the county on a plan to bring pro soccer to the stadium (despite the massive popularity of a previous franchise here), they are a year behind on installing new turf. Attendance is way down... except on the stat sheet, where the SkyChiefs count the "paid attendance" which includes all the tickets they give away to local establishments (because nobody will buy them). The one night I went to a game this year, the "paid attendance" was over 8,000... and there were barely 4,000 in the seats. Early in the season, the paid attendance each night was in the 3,000-4,000 range, but you would have to subtract a zero to get the count of the actual number of people there.
The Post-Standard's Matt Michael, a great writer who I have had the pleasure of meeting in the past, has spent the last couple years blowing the lid off all of this. However, he can only do so much. He reported today that barely half of the 25 members of the SkyChiefs' Board of Directors attended the vote to re-up with the Blue Jays. When one of the board members mentioned that they have to have 3/4 of the board there to have a quorum, Michael asked to see the by-laws to see if the vote was valid. The SkyChiefs rejected his request. And of course, neither of the Simones is talking, despite the claims of "inside information" that Tex had which caused the Board members who did attend to vote to keep Toronto. Tex having "inside information" is like saying I know all the details of Iran's nuclear program.
Undoubtedly, we will soon hear from many a grizzled old Syracusan throwing himself in front of the Simones and reminding people of how the team has managed to stay here for so long under their guidance so why mess with it. Typical Syracuse. However, it NEEDS to be messed with, because it IS a mess. How long can a team be viable in this state? And furthermore, why would the SkyChiefs stonewall on matters such as the validity of their vote if they didn't have something to hide? It could come to pass that the vote was NOT valid, and that means Toronto could move their affiliate elsewhere and we'd be stuck with NOTHING. For two years. Sadly, it usually takes an Armageddon like this for anyone in this town to do something. When that happens, we ALL lose.
posted by Dave | 9:23 PM
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