Grand Forks minor league baseball team

[darell1976]

Me and my wife took our 7 year old son to the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks game last night and it was a great game, it came down to the final at bat St. Paul won 7-6. But my son had a blast, and I kept thinking of when GF had the Varmints, how I missed that team. How come GF doesn't get a team like FM, Winnipeg, Sioux Falls and St. Paul? I would think if GF was in the same league (American Association) as those teams the interest would be high enough to support the team. The Northwoods League with the GF Channel Cats was a flop so I think the AA is the way to start. GF had the Chiefs in the 50's and 60's and had great success, that can happen again.

[Hayduke]

My brother has season tix to the Redhawks. I love going to those games when I visit in the summer. Here in the Fort Collins area, we wish we had a minor league team also. If the right people get together, maybe a stadium near the I-25 and Highway 34 interchange, by the Larimer County Fairgrounds. U of Northern Colorado could use it and transition to minor league ball for the rest of the summer. Nebraska Lincoln does it, as does The North Dakota University of Agriculture and Applied Science.

[darell1976]

My brother has season tix to the Redhawks. I love going to those games when I visit in the summer. Here in the Fort Collins area, we wish we had a minor league team also. If the right people get together, maybe a stadium near the I-25 and Highway 34 interchange, by the Larimer County Fairgrounds. U of Northern Colorado could use it and transition to minor league ball for the rest of the summer. Nebraska Lincoln does it, as does The North Dakota University of Agriculture and Applied Science.

If UND and the city got together to build a state of the art baseball stadium (nothing like Target Field but something like Newman Outdoor Field) they maybe could attract a minor league team and UND could use it for WAC baseball as well. Location in GF might be tricky as UND would want it semi close to the campus but I think space is limited.

[MafiaMan]

http://northernleague.co/

If Elkhart County Indiana can get a team, why not Grand Forks?

[GeauxSioux]

http://northernleague.co/

If Elkhart County Indiana can get a team, why not Grand Forks?

Elkhart is part of the South Bend metro, with an overall population of 317,000. GF/EGF is about 100,000.

Pensacola just built a nice downtown ballpark on the waterfront and are averaging around 4,700 from what I have heard.

[MafiaMan]

Elkhart is part of the South Bend metro, with an overall population of 317,000. GF/EGF is about 100,000.

South Bend already has a minor league baseball team with a major league affiliation...I'm not sure you can count on many more than the approximate 50,000 fans in Elkhart who might have an interest in seeing an independent league game.

[bincitysioux]

Until they start playing baseball on ice, I don't think GF fans would support it all that well.......

[Northcountry]

I have been to several games in Winnipeg and Fargo and the attendance averages around 3,600 per game in both places. I also attended several Varmints games when they played in Grand Forks and I can't recall a single time attendance was 1,000. Winnipeg and Fargo teams both have extensive corporate sponsorship as well and I wonder if the bad taste left by the unpaid debts the Varmints left when they folded would be very hard to overcome. There is a small core of dedicated baseball fans in the Grand Forks area, but nothing to prove that there is enough support to make a non-university team viable.