So we’re apathetic when it comes to supporting the Tucson Sidewinders, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The Tucson Sidewinders are playing their final season before they move to a new $50 million downtown Reno stadium in 2009. SK Baseball purchased the franchise last winter, and the move north was the intention all along.

Former owner Jay Zucker offered a $1.5 million discount if the new owners kept the team in Tucson. It was a magnanimous overture, but it didn’t work. And so, after a 40-year run, Triple-A baseball in Tucson will be no more.

“Tucson is lethargic,” Rick Parr, general manager and minority partner in the Sidewinders, said just hours after making the rounds to five morning radio shows touting that night’s game and fireworks show. “But they’ve always been that way with certain things, and that’s just the way the community is.”

The word “Reno” did not go over well in the stands at a recent Sidewinders game. Those who come to the games — 114,587 in 36 homes dates this year compared with 270,301 in 28 games for the Sacramento River Cats — love the team. There just haven’t been enough of them.

Tucson was last in the Pacific Coast League in attendance last season, averaging 3,983 spectators per game. Things certainly haven’t been much better in this a lame-duck year. The team is again last, averaging 3,293 through Wednesday.

The buck-beer promotion got me out to the ballpark on Thursday night, but the crowd was sparse. I talked to a certain high-ranking city official who told me it was worse on Wednesday.

It makes me sad to think that we’re not going to have Triple-A baseball in Tucson when the season ends, but the fault surely does lie with the lack of fan support. Jay Zucker did all he could–from fireworks to Bark in the Park nights–but Tucsonans just didn’t go out to the ball game.

It also makes me skeptical that a minor-league sports franchise–basketball, hockey, croquet, whatevs–would succeed as the anchor tenant of a new downtown arena…

This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2008.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

5 replies on “We’re Apathetic!”

  1. Maybe it’s because…

    WATCHING BASEBALL IS BORING!!!

    Now rollery derby — there’s a sport.

  2. C’mon – boring – anyone remember the Toros game when the Bull mascott hit a participant during one of those running the bases challenges at the seventh inning? The guying kind of pushed the mascot aside so he could get ahead to win and the Bull turned around and smacked him. I think the mascot did something like that twice that season and was ordered anger management. That’s not borning.
    I think the Sidewinder or anyone that comes to Tucson should think of way to curb lines for beer and make kids activities free, and get the mascot out more during games so the kids can see him. At one game he never came out, the lines for beer were almost 1/2 hour long, and the kids activities that night cost more than $5 bucks.
    But baseball, Lemon Pumpkin is not boring.

  4. The good word is the Tucson Toros will be resurrected to play ball in tucson when the Sidewinders leave. Time will tell and the way the economy is going, things don’t look too swell.

  5. I’m going to miss the Sidewinders, but I’ll also miss the Chicago White Sox too if they move to Glendale.

    Here’s hoping some other franchise will take a chance on Tucson and we can start fresh.

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