Record fan attendance makes Series a hit

BANGOR – A record number of baseball fans turned out for the 2006 Senior League World Series, according to tournament director Mike Brooker.

Brooker said final gate receipts have not been totaled for the event, which included 23 tournament games and an all-star contest over seven days, but he estimated that approximately 35,000 fans turned out for the 15- and 16-year-old world championships, more than any previous SLWS held in Bangor.

“It tells me that people are starting to make the connection, that they are realizing that the Senior League World Series is great baseball and an important event for the city of Bangor,” said Brooker.

This year’s estimated attendance, capped off by a crowd of 1,500 that turned out for Saturday’s championship game in which the Paraguana Little League of Falcon, Venezuela, defeated Pearl City, Hawaii, 4-2, was about 25 percent larger than last year’s turnout of 28,000.

An estimated 30,000 attended the 2002 tournament, the first hosted by Bangor, followed by 25,000 in 2003 and just 20,000 in 2004, a year when inclement weather played havoc with the schedule.

Brooker cited good weather throughout the week for this year’s tournament, as well as competitive games for the most part and a pair of outstanding finalists in the Venezuelan and Hawaiian teams, among the reasons for the improved attendance.

He also said the shift of games involving the host Maine District 3 team from 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weeknights during pool play this year paid dividends. While crowds to watch the local team remained about the same, crowds for late games involving other teams were larger than they were in previous years when they were held in the 5 p.m. slot, he said.

Souvenir and food sales also went well, Brooker said, and he expects this year’s tournament “to be a little in the black, but not by much. We want to be able to pay expenses.”

A local marketing firm was hired this year to help promote the event, and Brooker would like to follow that up with an economic impact study to determine the effect of the tournament on the local economy with an eye toward using the results to enhance corporate support for the SLWS in future years.

All Little League world championship tournaments (Little League, Junior League, Senior League and Big League) are awarded year-to-year by Little League headquarters in South Williamsport, Penn., and Brooker anticipates Bangor retaining its host role for the SLWS when those decisions are made final in November.

One source of confusion recently has been the notion that Bangor had an original five-year deal to host the SLWS from 2002 through 2006, and that the deal ended after this year.

“We’ve never had a contract with Little League,” he said. “When Little League awarded us the tournament in 2002, we asked it to be for a minimum of five years, just so if things didn’t go right the first couple of years we’d have a chance to correct things. When they awarded us the tournament, they just said they’d take our request under advisement.”