Level playing field at Series Parity increases; attendance down

BANGOR – Six years of hosting an event provides perspective on how it has changed since its beginning.

Mike Brooker compares the most recent Senior League World Series held in Bangor compared to the first staged at Mansfield Stadium in 2002, and sees improved competitive balance.

The U.S. regional champions and Latin America remain the dominant teams in the tournament, but others are beginning to catch up.

One big example was the play of Canadian champion Surrey, British Columbia. That team finished 2-2 in pool play, but had it not lost a 5-1 lead in the final inning of its game against Hilo, Hawaii, it would have finished 3-1 and advanced to the semifinals.

And Cartersville, Ga. – which defeated 2006 SLWS champion Falcon, Venezuela, 9-0 in this year’s title game – never would have made it out of pool play.

“I think this year’s Canadian team was as good as any Canadian team we’ve had here,” said Brooker, the tournament’s executive director, while reflecting on the international entries in the 10-team field. “I think this year’s Lithuania team was as good as any European team that’s been here, and the Asia-Pacific team [Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands] was as good as any Asia-Pac team that’s been here.”

The improved play of the international entries – and the presence of ESPN for the championship game – were among several positive factors in this year’s event, but attendance did take a hit.

“Attendance and concessions were down about 25 percent,” said Brooker, “while souvenir sales were down about 10 percent.

The attendance downturn from last year’s Bangor SLWS record of 35,000 was attributed in part to having a team from Brewer – with a population of approximately 9,000 – as the host Maine District 3 champion for the 2007 series, compared to Bangor – with a population of more than 30,000 – in 2006.

The 2007 tournament was approximately on par with the 2005 event, when 28,000 fans turned out. That compares to 20,000 for a weather-plagued 2004 series, 25,000 in 2003 and 30,000 in 2002.

Concession sales are linked not only to attendance also such intangibles as the weather. This year, for example, relatively cool temperatures throughout the week resulted in a considerable decrease in sales of bottled water.

Souvenir sales aren’t affected as much by raw attendance, Brooker said, because much of those sales stem from the various traveling parties that participate in the series.

Brooker said a strong fundraising effort in advance of the tournament would offset any losses in ticket, concessions and souvenir revenue.

Yet he had hoped those fundraising efforts would have helped create a more significant balance in tournament coffers in order to compensate for a future year when inclement weather might more severely cut into attendance or to make some capital improvements to the facility, such as modifications to the press box area.

“The effort by our fundraising committee worked out very well,” said Brooker. “We’re still going to be able to pay our bills, but beyond that I had hoped we would be a little more in the black but that’s not going to happen.”