Local minor-league teams weather economic skid

A hard winter - literally and metaphorically - has led to brightened prospects for the area's pro sports teams this summer.

Although the economic downturn brought on the demise of the indoor-soccer Storm and the indoor-lacrosse Shamrox at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, while the successful but ill-fated Rush waits for the rest of the Arena Football League to get its act together, officials with the more-established minor-league franchises say they are healthy and doing well.

"We're doing pretty great," said the Schaumburg Flyers' General Manager Ben Burke. "It's a shame some of those other teams didn't survive the economy. We are positioned in a way where it doesn't hurt us at all.

"You look at the economy and people are spending less money," he added, "and maybe we lose a couple fans because people don't want to renew their tickets. But we have people who are used to spending $25 a ticket to take their family out, and they maybe come down to our level and come out for $5, $10 a person."

In celebrating their 10th-anniversary season at Alexian Field in the independent Northern League, Burke said the Flyers were averaging well over 4,000 fans a game and were on pace for their second-best season at the turnstiles. For fans who might suddenly find a trip downtown to Wrigley Field or Sox Park too expensive, they were more likely to get their baseball fix close to home.

The same went for the slightly more well-established Kane County Cougars, the Oakland Athletics' Midwest League affiliate. If attendance was down a tick this season, General Manager Jeff Sedivy blamed it largely on poor weather. That was borne out on a glorious July 3 when, with the Cubs' Peoria Chiefs in town and with rehabbing big-league stars Aramis Ramirez and Reed Johnson in their lineup, 14,872 fans filled Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva to set a new Midwest League record.

"Although it was great to have Ramirez and Johnson, that day was (going to be) like that anyway," Sedivy said. "When it was announced they'd be playing, we had very few lawn seats left."

The Cougars usually play host to a big Fourth of July holiday series, but with the club hitting the road on Independence Day this season loyal fans all got their tickets for July 3 instead. Even so, the big-leaguers assured the last tickets would go, giving the Cougars the first official pre-game sellout.

"It was a great day and a really nice thing for the fans, but we were going to get those numbers anyway," Sedivy insisted.

The sellout was even more impressive in that Elfstrom's capacity was expanded this year with the addition of an upper deck offering luxury suites, a party area and rooftop decks down both foul lines. As it was, the Cougars were averaging 5,760 fans a game, second in the league to only Dayton, Ohio.

"All levels of minor-league baseball across the board are doing OK," Burke added.

That trickle-down economic effect even benefited the American Hockey League Wolves, who caught an updraft two ways, in also benefiting from the sensation caused by the revival of the big-league Blackhawks downtown.

"The Hawks have brought hockey back into the forefront of sports in Chicago, and I think we benefit from it," said Mike Polisky, the Wolves' president of business operations. "There's definitely room for both of us, and we serve a different niche."

The Wolves averaged 8,754 fans a game last season, even in a rare off year in which the franchise, which has won four Calder Cup championships in 15 years, failed to make the playoffs. Polisky pointed to how their emphasis on a family clientele made them more recession-proof in a down economy, while also attracting otherwise reluctant corporate sponsors. This off-season, ticket sales are already up across the board from a year ago, and they have added 11 corporate sponsors, up 38 percent.

"Robust would be a good word for it," Polisky said. "It's a tough time for everybody, but I think minor-league sports are a little less vulnerable, both from a corporate standpoint as well as a consumer standpoint."

Polisky came to the Wolves from the Rush and sympathized with the plight of that franchise, which typically filled the Allstate Arena, only to see the AFL go on hiatus this year. It's reportedly pegging its hopes on a 2011 revival.

Unfortunately for the Continental Indoor Football League Slaughter, that didn't translate into a benefit for them.

"We didn't get throngs of Rush fans," said President Gerry Clarke. "They did a fine job, the Rush, packing them in. We had our stalwarts, the people who would come out and support us, but they were probably in the dozens. So we've just got to keep working harder."

They're starting by building on this year's unbeaten 14-0 championship season, in which they did average about 5,300 fans a game, drawing 4,500 to the Sears Centre for a championship they had only five days to promote.

For the Slaughter, too, corporate sponsorships are already up.

"You look back at this time from last year to this year, we're light-years ahead," Clarke said. "The future's going to be very rosy for our team."

So there's some irony that the area's best team, the major-league team, is the one that seems to be scuffling most now for fans. The defending National Pro Fastpitch champion Bandits are 20-4 and out in front of the premier women's professional softball league again.

Yet President Bill Sokolis admitted, "We'd like to see a little more attendance. I don't know what the problem is. It's a great show."

Star ace Jennie Finch returned with a perfect game, and even so midway through the season she was third on the team in wins behind Eileen Canney and Kristina Thorson. The club was a powerhouse, but after moving from Lisle's Benedictine University last year it was having trouble luring fans out to Judson University in Elgin. Average attendance was under 1,000 and down from last year.

"It's remote," Sokolis said. "A lot of things went south over the winter."

One problem was the lack of alcohol on the Christian campus, separating baseball and beer, which traditionally go hand in hand.

"I can't tell you how many - and I'm being literal - hundreds and hundreds of people have told me it's just not the same without a beer," Sokolis said. "Even women. We cater to the family, and there are women hanging on to their husbands' arms saying, 'Man, you need to get beer.'"

The Bandits will play an exhibition game later this month at Thillens Stadium on Chicago's North Side, but Sokolis declined to speculate on whether that might lead to a move.

"I'm trying to hang it out with Elgin," he said. "Elgin's been very good to me."

Maybe it's worth noting that, in a down economy, the opportunity to down a beer is just one more small, but significant thing that brings fans out to the old ballgame.