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Grrreenville Grrrowl

g-man430

By g-man430
in Greenville Coffee House

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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I was at the Grrrowl game last evening, and there was a decent-sized and fairly vocal crowd on hand to witness the 4-2 decisive victory over the Augusta Lynx. This evening, Greenville faces the Charlotte Checkers, and then once again plays the Augusta Lynx on Sunday in the playoffs for the Kelly Cup. I encourage everyone reading this to PLEASE get out and enjoy life in downtown Greenville on the weekend (at least), before AND after cheering on the home team as they try once again to defeat the opposition and raise another championship banner at the Bi-Lo Center. :yahoo:

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g-man430 Town

g-man430

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The game will be at 11:30 AM, after a game on Saturday night. Expect attendance to be in the hundreds. The Grrrowl management is really upset at the Florida Everblades for not adjusting their schedule and as a result the Grrrowl is forced to play a game on Sunday morning, something they do not want. Minor league teams lose enough money as it is on playoffs.

No, it's at 1:00 pm. Check http://www.grrrowl.com/news/?id=7914 if you don't believe me.

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g-man430 Town

g-man430

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The Grrrowl return home Wednesday at 7:05. If I can get off work in time (and even if I'm a little late), I'm headed down to the Bi-Lo Center. I encourage everyone on here to get down there and back your hockey team, too. :thumbsup:

This game is only going to happen if they lose to Augusta on Tuesday night, because it is a best of 2 out of 3 series.

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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About attendance this weekend...

Yes there were only 1,500 or so at the Bi-Lo Center this afternoon, but keep in mind a few things. I am not aware of a minor league, anywhere, that has higher attendance for its playoffs than it does for its regular season. Playoffs for minor leagues, by themselves, often lose money.

Just 14 hours or so earlier, about 4,000 customers watched the Grrrowl vs. the Checkers, which is above their average. Sunday afternoon sports anywhere in Greenville, other than the occasional special event, are going to struggle.

This has simply been an amazing weekend for Upstate sports fans, and probably won of the highest taxing on on the Upstate's spectator sports market.

The Drive report attendance this weekend of over 5,000 3x's (with two sell-outs) and 4,329 on a Sunday afternoon.

On or slightly off Greenville's main street this weekend, over 26,600 paying customers watched minor league action either in the West End or the Bi-Lo center, and that's not including another 10,000+ that watched the Campions on Ice at the Bi-Lo Center on Sunday night. Over 36K+ were in Greenville's downtown to watch sports or a sporting exhibition. No one weekend in Greenville's downtown history has eclipsed that, not even the 2002 NCAA basketball first and second rounds.

Remember, the Greenville Braves never averaged more than 3,600 and change for any one season, and that was in 1991. Whatever benchmarks the Drive's owners have for their finances this year, beating that 3,600 figure has to be at least a factor.

Here are some other factors that taxed the Greenville sports fan this weekend:

  • Clemson's spring football game, with over 20,000 in attendance, with thousands I'm sure, from Greenville County

  • Clemson hosted Maryland for a three game set in baseball, with each game drawing over 5,000, with many fans coming from Greenville

  • South Carolina also had its spring football game Saturday, with another 20,000 in attendance, again drawing USC fans from the Greenville area

  • USC also hosted two sessions this weekend of baseball vs. Alabama, with each session drawing about 4,000 fans, again drawing some fans from the Upstate area

  • The Master's tournament was just a two hour drive away, and there were hundreds of Upstate spectators out of the daily crowd of over 40,000 in Augusta.

For the region, to support that many spectator events in relatively large numbers and still have over 36,000 paying customers in downtown Greenville is an amazing thing. The area's sports fans have probably been pushed to their viewing limit after the past four days and have responded very well. I would say that things are looking very bright for future downtown sporting development and especially the Drive management, which will rarely be competing for fans with the Grrrowl/Clemson/USC/golf threat, cannot help but to be pleased with the results. And the Grrrowl especially have to be pleased to not lose the momentum of an increase in ticket sales this year with the arrival of the Drive just a mile or so away.

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

Posted
Posted

About attendance this weekend...

Yes there were only 1,500 or so at the Bi-Lo Center this afternoon, but keep in mind a few things. I am not aware of a minor league, anywhere, that has higher attendance for its playoffs than it does for its regular season. Playoffs for minor leagues, by themselves, often lose money.

Just 14 hours or so earlier, about 4,000 customers watched the Grrrowl vs. the Checkers, which is above their average. Sunday afternoon sports anywhere in Greenville, other than the occasional special event, are going to struggle.

This has simply been an amazing weekend for Upstate sports fans, and probably won of the highest taxing on on the Upstate's spectator sports market.

The Drive report attendance this weekend of over 5,000 3x's (with two sell-outs) and 4,329 on a Sunday afternoon.

On or slightly off Greenville's main street this weekend, over 26,600 paying customers watched minor league action either in the West End or the Bi-Lo center, and that's not including another 10,000+ that watched the Campions on Ice at the Bi-Lo Center on Sunday night. Over 36K+ were in Greenville's downtown to watch sports or a sporting exhibition. No one weekend in Greenville's downtown history has eclipsed that, not even the 2002 NCAA basketball first and second rounds.

Remember, the Greenville Braves never averaged more than 3,600 and change for any one season, and that was in 1991. Whatever benchmarks the Drive's owners have for their finances this year, beating that 3,600 figure has to be at least a factor.

Here are some other factors that taxed the Greenville sports fan this weekend:

  • Clemson's spring football game, with over 20,000 in attendance, with thousands I'm sure, from Greenville County

  • Clemson hosted Maryland for a three game set in baseball, with each game drawing over 5,000, with many fans coming from Greenville

  • South Carolina also had its spring football game Saturday, with another 20,000 in attendance, again drawing USC fans from the Greenville area

  • USC also hosted two sessions this weekend of baseball vs. Alabama, with each session drawing about 4,000 fans, again drawing some fans from the Upstate area

  • The Master's tournament was just a two hour drive away, and there were hundreds of Upstate spectators out of the daily crowd of over 40,000 in Augusta.

For the region, to support that many spectator events in relatively large numbers and still have over 36,000 paying customers in downtown Greenville is an amazing thing. The area's sports fans have probably been pushed to their viewing limit after the past four days and have responded very well. I would say that things are looking very bright for future downtown sporting development and especially the Drive management, which will rarely be competing for fans with the Grrrowl/Clemson/USC/golf threat, cannot help but to be pleased with the results. And the Grrrowl especially have to be pleased to not lose the momentum of an increase in ticket sales this year with the arrival of the Drive just a mile or so away.

So you're saying that we have a chance to get that MLS team, right? Cool! :yahoo:

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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I wonder how many of these 26,600 can be counted multiple times though. I know I attended at least 3 of these events over the weekend (two of which were Drive games).

The truth is, until I drove by the Bi-Lo center yesterday afternoon, I had almost forgotten that there was a Grrrowl Playoff Game. All of the focus has been on the Drive (both in my mind and in the news media).

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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I'm surprised gman-430 hasn't already mentioned this, but...

The Greenville Grrrowl won their best-of-three series and are moving on to the Semifinals in the ECHL Playoffs. The first two games are on the road in Ft. Lauderdale vs. the Florida Everblades. The next home game is April 21st at 7:05 PM.

This might be a nice treat for the kids after subjecting them to a long day at Artisphere, y'all! :-)

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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Once again, I encourage everyone reading this post to spend an enjoyable evening in Greenville and support our local hockey team. They need as many voices and faces as possible to pull off another victory and also to sustain their presence in our beloved city. It is such a small price for such an enjoyable experience! Let's go Grrreenville Grrrowl! :yahoo:

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goodbye Metropolitan Area

goodbye

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I plan to go to the Grrrowl game at the Bi-Lo Center on Friday evening. It seems to me that the team plays even better when the home fans are louder. Let's hope to see a decent turnout as they really need us to survive here - and we need them to survive here also.

I also plan to take in the baseball team's Saturday evening game after a fun day at Artisphere. :shades:

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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Skyliner, you're absolutely right. Unless hockey is just not your bag, Greenvillians need to really get out to the Bi-Lo Center Friday night, instead of the Drive game.

The Drive will be playing through early September, and maybe we should try to boost Drive attendance in the dog days of August, when attendance will lag?

Even if the Grrrowl lose Friday, that will mean it's your last chance to see them until October. This has been the second best regular season for the Grrrowl in their 8 years of existence, which is great since the team has new management and ownership, locally owned.

The Grrrowl are a very good neighbor for the Greenville community, and an undervalued one at that. The whole organization has worked to put a quality team on the ice, brought a new sport to a football mad region, provided great winter entertainment, and given the Bi-Lo Center a consistent tenant. I think its great that downtown has two fun minor league sports teams, on opposites of Main Street that play on opposite ends of the year.

Problem is, this is one of few times they will overlap in games. The town really needs this sort of quality entertainment and I hope folks will support as much as possible as long as this season still lasts.

Oh yeah, sign up for their weekly Grrrowl email newsletter on their website. It's better coverage of the team than you will get in the local media

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g-man430 Town

g-man430

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The local media and the city both suck at supporting the Grrrowl. When was the last time you saw the city do anything to help the Grrrowl out attendance wise except for lowering the price of parking. This is something the city could definitely improve on.

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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The local media and the city both suck at supporting the Grrrowl. When was the last time you saw the city do anything to help the Grrrowl out attendance wise except for lowering the price of parking. The is something the city could definitely improve on.

Absolutely. The Greenville News at least should have 1 page of its sports section devoted to the two minor leagues teams downtown. There are are way too many stories about players on both teams that could be reported on from a human interest angle, etc.

Both minor league teams have gone out of their way to finance and provide quality personnel to the city, least those that have influence could promote them better.

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