ABL 2013/2014 Season

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Was interested to hear the term dynasty being used after the title win, but when I actually think about it, it's hard to argue otherwise. Particularly when you include the '08 and '09 Claxton Shields to the current incarnation of the league. A very strong culture and local talent base has really let them thrive.
 
Geez, Sydney Blue Sox have been in 6 finals series to date, only came up trumps in one of them, lost the other five. Most of them hosted...

Also, Perth Heat regular seasons to date:
13/14: 32W-14L
12/13: 25W-21L
11/12: 34W-11L
10/11: 24W-16L
Total: 115W-62L, .649

Pretty powerful performances.
 

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Oneiros said:
At least three thousand in attendance, would not be surprised to hear it was four thousand, absolutely packed to the rafters.

Great work for the Heat, three championships and a runner up in four years is massive stuff.
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Perth crowd was very, very poor. Crowd for game one wasn't even 2,100 (don't believe the "official" figures, they include free give away tickets that weren't used), heaps of empty seats down third and first base lines, and in the members area, game two slightly better at 2,300.

The games did clash with the Springsteen concert, the 2020 Big Bash final and the Perth Festival, but still a woeful turnout given the Heat had three weeks to promote the games. About 25 of us over from Canberra, Perth fans very quiet until they knew the game was won.

Perth would want to have won a few championships, given the very substantial advantage they have in number of registered players, number of baseball scholarships funded by the State government, number of schools offering baseball as a formal sports subject, and number of overseas trips that WA youth and seniors teams get to go on. No other State in Australia has anything even close to the level of funding that WA has for baseball.

TV coverage was nothing short of woeful. Not a matter of number of cameras, but rather a broadcast company (Perth based) contracted in to provide the camerawork for the series that did not have sufficient camera crews with baseball experience. Speaking from personal experience, camerawork at baseball games takes some time to get right - this series the camera guys made the mistake of constantly following the runner out of the box, or dwelling on the pitcher post pitch, rather than following the ball to the fielder. Hard ask for a non-baseball broadcast camera crew to jump to baseball, they should really have spent some time doing dummy runs at training or brought in some of the more experienced baseball guys.

The commentary on the other hand was woefully, ridiculously, hysterically, awesomely woeful (my fave was a between innings shot to the Cavs bullpen "and Kyle Perkins is catching warmups from ... someone..." - when it was actually Kyle Perkins throwing). There are many, many better commentators available, most of the teams have web-streaming commentary guys who work for free who would have done a much, much better job. Very sad way for the showcase of the ABL to reach the broader TV audience.

Also, the Perth Heat acceptance speeches were the only time I have ever seen (in 40+ years of watching sport) a team win a championship and not bother to even acknowledge the opposition team. Incredibly poor form, especially given the effusive praise that Canberra's staff and players heaped on the Heat when we beat them last year.

Difficult to understand why the Heat wouldn't bother to even nod towards their opponents, given how closely fought the series was. A snub that will not be forgotten, and which typifies the unjustified arrogance of Luke Hughes and the Perth Heat - but the wheels on the karma bus have a funny way of catching up with over-confident knobs.
 
BeinPurplenGreen said:
Perth crowd was very, very poor. Crowd for game one wasn't even 2,100 (don't believe the "official" figures, they include free give away tickets that weren't used), heaps of empty seats down third and first base lines, and in the members area, game two slightly better at 2,300.
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Not even going to bother with the rest when you start out with flat-out lies.
 
Oneiros said:
Not even going to bother with the rest when you start out with flat-out lies.
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No lies involved, happy for you to quote whatever figures you like, the ground record for Barbagello is only just over 3,000 anyway. I spoke to multiple executives and board members from both the Heat and the ABL at the games, and they all agreed that the crowd was 2,500 or less for each game. Happy to be referred to any public statement of crowd numbers that cites otherwise.
 
Also, for the sake of completeness, several execs thought there were less than 1,800 paying customers at game 1, but I think they were on the underestimating side. And if the crowd was even anywhere near 3,000 it would have been trumpeted all over the place by the Heat media team, given the ground record and attendance records that they were chasing.
 
I was at Game 2; my folks were at both Games 1 and 2. I don't know the official figures, but I do know that when I bought my ticket to Game 2, I had phoned up and Kate at Perth Heat (if you were talking with the Heat staff, she's the ludicrously energetic one) and she said that after mine, there were only 6 seats left in the members block (the blue seats bounded by the yellow fence). I took a wander from one end of the ground to the other and saw very few empty seats in either the terraces around the member block, or the two free-standing stands. Would also point out every last corporate hospitality option had people in it, so I doubt they were suffering. As for the difference between attendees and paying attendees, I know they were doing incentives for members to sign up again early by offering ABLCS tickets to their member seats.

I've been to a handful of games over the last couple scenes, never seen the ground that full. My folks are reserved seat members (and as mentioned above, renewed for 2014/15 and got the ABLCS tickets) and they hadn't seen the ground that full either (nor the parking lots overflow like that). Afterwards they mentioned how much the crowds had grown over the seasons since the restart of the ABL. And since I've been in games later announced as 2k that weren't as full as that, and as the nominal capacity of the ground is 4.5k, you'll forgive me if my first reaction to the idea of it being a "very, very" poor crowd is scepticism.

I don't get to many games myself (four this season), but I do sponsor two of their Adopt-a-Seats out of my own pocket, so it's not like I'm just spouting off from a couch with no skin in the game.
 
Oneiros said:
I was at Game 2; my folks were at both Games 1 and 2. I don't know the official figures, but I do know that when I bought my ticket to Game 2, I had phoned up and Kate at Perth Heat (if you were talking with the Heat staff, she's the ludicrously energetic one) and she said that after mine, there were only 6 seats left in the members block (the blue seats bounded by the yellow fence). I took a wander from one end of the ground to the other and saw very few empty seats in either the terraces around the member block, or the two free-standing stands. Would also point out every last corporate hospitality option had people in it, so I doubt they were suffering. As for the difference between attendees and paying attendees, I know they were doing incentives for members to sign up again early by offering ABLCS tickets to their member seats.

I've been to a handful of games over the last couple scenes, never seen the ground that full. My folks are reserved seat members (and as mentioned above, renewed for 2014/15 and got the ABLCS tickets) and they hadn't seen the ground that full either (nor the parking lots overflow like that). Afterwards they mentioned how much the crowds had grown over the seasons since the restart of the ABL. And since I've been in games later announced as 2k that weren't as full as that, and as the nominal capacity of the ground is 4.5k, you'll forgive me if my first reaction to the idea of it being a "very, very" poor crowd is scepticism.

I don't get to many games myself (four this season), but I do sponsor two of their Adopt-a-Seats out of my own pocket, so it's not like I'm just spouting off from a couch with no skin in the game.
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Crowd figures or not I think the ABL is kicking major goals in the sporting landscape. But for the ABL to become even more prominent the 4 biggest cities well at least the big 3 need to lift their standard and im talking championships.
im sure the big WIGS at the ABL would love to see the canberra perth rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney. They'd be wanting 5-7 even 10 thousand to a championship series. Time for the rest of the league to come to the party I suspect.
on a foot note it doesnt surprise me to hear the lack of acknowledgment for Canberra by Perth. Ive followed Luke Hughes on twitter for a while and his childish outburst after last years championship and then again after the ASIA series was disgraceful and not that of a player befitting his stature in the league. I was always taught to win with grace lose with dignity and at the end shake your opponents hand and acknowledge them.
 
The thing is, I'm absolutely positive I remember Steve Fish among others extending acknowledgement towards the Canberra team during the acceptance speeches. I tried to check the end of the broadcast they put up on the MLB website to confirm or deny, but it cuts off before the acceptance speeches.
 
Agree that the ABL is probably looking at Sydney and Melbourne rather impatiently for them to take the next step. Probably frustrated with Sydney, actually, with the poor home record and finals record. They really do need to just get over that last hump.

I don't know about them getting 5-10k to a series though, doubtful in the first time around.
 
Oneiros said:
Agree that the ABL is probably looking at Sydney and Melbourne rather impatiently for them to take the next step. Probably frustrated with Sydney, actually, with the poor home record and finals record. They really do need to just get over that last hump.

I don't know about them getting 5-10k to a series though, doubtful in the first time around.
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Not saying first time round. Im saying if they built a Perth Canberra type rivalry over a few years there is no doubt they could get those figures
 

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BeinPurplenGreen said:
No lies involved, happy for you to quote whatever figures you like, the ground record for Barbagello is only just over 3,000 anyway. I spoke to multiple executives and board members from both the Heat and the ABL at the games, and they all agreed that the crowd was 2,500 or less for each game. Happy to be referred to any public statement of crowd numbers that cites otherwise.
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I owe you an apology; got a figure from the club of 2,100 & 2,750 for the two nights.
 
Oneiros said:
I owe you an apology; got a figure from the club of 2,100 & 2,750 for the two nights.
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Mate, absolutely no need at all for any apologies, very good of you to quote the data from the club. The crowd for game 1 was under 2,000 - and I'd say about 2,500 for game 2.

Happy to post screenshots from game 1 that show the big gaps in the crowd. Smaller than many of the Heat's regular season crowds were...

FWIW, and if only to put things in perspective in terms of the challenges the ABL faces, the crowd at Canberra for game 1 against the Blue Sox was a ground record of just over 2,400, despite the Cavs having only 5 days to promote the game. The Sox then got crowds of 1,400 and just 1,050 for their two home games.

Very sad, the league will really struggle until they get regular home crowds of 1.5k at Sydney and Melbourne games. Average home crowds for the Sox and Aces were well under 1,300, no way the league can survive in the longer term with such poor crowds in the two biggest cities.

Worth noting that local Melbourne clubs have regularly had crowds of over 1,100 to Essendon or St Kilda baseball club games. Not clear why this isn't translating to Aces attracting bigger crowds, though I do have a few ideas...

No doubt at all that the rivalries from last season between the Sox and Cavs, and the Heat and Cavs, flowed over to much greater fan interest and closer contests this year. Given the antics of the Blue Sox in the last series they played against Melbourne, I reckon next year's Sydney/Melbourne series will be extra spicy!!

Most of all, the league needs to develop its marketing and Web streaming presence. There are heaps of bloggers, Web broadcasters and twitter / net forum denziens that would be only too happy to promote the ABL for free. Instead of taking advantage of this grassroots movement, the ABL are strangling the game's Web and social media presence. Unfortunately the top rated website promoted by the ABL is run by a person of dubious background - see baseballradio.proboards.com/thread/2631/digest for details...

Also, in case you didn't know, Kate the bubbly energetic one from the Heat admin actually spent her first year in the ABL at the Cavs - she is remembered well by many of us over here.

Finally, Fish didn't say one word about the Cavs in his speech, nor did Wong. Very poor form, as were Luke Hughes' ungracious and incorrect tweets during the Asia Series wins that the Cavs racked up. His arrogance and unjustified sense of superiority will be repaid in spades by the wheels of the karma bus, which go round and round, round and round...

Again, thanks for your posts, no need for any apologies, and keep posting on here. We need to keep the fire alive and keep up the love for the ABL - if this one folds there will never be an ABL Mark III.
 
BeinPurplenGreen said:
Mate, absolutely no need at all for any apologies, very good of you to quote the data from the club. The crowd for game 1 was under 2,000 - and I'd say about 2,500 for game 2.

Happy to post screenshots from game 1 that show the big gaps in the crowd. Smaller than many of the Heat's regular season crowds were...

FWIW, and if only to put things in perspective in terms of the challenges the ABL faces, the crowd at Canberra for game 1 against the Blue Sox was a ground record of just over 2,400, despite the Cavs having only 5 days to promote the game. The Sox then got crowds of 1,400 and just 1,050 for their two home games.

Very sad, the league will really struggle until they get regular home crowds of 1.5k at Sydney and Melbourne games. Average home crowds for the Sox and Aces were well under 1,300, no way the league can survive in the longer term with such poor crowds in the two biggest cities.

Worth noting that local Melbourne clubs have regularly had crowds of over 1,100 to Essendon or St Kilda baseball club games. Not clear why this isn't translating to Aces attracting bigger crowds, though I do have a few ideas...

No doubt at all that the rivalries from last season between the Sox and Cavs, and the Heat and Cavs, flowed over to much greater fan interest and closer contests this year. Given the antics of the Blue Sox in the last series they played against Melbourne, I reckon next year's Sydney/Melbourne series will be extra spicy!!

Most of all, the league needs to develop its marketing and Web streaming presence. There are heaps of bloggers, Web broadcasters and twitter / net forum denziens that would be only too happy to promote the ABL for free. Instead of taking advantage of this grassroots movement, the ABL are strangling the game's Web and social media presence. Unfortunately the top rated website promoted by the ABL is run by a person of dubious background - see baseballradio.proboards.com/thread/2631/digest for details...

Also, in case you didn't know, Kate the bubbly energetic one from the Heat admin actually spent her first year in the ABL at the Cavs - she is remembered well by many of us over here.

Finally, Fish didn't say one word about the Cavs in his speech, nor did Wong. Very poor form, as were Luke Hughes' ungracious and incorrect tweets during the Asia Series wins that the Cavs racked up. His arrogance and unjustified sense of superiority will be repaid in spades by the wheels of the karma bus, which go round and round, round and round...

Again, thanks for your posts, no need for any apologies, and keep posting on here. We need to keep the fire alive and keep up the love for the ABL - if this one folds there will never be an ABL Mark III.
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As ive stayed before the biggest problem for Melbourne is the location of their ballpark. It does NOT cater for any fans East of the West Gate. Im lucky to go that far on a holiday.
 
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