By: Anthony Guadagnino and Jake Hallstrom
The Bradley Men’s Baseball team has had an incredible season so far in 2019. The team has won almost 30 games, and had the longest winning streak in Division I this season. Even with all of this success, they still only sit in the middle of the pack in the Missouri Valley Conference. As the season presses on, we will be able to see how it all plays out. With the amount of success that has been had, the games should presumably be attended better. But as my partner and I dove into the topic, we found that their attendance numbers were worse than their previous seasons.
We looked at this season compared the last two seasons to get an idea of the attendance numbers for each of the home Bradley Men’s Baseball games at Dozer Park. In 2016, the attendance average was 318 and this increased slightly in 2017 to 320 attenders per game. This season, the number took a massive nose dive and is down all the way to 219 attenders per home game. Looking into this situation more, we wondered what the reason for this major drop off was.
One simple answer to the question might be the bad weather we are still suffering in the midwest. We are hard pressed to find warm days and there has been a lot of rain and even some snow in this spring season.
Another reason might be the fact that the games are held away from campus. They are held at Dozer Park, which is across town and a hard drive for students who do not have cars on campus.
The last reason might be a general lack of interest. We are seeing some of the worst attendance numbers in professional baseball this season, and this might have a trickle down effect in college athletics and maybe even high school athletics.
While this is only speculation, what is not speculation is the Bradley Men’s Baseball team’s success on the field. Compared to 2016 and 2017, this season has surpassed expectations and has translated to almost 30 wins with plenty of conference play left on the schedule. Some students at Bradley have started to take notice, and even if they cannot go to the games as often as they would like, they still are proud to have such a successful baseball team.
“It really has been an incredible season for them,” said Dalton Kemper, a junior at Bradley University. “The success of Bradley athletics this year has been great with the basketball team making March Madness and now the baseball team being in the hunt for the Missouri Valley Conference title.”
Even with all these attendance problems, the men’s baseball team should be celebrated for their success this season. While there may not be as many people attending the games at Dozer park, Bradley Men’s Baseball is hopefully on their way to get their NCAA Men’s Baseball Tournament berth. With the way that they have been playing, it looks like they just might make it.