The Vipers are back in the Northern League, kinda

[Resolute 14]

The Golden, Northern and United leagues are merging.

http://www.goldenbaseball.com/ArDisp...5538&SecID=303

If nothing else, this just further displays how far the Northern League has fallen. They bungled the Alberta expansion badly and have been decimated by inept management ever since.

The idea of being a bunch of regions within a league is interesting, as I could see a recreation of the Canadian Baseball League coming out of this. Drop a team in Saskatchewan and a second in BC, add Winnipeg and you have a six team region, all Canadian.

[604flames]

Victoria folded last month so you'd have to conceivably have two new clubs in BC.

[Resolute 14]

Huh. Well that sucks, it seemed that team was doing well.

[ricoFlame]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Huh. Well that sucks, it seemed that team was doing well.

Stadium/lease issues...and poor attendance.

[Resolute 14]

They were third in the league in attendance last year. The stadium issue I can buy though, especially if it is the same park they used in the CBL.

[ricoFlame]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

They were third in the league in attendance last year. The stadium issue I can buy though, especially if it is the same park they used in the CBL.

I was reading an article a couple weeks ago from victoria that stated that the attendance figures for the Seals were grossly inflated, evidently they were fudging the numbers to support their case for renovations to the park to support a more commercial-friendly environment.

"The Seals' published attendance figures -- 116,872 fans in 45 games this year, and 93,691 in 40 dates in 2009 -- contrasted sharply with the Royal Athletic Park gate count. The city said a total of 39,255 people actually entered the park for Seals games this season, down from 41,016 in 2009."

The full article:

http://www.timescolonist.com/Seals+s...359/story.html

[TopChed]

Wow, thats quite an inflation of their numbers haha. Tripling the actual count.