May

14

The business of summer collegiate baseball

Posted by Greg | Filed Under News | 13 Comments

dollar.jpgIn our short 10 months and nearly 130 posts, we’ve written about Cape players, coaches, ballparks, statistics — even uniform styles. We’ve also written about factors outside of the league, namely other summer leagues like New England and Alaska that have made tough statements about competing with the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Baseball America this summer decided to rate summer leagues because of their proliferation and growing popularity. The 14-team Northwoods League in Wisconsin and Minnesota appeared in the Baseball America top tier — just below the Cape, which remains the top summer league. Northwoods is claiming an average draw of nearly 6,000 fans per game. Check out some of these numbers from the Northwoods League teams.

I’ve been trying to keep track on my own of the growing number of quality summer collegiate baseball leagues (Wikipedia probaby has the best list, but here is the list I follow) :

Summer Collegiate Baseball Association — West Coast Collegiate Baseball League, Northwoods, Coastal Plain

National Alliance of College Summer Baseball — Cape Cod, Great Lakes, Valley Baseball League, Southern Collegiate, Florida Summer Collegiate, Central Illinois, New York Collegiate, Atlantic Collegiate

Others — New England, Alaska and Horizon Summer Series

What is this growth and apparent competition with the Cape all about? Is it about love of the game, prestige, pride, fun, money or all of the above? Does summer collegiate baseball represent a growth market for the game of baseball?

Possibly. We’ve already reported on statistical analysis that says the Cape League is not qualitatively different from Single-A professional baseball. Tim Lincecum’s short distance from the Cape League two summers ago to winning his first game this week for the San Francisco Giants only underscores that point. We’ve also reported that the Cape Cod Baseball League has found that of the MLB players who came from four-year colleges, 37.28 percent of them played in the Cape Cod Baseball League. In Moneyball, writer Michael Lewis observes that professional scouts increasingly want to recruit talent out of colleges, not high school — again emphasizing the importance of summer collegiate leagues.

So what can we conclude? Well, summer leagues are growing because fans are savvy consumers. They realize they can see professional-quality baseball for less money right in their own community. And the money is adding up.

The CCBL reported this year that — all-in — the league requires about $2 million to operate. It also reportedly attracted 330,000 fans in 2006. Because the CCBL operates as a non-profit, the league must report its finances to the IRS in the form of an IRS 990. According to the CCBL’s IRS reports on Guidestar.com, this is what their finances looked like in recent years:

2002 2004 2005

Revenues $371,578 $681,448 $473,467

Expenses $343,657 $352,834 $508,513

Assets $468,340 $832,324 $797,278

In comparison, the Alaska Baseball League (6 teams), often thought of as the other breeding ground for Major Leaguers, brings in $421,000 in revenues per year and expends $383,000 annually, according to its IRS filings. It reports assets of $268,000. Fewer teams, but fairly similar numbers.

Out in the 8-team West Coast Collegiate Baseball League (WCCBL), the Corvalis (Oregon) Knights is owned by Nike founder Phil Knight’s wife, Penny Knight. Teams in the WCCBL are reporting average crowds of nearly 1,000. On July 26th of last season the Knight drew 1,547 fans.

Some of the summer league teams are operating as small businesses and so their financials are not accessible.

The 10-team CCBL recently reported that it’s operating costs hover around $550,000 per year and that when you add in the 10 teams the total budget is closer to $2 million. The League helps to bring in major philanthropic gifts such as those from Yawkey and the Fuller Family to offset expenses.

We’ve reported on the Yawkey gifts but not on the the Fuller gift. The Fullers, a south Florida family (Sandra and Victor) announced earlier this year on the CCBL website that they will donate $225,000 over the next 5 years ($45,000 per year) to the CCBL.

No doubt this is a major and important donation. However, the CCBL news release is short on details about why the family made the donation other than to say they support voluntarism, something the Cape league certainly does depend on. But how will their gift be used? The Yawkey gifts are always very clear and prescriptive.

One of the motivating ideas behind CodBall is to shed more light, stimulate more discussion and enable greater understanding of America’s most imporant summer collegiate baseball league. With just one month until Opening Day on the Cape, we didn’t want to miss a chance to look at the business side of summer collegiate baseball.

Comments

13 Responses to “The business of summer collegiate baseball”

  1. Andrew on May 15th, 2007 8:42 am

    Don’t forget about the Texas Collegiate League. I can attest to them not drawing well, but I believe that the recent moves to cities outside of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex will help to put fans in the seats.

  2. CapeMan on May 15th, 2007 4:25 pm

    ….and keep some of that Texas talent at home!

    Great topic…well written and researched. Top notch!!

  3. Zak Basch on May 23rd, 2007 10:50 am

    I understand that this is a blog–not a scientific journal–but I ask you to please check your sources before posting information about another league.

    First of all, the Alaska Baseball League has six teams, not four. Second, there are immeasurable differences between how the ABL and the CCBL do business (starting with the price of admission and finishing with the cost of plane tickets to Anchorage vs. Boston). I would guarantee that even if the CCBL paid all of the players’ travel expenses to the Cape (which I understand they do not), that airline bill wouldn’t even be half of what we pay for plane tickets to Alaska. But I digress.

    I invite anyone curious about this to email me personally at zakbasch@yahoo.com. Us ABLers are very open to discussion (and competition!), so don’t be afraid to ask around before you post some financial records from an organization that you may not know much about.

    Regards,
    Zak Basch, Assistant General Manager
    Anchorage Bucs Baseball Club, Inc.

  4. Andrew on May 23rd, 2007 1:20 pm

    Hi Zak:

    I am very familiar with the ABL, and I am looking forward to going to a game someday and seeing the Touching the Game: Alaska DVD. I fixed the “4 teams” error. I apologize for that; I didn’t catch that when I read over Greg’s post.

    I am not sure how each team in the CCBL handles airline bills from team to team, but I know that some teams do cover the bill (e.g. Wareham Gatemen, http://gatemen.org/parents_letter_2007.pdf). I would like to look into that more. The CCBL also provides bus transportation for the away team (the longest bus ride being 45-60 minutes–not anywhere close to travel time and distance traveled in the ABL). Very different leagues, indeed.

  5. Greg on May 25th, 2007 2:43 pm

    Hey, Zak, thanks for your comments.

    Other than the typo on the number of teams, what else was incorrect? We really welcome your corrections.

    In fact, we would love to invite you to guest blog on any aspect of the Alaska Baseball League — especially the topic of attendance and finances. CodBall is ambivalent about which league is the best, we’re just trying to provide a forum to discuss collegiate baseball, which we all love.

    I have friends that have played in the Alaska league and rave about the role it played in their later careers.

  6. Zak on May 27th, 2007 11:49 pm

    I am like you…I think it is counterproductive to argue about which league is the “best.” I do agree with what Greg said about “the role it played in their later careers,” since I do feel strongly that the ABL most strongly resembles (and prepares players for) the Minor Leagues–and I say that as a former ABL player and Minor Leaguer.

    As for the finances…I don’t think this blog is the best place to discuss finances of our league. However, it may interest you to note that there is no Alaska Baseball League at all, per se. I could not begin to explain it, but you should check out http://www.goldpanners.com/Scrapbook/d/d/dennis/don/Relativity/20061025_dennis.html
    for a more accurate explanation of the league and it’s history. If the link is too long, here is a quote from Goldpanner GM Don Dennis that sums it up: “However, the words “Alaska League” are a bit of a misnomer. The best it has ever been — and that happens to be the era from 1998 to the present — is a strong association of teams joining together to give the appearance of a traditional league.”

    Sorry for the long reply, but I feel very passionately about our league, as I am sure you do about yours.

    Zak

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  9. CT Hall on May 23rd, 2008 1:56 am

    Baseball still lives in college and in the summer college leagues… no matter where. The hope of glory is still alive and well. College baseball players still play for the love of the game… In Cape Cod and in Alaska too.

    A College Baseball Player’s Dad

  10. Ron on August 30th, 2008 12:59 pm

    The Alaska teams generate more than 50% of their total revenue from gamimg (bingo and pull tabs)

    The best business model of college summer is Northwoods.

    Ron
    former GM of Alaska Team
    former owner of NECBL team

  11. Ron on August 30th, 2008 1:02 pm

    Zak,
    how is Dennis? I’m aware of the health issue so I hope he’s ok.

  12. Greg on August 30th, 2008 10:46 pm

    Northwoods is quite interesting from a business perspective. I would watch out of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League. George Brett and his broter just purchased a team in that league and they have a record of business success and innovation.

  13. Ron on August 31st, 2008 8:25 pm

    Greg,t
    The WCCBL has partnered with the Northwoods and Coastal plain in the SCBA? I have spoken to someone on the WCCBL, Northwoods, and CPL about a NBC style tournament. I think it would be great to have something like that.

    As far as the WCCBL or others competing with NWL, I think so much has to do with the parks that teams play. NWL plays at old minor league parks and have even are at the point to partnering with municipalities in the financing of parks. In my opinion, they are years ahead of the others.

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