Marion, Illinois is a little burg in the southern part of the state. If you're talking about travelling to the nearest major city you measure the distance in hours, not minutes or miles.
You don't have to go far to find a farm field, but you also don't have to go far to find baseball fans looking for something to do. There are Cubs fans but it's really Cardinal country.
A few years ago, this little town of about 17,000 people decided they wanted a minor league baseball team. Luckily for Marion, the independent Frontier League had a strong foothold in the area, wasn't married to bigger cities --just nice ballparks--and is always open to expansion. With minimal trouble, Marion built its stadium--Rent One Ballpark--acquired a franchise and did such a nice job running things the league voted it "Franchise of the Year" for 2007. The stadium is clean, state-of-the-art without being overly fancy, and the price is right with gas at $4 per gallon.
The Miners draw well from the little towns and cities nearby, but this year they've gone one step further. Southern Illinois is webcasting its games, using video cameras and carrying the audio from the local radio station carrying the games. They're not the only minor league club doing this, of course. But it's a step forward that's really quite incredible.
For the first time in history, a team located in a town with a few stoplights and an unhurried pace of life can not only provide a miniature big league experience for its community, but broadcast its games to every person with a computer, anywhere in the world. It's an incredibly powerful piece of technology. Not that the people of Portugal or Yemen are rushing online to catch a game, but the mere concept is a revolution in minor league sports marketing. You don't have to pay big bucks for a TV contract. Just buy a couple of cameras, hire a couple of interns to run them and figure out how to stream the video. Instant worldwide potential and not difficult at all.
If you're a parent or relative of a player sitting at home in San Jose or Saskatchewan, you don't have to call the switchboard and pay for long distance while the operator lets you listen to the radio audio or wait until you make the once or twice a year visit. You can see every home game live while you sit at home and live a normal life.
The Miners webcast looks like a two camera shoot and the broadcast isn't quite network quality. An Evansville Otters player homered Monday night but by the time the camera left the dejected leftfielder and found him, he was already walking into the dugout. But the audio is perfect, the picture is as good as MLB TV and you get to eavesdrop on the between innings promotions and watch the cameras sweep the crowd during breaks in the action. It's quaint. It's baseball at its grass roots best. It's America. And it's a very, very cool idea for any little city with a dream.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment