The bigger question (IMO) is whether or not BR would support two teams. By support I mean ticket and concession sales. LSU baseball teams are pretty competitive and might be able to give an independent AA team a run for its money. Locating the team in an outlying parish might help ticket sales but I do not think you are going to be able to put 3000 people in the stands for 65 games a year competing with the LSU baseball fans (their time and their dollars). Round rock had 689,000 fans at 70 games last year (avg. 9,842 per game) and Wichita had 160,000 at 64 games (avg. 2,500 per game).
Baton Rouge has never had a legitimate, major league-affiliated minor league baseball team to support, if memory serves. The closest thing I can remember is the Baton Rouge Cougars who played in Alex Box in the summer of 1976. They were an independent team playing in the old Gulf States League. The Cougars folded in mid-season and slinked out of town under the cover of night - literally. They did have one future major-leaguer: pitcher Terry Leach, who later played with the Mets. And of course, who can forget the Baton Rouge RiverBats? Anybody? Anybody? I do not know IF Baton Rouge would support a real minor league team, but I do know that the city has not yet had the chance to prove it.
Minor league baseball has about as much of a chance as arena football and hockey inBaton Rouge. With two big college sports programs in town and professional sports only an hopur away in New Orleans . . . there is just too much competition.
I am not a big time knowlege source for hockey, but isn't/wasn't the ECHL part of the feeder system for the NHL? It seemed to me that it was the equivalent of the A/AA baseball farm system.
Yep, ECHL was a notch below the IHL, as I recall... And Red, that joke about pro sports in New Orleans is killing me!! Hahahahahahahaha
