“Gee what more stuff could we possibly do?”
That quote, blasted through the sound system by the Riverfront Stadium announcer, essentially sums it up for the Newark Bears. They bring in former major leaguers like Carl Everett and Keith Foulke to place competitive team on the field with some star power. They bring in celebrities from all walks of life – from Colin Powell to Queen Latifah to Whitey Ford to Artie Lange – to generate a buzz and throw out first pitches.
Artie Lange throws out the first pitch during the Bears' 6-5 loss to the Camden Riversharks on Tuesday.
Fan-friendly activities like a bounce house, balloon artists, face-painters, kids running the bases, chicken wing eating contests and even Newark Idol (a riff on moneybags American Idol) occupy nearly every second of downtime in the park. A mascot duo prance around the park to put smiles on kids’ faces.
The team has even gone so far (about 70 years back in time, that is) to pay homage to the Negro League’s Newark Eagles, logos and merchandise commemorating the defunct squad easily spotted in and around the ballpark.
Signs like these are all along Broad Street around the stadium.
Hell, its cheaper to catch a game than a flick.
On paper, the Bears are pulling out all the stops to make it work in Newark. The reality, though, is that the games look like a morgue. The sparse crowd is dead, as the PA announcer’s fan prompts echo off the right field wall.
The crowd...
Even to someone like me, big on getting rowdy with friends at the ballpark regardless of who’s there, the lack of atmosphere is disheartening.
It makes me wonder, how much longer can this keep up before someone says, “Okay, enough. Time to pack it up, boys. It’s not happening here.”
Because honestly, what more stuff could they possibly do?
August 19th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
It’s sad!!! Minor League Ball is GREAT the problem is people a scared to go to Newark. I hope the team hangs in there long enough for the city to change for the better. It’s on it’s way now that the Devils are there.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Newark and baseball do not mix. Baseball sux and is slow and boring.
Newark and hockey or newark and BASKETBALL are winners
August 19th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
They’ve been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since 2008… Right now they’re not part of any MLB team’s farm system. Could associating with the majors (even if it’s not the Mets or Yankees) provide some necessary financial subsidy to tide them over until the “they will come” part happens now that they’ve built it?
August 20th, 2009 at 7:39 am
You bring up a good point, WL, and frankly, I think the lack of major league affiliation is a big impediment to the Bears’ success. Other teams – Long Island and Somerset come to mind – seem to do alright (averaging 5-6K per game) without affiliation, so it’s not a hard rule that indy league teams will falter, but not being a part of a feeder system has to affect box office receipts.
August 20th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Wow, I didn’t think it was that bad, the bleachers are all empty.
http://www.examiner.com/x-11279-Howard-Stern-Examiner~y2009m8d19-Artie-Lange-throws-out-first-pitch-for-Newark-Bears-video
August 20th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Their efforts fail because their community relations person has no clue about Newark and its residents well maybe it’s because she is based in SEATTLE!!! Come on that’s a no brainer! And you wonder why people don’t relate to what you’re doing. MAJOR FAIL!
August 20th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I know a lot of Bear fans were upset with the new ownership because they let go the popular coach and GM John Brandt as well as owner Tom Cetnar having a prior criminal record. I could not buy tickets this year because I just went through my own bankruptcy. I plan on going to a couple games in September and getting season tickets next year. Hopefully the team will still be there. Maybe if the Bears can get a Jersey celebrity to own the team that would help. It would also help if the media would publish the positives about Newark with the same vigor they use to publish the negatives.
August 20th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
@Bill E – I agree. While recent negative events in Newark cannot be ignored, media outlets are far too eager to sensationalize them. Their coverage of entertainment and other positive events in Newark is often…less than stellar. (Example: For the opening of Nat Turner Park they had an image of the construction site! Not one image of how it looked at the opening. I found that to be a bit insulting.)
I’ve gone to quite a few Bears games over the (tumultuous) years of their existence, and always had a great time. I don’t even watch baseball on TV but I’ve found it to be a great live experience. It’s sad to see they’re still struggling…why don’t they have focus groups to see what people would respond to instead of guessing (though they’ve done some great promotions, no doubt about it).
August 20th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Thanks for the video link, No.
Positive media coverage for Newark? Why would anyone do that? It’s not like there is a major media outlet or newspaper situated within the city walls.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
T,
That isn’t the problem. The arena has attracted 3 million people since it opened. The Bears haven’t done a good job marketing itself to the local community. A lack of a MLB affiliation doesn’t help either.
August 20th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Nat Turner was a racist!
I am livid about “Nat Turner” Park, and actively wondering how I can sue to remove that racist name from a Newark park. Nat Turner was a mass murderer, who had escaped his slave owners but voluntarily returned after his successful escape, deliberately to KILL every member of the white family he had already escaped. He then led other escaped slaves in a revolt that killed 55 white people. Why on Earth would Newark celebrate a racist mass murderer? Nat Turner was no MLK, and deserves no honor.
+
Should the white people of Newark demand that a city park be (re)named for a white racist mass murderer of blacks? Is there even such a historical person for whom such a park could be named? I can’t think of one. There was no single founder of the Ku Klux Klan, but perhaps we should demand that a “KKK Park” be established to balance “Nat Turner Park”. “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”, and racism is racism, no matter whom it is directed against. Would blacks be as peaceful with a proposal to honor a mass murderer of blacks as white Newarkers have been about having a Newark park named for an anti-white mass murderer? I rather doubt it. And of course no white Newarker would even propose such a thing.
The name “Nat Turner” should be removed from that park. Only ignorance of history by white Newarkers allows them to feel comfortable with having mass slauter of white people celebrated by the City of Newark. Do even black Newarkers realize that Nat Turner murdered 55 (white) people? Perhaps they confuse Nat Turner, mass murderer, with Irvine Turner, first black Newark city councilman. Or do they actually know who Nat Turner was and smile upon mass murder of whites? I seriously doubt that black Newarkers know that Nat Turner killed 55 white people. But if they do know that, and approve of honoring him, white people have reason to be very suspicious of black Newarkers. Naming a park for an anti-white mass murderer is an intolerable act of bigotry that bodes badly for the future of this city. It is an incendiary move practically calculated to incense white people and keep them from even thinking of moving to a city that honors mass slauter of white people.
+
It is grotesque that people who are offended by the Confederate battle flag flying over Southern state capitol buildings and monuments to Confederate “heroes” should NOT find equally offensive the glorification of mass murder of white people in the antebellum South. What would we say if Germans were to establish an “Adolf Hitler Park” in Berlin? Hitler was obviously a major figure in German history, far more important than Nat Turner in American history. But I warrant that nearly-universal outrage would explode if Berliners established or renamed a local park to honor Adolf Hitler, on the basis that “No, he wasn’t perfect, but he nonetheless deserves our respect. He wouldn’t have done the terrible things he did if he hadn’t been driven to it by the outrageous victimization of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles” (just as Nat Turner was ‘driven’ to his crimes by the outrageous victimization of black slavery). Some people can always find excuses for even the worst crimes.
August 20th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner
August 20th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
The Bears have done a terrible job of marketing themselves recently. While I often see advertisements and commercials for the Trenton Thunder and the Somerset Patriots, I never see ads for the Bears anymore.
August 21st, 2009 at 7:34 am
The Bears are going to have to at least give it one more year. Right up until opening day, people were skeptical if the team would be playing this year because of the bankruptcy issues. I still think many people aren’t aware the team IS playing this year. We have the wonderful media outlets like the Star Ledger to thank for that. I would love to see the Newark Evening News come back, but I know that’s highly unlikely. The Bears are going to have to do a lot of offseason promotions this fall just to get people aware that there is still a team in Newark!
August 21st, 2009 at 8:44 am
Free Newark Bears Tickets Now Available!
Bulletin
show details 2:10 PM (19 hours ago)
Reply
fromBulletin to
dateThu, Aug 20, 2009 at 2:10 PMsubjectFree Newark Bears Tickets Now Available!
hide details 2:10 PM (19 hours ago)
Reply
Free Newark Bears Tickets Now Available!
Newark Bears Fans! Are you ready for another great baseball season?
A limited number of free tickets are available to NJIT students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Contact Dottie Wright in the Campus Center Office at wrightd@njit.edu or X3601 (Monday – Thursday from 10am – 4pm to reserve your tickets).
August 21st, 2009 at 10:05 am
In the 5 years I’ve been in the city I have been to the bears once. I just don’t feel the draw, its like paying to watch parking lot baseball to me. I think they seem like a foreign team in our city, hell the don’t even have the players live here like the Ironmen.
August 21st, 2009 at 10:25 am
@parkingon halsey: A few Newarkers I’ve spoken to share your view – the “foreign team” feeling. People said to me that they didn’t feel welcome the times they did go, and that the games aren’t really promoted to locals. There’s something inherently wrong with the marketing if that’s how people feel.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I never felt the team was “foreign” to Newark. I simply feel the team get virtually no coverage from the media outlets covering Newark, coupled with the media’s promotion of the city’s negative image it’s hard to build a fan base. I been to many Bears games and NEVER had any problems. The stadium is nice. The people are great. I always have a great time there. On many occasions, I’ve heard people sitting around me say “This is a great place! How come there’s not more fans here?” Or “I didn’t know Newark even had a baseball team!” Sometimes I wonder if the media has a vested interest in promoting negative news about the city.
August 21st, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I agree with Bill on this one. I’ve seen reps from the team promoting out on Broad Street. Pocket schedules are at Hobby’s Deli. Promo flyers are at Brick Çity Bar and Grill. Locally, there is a presence. It’s obviously not enough, but it’s not totally neglected either, as some have claimed.
The Newark Star Ledger does nothing to show any support for the Bears. The company line is that they’re New Jersey’s newspaper, and it would be akin to favoritism to spotlight one city’s minor/independent team with coverage lacking for another team. Personally, I find the logic laughable. I grew up in south Jersey, and no one in Camden or Cape May County reads the Star Ledger. That’s Philadelphia Inquirer territory.
Finally, yes, the media is biased toward presenting Newark in a negative light. People singing around a campfire doesn’t sell newspapers or pull ratings for the six o’clock news. It’s violence, guns and murder. Unless the city can pull an impossible 180 overnight, it will always be a source of headlines that sell news, regardless of how many feel-good stories are in town.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Ouch. No love for the Bears, huh? I go to a few games every year, about five or so, and it’s always a shitty crowd. I like baseball and being outside, so it means little to me what the crowd is like, but it does suck when there’s an exciting game going on and there’s about as much energy as a piano recital.
Face it, unless it’s a major league team, like the Devils or maybe the Nets if they ever come, a bush league minors team is going to flop in Newark because A) the locals would rather spend their time hanging off the scaffolding on Broad Street and B) people from other towns have no reason to come in here.
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
Without television, you’re outta sight and outta mind. I recall that when this league first started, there was a deal in place with Cablevision to broadcast one game a week from one of the locally based teams (LI, Bridgeport or Newark)on MSG.
Once the Yankees caught on, it was abruptly ended. Now with both Major League teams with their own networks and Cablevision starved for programming with no NBA/NHL action going on. it would be wise for them to revisit the Game of the Week concept.
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:23 pm
If the Bears were affiliated with the Yankees or Mets they would draw.
That is the main issue, not the city of Newark as the Devils attendance has gone up the last two seasons and people flock to The Rock for other shows there.