It rained, then it rained some more, then for good measure, it started raining harder. And yet the only game in town went on this afternoon at Kate Collins Field, and yes, my feet are wet as I’m writing this, but we got that ribbon cut.
The new Waynesboro Generals ownership and management team held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Greater Augusta Chamber of Commerce Wednesday to begin the formal countdown to Opening Night, Friday, June 5, against Rockbridge.
The rain didn’t wash out the enthusiasm of those on hand, an estimated 50, all told, but it did throw a wrench into one of our plans for the night at the ballyard, which was to make a splash in introducing ourselves to the local business community for the first time.
We’re about a third of the way into selling the $30,000 in business sponsorships that we’ll need not to lose our shirts on the ’09 season with five weeks and a day ’til the opener, which means we can see light at the end of the tunnel, at least, but it’s a ways down that tunnel.
One idea we have to try to do something to generate some early buzz about the team I can tell you about tonight – 2009 in 2009, as we’re calling it, our effort to set a new recent Valley League attendance record by stuffing Kate Collins Field with 2,009 fans for our opener on June 5 or our second home game Sunday, June 7, against Staunton, with the reward to our fans that one lucky person will go home from the field whichever night we hit the magic number with a $1,000 gift card to DisneyWorld or DisneyLand.
To put what we’re trying to do there in perspective, the top attendance figure for the ’08 season came in Staunton for a late-season game with our Generals that drew 1,675 fans to John Moxie Stadium. Waynesboro’s high for ’08 was 658 fans for a June 18 game with Staunton.
Hey, as long as we got the rain out of the way tonight, I think we can make a run at it, at least.
– Column by Chris Graham, Photos courtesy Cortney Skinner/imagesofamericawaynesboroblogspot.com
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