BANGOR, Maine — If corporate and private sponsors don’t step up to the plate, the Senior League World Series may be going, going, gone from Bangor next year.
That’s the word from SLWS executive director Mike Brooker on the day Series organizers and Mansfield Stadium officials held a press conference to announce preparations for the 48th annual Senior League World Series.
Mansfield will host the Series for the eighth straight year starting with opening ceremonies Aug. 15, but this year’s bleak financial climate is giving Brooker little reason for optimism.
“I try to be optimistic and I’m hopeful we can raise the money or have an upsurge in attendance to pay our bills, but starting every year at zero is always cause for worry,” Brooker said. “Last year, our fundraising was down 20 percent from the previous year. This year, we’re down 50 percent from that.
“If we don’t somehow have some people who haven’t committed this year who have in previous years, or get new sponsors to step forward and raise another $25,000 to $30,000, we will not be able to pay our bills this year.”
The host site is responsible for food and lodging for players during the Series. Brooker and fundraising chairman Doug MacDonald said it costs roughly $175,000 for Bangor to host and run the tournament each year.
“Of that, actual cash expenditures are $125,000,” Brooker explained. “We do about $35,000 in ticket sales and $45,000 in souvenirs, so we still need to come up with another $50,000 just to break even.”
And currently, they’re just short of halfway there.
“We still have time to sign them up and provide the benefits that come along with sponsorship,” Brooker said.
There are six levels of sponsorship available: Grand slam ($5,000 or more) featuring game sponsorship, a full-page ad in the souvenir program, 15 Series passes, and a spot on the Mansfield Stadium ad board; home run ($3,500) featuring game sponsorship, full-page program ad, 10 passes, and a place on the ad board; triple ($1,000) featuring a full-page program ad, five passes, and an ad board spot; double ($500) featuring a half-page program ad and five single-day passes; single ($250) quarter-page program ad and two single-day passes; and walk ($100) eighth-page program ad and two single-day passes.
“We have three or four people out who are doing what they can to drum up corporate and private sponsorship and financial support,” Brooker said. “At this point, we need a whole bunch of $250 to $500 sponsors, or at least a couple of the big ones.”
District 3 president Dale Duff says he believes the Series must be promoted all year and not just for two months.
“This is just my opinion, but we need to make it a more year-round event in terms of marketing, promotion, and ticket sales,” Duff said. “They should have a presence at any and every baseball event in the area.
“They’re trying to get there, but you are dealing strictly with volunteers and volunteers only have so much time to give.”
Ten teams from all over the world will compete for the Series championship with games starting Aug. 16. Three squads — Latin American champion San Nicolas of Aruba, Europe-Middle East-Africa champ Friuli Venezia Giulia of Italy, and Asia Pacific champ Makati City from the Phillipines — have already secured tourney berths. The District 3 champ gets an automatic host-city berth and Bangor played Old Town/Orono-Veazie for that berth Wednesday night. The Series championship game on Aug. 22 will be broadcast live by ESPNU-TV.
Senior League is for players ages 14 to 16. Little League board of directors member Dennis Lewin, an Orland summer resident, said with there are currently 72,000 Senior League teams worldwide, making it one of the largest Little League divisions.
This year’s opening ceremonies will feature a reunion of the 1989 Bangor West state championship Little League (ages 11-12) team. District 3 administrator Bob Stephenson, who noted that his district began play in the mid-1950’s, said at least 12 of the team’s 15 players have committed to attend. Former Boston Red Sox draft pick Matt Kinney was a member of that ’89 team. He is currently playing for the Fresno Grizzlies, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, and will not be able to attend the reunion.
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