(Rochester, MN) For the 11th straight year the Northwoods League can say it’s outdone itself when it comes to attendance with another new mark being set in the recently completed 2007 season. For the first time, the league drew more than 850-thousand fans with a grand total of 854,629 coming through the turnstiles at the 14 ballparks league wide through the completion of the playoffs. That surpasses the 2006 grand total of 813,222, which established a new summer collegiate mark one year ago.
Alone, the 2007 regular season saw a record of 843,750 fans watch Northwoods League baseball, which is up from 797,752 in 2006. Six league affiliates set new franchise bests for total attendance including the La Crosse Loggers with 106,871 fans, an average of 3,239 per game. That was second only to the Madison Mallards who again blew away the rest of summer collegiate baseball drawing 205,606 fans to Warner Park in 2007. They finished just a few hundred fans short of a new record, but did accomplish a different milestone when they celebrated their one-millionth fan in early August.
The Northwoods League plays more games, draws more fans, and plays in better venues than any Summer Collegiate Baseball League in North America. The league had 119 of its current players or alumni taken in June’s Major League Baseball amateur draft and 88 of those players are now competing professionally along with hundreds of other NWL alumni.