Hershey-Harrisburg Market Drops to Ninth in Minor League Market Rankings

After going back-to-back ranked as the number one minor league market by Sports Business Journal in 2009 and 2011, the Hershey-Harrisburg market has dropped in rankings again. After coming in third in 2013, the 2015 rankings were released Monday morning where the Pennsylvania capital area declined again.

Hershey-Harrisburg is the only market to break the top ten in all six of the bi-yearly studies, but this is the lowest ranking the area has gotten. Since the last ranking release in 2013, the area has struggled to keep it’s attendance numbers up. The Harrisburg Senators are struggling to break a season average attendance of just over four thousand, and the Bears yearly attendance average has not broken 9,800 since the 2012-13 season (10,046 that season. 9,850 with the Outdoor Game attendance excluded.)

The few positives the area has seen over the last couple of seasons is the return of indoor soccer to the area with the Harrisburg Heat. The Heat were a powerhouse in the Harrisburg area, leading area teams in attendance for many season in the 1990s, but folded in 2003. The team returned to the Farm Show Complex in 2012, playing their games in the Small Area. This past season, the Heat went back to their old home, the Large Arena, where their attendance almost doubled to just under 3,000.

As well as the Heat’s return, the Harrisburg City Islanders (USL Pro) recently applied for state money to build a new stadium at Skyline Sports Complex for the 2017 season. The Islanders have played at Skyline since 2004, but as their league continues to expand, the team will need to move to a new stadium, or move to a new area. The Islanders currently wait for the Pennsylvania state budget to pass before they move forward with the new stadium.

Unfortunately, another downside over the past two years for the area has been the folding of the indoor football team, the Harrisburg Stampede. New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston owned the team and moved them to Giant Center two years ago. The team was unable to return for their 2015 season and folded. Along with the attendance decline, this factor also weighted into Hershey-Harrisburg’s drop in the rankings.

Other rankings include Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at 37, Lehigh Valley at 39, Binghamton, NY at 13, and Charleston, SC, home of Hershey’s ECHL affiliate the Stingrays, at 6.