Busy off season for Jackfish
It has been a hectic and productive off season for the Welland Jackfish.
Coming off a 2023 season which saw the Jackfish win a Dominico Cup as Intercounty Baseball League champions while setting an organizational attendance record, team president Ryan Harrison is determined to take things up a notch in 2024.
“Every year has been the same since we got here. I always say we want to put the dial up to 11 and the dial keeps going and going and going,” Harrison said. “We’re always going to push the envelope on what we can do here.”
The Jackfish announced their promotional schedule Thursday which features everything from bobbleheads, to baseball cards, to a slumber party. (https://www.wellandjackfish.com/promotional-schedule).
“It’s the most giveaways, most fireworks, most unique theme nights we’ve ever had and you’ll see that in ’25, ’26, ’27. It will be the same — more, more, more,” Harrison said. “Winning the championship was amazing, it’s a great notch in the belt kind of thing, but we’re not even close to what we want to do here.
“We haven’t even scratched the surface.”
The Jackfish doubled their season ticket base in the off season from 400 to 800 while flex pack tickets sold push the number of tickets pre-sold to about 1,000 for each game.
“My whole thing when I first came here was I want to sell out every single game from May 18 until the last regular season game and I won’t be truly happy until we sell out every single one,” Harrison said. “We’re going to get there, we’re going to sell out every single game. We’re getting close already to selling out a lot of games this year. Not every single game, but more often than not.”
Harrison feels Welland Stadium seats about 2,200 fans comfortably.
“We can go to 3,200 but we’re not going there,” he said. “We will do it one game (Pack the Park night). We would rather have everyone comfortable and having a good time than jam as many people as we can in.
“We want to make it a hot commodity. Can’t get a ticket, that kind of thing.”
To make the fan experience more comfortable, the Jackfish are adding a new concession stand on the third base side of the field as well as a patio and new merchandise store on the first base side.
“It will be night and day, different from seasons past,” said Harrison, who added the team is also installing televisions in the concourse.
Harrison said he was asked about expansion of the stadium at a recent session of Welland city council.
“Let me sell it out first and then we’ll talk about expansion,” he said. “The sky’s the limit. There’s lots of land and we’re only into Year 5.”
The Jackfish open the season Friday, May 17 at London. They host the Barrie Baycats Saturday, May 18 in their home opener.
Single game tickets go on sale April 1. Flex Memberships are still on sale at http://www.wellandjackfish.com/2024 or by calling 905-736-9834.
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