Jackfish notebook: New grass installed; Big plans for next season; Bramwell moves up
It has already been a busy off season for the Welland Jackfish.
The cheers have barely subsided from the team’s first IBL championship and the organization is already looking ahead to the 2024 season.
Fans dropping by the Jackfish office will notice a new playing field at Welland Stadium which was recently installed by the City of Welland and Precision Athletics. The field was last upgraded in 2019.
“It took me a long time with scissors cutting all the edges,” Jackfish president Ryan Harrison joked. “It’s great. It needed to be done. Thanks to the City of Welland for getting that done.”
The Jackfish led the Intercounty Baseball League in attendance last season, drawing 44,089 fans in 29 games for an average of 1,520 fans per game. The club placed second in attendance in 2022 with 23,655 fans in 25 games, an average of 946 per game.
“It goes up every year, it seems,” Harrison said. “The fact we doubled attendance this year is ridiculous.
“I think we’re loved in this town at this point. I think we’ve caught on and next year is our fifth anniversary. It’s a big, big year and we’re labelling it the Year of the Finatics. All of our focus is on making it the best possible experience for our fans. We owe it to them.”
Harrison figure season tickets will reach an all time high as well.
“We’re well on our way to surpassing last year’s total, I think 50 tickets away from surpassing that,” he said. “We’ll be well over 500-600 when we’re all done.”
Harrison said the organization wants to take the in-game experience to another level in 2024.
“It’s all about the show. This year the main, main focus in the entertainment part,” he said. “We won a championship and we put a lot of focus into that — not that we don’t want run it back, we definitely want to win another championship and go back-to-back — but the main thing is to make the show the best thing you can go to in Ontario.
“A lot of people ask how we can do more. I say watch. It’s going to get more wild than it already is. There’s a lot of people in the league that don’t like it, but our fans do.”
Visit https: //www.wellandjackfish.com/2024 for ticket information.
Bramwell moves up
Jackfish starting pitcher and 2023 playoff Most Valuable Player James Bradwell will join the Capitales de Québec of the independent Frontier League next season.
Bradwell, a 25-year-old native of British Columbia, went 4-1 with a 3.21 earned run average in nine regular season games before going 5-0 with a 1.02 ERA in the post-season.
“It’s great. Anyone in the organization that moves up, from broadcasters, to staff, to interns, to players, it’s amazing,” Harrison said. “Not our main objective with players, we like to have players here year after year, but if they move up it’s an accolade for our organization. I think we’re close to 20 players over four years which helps us recruit guys.”
As well, catcher Carlos Martinez won Gold at the 2023 Pan Am Games in Chile with Team Colombia.
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