Baseball equals big business in Pulaski

By Ashley Roberts
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: July 4, 2008

Baseball is back in Pulaski.

The town has been without a team for two years.

Tonight, the Mariners are playing Princeton and as WSLS 10 found out the game is providing Pulaski with more than entertainment.

“Just like President Bush and the federal government have their own stimulus plan we’ve got our own,” says Marty Gordon, director of baseball operations.

From t-shirts to baseball caps to ticket sales, Gordon says the baseball business is back. “We can guess-stimate and say that you know we’ve probably put $20,000 to $50,000 into the ecomony because of buying gas and everything associated with coming to a ball game.”

For the first game, more than 2,000 people came to see the Mariners play. “Attendance has been very high so far,” says Gordon."We’ve been second in the league in attendance.”

And with tickets from $4 to $6, Gordon says a family of four can enjoy the sport for less than $30. “...then they’ll have to buy gas and they’ll stop at a convenient store or a local restaurant and spend anywhere from $20 to $50. A family of four pumps $100 into the local economy.”

Town Manager John Hawley tells 10 on your side that the town gets $1 per ticket sold for the baseball games. In 2006, the town generated about $16,000 just on ticket sales, but they think this year it will be a lot more. “We’re probably averaging about 1000 people a night and in 2006 we only averaged a little over 800 so we anticipate having more sales this year.”

And that means more money for the area and more people in the stands watching the Pulaski Mariners hit a home run in more ways than one.

The town of Pulaski also receives a 6% meals tax from all the food sold at the concession stand, and 10% of the fence advertising at the baseball games.