By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Seven times in the past ten years the Junction City Brigade have won the Mid Plains League's Cowdin Cup championship. One of those titles was achieved in 2023.
During a sponsor thank you dinner Thursday night the Brigade General Manager Cecil Aska noted that attendance and spending for Brigade games at Rathert Field were up. Total attendance was calculated at 5,742, the third highest ever for a Brigade season.
According to the numbers compiled for the summer collegiate baseball team game day revenue totaled $42,813, salaries paid $25,234 and purchases made totaling $130,891. An average out of town visitor spends $70 a day which creates $356,790 in new dollars. There were approximately 230 of those visitors that stayed overnight.
Over the 11 years of the Brigade's existence the fan count for attending their games at Rathert Field has totaled a combined 50,962.
There will be a new head coach for the Brigade in 2024. Aska confirmed that the new coach will be Chandler Bloomer, an assistant coach for Barton County Community College in Great Bend. He will succeed Garret Francis who received a promotion at Coffeyville Community College.
Aska reported that two teams will not play in the Mid Plains League in 2024 including the Sabetha Bravos and Topeka Farmers. That leaves the conference with five teams. As a result some other teams have been added to the Brigade schedule such as the U.S. Military WarDogs and the Great Bend Bat Cats.
You can expect to see improvements at Rathert Field this summer, with the beer garden looking a little different, hopefully with some shade. There have been preliminary conversations between Brigade and city officials on that topic.
Aska also indicated that the University of Kansas wants to send three or four players to compete for the Brigade this summer.