Walla Walla's Baseball Future Hangs in the Balance
After struggling with poor attendance and low ticket revenue, the local manager warns that the team will disband unless fans step up their support.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
June 15 will see the end of the Inland Empire Baseball Association as far as Walla Walla is concerned, unless better support is assured the team than has been accorded in the past. A lack of patronage at the games and a general apathy on the part of fans in rendering financial support is given as the cause. Manager Burns noted that Colfax's share of recent gate receipts was only $88, a sum that failed to cover even the basic travel, board, and salary expenses for the team. 'There is no use trying to keep the thing going when we cannot get the support,' Burns said. 'I went into the game merely to give Walla Walla baseball this year and not with the idea of ever making a cent out of it.' Despite the team being considered the best that has ever represented the city, the local interest has failed to materialize, leaving the club on the verge of pulling out of the league entirely.
“There is no use trying to keep the thing going when we cannot get the support and that is all there is to it.”
The precarious nature of semi-pro sports funding remains a familiar civic anxiety today. Much like modern struggles to fund municipal stadiums or public recreation, this 1903 editorial highlights the constant tension between city pride and the hard financial realities of sustaining local entertainment.
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