Four years ago, the Rookie-level Appalachian League was on the chopping block.
From the moment that news broke about Major League Baseball’s plan to reduce the number of minor league teams to the day when MLB officially took over the affiliated minor leagues, the Appy League was always on the outside looking in.
At the time, many believed that this was the death knell for baseball in Appalachia.
Without MLB ties, fans wouldn’t come to games. Revenues would drop. Teams and then the league would die. And baseball would disappear from the region entirely.
Or so the thinking went.
Four years later, the Appalachian League keeps plugging along. In 2023, eight of the league’s 10 teams averaged more fans per game than they did in 2019, their final year as an affiliated Rookie-level league. Average attendance improvements could be explained by the fact that as a summer college league, the Appy League now has 24 home dates a summer, compared to 34 in affiliated ball.
But there’s this: six of the 10 teams drew more total fans in 2023 than they
