It's always sad when Canada loses a team to the United States, and I see no reason why Canada can't keep a Triple A team here. If Toronto can have the Jays clearly they should be able to move their Triple A to Canada.
More than 7,000 people turned out Monday to watch the Ottawa Lynx play what was likely the team's final nine innings before it is expected to move to the U.S.
The Lynx, the last remaining triple-A team in Canada, lost 8-5 to the Syracuse Chiefs at their home stadium in Ottawa before a crowd more than triple its average size of 1,923 this season.
The International League team is soon to become the Leigh Valley Iron Pigs of Allentown, Pa., but their move has not yet been officially announced and no ceremony marked the end of their 15-season run in Ottawa.
At Monday's game, thousands of fans signed a petition asking the city to maintain the stadium for baseball. The petition was expected to be sent to the mayor's office on Tuesday.
But Gordon Hendren, president of Charlton Strategic Research Inc., a Toronto-based firm that studies the business of sport, said Canadian participation in baseball fell 45 per cent in the nine years leading up to 2004-05.
Meanwhile participation in soccer jumped 19 per cent, and that has changed politicians' decisions about which sport to support.
"You're going to be thinking more about soccer than you're going to be thinking about baseball," Hendren said, adding that U.S. cities have been more aggressive in developing baseball clubs than Canadian ones.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story ... 70904.html
