Kernels happy with 2015 attendance

CEDAR RAPIDS - The holy grail is 200,000 fans. Doug Nelson admits that's probably always going to be a longshot.

'Yes, 200,000 can be done, but all the stars have to align,” the Cedar Rapids Kernels CEO said last week. 'We'd have to have the perfect year weather wise. We'd need an incredible, winning team. We'd need some high draft choices. We'd need to have a few Joe Mauer visits. It can be done. But, realistically, probably not because everything would have to come together. And I can tell you we are not going to get 70-degree weather in April.”

That being said, Nelson is very happy with the way the 2015 season has played out. The Kernels have wrapped their third-consecutive Midwest League playoff berth since aligning with the parent Minnesota Twins, taking a 70-53 overall record into their game Saturday night at Clinton.

Going into last week's three-game homestand against Kane County, the Kernels were approximately 11,000 fans ahead of last year's attendance pace. Cedar Rapids has drawn 150,645 fans in 59 home dates, an average of 2,553 per game.

The club's 2014 season attendance was 171,011, a decline of around 8,400 fans from 2013, the first year the Twins were the parent club. That team featured mega-prospect Byron Buxton, among others, with fans from the Twin Cities flocking to town, especially on weekends, to watch him play.

'Attendance has been really good this year,” Nelson said. 'Really, I will say that (Director of Tickets and Group Sales) Andrea Brommelkamp and the whole sales staff, this is a credit to them. All of our group areas are selling at a record pace. So every night, when you open up with 1,000 tickets sold in the group areas, that really helps. Then with the weather here in the month of August, we're doing very well. We've had fantastic weather.”

The Kernels front-office staff has been taxed with the addition of the Waterloo Bucks to the ballclub's business portfolio. The collegiate summer-league team was purchased last summer, and Nelson and his staff have essentially had two seasons going on at once.

Let's just say he and others have put lots of miles on their cars traveling back and forth between the cities.

'It's been a bit of a stretch, to be perfectly honest,” he said. 'It's a very solid staff up in Waterloo that has done a great job of taking care of the gameday duties. Now that we have a year under our belt, we are continuing to look at probably adding a sales person in Waterloo, allowing the staff down here to work in a more consultant type of role. We just needed to get that first year under our belt.”

By the way, the Kernels rank 13th out of 16 clubs in attendance in what has become a 'large-market” league. Dayton leads the way with an average of 8,214 fans per game, with 10 other teams averaging at least 3,000.

On the other end of the spectrum are Beloit (927 average) and Burlington (917). Burlington is the smallest market in affiliated professional baseball with a full-season team.

LOCAL, AREA, FORMER HAWKEYE PLAYERS in PRO BALL

--Chad Christensen (Cedar Rapids Washington) - Batting average for outfielder continues to hover around .250 at high-Class A Fort Myers (Twins). Has two home runs, 34 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Was hitting .249 through Friday.

--Matt Dermody (University of Iowa) - Former Hawkeye from Norwalk has 3-0 record and 4.29 earned run average in 31 games for high-A Dunedin (Blue Jays). Also has one save.

--Kris Goodman (Iowa) - Outfielder is with Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Marlins, hitting .200 in 27 games, with a homer and three RBIs.

--Nick Hibbing (Iowa) - Pitcher is 1-1 with 1.35 ERA in 14 relief appearances for low-A West Virginia (Pirates). Has allowed only 25 hits in 33.1 innings.

--Jon Keller (Cedar Rapids Xavier) - Has thrown three shutout relief innings since being promoted recently to Double-A Bowie (Orioles).

--Mitch Keller (Cedar Rapids Xavier) - Younger brother of Jon is 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in four starts for Rookie-level Bristol (Pirates). Gave up seven earned runs in two innings in a start Thursday night.

--Sasha Kuebel (Iowa) - Relief pitcher is 3-2 with three saves and 3.18 ERA in 20 appearances for Rookie-level Johnson City (Cardinals). Has 29 strikeouts in 28.1 innings.

--Derrick Loveless (Solon) - Dermody's teammate at Dunedin (Blue Jays). Outfielder is hitting .213 in 106 games, with nine home runs and 40 RBIs.

--Colin Rea (Cascade) - Has won both of his major league starts with the San Diego Padres. Has allowed five earned runs in 10.2 innings, with eight strikeouts.

--Scott Schebler (Cedar Rapids Prairie) - Outfielder is hitting .242 in 110 games for Triple-A Oklahoma City (Dodgers), with 12 homers, 45 RBIs and 14 stolen bases.

--Eric Toole (Iowa) - Outfielder has five hits in last three games to improve his batting average to .291 in 29 games for Rookie-level Boise (Rockies). Has seven RBIs and nine stolen bases.

--Justin Toole (Iowa) - Older brother of Eric has .276 average in nine games for Triple-A Columbus (Indians). Was recently promoted from Double-A.

--Jake Yacinich (Iowa) - Shortstop placed on disabled list last week at low-A Burlington (Angels). Hitting .268 in 92 games combined with Burlington and high-A Inland Empire.

--Taylor Zeutenhorst (Iowa) - Outfielder got his first hit since being sent to Rookie-A Everett (Mariners) on Friday night. Is 1-for-21 for the AquaSox. Also has spent time with low-A Clinton and high-A Bakersfield.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com