On the Rise: SBJ touts SWB market

MOOSIC, Pa. (September 25, 2019) - Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal has tabbed Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as a Top-10 minor league sports market in its latest rankings. The RailRiders and Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins Northeast Pennsylvania community is eighth out of 211 markets across the United States with a composite score of 81.40 out of 100.

"Scranton/Wilkes Barre is an intriguing market that is certainly on the up-and-up," stated David Rumsey of the Sports Business Journal. "It enters Sports Business Journal's top 10 minor league markets for the first time this year, after sitting outside the top 150 just six years ago. Powered by strong and innovative leadership at both the RailRiders and Penguins, fans in the area certainly have plenty to look forward to in the coming years."
Read the Sports Business Journal profile for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
After a successful 2019 season that saw attendance at PNC Field rise, the RailRiders have their sights set on 2020; a year that will bring one of Minor League Baseball's top events, the Triple-A All-Star Game, to NEPA. As announced on September 20, the week will be known as the Keystone Mid Summer Classic and will feature a youth baseball challenge, a celebrity softball game, the Triple-A Home Run Derby and the Triple-A All-Star Game, presented by the Lackawanna County Visitor's Bureau.
Grand Rapids- Comstock Park in Michigan took the top spot in this survey, which spans 34 leagues and 350 teams. The remainder of the top ten is Greenville, S.C., Charleston, S.C, Toledo, Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Ind., Tulsa, Winston-Salem and Akron. Per the Sports Business Journal, the majority of each market's total score comes from three category-specific measures: tenure rank, attendance rank and economic rank. Each team in this biennial survey was assigned a territory based on the location of its home venue within one of the U.S. Census Bureau's 898 metropolitan (areas with a population of at least 50,000) and micropolitan (less than 50,000) market designations. Markets that are home to an MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, NWHL or WNBA franchise were not measured.
See the full Sports Business Journal's rankings list.
The RailRiders open the 2020 season on April 9 at PNC Field against the Buffalo Bisons. From July 13 through 15, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will play host to the Keystone Mid Summer Classic. Season ticket memberships and Keystone Mid Summer Classic ticket bundles are available now online at swbrailriders.com, at the E-Auto Box Office at PNC Field or by calling 570-969-BALL.
Click here to purchase the Keystone Mid Summer Classic ticket bundle.