Red Sox focus on fan accommodations with adjusted start times

First pitch for mid-week games moved up to 6:35 p.m.

SALEM, Va. – The fans talked and the Salem Red Sox front office listened.

In an effort to better accommodate its fans, game start times have been moved up from 7:05 p.m. to 6:35 p.m. this season.

That’s for games that will be played Tuesday through Saturday and if you’re making plans to come out to a Sunday game, those will now start at 1:05 p.m. General Manager Allen Lawrence says it’s a result of listening to you the fans.

“You know, we got a lot of feedback from our fans last year and the fans with young kids were saying that they couldn’t stay for the whole game. Maybe they couldn’t even come to any of the game because their kids needed to go home and go to bed,” Lawrence said. “So we listened to the fans, got feedback from them and we decided to bump them up 30 minutes and hopefully make it easier for families to come out. We’ve got a lot of great promotional nights. We worked really hard on our promotional calendar this year some great theme nights lots of stuff for the kids--still fireworks every Friday night. But, we’ve got a lot of different appreciation nights, you know, teacher appreciation, military. We’ve got an organ donor appreciation night that we’re really excited about so just a lot of stuff throughout the year to bring the community together and hopefully have a good time out at the ballpark and watch our team win hopefully.

These changes along with new concession stand items is all part of what Minor League Baseball is all about--not only the team on the field but also the entertainment value as well.


About the Author
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Eric is no stranger to the Roanoke Valley. He is a Roanoke native and proud graduate of William Fleming High School.