The University of Tennessee baseball team is looking at another below average attendance year in the SEC, despite that the team is in the running for a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
   Head Coach Todd Raleigh came from Western Carolina to Tennessee to try to make the Vols an annually contender for the SEC title. Under his first year as coach, Todd Raleigh has brought in a new energy and demeanor into the program as the team has proven so far that they are better than the team that got the least amount of votes in the SEC Preseason Coaches Poll. The team has been a tough team to beat at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, as they have not lost a home series to anybody.
"I wish people would come out more often. The crowds are always the best when we play SEC teams, but it is still at best half-full here for those games. The baseball team has done much better than most people thought before the season began, but it hasn't helped attendance that much," says Robbie Martin, a regular attendee for Volunteer baseball.
As well as the baseball team has done so far this season, the attendance numbers at Lindsey Nelson Stadium are going to look very similar to what they were last year, which will place them near the bottom in attendance in the conference. The stadium is listed to seat 3,712 fans and so far this season the baseball team has yet to have a game that went over 3,000. There are only two other teams in the SEC who have not had over 3,000 fans at a home game and they are Kentucky and Vanderbilt, however Vanderbilt's stadium isn't capable of doing so with a 2,000-seat capacity and Kentucky's stadium max capacity is right at 3.000.
"When the Stadium first opened, attendance used to be amongst the nations best. Overtime, many colleges have put a lot of money into their baseball stadium and we have not been doing a good job of keeping up," says Vol fan Mac Kelly. "It is good to see they are finally beginning to start the renovations they had planned awhile back, it has been long overdue."
Despite the low attendance, the Men's Athletic Department has begun the renovations that were proposed for the Stadium back in November of 2005, which beyond improving field drainage, upgrading the press box and concourses will include a stadium expansion. At this time, there is no exact number of what the capacity will be when it is done, but looking at the drawings it could be assumed that it will be over 6,000.
"Attendance was one of the highest in the country when it (the stadium) first opened, so when the renovations are done, fans might just start to come out like they did when it first opened," says Ty Tomco. "The renovations will make it look like a whole new ballpark."
As hopefully as they are, the baseball team's highest attended game at the Stadium was 5,086 for a NCAA Regional back in 1995. It is also the only time the attendance has gone over 5,000. Even in 2005 when Tennessee reached their fourth College World Series, the attendance numbers was one of the lowest averages in Stadium history and very low compared to other SEC teams. If Tennessee ever expects the baseball team to get attendance numbers like those of other SEC teams, the baseball team will probably have to be consistently finishing near the top of the conference and that will be a hard task in the SEC where teams have gone from the top one year to the bottom the next.