Will baseball 'Spike' attendance?

The State College Spikes will share a new stadium on campus with the Nittany Lions.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Since football is king in Happy Valley, a big hole looms on the sports calendar during the dog days of summer when the Penn State Nittany Lions are just jogging around in shorts and T-shirts and cavernous Beaver Stadium stands empty.
A new minor league baseball franchise hopes to fill the void.
The ball park for the Class-A State College Spikes already occupies land once precious to Nittany Lion fans and tailgaters -- what used to be a grass parking lot across the street from Beaver Stadium.
In its place is Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, featuring a well-manicured dirt and Kentucky bluegrass baseball field surrounded by 5,400 seats and all the trappings of a modern ballpark, including wide concourses, luxury boxes and a children's play area.
Opening day is Tuesday, with the Spikes facing the Williamsport Crosscutters in a New York-Penn League game.
The view from the batter's box during a sunny, warm Friday afternoon was pretty good, too: Mount Nittany looms beyond the outfield wall.
"There's a real chance that once alumni come in the fall for those seven fall Saturdays," said Spikes general manager Rick Janec, referring to Penn State's seven home football games, "that once they see this, they may be back for that eighth Saturday the following summer."
Joint venture
The Spikes, a Class-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, are run by an ownership group that also operates the Class-AA Altoona Curve, a farm team for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The group already has a unique relationship with Penn State: The university owns the land and the $28 million park, while the Spikes' parent management group will operate the facility.
Penn State's baseball team will also play at the park, moving into digs more spacious than at its old home, Beaver Field. The Spikes and Nittany Lions each get their own home clubhouses.
"For any college program, facilities are really important from a recruiting standpoint," said athletic director Tim Curley.
"We just haven't really had a venue that we could call home, be proud of, and want to bring people into. We think we've developed that now."
At least one local doesn't plan to buy season tickets.
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has said he doesn't think a professional sports team should play home games on a college campus.
"Unfortunately, nobody ever asked me. They just went ahead and did it, which is certainly their call," Paterno said last week before an athletic fundraising dinner in Camp Hill. "My gut feeling is, we're a college town, we're college sports. ... That doesn't mean I'm right."
Curley said he respected Paterno's opinion, but that, after early talks with the Curve management group, it was decided that the potentially lucrative but small State College market would be better served by just one new park instead of two.
"He certainly has an opinion that we shouldn't have one right there on campus, but hopefully it will be a win-win for everyone, and a good asset for the community," Curley said.
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