Minor League Contraction During the 1950s

[Melottfan]

Contraction in the Minors

Don't forget intergration(sic). One of the reasons that the Southern Association folded. True the league did have Nat Peeples as the first and only black player who played for the Crackers team, but he didn't last long, which is sad. Who knows what could have happen if the league did keep him.He went from Double AA to Single A to replace Hank Aaron who went to the Braves.

[Brian McKenna]

major league expansion pretty much took the heart out of the pcl and international league

[runningshoes]

Let's not forget about expansion into California either. I'll bet that took a good chunk out the California league's attendance. Fans had been starving for teams for quite some time.

[runningshoes]

I'll bet that's when football and basketball started becoming more popular.

I think the 1950's was a time when Americans started coming out of themselves. For the first time there was so much more for families to do. Amusement parks were springing up all over the place. The highways were getting better, which made travel easier and probably influenced families to start going further away from home.

[runningshoes]

Maybe the growing popularity of television and the advent of air conditioning kept people away from the parks in the warmer states.

[Brian McKenna]

The minors still grew, even after the Depression, until the 1950s. Then, they hit a brick wall. External factors, such as, residential air conditioning, television and the rise of other sports kept fans from minor league turnstiles. Minor league attendance plummeted from 42 million in 1949 to 13 million by the end of the 1950s.

other contributing factors?