Gas prices ground minor leagues’ travel plans

A trip to play in Hawaii sounded like the perfect reward for the seniors on the Longwood University baseball team. The school had made the jump to Division I, and coach Buddy Bolding thought the Lancers deserved a memorable end to the 2009 season.

Phone calls were made. Prices were gauged. Money was raised. Then airfare from Virginia jumped $600, to $1,300 a ticket. Suddenly Longwood was saying "aloha'' to paradise - and not as in hello.

"It's a damn shame, that's all there is to it,'' Bolding said. "It's really a bummer.''

The sky-high price of oil is wreaking havoc on athletic travel budgets, particularly for minor league teams and smaller schools.

Oil prices are up more than 60 percent from a year ago, and a gallon of gas is 82 cents more expensive. The problem goes far beyond cross-country farewell trips: It's forcing teams to re-evaluate how, why and where they play all their games.

Longwood, about an hour west of Richmond, has spent much of the decade making the jump to from NCAA Division II to Division I, preventing the baseball team from being eligible for postseason play and leaving it without a conference.

Life can be lonely as an independent, particularly when it comes to scheduling. Help appeared to be on the way this spring, when the Great West Conference decided to expand beyond football and invited Longwood to join.

But with teams spread from New Jersey to Seattle to southern California to Texas, travel would just be too expensive.

"We know we're missing out on a quality experience for the student athletes, but it's too big a load to bear,'' said athletic director Troy Austin. "All the benefits inherent with the conference situation were not enough for us to forget about the travel costs.''

Consider the problems for minor league baseball: The Pacific Coast League is spread out among 16 teams in three time zones, and the league's 144-game schedule makes bus travel nearly impossible.

Big-league partners pitch in
Though some teams receive financial help from their big-league partners, it's not nearly enough to offset the soaring cost of getting a group of about 30 players, coaches and support staff across half the country.

"We are irrevocably married to commercial transportation,'' said PCL president Branch Rickey. "There is no room for divorce. We can't get into Priuses or onto buses and solve our problems.''

Most teams were able to lock in good deals for the current season before the recent price surge, but they weren't prepared for the new baggage surcharges some airlines began imposing to offset jet fuel costs.

Tacoma Rainiers president Aaron Artman estimates the baggage fees will cost his team at least $100,000 this season. Some teams may even ship equipment overnight next year rather than throwing it on the plane with the team.

The league is considering extensive changes beginning with the 2010 season to cope, including a heavily unbalanced schedule that would focus more on regional travel or on realigning divisions to cut down on lengthy road trips.

And as struggling airlines trim flight schedules, teams have fewer options for getting from one city to the next, said Albuquerque Isotopes general manager John Traub.

"Airlines don't have marketing people now, so we're dealing with some 800 number or getting some group desk,'' Traub said. "You hope to get a deal, but it's something that is never going away.''

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