Membership -> Fan History

Inception to 2005

During the 2002 baseball season, a number of long time Goldeyes fans became interested in organizing a fan club. At the end of the 2002 season a brochure was given out, asking if anyone was interested in starting a fan club. We held meetings with those who responded, and started to work on our by-laws. Over the course of the next year, we revised and amended the by-laws and also had them reviewed by a lawyer. In the summer of 2003 we held an election of officers. We developed a mission statement, a plan of activities and projects and also developed a logo concept. This took a long time as we felt it was critical to dot every "i" and cross every "t" before we approached the Goldeyes.

The organizing committee presented the plan to the Goldeyes at the completion the 2003 season. The Goldeyes requested some changes to our by-laws and also asked that we develop a code of conduct. In January of 2004 the Goldeyes accepted us as their "official" Fan Club. We received our papers of incorporation in April 2004. Our first executive committee was made up of the president, Allison Burns, 1st vice president Matt Schnaider, 2nd vice president Brenda Arnott, secretary Laura Pasquini and treasurer Pamela Sersun. Our by-laws provided that we could establish committees as needed.

2004 Season - Our Year

Our first season membership gift was a Fan Club logo tee shirt. Members also received reduced prices on Fan Club merchandise and admissions to all our activities. We had 72 members our first season. Our first activity was "Away Wednesday". We gathered at the lounge in the St. James Bowling Lanes on June 23 to listen to the broadcast from Kansas City. We created a "ball park" atmosphere by tossing out treats between innings. Our highlight event of the night was a frozen tee shirt contest. We also did the 7th inning stretch and cheered loudly when the Goldeyes beat the T-bones 6 to 5. The next event was a road trip to Saint Paul in mid July. Thirty-three members enjoyed three days of baseball, shopping and socializing. Unfortunately the Goldeyes lost both games we attended.

Away Wednesday on July 28, resulted in another win, 6 to 4 over the Sioux City Explorers. We were able to attend a Goldeyes pre-game practice in August and finished our activities with another Away Wednesday on August 25, this time a 10 inning 6 to 5 loss to Schaumburg.Throughout the season we assisted in the sale of tickets for the Aikens Lake draw, with proceeds going to the Winnipeg Goldeyes Field of Dream foundation.Our first annual general meeting was held in October 2004. Our election of officers saw the departure of Matt Schnaider and the addition of Harold Dueck and Ross Sutherland.

2005 Season

In February of 2005 we held a "mid-winter get together". This function was open to both members and non-members. It was a social evening including discussion of activities for the season, prizes and watching a tape of the Goldeyes versus Fargo. Before the season started we purchased a small desk, painted it bright yellow and attached Fan Club Logos. This desk is the Fan Club home on the concourse and is usually situated behind either section R or section F. The membership gift in 2005 was a stadium bag, perfect for all your game gear. Our membership increased to 83 in 2005. Our most popular event "Away Wednesday" was held 6 times throughout the 2005 season. The Goldeyes record was 2 wins and 4 losses on Away Wednesday. Our highlight event was the road trip to Sioux City. The group enjoyed sightseeing, shopping and two games versus the Explorers. During the second game the Sioux City ushers joined us on top of the dugout to do the 7th inning stretch. When the games were finished many of the Explorers fans said they had enjoyed our visit and invited us to return. The Goldeyes players, coaches and staff joined us at our post-game meal. The Goldeyes were very accommodating to us for autographs, photographs and conversation. Everyone enjoyed the meal of ribs, chicken, potato salad and cole slaw. Throughout the 2005 season we collected recipes from Goldeyes fans, staff and players. By season end we had more than 400 recipes. These were complied into a cookbook that was published and went on sale in December 2005. The net proceeds from this sale went to the Winnipeg Goldeyes Field of Dreams Foundation.