while I appreciate the idea of child care at games, so mom and dad can have fun. I don't think my wife will want to take what will be a new born baby (our first) to a game and leave it with someone else.

We may bring the little one out to games it will just depend on how he or she is doing at that time. The end of July is a long ways off yet.

I'd much rather see some start times for games, and a coach and some players for the team, but that is for another board.

I think our wee one made it out to her first game at about 4-5 weeks maybe. The funny thing is, it's actually a lot easier to go to a game when they're super small than when they get to be a year old or so. This year now that she's 2 she'll be able to have more fun running around and such, but we still run up against bedtime for almost all the games except the odd Sunday 5 PM start.

Agreed, bed time is the biggest problem we have with our 17 month old. She still sleeps a little more than she's awake, basically from 7PM-6AM plus 1-2 hours of napping. Trying to screw with the sleep schedule leads to BAAAAAD things. Ergo, one parent/non-5PM start time match.

JJE and Lep

Thanks for the advice. Like I said it will mostly be up to my wife, and we really don't have to worry about it until after the baby is born, and if I remember right there are only 5-6 more home games in August and September.

But I will be keeping in mind the sleep schedule and not messing with it.

I'd echo JJE and Lep. Evelyn made her first game around 4 weeks, I think; made it through the first half before she and mom had to bug out. She made it back to another game I think in mid-august, which would have put her around 10 weeks old or so. I think we also left at half time for that one, but can't remember for sure. She was mostly hanging out in the infant car seat thing, but the Dark Cloud noise scared her a bit. We moved to a quiet corner of the stadium, but every time she drifted off to sleep, the crowd roared or an announcement was made on the PA.

Still, if you don't go into it with your expectations too high, newborns will do fine. Not sure how she'll do this season (bedtime, as mentioned), but we'll probably try to get her to at least one game.

I did wonder if it would be worth the NSC trying to schedule a game or two a little earlier in the day, as those 7 PM kickoffs can be trouble for families with small kids (even if they're not newborns). Maybe experiment with the odd UK-style 3 PM kickoff? It's too bad there won't be any double-headers with the Lightning, as that would have made a good day out...

The board has been taken over by breeders.

do something BUCK

The previous marketing strategy was not working for getting butts in seats, so the breeding strategy seemed like it would work faster.

Well, then, you're not breeding fast enough. Get back to work!