To commemorate our 30th anniversary season, Ron Arnst spoke with several key figures from our past and created multimedia articles which first appeared in the Goldeyes Digital Magazine throughout the 2023 season. For those who may have missed those articles, we will be reposting them here on Goldeyes.com. Enjoy!
By Ron Arnst
They line up. They step up. They speak up. They show up every night.
They come in all sizes and all ages.
They are loyal, passionate, fun-loving and enthusiastic.
They are also hardy. Boy, are they hardy.
Not only able to withstand the vagaries of Winnipeg weather they seem almost eager to bask in the unrelenting heat, face bone chilling winds and defy the driving rain.
If you ask Goldeyes’ General Manager Andrew Collier, he will tell you it’s that never-say-die spirit that sets Goldeyes baseball Fans apart.
Since the 1994 return of the Goldeyes, 6,857,112 Fans have hollered their hearts out, urging their hometown heroes to even greater heights.
They have been front and center for all the big moments, the history-making events, the record breaking achievements... and the soul crushing defeats, too.
Sure, they came for the excitement. They stayed for the winning. But they came back and keep coming back for far more complicated reasons.
You can call it atmosphere or “the Fan experience” but Goldeyes’ owner Sam Katz thinks of it as putting the paying customer before everything.
Goldeyes Director of Sales and Marketing Dan Chase often quotes Katz’s devotion to serving Goldeyes Fans.
“Sam has a saying - the answer is yes, now what’s the question.”
That can-do attitude permeates the entire organization and sharpens the focus on delivering the best possible Fan experience every night at the ballpark. It is also a driving force behind a Goldeyes’ innovation - the Fan services representative.
The Goldeyes were the first pro sports organization in Winnipeg to embrace the concept of “ushers” who do much, much more.
Chase says Goldeyes Fan Services Representatives - and the whole organization for that matter - undergo very specific training on the specialized customer service regimen dubbed “The Goldeyes Way”.
There are rare occasions when the Fans are a bigger story than the players and the game.
August 18, 1997 was one of those times.
Faced with using a make-shift field jammed into a corner of a football field, the Goldeyes decided to use the cavernous impossible-to-sell-out stadium to their advantage.
General Manager John Hindle approved a plan by a staff member who wanted to try to set an attendance record for minor league, short season, professional baseball. The target was 20,000 and Andrew Collier recalls his colleagues coming together in a massive effort.

As news of the effort spread throughout Winnipeg and across Manitoba’s baseball community, the record attempt gained momentum. And when game day came, over 22 thousand Fans showed up. The record belonged to the Winnipeg Goldeyes and, most appropriately, their Fans.

Sometimes the most impressive efforts come from individual Fans.
Decades worth of Goldeyes memorabilia crowd basement rooms, spare bedrooms and refitted garages in various Winnipeg neighbourhoods. Collections of special baseballs, bobble head figurines and novelty items line shelves and occupy entire walls.
Special jerseys carrying favourite players’ names and numbers fill closets. Dedicated Fandom knows few limits and their collections of cherished baseball artifacts serve as reminders of even more cherished memories.
Over the years, some Goldeyes’ Fans have had an opportunity to build a much closer relationship with their baseball heroes.
The Goldeyes Host Family program has involved hundreds of players who choose to move into a Fan’s home rather than a rented hotel suite or apartment. It’s far more than a bed-and-breakfast arrangement. The players are taken into the homes and hearts of willing Fans. And they end up making a relationship that often endures for a lifetime.
From deep and lasting personal relationships fostered by the host families to the enthusiastic, engaged game day Fans, the connection between Goldeyes Fans, players and the organization is strong.
Goldeyes icon Rick Forney spent 25 years as a player, coach and manager performing for the Fans. And he has no hesitation calling Goldeyes Fans “second to none.” Forney says he maintains several relationships with Fans over the years and plans to continue staying in touch.
Rick Forney -- like scores of players who have donned Goldeyes colors -- is definitely a fan of the Fans.
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Blue Cross Park is located on the original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Ojibwe-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
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