The Southern Illinois Miners burst onto the Frontier League scene last year, drawing a league-record 259,392 fans.

While the Miners attendance is down somewhat this year, the franchise is still leading the league in attendance. Last year the Miners drew more than 5,000 fans per game. This year the average gate is 4,159.

"Like anything, we always want more," said Miners' vice president Erik Haag. "I think we've been affected a little bit by the weather. We started the season and the kids were still in school and we had a lot of weekday games.

"The last couple of weeks we've seen the numbers get back up to where we expect them the rest of the summer."

"The weather has been brutal everywhere," said Frontier League Commissioner Bill Lee. "I don't know of any of our teams that have had good weather. Imagine how bad it would have been in Marion without the turf.

"Teams have been battling around it, but it's been tough."

Through the first half of the season the Miners have dealt with tornado threats and impressive lightning displays.

"Really, that's the only way we lose games, if the weather takes place during the games," Haag said. "We had a game we had to stop play when we've had tornado warnings. We've had two other games that have been suspended by the weather."

In addition, Haag said he's sure threatening weather reports have kept fans from making the trip to Rent One Park.

"We're selling out our seats," Haag said. "What we're not selling now is our hill and grass seats. That makes sense. You're going to get wet. They are not as enticing."

Although the Miners attendance has dropped somewhat, Southern Illinois is the second draw in the Frontier League. Through 21 dates the Miners have drawn 87,339 fans. The Gateway Grizzlies lead with 91,417, but that's through 23 dates.

In the meantime, Evansville, Traverse City, Rockford, Washington, River City and Florence have all drawn more than 50,000 fans.

"For the overall league, I'd like us to do what we did last year, which was like 1.5 million," Lee said. "I think we're pretty much on pace to do that. There are teams up this year. Evansville is up. Rockford is up and River City is up."

In addition to uncooperative weather, Haag said soaring gas prices are probably a factor.

"I think that's had a little bit of an effect on us," he said. "To my surprise, we've lost some part-time employees because they didn't think it was worth it to drive to work. I think there is something to that. You have to think about where you're going to drive."

On the other hand, with a balanced league and the drier months of July and August, Haag looks for attendance to rebound.

"Everybody is in contention to make the playoffs or make a wild card run," he said. "The interest level is high. As we get into July and August, it will only increase. It's really good to see."

les.winkeler@thesouthern.com / 351-5088@thesouthern.com / 351-5088