Binghamton, New York doesn’t provide a lot of options when
it comes to professional sports but the city does pretty much have the full
year covered between Eastern League baseball and AHL hockey.
Binghamton Mets
The Binghamton Mets have played AA ball out of the Eastern
League since 1987. The franchise has been affiliated with the New York Mets
since 1992. Between 1987 and 1991, the team’s affiliation belonged to the
Cleveland Indians then Seattle Mariners. Previous to 1992, the team was known
as the Bills.
The Mets play out of the 6,012 seat NYSEG Stadium in
downtown Binghamton, a venue that was completed for the 1992 season. Although,
they have not had a winning season since 2008, the team has won two league
championships, 1992 and 1994. The Mets finished first during the regular season
twice, 1994 and 2000.
Although the Mets are a relatively new franchise, history of
minor league baseball dates back to 1877 in Binghamton.
Binghamton Senators
The Binghamton Senators have played out of the Broome County
Veterans Memorial Arena since the 2002-03 American Hockey League season. The
Senators are the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and are also
affiliated with the Elmira Jackals of the ECHL.
Despite only making the post season once since 2004-05, the
Senators made it count in 2010-11 winning the Calder Cup championship with a
4-2 victory over the Houston Aeros in the final series. In their first season,
they reached the conference finals before being eliminated by the Hamilton
Bulldogs.
Notable Binghamton Senators single season performances
include a team record 117 points by Jason Spezza during the 2004-05 season. On
a notorious level, Brian
McGrattan sat out 551 minutes in the penalty box in 2004-05, an American
Hockey League record.
The Broom County Veterans Memorial Arena seats 4,710 for
hockey and has been around since 1973. The venue was first occupied by the
Broome Dusters of the North American
Hockey League. The Dusters called the arena home for the four year
existence of the NAHL from 1973-74 to 1976-77. For the 1977-78 hockey season,
the Binghamton Dusters competed in the AHL but were the incarnation of the Providence
Reds. The Reds date back to 1926 in the AHL and are now the current
Connecticut Whale.
Binghamton is a city in New York state, located just north
of the border with Pennsylvania. The population of the city proper is around
47,000 with a metro population of around 250,000. The city of Binghamton is on
the shrink, having once had a population over 80,000 in the 1950’s.
