October 1, 2012: Charleston, SC – The expenses have been piling up in Charleston for quite some time now.  Though still a far cry from the league’s annual record of $143.7M, held by the 2009 New Jersey Hitmen – the team’s expenses in 2012 are at an all-time high.

Since the league’s inception, the Statesmen front office has increased spending by an annual rate of nearly 10%.  This year’s record mark of $135.4M is more than one-and-a-half times greater than the organization’s inaugural year payroll.  That’s right: a 160% increase.

Although Jon Constantine’s spending habits have once again caused his team to lose money (at the time of this article, playoff revenue has yet to be factored), there is yet one more cost to be accounted for.  Back on April 1^st, the Charleston Statesmen revealed their support for the non-profit organization StandUp for Kids.

The team announced it would contribute a portion of gate and merchandising revenue generated from Moultrie Park’s latest addition – a 1,000-capacity standing room area atop the stadium.  An initial donation of $785,244 from Moultrie Park’s opening day got the “StandUP” fund started.  A spooky turn of events on April 9^th perhaps gave the team and the fund a bad omen.

The StandUp for Kids organization and the Charleston Statesmen couldn’t have picked a better time to father the “StandUP” fund, though.  Citizens of the greater Charleston area were out in full force in for every home game.  For the second straight season, the Statesmen have led the PEBA in attendance.  The mark of 3,787,740 fell just 9,000 shy of their record-breaking number in 2011.

“You never like to see your attendance decrease from year-to-year.  Considering these last two years represent the highest attendance totals ever, it doesn’t feel like a loss at all.”
-Jon Constantine, Owner of the Charleston Statesmen

To commemorate the consecutive league-leading attendance feat, the Statesmen have announced that they will be donating all gate and merchandising revenue generated from their new standing room section in 2012 rather than just the mid-week day games.  A final donation of $1.8M has been sent to the Charleston Chapter of StandUp for Kids to close what was a successful inaugural year of the “StandUP” fund donation program.