All season long, team owner Chuck Heeman has admired the community’s support of the team in its first season. The Pioneers’ fans, who led the Expedition League in attendance all season, were a big asset to the team’s success, Heeman said.

“We led the league in attendance with the second smallest market in the league,” Heeman said. “So that’s amazing, just the turnout. Obviously, we are not disappointed at all with the attendance here.”

Expedition League President Steve Wagner mirrored Heeman’s comments of the importance of the community support.

“It’s tremendous. We’ve absolutely loved it here in Gering,” Wagner said. “It’s really been phenomenal for us. We are so pleased to be here and the community has really embraced us. We love it here. Every time I come here, I’m in awe of the ballpark and how great the people are.”

The Pioneers, just like the rest of the league, were a huge hit in the community. Oregon Trail Park Stadium drew in more than 30,000 fans throughout the summer. According to Wagner, the total attendance for the entire league will be around 175,000 fans.

“Our goals for attendance and how we’ve been received in the communities have really been exceeded,” he said. “We forecasted and projected some pretty high targets out there for us to achieve and we’ve exceeded those.”

With plans to expand the league in 2019, Heeman and Wagner are excited to see what next year will bring. Heeman expects the attendance at Pioneer games to go up in 2019, with the majority of reserved seats already sold. Wagner said the league is planning on bringing at least four more teams to the league next summer, possibly six. The goal for the Expedition League is to expand to a 24-team league.

With the great fan attendance and community support, it’s safe to say that the Western Nebraska Pioneers are here to stay.