Minor League Baseball in a Major League Market
Some of you may have seen the “guest column” in this week’s Fort Worth Business Press. I am grateful to the Business Press for accepting my submission. Due to space limitations, the column is edited and thus some of the detail is lost. The editors did a great job of keeping the meaning and intent of the piece, but I thought my blog readers might enjoy the subject in more detail. Below is the detailed and “unedited” version….. JPD
Minor League Baseball in Major League Markets
by: John Dittrich, President and C.O.O. - Fort Worth Cats
The City of Grand Prairie turned more than a few heads when it announced last year that it would build a baseball stadium to house a new independent minor league baseball team. Among those who took notice was the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. Rangers management was concerned that the addition of another minor league franchise just six miles from the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington would cut into their fan base.
Ironically, when the Rangers made their concerns public and actually made a financial investment in an effort to stop the construction of the Grand Prairie facility, it effectively backfired. The “David vs. Goliath” sentiment was evoked and Grand Prairie voters reacted by endorsing the construction of the new facility in the entertainment district. That is the acreage which already contained Lone Star Park and the Nokia Theatre.
The new facility is home to the Grand Prairie AirHogs. The AirHogs are members of the American Association along with our Fort Worth Cats. They have made a successful debut in 2008 under former Rangers’ star Pete Incaviglia, finishing second to the Cats in the first half of the 2008 season. The AirHogs have attracted an average attendance of 2,800 per game for the first half of their inaugural season. This compares to the Cats’ average of over 4,000 per game. Industry experts would describe the Grand Prairie attendance figures as solid but not specatacular considering the fact that it is their “honeymoon” season and that the stadium in Grand Prairie is a very nice, state-of-the-art facility complete with a dozen luxury suites, a swimming pool and a cigar bar.
These attendance figures raise a question prompted by a newspaper report that attendance at Texas Rangers games was down by an average number per game which was very close to the 6,800 fans currently being attracted by the Cats and AirHogs. The obvious assumption is that these two minor league franchises are pulling the fans away from the Rangers.
I can say with a high degree of certainty, that nothing could be further from the truth. You would expect me to take that position given my current position with the Fort Worth Cats, but I assure you, there is evidence to support this.
It is a fact that minor league baseball has proven to be a “boon” to our major league bretheren in a majority of the current markets in MLB.
It all began with one minor league team…. the Pawtucket Red Sox. The “PawSox” have been operating very successfully less than 35 miles from Fenway Park for over 30 years. They have been the Red Sox class AAA affiliate for decades, packing crowds into historic McCoy Stadium for years. It is very obvious to any New Englander that the PawSox do not detract from the Red Sox, but rather they CREATE fans for the big league team.
Then about 15 years ago, the Red Sox added YET ANOTHER affiliate club in the Boston suburb of Lowell, Massachussets. The Lowell Spinners, in the short class A New York-Penn League, have been SOLD OUT for virtually every game in the history of the franchise! LeLacheur Park in Lowell has a capacity of 5,000 fans and their average attendance is 5,030!
Add to that the fact that the Red Sox class AA club is located in nearby Portland, Maine, less than 100 miles from Fenway. The Portland SeaDogs play in another great minor league facility, Hadlock Field, which has its’ own version of Boston’s famed “Green Monster”. The SeaDogs are currently averaging over 5,500 fans per game.
What have these teams done for the Red Sox? They have helped, over the last two decades, to create what is known as “Red Sox Nation”. These three teams are all clearly inside the Red Sox market and between them, attracting almost 20,000 fans per night! Yet, it is nigh impossible to get a Boston Red Sox ticket at Fenway Park.
Now, you could argue that this is a unique phenomenon. But you would be wrong!
Over the last 20-25 years, dozens of minor league teams have found a niche in the suburban major league markets. In virtually every case, these teams have ENHANCED interest in baseball in general and in the major league teams in those markets in particular.
Take the case of the Kane County Cougars in suburban Chicago. The Cougars set up shop in 1991 amidst a flood of skeptics who thought it would be impossible to attract fans in Chicago’s strong major league market with not one, but TWO MAJOR LEAGUE TEAMS, the Cubs and the White Sox.
Not only did the Cougars succeed, but they have set a spectacular standard with average attendance over the last 16 years nearing 7,000 fans per game. Their fabulous success has spawned not one, but no less than FIVE minor league franchises in suburban Chicago. Today, in addition to the Cougars, there are new facilites and teams in the suburbs of Schaumburg, Crestwood, and Joliet in Illinois as well as Gary, Indiana. All of these teams are attracting solid attendance numbers.
Has this proliferation of minor league baseball in the Chicago suburbs had a negative effect on the Cubs or the White Sox? Quite the opposite, both major league clubs in Chicago are experiencing record attendance numbers.
Again, I cite this phenomenon is prevalent in many other major league markets:
Philadelphia has minor league teams just minutes from Citizens Bank Ballpark in Camden, Wilmington, Atlantic City and Trenton.
New York has a proliferation of teams with teams in Newark, Montclair and Somerset on the Jersey side in addition to the Yankees very successful farm club in Staten Island, the Staten Island Yankees and the Mets thriving affiliate in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Cyclones.
The Seattle Mariners have established a solid base in the Pacific Northwest. Their class AAA farm club is in South suburban Tacoma and they have a class A affiliate in the Northern suburb of Everett.
We have yet dozens of additional situations such as the smashing success of our own St. Paul Saints just five miles from the Metrodome in Minneapolis, the very successful teams in Akron and Lake Coutny, Ohio near Cleveland, and two thriving ballclubs operating in the shadows of the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
The fact that Rangers’ President Nolan Ryan’s teams in Round Rock and Corpus Christi are Houston farm clubs cannot be ignored. Although neither of these cities is an actual suburb of Houston, we cannot escape the fact that Houston is the nearest major league ballclub.
The San Francisco bay area and greater Los Angeles are also home to many minor league teams. Even “small market” Kansas City has the “T-Bones” operating very successfully in Kansas City, Kansas opposite the big league Royals on the Missouri side.
Now, the Atlanta Braves have also realized that having a minor league team within their market only serves to build interest in pro baseball and whet the appetite of fans to get out to the ballpark. They are abandoning their long time affiliation with Richmond, Virginia in favor of a beautiful new facility in suburban Atlanta’s Gwinnet County which will house the Braves’ class AAA affiliate next season. The Braves already have a class A affiliate playing in nearby Rome, Georgia.
It has become obvious to many in both major and minor league baseball that the place to be is right in your own back yard! Not only does it serve to stimulate interest in the game itself, it can also build fan loyalty as folks follow players through the organization on their way to the major league club.
The Rangers have done this in Frisco and there is evidence to suggest that it is working. It will take a little more time for the totality of the fan loyalty effect. But, the backlash against their opposition in Grand Prairie is good evidence that a good marketing strategy for the Rangers would be to embrace the Cats and the AirHogs……. or maybe even more than “embrace”.
