“POD ’10” – Snapping Up a Franchise

You read the newspapers (“Ballpark referendum fails”), hear the rumors (“The Big Club wants its affiliate closer”) and notice the empty seats. And you start to realize, “This is it…my team’s moving.”

The very legible writing on the wall consists of two numbers: the year the ballpark was built/last renovated and average attendance. Cold hard facts. And the two biggest tell-tale signs that a professional sports team may be looking for greener pastures.

For “Project Opening Day 2010” – or “POD ’10” as it will be known from this point forward – to work, I need a franchise. As I mentioned in the POD ’10 prologue, I am building the off-the-field operations for a Minor League Baseball (MiLB) team from top-to-bottom.

Why MiLB not MLB? Pretty easy:

1. This idea is entirely plausible in MiLB.
2. I believe MiLB is recession-proof.
3. 43,263,740 fans last year, another record.

With 160 MiLB teams spread across the country, how will I choose which team to move to my desired market? Do I go big with a Triple A franchise? How does baseball in the scorching-hot Florida sun sit with me? Could I possibly take a team with a great ballpark in a rabid baseball town away? With so many choices, how can I break it down analytically?

As I look for the best candidate franchise to move for 2010, it is imperative to look back to 2009 and see where I would have gone had I channeled my inner Steinbrenner this time last year.

I would have targeted three franchises to move in 2009 based on four qualifications:

1. The current team plays in an antiquated ballpark, and efforts to renovate or build a new park have been unsuccessful to date;
2. The team is consistently last or second-to-last in per game average attendance it its league;
3. The team’s relationship with its parent club is sour and/or indifferent; and
4. The team’s logo ranks among the worst in merchandise sales across all of MiLB. (What does a brand identity have to do with a franchise’s vitality in its market? Everything, but I will get to that in a future posting.)

My target list: Class A Beloit Snappers, Class A Columbus Catfish and Class AAA Richmond Braves.

Sure, it’s easy in retrospect to say I would have picked two teams that actually did move in 2009, but the numbers speak for themselves. If you ignore the Short-Season A and Rookie League teams (too few games) and the Florida State League (outside of Clearwater, Daytona and Fort Myers, no one goes to those games, so there’s a league-wide problem), you can easily spot franchises flailing in their home markets just by looking at the teams that failed to draw a total of 100,000 fans in 2008…

Team	Ballpark/Capacity	Built/Renovated	League	Attendance/% Capacity
Bakersfield Blaze	Sam Hill Ballpark/4,600	1941	A California	67,377/21%
Visalia Oaks	Recreation Park/1,800	1967	A California	67,045/54%
Burlington Bees	Community Field/3,502	2004	A Midwest	66,313/29%
Columbus Catfish	Golden Park/5,000	1926	A South Atlantic	61,290/20%
Beloit Snappers	Pohlman Field/3,501	1982	A Midwest	82,456/35%

…couple that with the teams that finished last or second-to-last in their leagues’ attendance…

Team	Ballpark/Capacity	Built/Renovated	League	Att. Avg/% Capacity
Bakersfield Blaze	Sam Hill Ballpark/4,600	1941	A California	963/21%
Visalia Oaks	Recreation Park/1,800	1967	A California	972/54%
Burlington Bees	Community Field/3,502	2004	A Midwest	1,005/29%
Columbus Catfish	Golden Park/5,000	1926	A South Atlantic	1,022/20%
Beloit Snappers	Pohlman Field/3,501	1982	A Midwest	1,231/35%
Savannah Sand Gnats	*Grayson Stadium/8,000	1941	A South Atlantic	1,624 /20%
Kinston Indians	Grainger Stadium/4,100	1949	A Carolina	1,976/48%
West Tenn Diamond Jaxx	Pringles Park/6,000	1998	AA Southern	2,096/35%
Hunstville Stars	Joe W. Davis Municipal Stadium/10,200	1985	AA Southern	2,389/23%
Lynchburg Hillcats	Calvin Fallwell Field/4,000	1939	A Carolina	2,457/61%
Harrisburg Senators	Commerce Bank Park/6,302	1987	AA Eastern	2,488/39%
Connecticut Defenders	Thomas J. Dodd Memorial Stadium/6,200	1997	AA Eastern	3,015/48%
Tucson Sidewinders	Tucson Electric Park /11,500	1998	AAA PCL	3,552/31%
Midland Rockhounds	Citibank Ballpark/5,000	2002	AA Texas	4,240/85%
San Antonio Missions	Wolff Memorial Stadium /6,200	1985	AA Texas	4,352/70%
Colorado Springs Sky Sox	Security Services Field /9,000	1988	AAA PCL	4,392/49%
Richmond Braves	The Diamond/12,134	1985	AAA Int.	4,455/37%
Charlotte Knights	Knights Stadium/10,000	1990	AAA Int.	4,526/45%

*Major renovations will be complete by the 2009 season.

…and my three targets leap off the chart. Columbus averaged only 20% capacity? Beloit draws 1,231 per game and lost the home-state Brewers’ affiliation in 2004? Richmond’s averaged fewer fans per game than five Short-Season A franchises?

It’s no secret and no trend, old MiLB ballparks equates to lower attendance. In its marketing brochure, MiLB highlights this fact repeatedly: 117 new stadiums have been built since 1990, 51 since 2000 and 32 in the past five years.

Now that the Catfish have swum upstream to Bowling Green (Kentucky) and the R-Braves now reside in suburban Atlanta, only one of my top three targets remains available for relocation.

The Beloit Snappers.

The Snappers have qualified, in that they have failing marks, in each of my four keys to finding the perfect relocation candidate:

1. Pohlman Field, built in 1982; multiple ballpark referendums have failed in recent years;
2. Ranks second-to-last in attendance, averaging 1,231 fans per game; 35% capacity;
3. Due to a lack of a new stadium, the home-state Milwaukee Brewers ditched Beloit in 2004 and hooked up with the rival Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, leaving Beloit with the Minnesota Twins; and
4. The Snappers have never ranked in the top-half of merchandise sales. The Snappers have used its tired, constipated turtle logo since the team switched from its original Brewers’ nickname in 1995.

The Snappers’ vital signs are weak in Beloit. A new ballpark is not happening. Fans are staying away from games and the souvenir stands. The Brewers made the decision who to back inside state lines, and it’s not Beloit.

It’s time for a fresh start.

It’s time for the Snappers’ franchise to reinvent itself.

It’s time for the team to become an integral member of a nation.

And not just any nation.

A Cardinal Nation.

(To be continued.)

Credits: The Business of Sports Network / www.bizofbaseball.com (attendance figures); Ballparks of Baseball / www.ballparksofbaseball.com (ballpark information)