“POD ’10” – Expanding Opportunities

While Major League Baseball teams are consolidating their Minor League affiliates and bringing them closer to the big-league markets (what I like to call “Project Come Home”), Minor League Baseball continues to expand its opportunities to tap into new markets and revenue streams (“Project Expand Horizons” sounds right).

And in 2010, these two, competing operational considerations continue to gain momentum.

One of the greatest challenges for this fictional franchise birth was the existence of the Player Development Contracts (PDC). My targeted team-to-move, the Beloit Snappers, recently signed an extension for its PDC with the Minnesota Twins through 2012, and the deal makes sense for both Beloit (the closest MLB team to Beloit not named Milwaukee) and the Twins (a relatively close affiliate to the Twin Cities).

But “trading teams” and “trading PDCs” just don’t happen in MiLB. As I was trying to find a solution to this last remaining puzzle piece for my fictional case study – and I have been stuck on this since Opening Day 2009 – a beautiful story came across the wire last Thursday:

“Pirates, Reds to swap affiliates”

With the news that the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds traded their High Class A affiliates (Lynching and Sarasota, with the ex-Reds relocating to Bradenton), the door blocking my idea came flying off its hinges. Everything I thought I could do with this hypothetical idea – but couldn’t lacking a precedent – became an instant possibility. And trading affiliations within the same League should be easier to gain approval and execute than what the Pirates and Reds have to do with Sarasota/Bradenton (Florida State League) and Lynchburg (Carolina League).

Two other aspects of this affiliate-switch hammers home my theoretical takeover of Beloit: 1) Pittsburgh is purchasing the now-Bradenton franchise and will own the team outright, and 2) the former Sarasota franchise ranked amongst the lowest of all MiLB teams in attendance in 2009.

The Pirates are jumping on the “Project Come Home” bandwagon by bringing an affiliate to its Spring Training home in Bradenton.

Pirates President Frank Coonelly outlined all of the benefits having a team in Bradenton will provide: “If completed, the move will allow us to take even greater advantage of McKechnie Field and our new Pirate City facilities. In addition to the benefits to our Minor League players and our development staff, the move of our High-A team to Bradenton would allow us to have rehabbing Major League players begin their return to work in Bradenton, where we have our rehab coordinator and rehab facilities.”

And it is not like anyone in Sarasota is going to miss the Reds. The team ranked dead last (176 of 176) in all of Minor League Baseball in average attendance with a grand total of 527 per game; so the bar is not set very high for Bradenton in 2010.

Beloit actually increased its average attendance in 2009 – up 2% to 1,264 per game. Unfortunately, that still ranks as second-to-last in the Midwest League (Burlington) and 154th in all of MiLB. What also doesn’t help Beloit’s cause is its estimated population is just a bit more than 37,000, or about four times more than what the attendance-leading Columbus Clippers averaged per game last year.

On the opposite but still-parallel path, the Midwest League will expand its territory in 2010 into eastern Ohio and Kentucky with the addition of the Lake County Captains and Bowling Green Hot Rods.

Prior to this expansion, the longest bus trip between markets was 8 hours and 28 minutes between Midland (MI) and both Burlington (IA) and Cedar Rapids (IA). The addition of Bowling Green (KY – the southernmost market) and Eastlake (OH – the new eastern edge of the League) extends those drive times across the league. The Appleton (WI) to Bowling Green shuttle is 9 hours and 47 minutes.

With the remaining roadblocks now rendered obsolete, it is time to liquidate the Snappers’ remaining merchandise and pack the moving vans for a 6-hour, 44-minute drive south to a new home in the middle of a Nation….