|
|
|
(Exit) Route for the Home Team?
After nine years, New Haven still hasn't fully embraced its Ravens. New GM Schierholz ponders why - and his team's uncertain future
|
Business New Haven
9/3/2002
By: BNH
|
On August 19 the New Haven Ravens hosted the first-place Norwich Navigators at historic Yale Field. The hometown nine, driving [at press time] for a playoff berth in the Eastern League's (AA) Northern Division, were hoping to halve the Navigators' two-game lead. On a picture-perfect baseball night, beneath a gauzy three-quarters moon rising behind the left-field wall, the Ravens did just that, winning 3-1 behind a brilliant five-hit performance over eight and two-thirds innings by righty Jeremy Cummings. The announced attendance: 1,703.
BNH spoke the next day with first-year Ravens General Manager Adam Schierholz, a native East Havener and 1987 Yale College grad, about his team's off-the-field fortunes, including declining attendance and advertising revenues, as well as persistent reports that owner Ed Massey might relocate the team to more fertile pastures.
How have the actual challenges of the job measured up against the perceived challenges?
It's a Herculean task to try to stop this train in its tracks and get it going in the right direction. The two things that have surprised me the most are, No. 1, how much of a slave you are to the weather. You can have all your plans and systems in place, but if it rains when you're playing Norwich on a Friday night, you're out $25,000. Last year to this point in the season almost three-quarters of [scheduled] home dates had good weather; this year only a little more than half have had good weather. And even when it's been [sunny] as in the past couple of weeks, it's been so hot and humid people want to stay [indoors].
What was surprise No. 2?
I really didn't think that this community was as apathetic as it appears to be toward Ravens baseball. I really thought people were staying away for the same reason I had stayed away. I came to a game in '98 and said I would never come back: I waited in line two innings for a hot dog, and the place wasn't clean. So when I took this job I thought I knew exactly what was wrong - it's not run well, it's not clean, the lines are too long. Those were our top priorities, and people are falling over themselves at how well we've fixed [those problems]. But they're still not coming here to the extent we'd like them to.
Do you think there's a fan 'hangover' from previous bad experiences?
Maybe it's going to take an entire year this year of having things under control and the team playing well, and then next year maybe there will be a 'reverse hangover' effect from the good things that happened this year.
Are there other factors contributing to fan apathy?
All I can do is compare. Locally, I look at the team down the road [the Bridgeport Bluefish] - that's not even affiliated [with Major League Baseball] - you look at the billboards on their outfield and they've got quite a bit of support from the business community. They started their season on May 3, and the Connecticut Post put out an eight-page special section dedicated to that team. And [because they are unaffiliated] there's no chance any of those [Bluefish] players are going to be playing for a Major League team - as two of ours already are this season. That's the kind of player you see out here - but we don't get an eight-page section dedicated to us from the [New Haven Register]. I go to Portland, Me. The Portland Sea Dogs are last in our division, and have no chance of going to the playoffs. Yet every day they are the front-page headline in that newspaper's [Portland Press Herald] sports section. You go to Reading, Pa., and everybody in that community is talking about the Reading Phillies, and every business is having their corporate outing at that ballpark [FirstEnergy Stadium]. They know it's good for the local economy. So you compare and contrast.
Ravens owner Ed Massey talks about lack of 'political' support here. But what's the connection between having a rah-rah mayor and actual fannies in the seats. Perhaps a mayor can better energize the corporate community to buy advertising and season tickets…
But that's where it starts - it's like a train picking up speed. [If the mayor says to companies] 'UI, you've got to spend $50,000 a year with the Ravens' - that translates into four or eight box seats [plus advertising]. Now, what's UI going to do with [those seats]? Maybe they reward employees [or customers]. Maybe they do a corporate outing for 300 people in our pavilion. That's big for us - 300 people times $17 a head. That's what we need to survive. That's what happens in other communities. There are so many communities out there that would lie, cheat, kick, steal, hit - whatever - to get a minor-league franchise, much less a Double A franchise.
What do the [parent St. Louis] Cardinals think about New Haven and, assuming the Ravens don't relocate, how secure is your affiliation agreement with them?
We're in the second year of a two-year affiliation agreement. I've spoken with St. Louis. At the beginning of the year there was a zero-percent chance that they would re-sign with us. They were totally disgusted with the situation here last year - on all fronts. We made a conscious effort to recognize this year that have two customers - one is the fan that comes to the games, and two is the team that sends us the players: the St. Louis Cardinals. We've accommodated as many of their requests as we could: We've upgraded the clubhouse; we've done a lot of work on the field.
What do they say now?
I sat down with [Cardinal management] in St. Louis at the end of July, and they said, 'We're thrilled with the work that you've done there. However, it's still in our best business interest to look elsewhere.' But if they don't find [a city] closer to their Triple A affiliate in Memphis, [at this point] they would have no qualms about [returning the team to New Haven].
Every month there's a new rumor about Ed Massey moving the team, whether to Cape Cod, Danbury, wherever. What is the likelihood the team will be back here next year?
One hundred percent. [A move] is not going to happen next year.
A new city would have to build you a ballpark.
That's No. 1. No. 2 is you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get approval from the different league [entities] to relocate a team anywhere.
In terms of corporate support for the team, what would you say to the business people who read this about why they should 'support' the team by investing in advertising, tickets, etc.?
For those companies out there that might like to help the Ravens but aren't sure that making such an investment is the right thing to do, there's no question that we are the right thing to do for coming out for a company outing. I don't understand why every company in the area with 30 employees or more doesn't come out here at least once a baseball season.
Since the reality is that they do not, how much do you attribute to their own short-sightedness vs. your own failure to do a successful selling job?
It's probably 50-50. There's no question there will be a greater emphasis on group sales next year. There will be a larger group-sales staff, and we will find every company between here and Hartford, here and Bridgeport, that has 30 employees or more, contact them all three or four times a season, and next year I'll be sitting here and either we'll have a full porch and pavilion, or I'll be saying it's the companies' fault, because they're not stepping up.
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
