Cover Story: Corporate Destination
More Than Baseball, Marketing the Park
Fenway Transformed As,
Year-round Attraction
By Mark Batterson
Photography by CCM
As a tourist destination, Boston is the serenity of the famed swan boats idly paddling along the channels of the pond in downtown Boston Commons. A few blocks away, the city is the bustle of commerce at Fanueil Hall and the adjacent Quincy Market. And nearby it holds the lore of the Freedom Trail, along which Paul Revere once rode his steed warning the Minutemen of their date with the oncoming Redcoats.
These are all facets of the area used to lure conventions, corporate meetings, and private events to the city. Now add to that impressive list a mighty green structure standing in Kenmore Square since 1912 that is easily recognizable from the Massachusetts Turnpike as one heads into town. The excitement of Fenway Park has joined the roster of year-round attractions on Boston’s tourist itinerary.
“We recognize Fenway Park as a valuable asset for more than playing baseball,” says Chuck Steedman, senior director of business affairs for the Boston Red Sox. “It’s not a novel concept in sports venues, but it is a new approach here at Fenway Park. It’s not that different than what’s being done at other venues. It’s leveraging the brand of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park.”
Leveraging that brand means added focus on marketing the park itself. “Year over year, we have more than doubled our stream of events from 2003 to 2004,” he says.
Steedman, who spent a year working as a consultant on the ownership partnership’s $700 million purchase of the baseball team, park, and 80 percent of the New England Sports Network (NESN) in 2002, notes the necessity of such an approach. “The difference with us is we’re in this in pursuit of a championship. Everyone on this team feels the same way. We’re doing all we can to raise the revenue bar, so we can acquire the kind of players needed to win.”
Upping non-baseball revenues is important to the Red Sox. Steedman’s initial consulting role with the team ranged from creating the financial model to performing due diligence to soliciting additional partners to advising on architectural plans for Fenway’s rehabilitation and expansion. “The tenet was we love Fenway Park for all its scars. It has value, and we want to add to that value and leverage it.”
To maximize that leverage, the park, which is named for the Fens section of the city in which it resides, had to be enhanced from the version that owner John Taylor opened on April 20, 1912, with a 7-6 win ironically over the then New York Highlanders (forerunners of the Yankees). Though it had been rehabilitated several times since its opening, notably by a new owner, Tom Yawkey, in 1934, Fenway Park needed a transformation into the modern era.
Today the most noticeable changes include the new Monster seats on the leftfield wall added in 2002. The Budweiser Rightfield Roof Deck, with its hanging seats over the outfield stands, were added for the 2003 season. Those construction projects added more than 700 seats to Fenway’s seating capacity, which is now more than 35,000.
ss noticeable changes are the features wrought by Red Sox President Larry Lucchino’s notion of “fighting for inches.” The concept, Steedman says, involved “creating more spaces for fans to enjoy the field and the game. When we open the ballpark on game day there is more room and more space to make our fans comfortable.”
The concept involved subtle nuances such as opening the concourses in left and right field by rearranging the guts of the park; moving everything from storage under the seats to a two-story diamond-shaped parking garage beyond right field. “The higher use for that space created by moving warehousing and dry storage functions opens park space for fan-friendly uses,” he notes, such as larger gathering areas in the outfield concourses as well as more concession space and badly needed bathroom facilities. “The result is we created more space to do more things with the ballpark on a non-game basis.”
“We consider ourselves the stewards of the brand. We love opening the facility for movie crews and other activities as well as to the fans,” Steedman says on a tropical early September afternoon sitting in Fenway’s reserved seats behind home plate.
The previous ownership had some events at the park, but not too many. This ownership team has done all it can in raising non-baseball-related revenues. “I’m amazed it hadn’t been done here before,” he notes. “Now we’re opening the park for social events such as weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc., and corporate affairs like sales meetings, parties, even a record-label release party recently.”
The targeted marketing focus has meant working closely with the Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau as well as the city’s Chamber of Commerce helping to position Boston as a destination for major conventions. “The city has a brand new convention center and our role in this cooperative activity is obviously good for the city and us. It’s a symbiotic relationship,” Steedman says.
As an example, in late August 2004 while the Democratic National Convention met in the city to nominate favorite son Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as its presidential candidate, Fenway Park hosted a number of events during the week. Parties from as few as 20 people to 1,700 were held, from small dinners in a club suite with the convention shown on a plasma television to a barbeque luncheon followed by personal tours of the park.
It’s all in day’s work for the native of East Brookfield, Mass., just west of Worcester, who after earning a bachelor of science degree in sports management from the University of Massachusetts, joined the University of Connecticut as director of athletic marketing from 1984 to 1992 as Husky basketball teams began a rise to prominence in the Big East Conference. From there Steedman migrated to Charlotte, N.C., and Raycom Sports, a sports broadcasting and marketing company that at that time owned the television rights to several college conferences and a couple of minor football bowl games. While there he had charge of television programming, making deals for broadcasts with television networks as well as working in the event marketing and management division arranging golf tournaments and college basketball tournaments.
He was then headhunted to join American Skiing Company based in Maine. The job entailed sales and marketing in corporate partnerships. “At that time, I recognized that if I really wanted to leverage the experience I had (in team promotions, television rights, and corporate partnerships) I had to have my own company,” he recalls. That’s when he “morphed” into the consulting trade.
Steedman snagged American Skiing Co. as one of his first clients. It was American Skiing CEO Les Otten who called one day reporting that he was joining a partnership with John Henry and Tom Werner and others to buy the Red Sox. “He asked ‘Would you like to help us?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ If somebody asked you to work for the Red Sox, what would you say?”
“It was a tremendous opportunity to come in and be part of this. Fenway Park is such a special venue and place. If any place ever sold itself, it is here,” he says, ever mindful of the Red Sox’s plan to enhance non-baseball revenue in pursuit of a World Series championship.
While the BoSox won’t reveal actual revenues, “as it’s a privately held company,” Steedman says, “just say we like to believe that what we add here is profitable to the company’s goals.”
With the plan in place now even the off-season promises to add further value to the operation as events are booked in all the park’s facilities, including:
- The .406 Club, the plush, glass-enclosed private area at the top Fenway behind the home plate screen that can accommodate up to 600 people with two buffet settings and three bars including piano entertainment. It’s a formal area providing a panoramic view of the ballpark.
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The Budweiser Right Field Roof Deck, an open-air pavilion elevated well above the Green Monster atop the right field stands that features 200 seats, including those hanging above the grandstands behind Pesky’s Pole, and a long bar and grill facility providing standing room for another 150 patrons. Its ambience can be compared to a beach bar including the warm summer breeze that wafts across the deck. - The Monster Seats high above the 37-foot high left field wall, which feature seating for 278 fans and standing room for another 100 and includes several small bars tucked under the light standards.
- The Hall of Fame Club, a smaller room down the hall from the .406 Club featuring artifacts and memorabilia from the Red Sox past.
- The Crown Royal Club, an intimate club room off the left field concourse with a separate entrance from Brookline Avenue open to those holding premium game tickets, all seats in the first two rows around the infield. The club, formerly the site of the BoSox souvenir store, includes a buffet station and two bars with seating for 100 or so.
- The Players Club, yet another small party area.
“We can accommodate almost anything — functions of from 20 people to 2,000 — no make that 35,000 if you want the whole ballpark,” boasts Steedman.
Feeding this venture at the Fenway venue is Aramark Services Inc., holder of the contract for food and beverage at the park. From the game day concessions to elaborate party buffets and full meals, Aramark handles all catering services. “We’re lucky because they get the hospitality business,” Steedman notes. Aramark staffs Fenway with an executive chef, four sous chefs, and dozens of other chefs on site and “they have conjured up some amazing meals here,” the BoSox official remarks.
In off-season the Sox marketing mavens put in place a virtual tour of Fenway Park via the team’s Web site where browsers can view every crevice of the park. It will be as if they had joined one of the guided tours that run every hour on the hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, year-round from the Red Sox Souvenir Stop on Yawkey Way across from the .406 Club entrance. Tour costs are $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $10 for ages 14 and under. When the field is available, fans may also have the opportunity to walk along the warning track and come face-to-face with the fabled Green Monster (subject to availability.) For details and to check pricing call (617) 226-6666 or email tours@redsox.com.
Bookings can be arranged via telephone at 877-REDSOX9 by following the prompts to events at Fenway Park.
Message Board Requests
Fans can have the names of people celebrating birthdays or wedding anniversaries posted on the center field scoreboard by making a charitable donation in any amount to the Red Sox Foundation. (Sorry, due to the number of requests, no personalized or custom birthday messages are possible.) Marriage proposals can also be posted for a minimum $100 charitable donation to the Red Sox Foundation. The donation, which must be made by check payable to the Red Sox Foundation, should be sent to Message Board Requests c/o Fan Services/Fenway Ambassadors, Boston Red Sox, 4 Yawkey Way, Boston, MA 02215. Donations must be received by noon on the day of the game or by the end of the day Friday for weekend games in order for messages to appear. For additional information or for answers to questions regarding the message board policy, call (617) 226-6000.
