Fans For All Seasons
By Sara J. Bennett

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Thud. “Ball!” Thud. “Strike 2!”

Seven-year-old Spenser Brown stood in a pitching cage, hurling baseball after baseball over a simulated home base while his sister, MacKenzie, called the pitches from behind a catcher’s mask embedded in the far wall. Their mom, Holly, stood nearby, holding Spenser’s Cincinnati Reds jacket and admiring the other interactives at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum’s “Play Ball” gallery.

“We’re big fans, and we’ve been meaning to come down here for awhile,” she said. “We hit the kids’ area, and now we’re in hog heaven.”

Spenser and his family weren’t waiting for a game to start, nor were they taking a break from the heat during a slow inning. They were visiting Great American Ball Park on a rainy day in November. The year-old home of the Reds is now a 365-day-a-year destination thanks to the Hall of Fame and Museum, which opened in late September.

Great American is the latest major sports venue to go year-round as teams look for ways to increase revenue, strengthen their brands, and build fan loyalty. Last fall, the Green Bay Packers got into the act when the team unveiled the capstone of its $295 million stadium renovation. The Lambeau Field Atrium blends themed retail and restaurants with interactive museum experiences and a new hall of fame in an attraction that SportsBusiness Journal dubbed a “fan magnet.”

At the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, fans can go behind the scenes to get to know the Packers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame through lockers dedicated to the 19 inductees.

As exhibit designers for both the Reds and Packers projects, Cincinnati-based Jack Rouse Associates has seen a trend in franchises that are making the most of their real estate by keeping their facilities open, making money, and providing fan-centric fun throughout the year.

“Teams are looking at ways to celebrate and engage fans during the off-season,” said Amy Merrell, JRA’s Chief Operating Officer. “With so many other entertainment options competing for peoples’ attention, they’re realizing they need to keep the interest of current fans while creating new ones, too. Going year-round makes stadiums and the sports they represent accessible to a wider audience.”

“From Game Day to Every Day”

“Look at all these records—there’s 13 of them, I’ll have you know,” 35-year-old Anne Harrod said to co-worker Dan Hampshire as they surveyed an exhibit dedicated to Pete Rose at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. “He should be in (Cooperstown). He should.”

Walking up the staircase to the main exhibit area, Harrod and her companions passed a floor-to-ceiling wall of baseballs representing Rose’s 4,256 career hits. To their left, floor-to-ceiling windows gave a view of Great American Ball Park’s concourse, where outdoor interactives like “Vertical Leap” and “Today’s Line-Up” waited for next season’s crowds.

The year-round trend is part of a bigger movement that sees sports as a total entertainment package. Game-day interactives such as the ones at Great American Ball Park have been gaining popularity for several years. For example, Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park opened in April with exhibits honoring the city’s pro baseball heritage and a stand where fans can create a customized version of the Phillies mascot.

“(Today) you’ll see everything from educational efforts such as the Braves’ joint venture with the Atlanta History Museum to present players and strategic skills in a way that helps fans better understand the game, to the sheer frivolity of having your picture taken as you leap for a ball against a faux scoreboard, to having an autograph session with a player,” said Janet Marie Smith, Vice President of Planning and Development for the Boston Red Sox. Often touted as a visionary in the sports venue entertainment field, Smith spearheaded Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which is widely seen as the first sports facility to make the leap from ball park to gathering place. She also led the development of Atlanta’s Turner Field, which local and national press called baseball’s first theme park.

The children's area of the Packers Hall of Fame lets little
fans try on the uniforms of their favorite players.

While game-day entertainment is aimed at getting fans to come early and stay late, year-round venues invite them to come any time.

“We look at it that we went from game day to every day,” says John Jones, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Green Bay Packers. “Our theory was that we could create a new paradigm of stadium destination tourism.”

According to Jones, the idea for the Atrium at Lambeau Field came from fans who kept calling, wanting to use the historic stadium for weddings and other special events. Before the renovation, the stadium couldn’t handle their requests.

“I remember in the old stadium in 1999, I looked out my office window and a van pulled up with Canadian license plates,” he recalls. “The doors open, and guys are piling out of the van doing this victory dance that they’re at Lambeau. They took pictures of one another, did a few war whoops, then got back into the van and drove away. Maybe they went back to Canada. We saw these things and we thought, what if we could create a place where all these people could come and have meetings and celebrations, and what if we had entertainment like a hall of fame and a stadium tour, and what if we had great food and a place where kids could have a great time?”

The result is the 366-square-foot, five-story Atrium. It includes restaurants, Packers retail shops, meeting and event facilities, an interactive fan zone and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. Visitors can view a film hosted by Brett Favre examining how the Packers have used the “frozen tundra” to their advantage over the years; play in a life-sized diorama capturing the thrilling moments at the end of the 1967 “Ice Bowl”; learn about Vince Lombardi in a re-creation of his office; and see a multimedia show celebrating great moments in Packer history while viewing the franchise’s three Super Bowl trophies.

When creating the exhibits and other experiences for the Packers Hall of Fame, designers worked to create experiences that would draw a wide audience, from die-hard fans to the casual tourist. The designers also worked with Wisconsin’s public school system to create exhibits that use football to teach concepts like math, science, nutrition and teamwork.

Fans are at the center of the Reds project, too. Early on, team representatives held two town hall meetings, one with season ticket holders and one that was open to the public. As the project progressed, fan input also was gathered via e-mail. The Hall of Fame and Museum is filled with homages to the fans, from a re-created Palace of the Fans theater façade, to the exhibit honoring Cincinnati’s famous opening day parade, to a re-created rec room packed with memorabilia.

The Great Eight: This tribute to the Big Red Machine features eight life-sized figures (Rose, Griffey, Morgan, Foster, Bench, Perez, Concepcion and Geronimo) celebrating a championship moment based on the final play of the 1972 NL pennant game.

These kinds of attractions are great ways for teams to tell their stories and let fans know they’re appreciated. They’re also an investment in the fans of the future.

“Not everybody is born into a family where it becomes their first love, so it’s nice to be able to offer something that appeals to people who may only go to one or two games,” says Janet Marie Smith. “Conventional wisdom would say that if you’re interested you’re going to come back.”

Year-round facilities are also revenue generators, bringing added value to a building that otherwise would sit idle during the off-season. The Cincinnati Reds estimated its new Hall of Fame and Museum would draw about 200,000 visitors in its first year for an annual revenue of $1 million to $1.5 million. In Green Bay last year the Atrium’s retail space generated over $15 million in revenue, making it the NFL’s #1 team-operated single store. The Packers went from #16 to #13 on Forbes’s list of top-earning NFL teams, and Jones reports that more than 1,300 events have been held at the facility with bookings stretching into 2010.

Ultimately, he says, it all goes toward putting a better product on the playing field.

“Every day of the week, teams are in competition to build more local revenue. It’s extremely important in our league that you be competitive off the field. If you’re not competitive economically off the field, it will be very difficult for you to be competitive on the field.”

Looking Ahead

As Anne Herrod and her friends made their way toward the end of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, they found themselves in a reverently lit space where bronze plaques representing the inductees hung suspended on cable between the floor and ceiling. From Johnny Bench to Joe Nuxhall, the recorded voices of enshrined players and other luminaries echoed throughout the room.

“It’s almost overwhelming, there’s so much to see,” said Harrod. “I think this was a long time coming.”

Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall--partners for 31 seasons on the Reds Radio Network--coach fans in the finer points of calling a baseball games. Then fans get to try their hands at calling a major play.

Fans of other teams might see similar facilities coming to their hometowns. Jones says several teams have expressed interest in what the Packers did with the Atrium, most notably the Dallas Cowboys, who are planning a new stadium for Arlington, Texas.

With fans embracing teams from all over the country and world, these facilities have the potential to become bona fide tourist attractions. The keys to their success will lie in staying true to the team’s unique story, fanbase and history.

“There is a feeling (in pro sports) that fans are increasingly more transient,” says Janet Marie Smith. “It used to be you knew your home town team and their venue and not any others. I think that’s a piece of sports that is not going to go away, and I think the challenge for stadiums is to make sure that what they do feels real and authentic to their particular city and their particular franchise.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sara J. Bennett is a Senior Writer for Jack Rouse Associates.

Jack Rouse Associates is a design and master planning firm that for more than 25 years has been creating engaging experiences for stadia, museums, theme parks, corporations, and zoos. Recent sports clients include the Cincinnati Reds, the Green Bay Packers, the Indiana Pacers, the Atlanta Braves, the Columbus Blue Jackets and DAYTONA USA.

[Top] [Print this Page]