"We live in interesting times"

[Nigel]

San Antonio, Tx. Sunday, January 12th, 2036

As hinted at by their Front Office, there has been very little movement in the Calzones roster, but even their attempts to nibble around the edges of the free agent market have so far generally met with disappointment. The plan was to build towards a concerted effort in 2037, but as things stand San Antonio haven't made a start on filling any of the glaring holes in their projected roster.

We have of course just had the PEBA Rule 5 draft which the Calzones are a great fan of. Last year they selected eight players and were active again in this year's draft, selecting six more players this year, although we did lose one ourself this time around. The most interesting choice was 27-yr-old pitcher Mito Okuda who was drafted 44th overall, two places higher than the Calzones had drafted him in the 2035 Rule 5 draft. Then he got squeezed out by the numbers game, but a 16-1 record with a 2.27 ERA in Triple-A during last season obviously persuaded San Antonio to give the right-hander another chance to stick in the PEBA. The scouting department to be honest though are not very hopeful of this year's draftees and the inside word is that at least half of them might well be returned before the start of the 2036 season. Other than that the Calzones have only added a a 29-yr-old back of the rotation pitcher on a 1-year deal to the 40-man so far. The Rule 5 selections though have filled our 40-man roster up though, so any further FA signings may well see some of them heading home even before the start of the Spring Camp.

The most interesting news so far though is coming out of the Finance Planning department, the organization has set out clear goals to set the franchise on a firm financial footing before they even seriously look at attempting to improve the on-field product. A concerted social media campaign, on the back of a San Antonian newspaper survey which identified that San Antonio residents are really identifying and feeling loyal to the club at the moment, has been launched along with various initiatives to increase the attendance at Elysian Fields  from the just over 2,200,000 that came through the turnstiles in 2035. The intention is to make that the low tide mark and to significantly drive that forward in the years to come; already, despite a 35c rise in the seat prices for the new season, the number crunchers are predicting that the sale of season ticket plans could end up as being as much as 30% better than the 14,400 the Calzones sold last season. Sales are currently approaching the 8,000 mark and if, as they hope, that ends up around the 18,000 total, then the gate revenue per home game would be about $1.2 million, significantly up from the 2035 tally of around $860K a game. Elysian Fields has being looking quite tawdry for some time now, the 43,000 capacity stadium has been the only ever home the Calzones have played at in their 29 PEBA years. Over the off season a massive crew of maintenance workers have been crawling all over the stadium fixing its flaws and worn out parts. New paint has been slapped everywhere for the first time in years and last year's $9 million profit has enabled the franchise to actually do some construction work as well. The photo below shows the new video scoreboard installed in left-centre field with the distinctive "Laredo Girls" sat back-to-back on top of it. A massive surprise was the announcement that 5,000 seats have been added, bringing the capacity up to 48,000. It is the first expansion of the stadium in its lifespan and the franchise hope it will encourage more people to attend games and sit in the brand new stands. They weren't really needed as the Calzones have only attracted an average attendance over 40,000 four times in their history ( 2024, 2031, 2032 and their highest in 2023 when they managed over 42,600,000), but this is the start of the push to get San Antonio up the rankings.

The new-look Elysian Fields that will greet fans in 2036

The keen-eyed amongst you may well notice that despite the clean up, the main scoreboard is still promoting the 2008 Billy Joel concert. Unfortunately due to a slip of the pen and poor proofreading of the contract, we are legally obliged to promote the concert for another 72 years according to the terms of the contract we agreed to. We have, however, managed to display our new 30th anniversary logo on the scoreboard, this logo will be on all merchandise and official documentation during this upcoming year.