Saturday, April 2, 2013
Gary Trundleburry, Shin Seiki Post

When the gates at Genesis Park open this spring, there will be significantly more people flowing through them than in 2012.  The long-discussed right field expansion has finally been completed.  After two years of wrangling with the league over permits, licensing and designs, the Evas were finally given the green light just before this year’s General Managers’ Winter Meetings.

So how does adding more seats make sure that more go to see an Evas game?  After all, they didn’t sell out every game in 2012; there were still tickets available to resourceful fans.  The Evas’ front office has a clear answer: family-friendly convenience.  In addition to being a 5,000-seat expansion, the latest addition in RF adds a number of family-friendly amenities:

• Muscles’s Playground: An exciting, modern and safe playground with a view overlooking right field.  Parents with toddler-age children can enjoy the game while their kids play safely and get their exercise so they can grow up to be being and strong like Evas ace Tsumemasa “Muscles” Abe.
• The Armory: A brand-new Evas team merchandise store featuring an equipment rental counter that offers free child-size binoculars (with deposit).  How better to introduce your kids to the game than by giving them a better view?
• The Nerv Center: A professionally staffed daycare for children aged three months to five years old.  Why bother with a babysitter?  There is no long-term planning or logistics required anymore to go to an Evas game.  Now you can come to the gate, buy tickets for those who want to see the game and affordable daycare passes for those who don’t!  If the little tike wants to come into the stadium with you later, that’s fine, too.  All daycare passes come with access to Muscles’s Playground and our complimentary child-size binocular rental.

The expansion is expected to not only make Shin Seiki Evas games more palatable to area families, but also give the team a big shot in the arm financially.  The move comes as no surprise to the Shin Seiki Post’s long-time resident LRS financial analyst, Ms. Linda “2×4” Pewterschmidt-Takayama, who had the following to say when I spoke to her about the announcement:

“A family-friendly stadium expansion was really a no-brainer for the Shin Seiki Evas.  The Evas sold over 96% of available regular season tickets in 2012.  With Genesis Park being filled to capacity or near capacity most nights, this move was expected.  Fan interest is almost immeasurably high and demand for tickets is at record levels.  Adding these new seats and amenities will not only increase the number of people coming to each game but increase the pool of consumers that want to go to Evas games.

“Because of this expansion and the competitive team they are expected to field, I expect the Evas to shatter their franchise attendance record of 2,675,352 set back in 2007 and to shatter the LRS revenue record of $67,528,893 set by Niihama-shi in 2010.

“Further, because of the recently announced end of the double dipping on gate revenue sharing, high-attendance teams like Shin Seiki are likely to see increased profitability until the increased overall revenue sharing rate becomes effective in 2015.

“Combine all of the above factors with the increased financial flexibility that their incoming crop of young players will provide and you have a Shin Seiki organization that should have the financial flexibility to add whatever talent is needed via free agent to stay in contention for the foreseeable future.”

I was lucky enough to get a few moments to talk about the expansion with Shin Seiki Evas’ General Manager Kevin Vail.

Shin Seiki Post: This seems like a big move for the Evas, finally getting to utilize some of your revenue sharing payments that had been set apart for ballpark-related costs.  What specific impact do you see this having on the Evas’ payroll in 2014 and beyond?

Vail: It is hard to say with certainty what effect the expansion will have on our LRS-level payroll or budgets for things like scouting or amateur signing bonuses.  I do expect it to be positive, but we aren’t comfortable putting a dollar amount to it at this time.  What I do know is that this will continue to grow the Shin Seiki Evas organization, the SSG and the LRS as a whole.  It should be a big help in reaching our organizational goal of becoming one of the top-twenty worldwide baseball teams in terms of overall revenue in the next three years.

Shin Seiki Post: Do you mean to tell the readers that you intend grow the Evas so much that you not only out-gross all LRS teams but five PEBA teams as well?

Vail: That is exactly what we intend to do.  We have a pretty long way to go to get there, but we are confident that we have the talent and the plan to get it done.

Wow.  Talk about a shot across the bow.  I don’t know how the Evas’ are planning to pull off a Herculean feat like that, but I’m betting that they do.