Cashing In On Sports
PNC Park Rating Could Be Boon For Pirates & Pittsburgh
By Guy Junker

In 1976, the New York Times ran a column rating rated roller coasters at U.S. amusement parks. The Times column declared rather boldly that Kennywood's Thunderbolt was "King of the Coasters", the best wooden coaster in the country.

"It gave us a huge lift," says Carl Hughes, Chairman Emeritus of Kennywood Park. "Thousands of people traveled to the park, some even from abroad, an audience that we had not gotten before. We plastered that all over our marketing the next year, took out half page ads in the newspapers, and played it up on TV and the radio."

Last month, Jim Caple of ESPN.com completed a summer of visiting every major league baseball park and proclaimed PNC Park as the best. Numero Uno. Caple used a 20 category system taking everything into account from the quality of hot dogs to the architecture.

Hughes thinks the Pirates can use the 'best' ranking to great advantage. And he knows more than roller coasters. Before he worked for Kennywood, he was a sportswriter for the old Pittsburgh Press and still attends most Sunday Pirate games at PNC Park.

"We were absolutely thrilled with the ESPN designation," says Patty Paytas, Pirates Vice President of communications. "In fact, we are still pouring through their gradings to see if we can learn some things from what they found at the other parks."

Mike Berry is the Pirates vice president for marketing and sales and he says the ESPN list "will definitely play a part in our advertising and promotional campaign for 2004. We want to be more aggressive in West Virginia, eastern Ohio and in Pennsylvania north of Allegheny County." Those plans are just getting underway for next year, but Berry and Paytas both say that the focus still has to remain on local fans, most of which already know how great a place PNC Park is.

While the Pirates may just need people in the ballpark, the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to put "heads in beds". That's the way GPCVB Executive Vice President Bob Imperata puts it. The ESPN ranking will be one of the highlights in their strategy for next year. "After three seasons, it's hard to market PNC Park as new anymore. We needed another angle and that's it."

Imperata says the GPCVB and the Pirates already share advertising of packages for out of town fans. But the ESPN rating could possibly lead to the GPCVB doing some advertising on their own, particularly in newspapers. Berry says the Pirates will explore that too, although in the past, direct marketing trying to entice opposing teams' fans to visit Pittsburgh has produced minimal return.

Where the Pirates and Pittsburgh might get a bump up in business is from sports tour companies who cater to fans wanting to travel to various events and venues. For these fans, the best major league ballpark would certainly be an attraction. Baseball fans are different that way. Football fans will travel to see their team play on the road. But baseball fans visit Chicago just to see Wrigley Field or Baltimore to see Camden Yards, even if their favorite team isn't playing.

Individual businesses should prosper from the 'best' ranking as well. Tony Aslanian was more than enthused to hear of the ESPN honor. He's the director of sales and marketing for the downtown Hilton. The Hilton relies heavily on business customers during the week, but on sports and the cultural district to fill rooms on weekends. Anywhere from 75 to 175 rooms are booked with baseball fans on weekends when the Pirates are home. And Aslanian expects those numbers to go up. "Absolutely, if this is marketed well, it will be a great tool." He plans on using it in his own leisure marketing campaign for the Hilton.

Jim Caple lived out the dream of many baseball fans this summer by visiting the home of every major league team. His choice of PNC Park as the top dog is a dream for the Pirates. It certainly won't solve all of their financial woes but it is tribute to those who planned and built the facility and, more importantly, it represents an opportunity.

Even though the 'best' designations of the Thunderbolt and PNC Park were each only the opinion of one, when the opinions come from respected sources like the New York Times and ESPN, people notice. It's been a long time since the Pirates and first have been used in the same sentence. This is a nugget that fell into their lap. Hopefully, the Pirates (and Pittsburgh) will use it to their advantage at a time when any good economic news is welcome.

Guy Junker covers sports business for Pittsburgh Sports Report.