President of the Pacific Coast League since 1997, the 54-year-old Rickey is driving to make live minor league baseball America's pastime for more Americans once again. The focus of that push is increased attendance.
One of the most intelligent and articulate stewards of the game, Rickey talks one-on-one with MLN about modern era stadia, and the "leap of faith" needed in cities like his latest project: Albuquerque, New Mexico.
MLN: You are taking baseball in a lot of very good directions...
BR: "Baseball is taking me in a lot of very good directions. Let's call a spade a spade."
MLN Follow-up: "You're taking the PCL forward, and having to bring some of the less progressive people in baseball into the modern era..."
BR:"Let me clarify. There've been some really creative new owners in minor league baseball who've had to drag a baseball person like me, a traditional baseball person, in new directions. So this is almost like a mentoring process.
I have had the wonderful good fortune to be exposed to some very creative and far-sighted people. I had that tradition passed along to me on a different front. This just seems to fit like a glove for me. "
MLN: The Pacific Coast League has shuffled around a number of teams as it modernizes the infrastructure in its host cities. Is the process nearly complete, or is it just beginning?
BR: "Almost a third of the teams in the league are facing infrastructure issues."
MLN: You have many successes in cities like Sacramento and Memphis. Is there any kind of "blueprint" developing to help the remaining cities develop solutions to financing a new stadium?
BR: "It is becoming very unremarkable for cities to see the solutions [to financing] as a public and private partnership. It is always astounding to see the variation of financing mechanisms to solve those problems."
MLN: Have you had any failures that you've learned from?
BR: "The thing that you find out is that, inevitably, you stub your toe a couple of times. We were so excited about the AAA World Series. We have a bent toe. That doesn't mean we won't try to reestablish it..."
MLN Follow-up: What happened there? You're in Las Vegas, in a good venue, with lots of hotels nearby...
BR: "And $750,000 in sponsorships, which allowed us to pay all of our bills, and put a few frills on top of the thing.
Where we, perhaps... jumped... optimistically and a little bit over our heads into the deep end is that the competition in Las Vegas...
If you were to combine the entertainment competitors in all twenty-nine of our other markets it doesn't rival what exists in our one other city Las Vegas. Trying to create a 'splash' in Las Vegas on something other than a multimillion dollar budget is hard.
Plus, let's take the champions, Memphis. Memphis knows three days in advance that they're going to the championships. How many thousands of people can you expect to change their fall plans to support this? There was no lack of interest. No lack of enthusiasm. There was a lack of logistical feasibility."
CONTINUED...
