Padres Join Teams Seeking to Lure Fans From Offices

Sometimes, the best business deals are struck over a hot dog, a Coke and a cellular phone, six rows up along the first-base line.

“A bad day at the ballpark beats a really good day at work,” said banker Jeff Nelson, who shed his coat and tie this week and took a client to a minor-league Buffalo Bisons game in the middle of the workday.

The suits are invading baseball parks in growing numbers as more teams offer promotions to bring businessmen and businesswomen into the stadium for weekday afternoon games. For most teams, that means offering discount tickets and meal prices.

This season, the Triple A Bisons have taken the idea of a business special to extremes. Pilot Field, which is walking distance from Buffalo’s downtown banking and office district, offers many comforts of the workplace, including free cellular phone and fax machine services.

“We don’t want anyone not coming to a game because they say, ‘Oh, I have work to do at the office,”’ said Bisons assistant general manager Mike Buczkowski. “They can get it all done at the ballpark.”

The Bisons run Businessperson’s Day at the ballpark at each home game on Wednesdays -- when the crowd of fans in shorts and T-shirts is infiltrated by coats and ties.

The San Diego Padres are also out to woo business fans. “We see a lot more people with ties loosened and sleeves rolled up these days,” said Tom Ryba, spokesman for the Padres. San Diego offers a discount package aimed at the business trade for the Padres’ weekday home games this season.

“People look out their office window at 12:30, they see the sun’s out and say, ‘I’m going to the ballpark,”’ Ryba said. “It’s a good excuse to come to a game.”

More fans nowadays ask for receipts at concession stands, a sign that business people are planning to put their ballpark franks and sodas on the expense account, according to to Buffalo Bisons’ Buczkowski.

This week, health care equipment salesman Alan Lee of Buffalo brought his boss, Ron Thompson of Virginia Beach, Va., to the Bisons game so they could discuss marketing strategy.

Lee used the Bisons’ cellular phone service to return calls left on his digital pager.

“This seems to be a real crowd-getter,” Thompson said. “Instead of sitting in the office, we can come out here and talk over ideas.”

Cellular phones and fax machines are available at a booth near the concession stands. Business people also can arrange to have a cellular phone brought to their seat, Buczkowski said.

This year, the Bisons also began offering shoeshines and haircuts in the stands. Carl Cole, dressed in a tuxedo, charges $2.50 for shoeshines, while barber Charlie Ciotta charges $5 for a haircut.

“There’s always the chance a customer sitting in my seat might reach out and catch a home run,” Ciotta said, as hair snipped from a customer’s head blew like gnats around his head.