Padres Making a Big Move in International League

The San Diego Padres didn’t have to go to Monterrey, Mexico, again to expand their horizons--and market.

They have been doing it regularly and imaginatively closer to home ever since John Moores and Larry Lucchino took over ownership in December 1994.

Taking advantage of their proximity to the border, they have made Tijuana and other Baja California cities a focal point of marketing and sales efforts--the first team to have an international and Hispanic marketing department.

Amid the clubhouse celebration in Atlanta after the Padres won the 1998 National League pennant, Lucchino, the team president, held up the trophy, looked into the cameras and said, “Thank you San Diego and thank you Baja.”

Don’t think that didn’t register down Mexico way.

Lucchino estimates that in the last four years ticket sales in Mexico and among Mexican-Americans living in the San Diego area have tripled, rising from single digits to between 20% and 25% of the Padres’ total--2.5 million in 1998. Corporate sales among Mexico-based companies now generate seven figures, he said.

“The magnitude of that combined marketing and ticket operation is very important,” Lucchino said, referring to its impact on the Padres’ overall revenue.

At a time when opening-day rosters included 178 players born outside the U.S., representing 16 foreign countries and Puerto Rico, the Padres’ success has not gone unnoticed by other clubs. The Angels, in a long overdue move, are making a major effort to reach the Latino community. Almost every club has initiated some type of cultural and ethnic program in an attempt, as the industry likes to say, to grow the game and to grow revenue.

The 1996 series against the New York Mets in Monterrey and Sunday’s season opener there against the Colorado Rockies have underscored the Padre commitment.

“I’d like to think we are a team with a foreign policy,” Lucchino said. “The Dodgers were out there alone in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s [in regard to international exploration], but I consider the Padres among the vanguard now, and it’s a vanguard that figures to get crowded with other clubs jumping in. I think there’s a much higher . . . awareness now of the international possibilities.

“I also think [the industry has a] more strategical approach than ever before and that one of the legacies of Bud Selig’s commissionership will be the commitment to international growth and marketing.

“It’s not rocket science. Name an industry that hasn’t expanded from local to regional to national to international as the technology has improved. A lot of countries have a rich baseball heritage, and we have a responsibility to tap into that.”

In the reorganized commissioner’s office, Paul Beeston, baseball’s chief operating officer, supervises the international movement.

According to an official, thought is being given to opening every season with a game or series outside the U.S.

The Baltimore Orioles opened the door to Cuba. The Seattle Mariners are hoping to inaugurate the 2000 season in Japan against an opponent yet to be identified.

The ’99 opener in Monterrey sold out in 5 1/2 hours.

Said Enrique Morones, the Padre vice president of Hispanic and international marketing: “There is no doubt about it. A major league team will be based in Mexico within 10 years.”

Lucchino isn’t so sure.

“I don’t foresee another expansion in the near future,” he said. “Until we get our house in order, the Padres would throw our bodies in front of any expansion train. You don’t expand your house when it’s not in proper economic state.”

The Monterrey opener was billed as a Padre home game, but the appearance of Colorado third baseman Vinny Castilla, who is Mexican, left little question as to which team the fans supported.

Tony Gwynn, the Padre right fielder, didn’t like the concept. He bemoaned the loss of a true home game, especially a season opener coming off a pennant.

“I know athletes are spoiled, with chartered planes and the best hotels,” he said, “but to travel 2,400 miles to play a home game?

“Major league baseball is trying to plant flags everywhere. Well, we already planted a flag there. We played there before.

“The defending National League champions should open at home, handing out rings and raising the flag.”

The Padres did just that Tuesday, drawing 61,247 for their real home opener at Qualcomm Stadium.

“We discussed the Monterrey trip with the players last September and they signed off on it,” Lucchino said. “Tony’s attitude would have been different if we had won. We were beat pretty good [8-2], and that took some of the bloom off the rose, but as an international event it was terrific.

“The players and the players’ association have to realize that we can’t do business as usual. The only people doing well the way we’re doing it are the players. Clubs are losing money, ticket prices are going up and the economic system is out of whack. We have to look for new revenue streams.”

The Padres have found one in Mexico--”an untapped gold mine,” Morones said.

They operate a Tijuana store that sells tickets and merchandise, and they provide free transportation to and from Sunday games.

They built a Little League field in Tijuana in 1997 and sponsored a clinic in Culiacan last year that featured Gwynn and Rod Carew and drew 6,000 youngsters. Although their new ballpark, scheduled to open in 2002, will have about 15,000 fewer seats than Qualcomm, Lucchino believes the Padres will do even better among Mexico-based fans because of the trolley accessibility and the fact that “we are going to have lots of affordable family tickets in far better locations than at Qualcomm.”

The Padres, at this time, have not scheduled another game in Monterrey, but their foreign policy is very much alive and well.