Dodger Change: Stadium for Rent

A wedding at home plate followed by a Stadium Club reception?

A corporate staff meeting in the clubhouse followed by a pickup game under the lights?

A company conference on the club level concourse followed by dancing and entertainment on a temporary stage in center field?

All of it is possible at Dodger Stadium this year.

The Dodgers, looking for ways to maximize revenue as the payroll soars, plan to rent the stadium for what President Bob Graziano describes as high-end events when the team is on the road.

Why not?

With Gary Sheffield in the lineup, the Dodgers are forced to operate something of a day-care center in left field, so why not a conference center in the infield?

“We don’t want to impact the baseball operations by creating a situation where we’re running a lot of people through here, but we have an incredible facility and we’re looking at ways to use it more than 81 days a year,” Graziano said.

“We’ve had a lot of requests in the past and shied away [from renting it] because the team’s use is first and foremost, but I think we can create a unique experience for a high-level corporate or personal event. I mean, we’ll open areas like the clubhouse and field that people normally don’t get to see or take advantage of. You can rent a hotel ballroom any day of the week. This is a unique opportunity.”

Aside from a few concerts or off-season events, the Dodgers may have shied away from the concept in the past because Peter O’Malley didn’t want it to appear that he was bleeding every penny out of the facility.

Times and economics change, along with ownership.

Now, even O’Malley supports the idea.

“It makes sense,” he said. “It’s a big property. You can put 50,000 in it, or you and your wife can rent it for a candlelight dinner on the mound.

“Hopefully, the sprinklers won’t go on.”

Said Graziano: “We’re in the unique situation of owning our own facility and we’re trying to minimize the burden of ownership while tapping into revenue sources so we can keep ticket prices relatively affordable.”

The Dodgers have created a new division, Dodger Stadium Marketing, that will work with the Corniche Group, a corporate event organizer, in planning and scheduling. The club is advertising the stadium’s availability through its Web site and is expected to promote it through Fox Sports One Integrated Sports Marketing Partnerships, an umbrella marketing group that represents the Dodgers, Kings, Galaxy and new Staples Center.

There will be no tractor pulls or motocross. The Dodgers will not return to find the field torn up.

Barry Stockhamer, the club’s vice president of marketing, said some events may last half a day, some two or three. He said packages would start at about $75,000.

“This is not something that’s going to happen every day while the team is on the road, but the demand is definitely there,” Stockhamer said.

“Companies all over the world are looking to do these special events--and are doing them. I’d characterize what we’re offering as a field of dreams environment.”

In the attempt to maximize stadium revenue, the major changes will be undertaken at the end of the 1999 season with construction of about 35 luxury suites on the club level, renovation of the Stadium Club and expansion of dugout and foul-line seating, including construction of a private dugout club for use by people sitting in those boxes.

But some changes will be visible next weekend, when the Dodgers play two games against the New York Yankees. There are new murals on the outfield fences and increased advertising. There are also 8,000 square feet of interactive game zones and exhibits--labeled the Dodger Experience--available free on the club level.

“We’re trying to retain the history and tradition while reaching out to a new generation of fans,” Stockhamer said, adding that the club’s 1999 advertising campaign is built around the concept of fun at Dodger Stadium. The slogan, he said, is, “Dodger Stadium, where everyone comes to play.”

Even when the team is playing elsewhere.

MIXED MESSAGE

The Baltimore Orioles are in Cuba today for an exhibition game that has basically split the baseball community.

Most Cuban players now in the major leagues, remembering families left behind and the lack of freedom under a dictatorship, oppose providing Fidel Castro with an international spotlight of this magnitude.

And many in management believe Oriole owner Peter Angelos isn’t as much interested in improving relationships as he is in gaining a competitive edge, securing a potential foothold among Cuban players who might eventually reach the majors.

John Henry, new owner of the Florida Marlins, blasted the trip, saying that if any team should be going it should be the team based in Miami, the hotbed of Cuban transplants. But Henry said no team should be going and added that major league baseball should have consulted him before approving such a controversial experiment in what he considers the Marlins’ backyard.

“The issue transcends baseball,” he said. “We shouldn’t be involved. We can’t resolve anything. It’s a political issue, and I don’t see one game of baseball helping anything.”

However, Preston Gomez, a Cuban native who managed in the big leagues and who managed the Havana Sugar Kings of the International League in 1959, said that although he “understands the feelings” of those who oppose it, “I still feel you have to start somewhere and it is time to start.”

A special assistant to Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi, Gomez will be back in Cuba today for the first time in almost 30 years. He has long bemoaned a situation that prevented the best Cuban players from reaching the majors, and he recalled being involved in planning for a 1976 exhibition in which a major league all-star team was prepared to go to Havana until the trip was canceled at the 11th hour when it was learned that Cuba had soldiers in Angola.

Gomez has maintained avenues of communication and said of today’s game and the popularity of baseball in Cuba, “If they had 200,000 seats, they would fill the stadium. It may be only an exhibition, but Cuba will be in an uproar if they should win.”

SIG ALERT

Pending an unexpected trade for a pitcher before the opener April 6, Angel Manager Terry Collins will hold another round of individual meetings with his four front-line outfielders to reassure them that each will get plenty of playing time, though one will generally have to sit out each game or serve as designated hitter.

Obviously, that’s not going to be Jim Edmonds or Tim Salmon, given their defensive credentials, meaning the designated hitter-bench role will generally go to Garret Anderson--given that Darin Erstad is considered the better fielder.

“Players view the season in the context of the first week,” Collins said in Arizona the other day. “They all want to be in the lineup and are unhappy if they’re not. But after 130 games, it’s different. Everybody is looking for a day off then. I’m comfortable we can make this work. They’re going to stay stronger, and we’re going to be better for it. If we’d had four outfielders [of that caliber] the last two years, the results might have been different.”

He referred to the foot injury that limited Salmon to a designated-hitter role last year and forced the Angels to rely on such players as Orlando Palmeiro, Reggie Williams and Gregg Jefferies down the stretch, and the knee injuries that diminished Edmonds’ late-season availability and effectiveness in 1997.

It’s a nice theory, but Collins faces a difficult task keeping the four happy, further complicated by the DH availability of Todd Greene.

The manager may have to rely on Mo Vaughn’s enforcement talents to keep egos in line and the October objective in mind.

MAGIC NUMBER

If the Texas Rangers are going to beat the Angels and Seattle Mariners and repeat as champions of the American League West, the starting rotation has to register at least 70 wins, Manager Johnny Oates says, setting that as a goal.

“The pitchers we have are capable of doing it,” he said.

Last year’s rotation got a surprising total of 39 wins from Rick Helling and Aaron Sele, but still finished last in the league for quality starts--at least six innings with three earned runs or fewer--while posting the highest earned-run average among the league’s rotations.

Todd Stottlemyre, who joined the Rangers at the July 31 trade deadline, is now with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rangers signed Mark Clark, who was with the Chicago Cubs last year, and the nomadic Mike Morgan, who appears to have ousted Esteban Loaiza as the fifth starter.

The projected rotation of Helling, Sele, John Burkett, Clark and Morgan won 61 games last year, which won’t do it, if Oates’ 70 is a must.

Of course, no one is comparing the Angel and Seattle rotations to the Atlanta Braves’ either.

And the Rangers are optimistic that better defense--stemming primarily from shortstop Royce Clayton--will lead to better pitching. Texas won 88 games despite 90 infield errors last year.

The immediate concern with the season starting in a week is the status of closer John Wetteland, plagued all spring by a bone chip in his right ankle and expected to open the season on the disabled list. If he does, Oates said he will close by committee, using Tim Crabtree, Danny Patterson, Eric Gunderson and Mike Munoz. Those four have combined for 18 saves in 52 chances, which is not very encouraging.

Wetteland had 42 saves last year, joining Dennis Eckersley, Jeff Reardon and Lee Smith as the only closers with 40 or more in three seasons.

MOUND MALADY

Orel Hershiser becomes a hot commodity at 40 because of the continuing dilution of pitching in a spring of devastating injuries and illnesses--to pitchers and position players alike.

There are plenty of examples of pitching’s fragile nature, but the St. Louis Cardinals provide one of the saddest.

Two years ago, the Cardinals had two of the top young pitchers in Alan Benes and Matt Morris. Both had No. 1 potential. Now the Cardinals have neither.

Benes, 27, hasn’t pitched since July 1997 because of two shoulder surgeries. He is not expected to be able to pitch again any time soon. Morris, 24, was sidelined for three months last year because of a nerve problem in his shoulder and learned this week that he will have to sit out this season because of a torn elbow ligament that will require reconstructive surgery.

“I’ve gone through the shoulder and elbow now,” he said. “Hopefully nothing will happen to the wrist.

“My head? You can’t screw that up anymore than it is.”

The Cardinals again have two of baseball’s top pitching prospects in Phil Ankiel and Chad Hutchinson, but neither will be rushed. Both are expected to open in double A.