Baseball franchise will be promotionally inventive

While Todd Parnell was the general manager at Class AA Altoona, Pa., his gall bladder was removed. He wanted to give it away as part of a game-night promotion. The plan was vetoed.

"My doctor got serious about Hazmat stuff," Parnell said.

Instead, at an Altoona game Parnell distributed 500 color pictures of his gall bladder, then autographed them in the stadium concourse. Parnell said that during subsequent months, he was occasionally stopped in the area and told, "Hey, I've still got your gall bladder on my refrigerator." Parnell, now the vice president and chief operating officer of Richmond's Class AA franchise, pledges that similarly inventive promotions -- though probably not as personal -- are coming to The Diamond.

"It will be creative. It will be fun," Parnell said.

Also while he was Altoona's GM, the Curve held Stink Night. To fans, clothespins were distributed for their noses as they walked past a display of Limburger cheese, old shoes and other malodorous items.

There was Frivolous Lawsuit Night. Altoona management mocked ludicrous legal action by serving lukewarm coffee that couldn't burn customers. The promotion carried a kicker: "If fans don't like it, they can sue us."

Altoona brought in stars of 1970s sitcoms for autograph sessions, and also held Train Wreck Night, on which there were contests related to celebrities whose missteps had been well-chronicled.

"We love to laugh," said Parnell, 43. "If we're doing our job and we're laughing, then chances are, our fans are going to be laughing too."

The Richmond Braves, the Class AAA franchise in existence during 1966-2008, operated primarily as a player-development branch of the Atlanta Braves, which owned the R-Braves. Creative promotions were uncommon, and marketed minimally, particularly in the R-Braves' final few seasons.

Management of the Eastern League franchise that will begin playing at The Diamond next season promises an agenda topped by entertainment and marketing. Also, the San Francisco Giants' Class AA farmhands will play baseball.

The Richmond club is owned by a partnership led by a boxing promoter, Lou DiBella, who lives in New York. Richmond hasn't experienced such an arrangement since a supermarket magnate from New England, Romeo Champagne, in the early 1960s owned the Richmond Virginians, the New York Yankees' Class AAA team.

Chuck Domino, the new franchise's chief executive manager, intends to spend about half of every month here. He is also president of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Philadelphia Phillies' Class AAA franchise. Full-time, on-site leadership of the Richmond operation will be the job of Parnell.

"He will be ubiquitous," Domino said.

There will be traditional promotions, giveaways of all sorts, according to Parnell. "But we'll add a little quirk to it," he said. "Maybe it's a seat cushion, but it's a seat cushion in a way you've never seen it before."

There is a serious side to Richmond management, too. General Manager Bill Papierniak is shooting for 3,200 season-ticket holders, enough to fill the lower deck. The R-Braves had about 1,200 season-ticket holders in 2008. "It's not [a goal] where we can just snap our fingers and magic's going to happen and we're going to be at that number," Papierniak said. "It's going to take effort, and it's going to take us demonstrating to the community that we are who we say we are."

The most noticeable difference at The Diamond will be dark green box seats in the lower deck rather than the aluminum benches present since the ballpark opened in 1985. The box seats will be installed from mid-January to mid-February.

The franchise has 20 full-time employees complemented by a much larger part-time work force that will be formed during the winter months.

"You drive into the parking lot, you see the parking lot attendant," Parnell said. "Then you go and buy your ticket, you see the ticket seller. Then you go through the gate, you see a security guard and ticket taker. Then you go to your seat and you see the usher. You've seen five people who are quote-unquote part-time employees.

"It's our job to instill the same type of passion and can-do attitude to those people as well."

Parnell reported that the franchise's Ticketpalooza held last Saturday at The Diamond drew about 1,000. Roughly 150 season tickets were purchased. "There's a bunch of teams in the country that would like to sell that many in four hours," Parnell said. "That's a good start. We're just using that as a building block."

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233