As a student at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business, Colorado native Charles Monfort was struck by how many Denver Broncos' fans he met in Salt Lake City.
Monfort has kept that in mind since becoming chairman and CEO of the Colorado Rockies baseball team in 2003, 11 years after graduating from the U. of U. with a bachelor's degree in marketing and business management.
Last Wednesday, for the third year in a row, he flew into Salt Lake City with two other team executives to meet local news media and business leaders in a low-key effort to build a fan base for the team along the Wasatch Front.
The effort takes on added importance this time around because of an economic climate that already has pushed down Major League Baseball attendance 7 percent in the young season. Rockies management hopes this and other strategies, along with baseball's enduring national appeal, will help carry the team and the sport through the recession.
"Baseball has endured a lot of tough economic times, other difficult times, too," said team president Keli McGregor, noting baseball's role in helping communities and the country come together after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
"Some of the most touching scenes you saw that fall were in ballparks," McGregor said.
For the rest of the 2009 and beyond, the Rockies are banking on Utah to lay a new course.
"We need to do something in Salt Lake City," said Monfort. "There are plenty of [airline] flights back and forth between Denver and Salt Lake, and it's even close enough to drive."
And with 126 Rockies games televised in Utah on a Fox Sports Network regional channel, Monfort is confident there is enough familiarity with the club to entice Utahns to take a quick trip to the Mile High City for a weekend of ballgames.
"You can get there Friday night, see three games and get back to Salt Lake by Sunday evening," he said last week. Monfort was speaking to invited guests such as Salt Lake City businessman Kem Gardner and U. of U. business school dean Jack Brittain at the offices of Love Communications, a Salt Lake City advertising firm that represents the Rockies' interests on this side of the Rocky Mountains.
Brittain has made baseball road trips to Denver with his sons, now ages 17 and 13, and hopes to do so again this summer -- perhaps when Monfort stages his annual University of Utah Alumni Day at Coors Field, this year July 24.
"It's a great way to do a real quick getaway," Brittain said, citing the appeal of Denver's downtown district in the hours before and after game time at Coors Field, whose 1995 opening helped stimulate the revitalization of the city's old hub.
Brittain mentioned the outside-the-stadium appeal because an 81-game home schedule dictates that Major League Baseball teams emphasize the overall experience of seeing a game, not just focus on what happens between the first and third base lines.
"Baseball is an interesting business, if you think about it. If a team has a 90-win season, that's a good season. But it also means they lose 70 games," he said. "The challenge on the business side is to keep fans coming. What is the total ballpark experience so that a family can have fun, even if the home team loses?
"So they have things for kids to do, restaurants in the stadium, promotions," Brittain added. "Charlie is very articulate about the business side of things, so I like talking to him about it."
Monfort said the Rockies are still figuring out how best to market the team in Utah, trying to build grass-roots support through individual contacts rather than splashy -- and expensive -- advertising.
"They [Monfort and McGregor] are handshake guys. They like to talk to people, to find out if there is a way to partner up that works for you and us. That's what's important to them and what lasts," said Greg Feasel, the Rockies' vice president of business operations. "It's a pretty simple message, but it's true."
He would not say how much money the Rockies spend on marketing in Utah, adding "it is not big compared with what we do in Colorado. We're focusing on our core business, but also want to grow our emerging markets."
Neither task is easy in a depressed economy. As of last Tuesday, attendance at all Major League Baseball parks was down almost 7 percent. The Rockies actually were up, but had played only three of their first 14 games at home.
Monfort said season-ticket sales are down this year, primarily because of timing. Season tickets came up for renewal in November and December, well within the aftershock period of the financial system's collapse. But he thinks the club will make up for that through sales of "value packs," ticket packages that involve fewer games, and individual game tickets that cost the same as last year.
"We're trying to help our fans work their way through it, make it more affordable to get out and forget the economy for awhile," he said, citing two examples. The club is allowing fans to bring their own food and water to the stadium if they can't afford to pay concession prices. It also is offering four tickets, four soft drinks, four hot dogs, two programs and a parking pass for $49.
"Anyone affected by the economy who wants to see a game should be able to see a game," Monfort said.
For Utahns, the Rockies also are talking with sponsors -- which include Frontier and Southwest airlines and Hyatt hotel -- to see if some attractive airfare-and-accommodations packages can be developed, Monfort added.
