When Did the Pensacola Blue Wahoos Join Twins
Some of the quirkier locations in which you can stay in an Airbnb include a cave, a windmill and a treehouse. Other properties feature unique characteristics, like showers in the kitchen, underground doors below an embedded airplane or a living bubble in the middle of a vineyard.
Now, your Airbnb experience also potentially could include a bat rack, a dugout and a bullpen. In an effort to enhance the ballpark experience in the absence of baseball and find another avenue to generate revenue, one Twins minor-league affiliate has temporarily turned its home clubhouse into an Airbnb rental.
By adding beds to its recently renovated clubhouse, the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos sold out all 39 nights they made available via Airbnb at $1,500 per. The listing offers "full access to the newly-renovated and fully-furnished clubhouse, a large bedroom with 10 beds, the batting cage, and the field itself."
With no games being played and the season in doubt, the strategy is the latest in a series of creative moves from the Blue Wahoos to drive revenue. Pensacola, which on Tuesday committed to paying its full-time employees through the end of 2020, has attempted to stay afloat in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis by also turning its baseball field into a disc golf course, hosting a movie night and there are also plans to hold a fireworks night.
Later this week, the club will host its first group of overnight visitors.
"The more we looked at (the Airbnb), the more we liked it," Blue Wahoos co-owner Quint Studer said. "We've got a big locker room with a lot of space. It's brand new. We contacted Airbnb, and they were very excited to work with us.
"We're already fully booked. We booked 39 nights within 24 hours.
"The neat part is we think we've done something that can generate revenue for every baseball team. We not only want to help the Blue Wahoos, we want to help every team out there, independent, affiliated. Almost every minor-league team can do what we've done."
Similar to many other minor-league squads, Twins affiliates have been creative in their search for revenue. Single-A Cedar Rapids has sold food baskets in three of the past four weeks. The Kernels also hosted a "NOon game" last week, attracting fans to Veterans Memorial Stadium to get the ballpark feel while airing a 2013 game on the scoreboard.
NOon GAME today! Come out and enjoy a baseball atmosphere complete with a throwback game on the video board + ballpark food & drinks + the souvenir store will be open.
GATES OPEN | 11:00 am
We ask all fans to be mindful of signage & directions throughout the stadium. pic.twitter.com/J0wTbhye4t
— Cedar Rapids Kernels (@CRKernels) May 20, 2020
Single-A Fort Myers is also partaking in limited food sales, selling a maximum 12 orders per weekend. Unlike the other teams, the Mighty Mussels have had to restrict any community involvement as Lee County has converted two of the parking lots at CenturyLink Sports Complex into a coronavirus mobile testing site. Six days a week, club employees serve lunch to the 25-30 county officials running the testing, which has the potential to test between 500-700 cars per day. The team remains in the planning phase for now.
"What happens after COVID testing?" general manager Judd Loveland said. "Until we know about a certainty plan for Major League Baseball and concrete plan for minor league baseball, what do we do in the meantime? We're probably like most other minor-league clubs where we have a list of ideas and potential events that we want to do here. We're taking a couple of necessary steps in planning for those, which always for us comes with county approval.
"We can't really do much until at least the scope of the COVID testing operation shrinks or until they remove it as a testing site. We're kind of landlocked for now."
Beginning Saturday, May 9, from 5 – 7 p.m., the Mighty Mussels will be offering to-go orders! Orders must be placed in advance. Schedule your pickup time today!https://t.co/xuUoNhmhzI pic.twitter.com/OK9mIB8Vx1
— Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (@MightyMussels) May 8, 2020
Triple-A Rochester has the good fortune of being in upstate New York. Unlike the New York City area, Rochester hasn't been hard hit and was part of the first region to move into Phase 1 of reopening.
Among its ways of staying afloat, Rochester has teamed up with local alcohol distributor, Recipe 21, to sell hand sanitizer through its team store. The Red Wings have also created masks and t-shirts featuring the team's logo.
Rochester GM Dan Mason said the team has also tried to keep fans engaged via social media with fun highlights and facts to provide "something to smile about."
Definitely Dads favorite child now. Nice work, baby bro. https://t.co/o0hvTpHZUH
— Rochester Red Wings (@RocRedWings) May 23, 2020
Triple-A Rochester has also sold food baskets — up to 100 per weekend. During the season, the club feeds up to 13,000 people per night.
"It's really weird," Mason said. "Every car that pulls up, you have a conversation with them. Everybody asks, 'Are you still going to be able to play this year?' Or they make a comment, 'We miss you guys so much. We miss being around the ballpark.' People are really missing baseball. So are we. We're trying to do our best."
Twins pitching prospect Bailey Ober expected to start the 2020 season at Pensacola. He finished 2019 by making four starts for the Double-A squad, posting a 0.38 ERA with 34 strikeouts in 24 innings.
The Charlotte-native's family wanted to be able to see Ober as much as possible during the season and rented a home near the beach. While Ober has spent all but a few days of the shutdown working out at his offseason home in Denver, last week the right-hander met his family in Pensacola. Ober contacted the team during his trip and dropped in to check out the clubhouse, which was renovated over six months at the cost of $250,000 to meet the Twins' specifications, including the addition of a video room.
"They knocked down one of the walls and made it a little bit bigger and expanded the room for the players," Ober said. "It was a pretty big makeover."
The Wahoos were proud of their home clubhouse even before their offseason project. But after renovations, the Wahoos believe they have one of the finest clubhouses in the minor leagues.
Former Wahoos and current Tampa Bay Rays player Brian O'Grady, who played 28 games for the Cincinnati Reds last year, has worked out at the facility during baseball's stoppage and loves the upgrades.
"When I played there it was still an awesome clubhouse, tons of room, nice everything," O'Grady said. "They treat the players very well there. But now, the new renovations they did, it is without a doubt the nicest minor-league locker room I've seen anywhere, and I've been all over. Tons of room. Tons of stuff to do. The way it's all set up, it's very big-league."
Studer is proud of his team's home stadium and wanted to show off the clubhouse. But he wasn't sure how.
Since the start of the pandemic, Studer has challenged his staff of 25 to think of itself as event-oriented rather than simply one that depends on baseball. Even when the Wahoos aren't playing, Admiral Fetterman Field hosts other events, including football games and a barbeque festival.
The team started by offering food items out of its restaurant, which features views of the waterfront. Earlier this month, the Wahoos invited co-owner and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson to help create a disc golf course that draws up to 150 golfers a day, Studer said.
"The challenging part is your 25 full-time employees are quite anxious," Studer said. "What's going to happen? Are they going to have jobs? Because they know that even with events, it doesn't touch the baseball revenue.
"A good night in our restaurant is $3,000. An average night on our baseball is $40,000 on food and beverage.
"We told them around April, 'Let's turn our brains for a while and not think of ourselves as a baseball organization but think of ourselves as an event company.' If baseball is played, we can turn the switch back on. But how much more can you do if you've got your merchandise or got your grounds?
"The attitude has been great."
Guests at Pensacola's Airbnb get full access to the clubhouse and can use the batting cage, the field, the ping-pong table and more. (Daniel Venn / Courtesy of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
It wasn't until recently that the Airbnb came into play.
Studer's daughter, Mallory, who operates her own Airbnb, suggested the club had a unique opportunity to attract fans. If beds were added, the Wahoos could rent out the clubhouse. Imagine how many youth teams or companies would want to hold an overnight retreat at the ballpark?
A Philadelphia-area native, O'Grady admits he would have loved to stay overnight in the Phillies clubhouse as a kid.
Still, he wasn't sure about the concept when he heard about it.
"It was funny, in my head I was like, 'I don't know,'" O'Grady said. "Not even six or eight hours later it was already blowing up all over social media, ESPN. It was everywhere. I was like, 'Oh my gosh. I guess it's going to work.'"
The response to the placement was so overwhelming on social media that the franchise created a waiting list.
"It just sort of took off," Studer said.
As of now, the Wahoos are only accepting reservations through June as the field potentially could be needed for baseball in July and August. Studer said requests have come in from across the United States. He wonders how many other organizations might try to rent out their clubhouses.
Mason said he's already been contacted by someone interested in renting out Rochester's ballpark in June. New York's restrictions could, however, prevent the team from holding events for the foreseeable future. Loveland said Fort Myers also has received several requests since Pensacola's event went viral but is on hold for now.
With the season in limbo, Studer wants his organization to continue to be creative.
He's unsure his ballpark will host a minor-league baseball game in 2020. He realizes how difficult it will be for Major League Baseball, which has bigger clubhouses and better medical attention and travel options, to complete its season and figures it won't be any easier for minor-league operations.
But he'd still like his park to play host to fans and will do what he can to get them involved.
"Florida has opened up, so we're letting a lot of kids play baseball," Studer said. "I grew up in Chicago and when I'd go to Comiskey Park, about the eighth inning they'd let kids sneak down to the fence. I always tried to squeeze my foot through the fence just to touch the dirt and could never make it. It's so exciting to open up the stadium and let people truly have great experiences."
(Top photo of the Blue Wahoos' mascot, Kazoo, showing off the clubhouse TV setup: Daniel Venn / Courtesy of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
Source: https://theathletic.com/1840420/2020/05/27/clubhouse-airbnb-pensacola-blue-wahoos-twins-minor-league-teams/
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