Dayton Dragons on verge of consecutive sellout record - USA Today
DAYTON, Ohio Next door to a liquidation outlet, baseball could not be more alive. So how does a minor league team in a struggling Rust Belt city sell out 814 straight games?
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By Al Behrman, AP
The Dayton Dragons mascot dances on top of the team's dugout last month. The Dragons will sell out their 815th consecutive home game Saturday, setting a record for a professional team in North America, according to the team's research.
By Al Behrman, AP
The Dayton Dragons mascot dances on top of the team's dugout last month. The Dragons will sell out their 815th consecutive home game Saturday, setting a record for a professional team in North America, according to the team's research.
Maybe we should start with the female fan with one leg.
One of the ticket representatives for the Dayton Dragons retrieves her car each game she attends. "That's not in the manual,'' Eric Deutsch was saying Wednesday, as the executive vice president of a team on the edge of history. "That's an employee knowing someone needs help, and doing the right thing.
"There are very few things we can't make right.''
And so it goes with the Dragons, who this Saturday night will fill the house for the 815th straight time, breaking the all-time sports record of the Portland Trail Blazers, circa 1977-95. The Dragons were born in 2000. Every seat has been sold since.
"I think it's a love affair between a city and its team,'' Art Matin said over the phone, he the CEO of Mandalay Baseball Properties, owner of Dayton and five other minor league teams. "And it goes both ways.''
This despite a relentless departure of people and industry; Dayton's population decline this century is the nation's fifth worse. This, despite a 24-game home losing streak last season. "Almost statistically impossible,'' Matin said of the skid.
"We don't bring it up,'' team president Robert Murphy mentioned at Fifth Third Field Wednesday. No, they can't control victory and defeat, but they try on nearly everything else.
You ask Murphy and Deutsch front office wizards who have been with the Dragons from the start how this has happened and they show you the binders of testimonials from satisfied patrons.
They tell you of the woman with one leg, and the man who found out after a game he locked his keys in his car. The Dragons' general manager drove him home. Or the two kids, one an obvious chemotherapy patient, who seemed hot on a sunny day, so an usher presented two caps.
They tell you of ticket prices held in the $7-$13.75 range and reasonable concessions and so many of the employees have been here forever that it is like a place where everybody knows your name. Where season tickets can be renewed on installment plans, so no one gets hit too hard over Christmas.
They tell you the secret is not brilliant baseball but customer service from the heart, and a connection to the people. Before he was an All-Star for the parent club Cincinnati Reds, barely 50 miles down the road, Jay Bruce was once a Dragon, coloring books with little kids.
Meanwhile, the workers in the stands wear red, and they are everywhere, including at the gate to wish you good night as you leave.
"You can't turn around without seeing one of those red shirts, which is by design,'' Murphy said. "We don't like our customers having to look for help.''
They tell you about the Home Run for Life. A seriously ill child gets to run the bases to cheers from players and fans, music and foghorn blaring. Murphy got the idea watching a terminally ill friend of his daughter years ago in Las Vegas take a lap with a local celebrity.
For one moment, a family can forget its anguish, and that comes in the fifth inning rather than before the game, for a reason. "I want the entire audience to pay attention to this,'' Murphy said.
They tell you about Captain Thigpen. The Dragons often hook up military families with their loved ones serving overseas, who appear on the scoreboard. One night, the wife and two young sons of Air Force captain Jim Thigpen were supposedly talking to him in the Middle East, when technical difficulties cut short the conversation. The announcer apologized, the wife's face sagged.
Suddenly, onto the field came Captain Thigpen, roses in hand. The game nearly had to be delayed to make time for the hug.
"That's what creates the love affair,'' Deutsch said of such moments.
Jonathan Maurer is a season ticket holder since the first season, and also a sports agent. "I go to 400 games a year in my profession and what makes the Dragons different than other ballparks is they don't rely on gimmicks,'' he said. "When people think about the Dragons, they think about an event, they think about family, they think about let's go out and have a great experience. And oh, by the way, there's a baseball game.''
More than 8,000 a night show up. And Dayton, win or lose, boom or bust, always comes back for more.
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