Already starved for marquee stars before Dylan Cease was traded earlier this month, Guaranteed Rate Field is decorated a week before Opening Day with more pictures of fans than established White Sox players. The heavily emphasized slogan "Better at the Ballpark" tilts the focus toward selling the overall stadium experience, at a time where few promises can be made about the on-field product.
Of course there are complications with selling the White Sox stadium experience in the wake of last August's bizarre shooting incident in the outfield bleachers, as chief revenue and marketing officer Brooks Boyer acknowledged in a conversation with me and Josh Nelson on Thursday.
"Obviously security is our utmost priority considering what happened toward the end of the year last year," Boyer told us. "You're going to see a stronger security presence, not just CPD [Chicago Police Department] but White Sox security, and processes have been put in place to make this as safe and secure as possible."
As VP of communications Scott Reifert said last August, there is some purpose to the Sox holding some elements of their security strategy close to the vest. Boyer made multiple references to facial recognition technology being employed in other ballparks that could become a possibility down the road for more than security purposes, but is not currently legal in Illinois. But while the CPD has yet to release a final report of their investigation, the White Sox have maintained a public stance that the shots originated outside the ballpark.
On Thursday, Boyer reiterated the belief that the incident did not represent a security breakdown on the organization's behalf.
"A lot of the things that we were able to provide to the different investigating groups allowed us to pinpoint what ultimately happened last year," Boyer said. "We're very confident and I think the investigation showed that we did not have a security breach in this ballpark. No one snuck a gun into this ballpark. That along with some heightened advancements that have come in certainly put us in a better position our fans are safe."
John Schriffen and the new broadcast
Unfortunately, Boyer has been doing this job for too long to wither in the face of Josh's inquiries about where White Sox broadcasts will be hosted after this year.
"You're going to watch them on NBC Sports Chicago all season and we'll worry about next season, next season."
On the less guarded topic of the new play-by-play man, Boyer praised Schriffen's enthusiasm and energy, and his early communication with Steve Stone and producer Chris Withers. But he also emphasized that they're in the feeling-out process still, and that finding the Schriffen versions of the touches and features that defined a Jason Benetti broadcast will come in time.
"They're in spring training too," Boyer said. "They're learning each other and learning what those types of things are going to be and features that would come up. They're going to have their own broadcasts. When Jason came in, we didn't ask him to be Hawk [Harrelson]. John's coming in, we're not asking him to be Jason. Be yourself, connect with the fans and deliver what we think is going to be a really highly rated broadcast."
It remains to be seen if Schriffen is going to follow up on joking(?) references to broadcasting alongside The 108 during a game, but the idea that now is a good time to try to proactively engage the fans is certainly top of mind.
New stadium proposal and you
I am a cold and unfeeling beat writer and the priorities of fans confuse and frighten me. But thankfully Josh was on hand to seek out Boyer's interpretation of the fan feedback the team has received on their new South Loop stadium proposal at "The 78."
"It's something that potentially transformative to the city of Chicago," Boyer said. "We're one small part of a major development. People are intrigued because they've heard comps to Atlanta and The Battery. Some people have seen it and think that's the fairest comp. People in the neighborhood certainly want to know what does this mean to our neighbors, what does this mean for our business, what does this mean for our property values.
"The reality is we're at the very early stages of a long process. But it certainly is an exciting process being able to have a home surrounded by that type of development."
I don't think it's inferring too much to say that White Sox personnel present at Thursday's event touting this year's food offerings at Guaranteed Rate Field are very eager about getting The 78 project off the ground. And Boyer was not shy about pushing the line of thinking to the fan base that a new stadium with a surrounding ballpark village will better help the team compete.
"Absolutely, absolutely," Boyer said. "The revenues you could generate off something like that -- the reality is it's just different than the revenues you could generate out of [Guaranteed Rate Field]."
Liberation?
Boyer said neither the Vizzy View Bar on the 300-level nor any of the featured 100-level food offerings that Josh will have a write-up on later will be restricted based on ticket level. In other words, we asked if someone with a 500-level ticket would be able to move around and access all the new offerings they were hawking on Thursday.
On this Thursday on Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox were trying their darnedest to engage a fan base that was discouraged by what they encountered both on and off the field last year. Plenty of good seats are available for next Thursday, and everyone was acting accordingly.
