Doug and Denese Koza: If You Build It, They Will Come

Doug and Denese Koza have been Season Ticket Members since the Worcester Red Sox began playing at Polar Park in 2021. As soon as the club's move to Worcester was announced, the couple knew they wanted to be a part of this new team. What they didn’t know was that WooSox Nation would become a newfound family.

Denese attributes her love of baseball to her father. She fondly remembers often hearing the NESN broadcasts on their TV. She even remembers her father bringing the portable TV out to the yard on summer days as he did yard work. She said back then, the Boston Red Sox weren’t good, but her father’s love of the game was still contagious. She grew up a diehard Red Sox fan. Doug shares a similar story, and after two seasons of holding season tickets, they decided to move to Worcester.

Denese said one of her father’s dreams was to live within walking distance of Fenway Park. Now, Doug and Denese can say they live within walking distance of Polar Park. She knows that if her father were still around, he would have loved having Polar Park practically in his backyard; Denese and Doug now get to live out his dream.

Since their move to Worcester, they have loved exploring their new city, and it has certainly become home for them—especially when they're at the ballpark. Polar Park is where their friends and family are. They go to every game and make a point of talking to people they have never met before.

They are active on the WooSox Nation Facebook page—which was started by STM Erin Sheedy and now has over 11,000 members—and enjoy meeting their new friends in person at the park. Post-COVID, during in the 2022 season, they met each of the Season Ticket Members from their seating bowl section and have since built strong friendships. For the Kozas, Polar Park is “the place where everybody knows their name.” Denese says they can walk anywhere in the park, and people stop them to chat. Doug recalls the game in which Johan Mieses hit a home run off a passing train as one of his favorite moments ever at the park.

The team is what brought the couple to Worcester, but they now love the community itself too. One of their favorite things about Worcester is the art visitors can enjoy nearly everywhere they look—from the art museum, to the murals on buildings, to the Smiley faces painted on the drains around the park. They also love to explore the small businesses and witness the growth of the Canal District. Trying new restaurants has become a hobby of theirs, especially the restaurants they visit in A Taste of Worcester inside the ballpark during the season.

Growing up as Red Sox and baseball fans, having a park this close to home is a dream come true for the Kozas. They look forward to many more years of celebrating the WooSox and continuing to meet new people and share their love of baseball and the community through the park—so much so that they just renewed their season tickets for the next four more seasons! Last season, in 2023, Doug and Denese were awarded the title “Fans of the Year” by the WooSox, and were honored at the home season finale. They exemplify the famous line, “If you build it, they will come.”