Dave Heller is the president and CEO of Main Street Baseball, LLC, and the majority owner and Managing Partner of four affiliated minor league baseball teams: the Quad Cities River Bandits (Midwest League, Single-A affiliate of the Houston Astros), the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Carolina League, Advanced-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals), the Billings Mustangs (Pioneer League, short-season affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds) and, most recently, the Lowell Spinners (New York - Penn League, short-season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox)

In 2016, Main Street Baseball was awarded Ballpark Digest's coveted "Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year" honor - one of the highest honors in the industry.

Heller's teams are known primarily for three things: fun, innovative promotions, making significant improvements to their home ballpark, and giving back generously to each club's home community.

In the Quad Cities, the River Bandits sparked a stunning resurgence of baseball, winning two league championships in five seasons, repeatedly setting the all-time per-game attendance record in Quad Cities (they've had affiliated baseball since 1931!) and capturing numerous awards for their innovative promotions and ballpark improvements.

Within a month of purchasing the Bandits, Heller sold naming rights to Modern Woodmen of America. Since then, Modern Woodmen Park has earned as many accolades as any ballpark in the country. It was voted "best minor league ballpark" by the readers of USA Today and 10Best.com and the Midwest League's best ballpark by Baseball America. It earned a 5-star rating from Ballpark Digest and in 2015 their readers voted it the best ballpark in Single-A baseball. It was also named one of the two most beautiful ballparks in the minors by USA Today, one of the top 10 by Parade Magazine, and "the #2 Coolest Minor League Ballpark in America" by Complex Magazine.

Under Heller's leadership, the River Bandits have added many fun new features to the ballpark, including a new outfield bar, picnic area, five concourse-level "loge boxes," an 80-foot long high-definition ribbon-board, a new 20' x 36' HD videoboard, a new playground, birthday/game room ringed with a dozen X-Box and PS4 stations, new concessions stands, a triple suite and a dozen new portable food carts, a Hall of Fame autographed jersey display, an unmatched collection of minor league bobbleheads, a permanent home for the Quad-Cities Sports Hall of Fame and a (sponsored) corn field from where the players are introduced at the game's outset (after all, it is Iowa)!

The Bandits also built the spectacular Budweiser "Champions Club," a large, multi-purpose banquet hall with glass garage doors that open/close based on the weather. That room has helped the club increase wedding business by more than 1,000% and was voted by Ballpark Digest as "the best ballpark renovation under $1 million." In 2014, the Bandits unveiled their biggest improvement ever - the addition of a new 105-foot tall Ferris wheel, the first Ferris wheel in Minor League Baseball! That ride has already transformed the Quad Cities' skyline and become an iconic part of downtown Davenport - and it, too, was named by Ballpark Digest as "the nation's best ballpark improvement" (the fourth time in seven years Main Street Baseball earned that award!).

The team has also added an expanded children's play area featuring a 30-foot tall Drop-N-Twist, spinning bumper cars, a swinging pirate ship and a NASA-inspired gyroscope to go with a myriad of bounce houses. And it unveiled two new group areas: 50 new swivel-chair seats abutting the home bullpen as part of a new three-level group area and 18 seats adjacent to the visitor's dugout, as well as a special group of seats set aside for our nation's veterans (the Hon. Lane Evans Patriot Seats). Most recently, the Bandits added an 11,000 square foot expansion of the third-base concourse, 1500 s.f. of additional storage space, renovated both the home and visitors' clubhouses, added new protective netting beyond the ends of the dugouts and expanded the club's kitchen.

Since taking over the Bandits, sponsorship sales, suite sales, ticket sales, and concession sales have all seen annual increases. The team's average attendance in its first year under Main Street rose by more than 56%, the largest such increase in baseball, and has since climbed to approximately 4,000 fans per game, the highest ever seen in the Quad Cities. The Bandits also led one of sports' most successful rebranding campaigns - merchandise sales after the 2008 rebranding increased more than 400%, sponsorships jumped more than 64%, and CNBC named the team's logo one of the top caps in minor league baseball. In 2014, the team's home cap was voted the best cap in Single-A baseball.

The River Bandits have been voted Best Family Entertainment by the Quad-City Times for each of the past six years and were voted by the River Cities Reader as "The Best Place for an Inexpensive Date that Doesn't Look Like It." The team won the prestigious "Golden Bobblehead" award in 2013 for best charitable promotion in Minor League Baseball for its Autism Awareness Night. In 2015, it won a "Bizzie Award" from MiLB for adding the Ferris wheel and other amusement rides, It also won a "Veeckie Award" from ESPN in 2009 for best minor league promotion ("Tattoo Night") and the "Promotion of the Year" Award from Ballpark Digest the same year for the team's "Mega-Candy Drop," as well as a Gold Award from the U.S. Army for its community service.

The River Bandits also give back to the community. In 2009, the team started its "Bandit Scholars" program which paid an entire year's college tuition for one area student. Today, the team funds three such scholarships - one each for the St. Ambrose University, Western Illinois University and Augustana University - valued at nearly $80,000 annually. It has already donated more than $1.3 million in cash and gifts to area charities and needy recipients, and is in midst of a five-year $250,000 cash award to the Genesis Foundation to help fund neo-natal intensive care units and free flu vaccinations. In 2016, Heller and his staff with the Bandits logged more than 1200 hours of community volunteering. In 2015, Ballpark Digest honored the Bandits with an award for the "Best Charity Work" in the nation.

The Billings Mustangs have also been tremendously successful. In 2014, the team won the Pioneer League Championship, finished second in attendance and saw its general manager, Gary Roller, win Pioneer League Executive of the Year. The club is consistently among the Pioneer League's attendance leaders. In 2015 and again in 2016, the team saw increases in literally every area - from attendance to corporate sponsorships to concessions and merchandise sales to in-game promotions! In 2016, the Pioneer League nominated the Mustangs for the John Henry Moss award for its charitable work and Ballpark Digest voted the Mustangs' home, Dehler Park, "the best minor league ballpark in Rookie Ball." Next season, the club is adding a new 300-foot long zip-line, visible from home plate, to the ballpark - the first of its kind in Minor League Baseball!

Heller's third club, the Wilmington Blue Rocks, is regarded as one of the Carolina League's premier franchises. Its ballpark, Frawley Stadium, was voted best ballpark in Advanced-A baseball by readers of Ballpark Digest in 2015. That club is also consistently among the league leaders in attendance and sponsorships. In 2015, the team won Ballpark Digest's award for Best New Food Item. In 2016, the Blue Rocks won three (out of six) league-wide awards: Marketing & Promotions, Community Service and Female Executive of the Year. They are also improving their venue: In 2015, the Rocks replaced all of the seats in Frawley Stadium and the team is currently replacing and upgrading the ballpark's lights, field netting and concourse flooring. And the Blue Rocks give back: in 2014, 2015 and again in 2016, the club earned the prestigious Matt Minker Award from fellow Carolina League members for its charitable work throughout the Delaware.

Heller's newest club is the Lowell Spinners, a Boston Red Sox affiliate based in Lowell, Mass, which he purchased in 2016. That club also draws around 4,000 fans per game, putting it among the league's leaders in attendance. In 2016, Heller added new protective netting beyond the ends of the dugouts and brought the first amusement ride to Lowell - a new swinging pirate ship. He has already purchased two more new rides for 2017!

In addition to his work in baseball, Heller is one of the Democratic Party's top media consultants and campaign strategists. As president of Main Street Communications, an award-winning political media firm, he has compiled the best won-loss record in the Democratic Party helping clients win election to Congress. His clients have won 15 out of 19 general election open seat races for Congress (open seats being the most contested races) and have repeatedly won re-election in some of the nation's toughest districts, including now-U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) in 2010 and retired Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.), who won in a newly redrawn R+13 district in 2012. He also handled all of the advertising for the man currently representing the nation's "reddest" district to be won by a Democrat, U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and, in 2016, handled all of the media for the new mayor of Baltimore, Catherine Pugh.

Heller currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Downtown Davenport Partnership in the Quad Cities and the Lowell Plan in Lowell, MA. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with honors from Brown University and earned a Master's Degree in Politics from Oxford University (Nuffield College), where he earned an Overseas Research Scholarship. He went on to Yale University, where he completed his Master's thesis and taught his own undergraduate seminar on 20th Century American politics, before moving to Washington, D.C. Growing up in Westport (Conn.) and Baltimore, Heller and his wife June now live in Davenport, Iowa, with their two sons, Dylan (8) and Cade (6).