At Home With the Huntsville Stars

Today we speak with Buck Rogers, general manager of the Huntsville Stars (Double-A affiliate of the Brewers). Rogers just completed his first season with the Stars, who played their debut season in Huntsville in 1985.

MiLB.com: How would characterize your team's fan base?

BR: Loyal to the nth degree. I have never worked in any stadium with a fan base that is so hungry to be a part of the "inner circle" that every team has. I accepted the position here in February and realized that we needed to shift our stadium operations into overdrive. Because we're a small staff, we recruited the public to help perform much of this work as part of "Operation Clean Sweep." We hauled eight dumpsters full of garbage out of the stadium, pressure-washed the place, then painted it -- all in one weekend. We took a group picture of all the volunteers, which AMI Graphics made into a 6-foot-by-26-foot banner that now hangs on our concourse.

MiLB.com: What type of marketing strategies do the fans respond to?

BR: Unique, never-tested and daring. Our fan base has seen all the usual promotions, discounts and giveaways, but this season we decided to kick their overall experience into high gear. For example, we scheduled fireworks every Friday night, but we put a theme to them with a skit or video. Our last show had two teenagers in throwback jerseys performing Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" routine at home plate before the fireworks. On June 6, the anniversary of D-Day, we brought WWII veterans onto the field to receive a standing ovation. The crowd loves the extra effort, and it doesn't cost us a dime. It is purely added value and it keeps them guessing what we'll do next.

MiLB.com: Has your team staged any notable promotions in recent years?

BR: When I was with the Daytona Cubs, we offered lifetime tickets for fans that would get the team logo tattooed on their body. That was a pretty good marketing tool, as 17 fans in a year-round short-sleeve environment have to explain the tattoo every day of their lives. I have Huntsville fans asking us to set it up here in 2009.

At a Glance: Huntsville Stars

• First season: 1985 • Affiliation: Milwaukee Brewers (1999-present) • Stadium: Joe W. Davis Stadium (1985-present) • League championships: 1985, 1994, 2001 • City population: Approximately 171,000 • Notable Huntsville alumni: Jose Canseco Prince Fielder Jason Giambi Mark McGwire • People who've called Huntsville home: Tallulah Bankhead (actress) Fred Berry (played Rerun on "What's Happening!!") Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery (civil rights pioneer) Jimmy Wales (co-founder of Wikipedia)

MiLB.com: Any promotions that just didn't work?

BR: There have been plenty, but we keep trying. We once did a Monday night "Ladies Night" that offered two-for-one prices to anybody in a dress, with the hopes that all of the guys would bring their women and double our Monday night attendance. It failed because 57 guys decided that they'd rather wear a dress and drink alone, and just left their women at home. I don't know what that says about the state of marriages in this country.

MiLB.com: How has the internet affected the way your team is run?

BR: Timeliness is everything, and I think the time is now to blow everything we know apart. In the future, I see all baseball teams dropping their radio broadcasts. I'm convinced that every car, home stereo and iPod will be linked on wireless networks within a decade. Basically, you'll have something like a thumb drive to program your URLs into, and you'll be able to listen to your game live without paying for radio fees. No Sirius or XM satellite radio, just webcasts. A lot of people are already listening in on their iPhones. Why even pay for radio? It's mostly static and at night the FCC makes every AM station power back to 5000 watts. That doesn't even get our broadcast from the studio to our stadium 10 miles away. We're dropping radio next season, just because of the lack of local stations that are interested and the associated fees -- we're going straight to webcasting only. I've seen the writing on the wall, and it's not radio. I think there are a few other GMs who are holding on to radio purely for the image thing, but deep down inside I know they agree with me. The FCC is making TVs digital next February. How long will it be before regular radio is obsolete?

MiLB.com: Does your concession stand serve any regional specialties or otherwise remarkable items?

BR: Billy Ray's Grill is a Huntsville Stars institution, and it serves the best Philly cheesesteaks I have ever had in any ballpark. And, yeah, I've had one in Philadelphia, so don't tell them who has the best. It's Billy Ray. We'd never consider dropping it from the menu.

MiLB.com: What type of merchandise sells best at the team store?

BR: Even though we introduced a new logo this year, anything we have with both our logo and the Brewers' (our parent club) are the hottest sellers. Why fight it? Somebody order more Brewers merch!

MiLB.com: Are there any unique items available for purchase?

BR: We do "Jump Around" during the middle of the eighth inning, similar (OK, we ripped it off) to how the Wisconsin Badgers do it at college football games. Our on-field staff gets on top of the dugouts and leads the fans in jumping around. The music's jacked, the crowd's jumping and we sell "Jump Around at The Joe" T-shirts in day-glo colors. Fans eat 'em up, and you can see 'em a mile away. It's a great marketing tool.

MiLB.com: How large a role does your mascot play, both at the stadium and within the community?

BR: Homer the Polecat is a huge part of the team, and our mascot is undoubtedly the best mascot I have ever had. She's a local college student who has the passion and energy to even go to mascot training on her own dime. She visits hospitals, clinics and other community events -- many of them I don't even know about until I get a thank-you letter in the mail from the event organizer. She blows away all my expectations, and has really helped make Homer the Polecat the face of our organization.

MiLB.com: Minor League stadiums often vary greatly from one another. What are the positives of playing in your facility?

BR: We have room to spread out, because our stadium was built for football. It has 10,266 seats, a party deck, bubbletop picnic area and skyboxes.

MiLB.com: Any drawbacks?

BR: Since it was built for football, it drives me nuts to make it fan-friendly for baseball. We actually have seats above and behind the scoreboard and outfield wall where you can't even see half the game. We sold sponsorship on them and turned them into our "Uecker Seats." Like Andy Dunn (president of the Vancouver Canadians) said when we worked together in Brevard County: "Buck, when life gives you lemons, grab the tequila and salt and go with what you know." People do pay to sit in those seats because they're now "Uecker Seats," not just restricted-view seats.

MiLB.com: What are some of your favorite on-field moments since you've been with the team?

BR: On Opening Night, the game had just begun and I was watching from the concourse. I just did that big exhale, the one GMs do every Opening Night just after the game begins, when a large skunk walked out from under our seating bowl, stopped two feet away from me, looked up and sized up the new guy, then walked away like he owned the place. Right then, I knew I was in for a real wild season.

On the field, I'd be pressed to pick just one highlight, but the Milwaukee Brewers blessed us with the most talent-loaded roster in all of Minor League Baseball this season. We won't see these many young guns on any one Minor League roster again in 25 years. It was the equivalent of having Special Forces soldiers show up at Boy Scout jamboree. We had Mat Gamel, Matt LaPorta, Alcides Escobar, Cole Gillespie, Michael Brantley, Angel Salome, Steve Hammond, Sam Narron ... heck, I could name them all day. Two months into the season, we were still batting over .300 as a team and scoring more than six runs a game on average. We tied for the first-half championship but lost the tie-breaker game to a very good, classy West Tenn team that just outplayed us.