Sounds Nominated for National Honor

NASHVILLE - The Nashville Sounds have been selected as the Pacific Coast League's nominee for Minor League Baseball's Larry MacPhail Award. The award recognizes the team that best demonstrates exceptional promotional efforts and creative marketing within its community and ballpark. The winner will be announced at this year's Baseball Winter Meetings this December in Orlando, Florida.
When determining the winner, Minor League Baseball examines each nominee's involvement in the community through charity events and civic organizations along with in-game promotions at the ballpark, giveaways, and sponsor events. The use of media and promotional materials along with non-game day events such as concerts and youth clinics are also considered.
The Sounds are seeking to become the first PCL team to capture the national award since Round Rock in 2006.
During the team's 40th anniversary celebration season, the unique ballpark experience offered by First Tennessee Park and its convenient location in Music City enticed fans to come out to the park in 2017. The Sounds welcomed an average of 8,861 fans through the turnstiles each game to pace the Pacific Coast League. Fans were treated to various promotions and theme nights at all 67 home games played in 2017.
Throughout 2017 the Sounds have partnered with numerous local charities and organizations to give back to the community. 170 organizations have received a donation from the Sounds and a total of $28,095 was raised through silent auctions including the $5,158.09 raised from the home white jersey auction. The Sounds matched that for a total of $10,316.18 that was sent to the Houston Astros hurricane relief fund.
Sounds players visited patients and their families at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt each month throughout the season. The club partnered with Ashley HomeStore for its Hope to Dream event, which provided 25 underprivileged children with brand new beds. Players and coaches also served as instructors for numerous baseball clinics for youth in the community.
The Sounds took their rivalry with the Round Rock Express to a new level in 2017 with a home-and-home series as the Nashville Honky Tonks and Round Rock Dance Halls. The names and logos were changed and both teams wore special jerseys. Local musicians were placed along the concourse and performed for fans pregame to create a Broadway atmosphere. On June 15 the Sounds held a hyper-local promotion called "615 Night" with representatives from the Nashville Predators and Tennessee Titans on hand to celebrate the Nashville area. A new partnership was formed with Universal Music Group for Tuesday Night Live. UMG provided up-and-coming artists to perform pregame throughout the season and on June 27 the Sounds gave their fans a chance to showcase their musical talents through the "Sing for the Fences" karaoke competition.
The creative arts and social media departments have utilized various platforms to engage with fans. New Snapchat filters were created for each home game along with scratch off contests on Twitter held for each weekend home game. The creative arts department teamed up with former Sounds player and current recording artist, Barry Zito, to create the team's introduction video.
In addition to Sounds games, First Tennessee Park has hosted multiple events in 2017 and announced plans for more. The ballpark hosted the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game, which featured country music stars and raised funds to strike out cancer. It also served as the venue for the FCCLA National Leadership Conference, at which country music duo Dan+Shay performed. On August 21 Nashville was the largest city in the U.S. within the path of complete totality for the solar eclipse. Over 8,000 people from 35 states and 10 countries attended the viewing party at First Tennessee Park. Two different brewfests took place at the state-of-the-art ballpark and Country Music Television used the venue to film its Hot 20 Countdown.
The Sounds look to build upon their 2017 success in 2018 with multiple exciting marketing and promotional campaigns planned. 2018 season ticket memberships are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.