Vancouver Canadians owners Jake Kerr and Jeff Mooney are reaping dividends on their $750,000 investment in a video scoreboard at Nat Bailey Stadium.
The purchase was made as part of the duo’s agreement with the Bank of Nova Scotia to allow the bank to brand the stadium’s baseball diamond Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium. Financial details of that 10-year sponsorship agreement were never disclosed.
Attendance is up by about 10% compared with last year, despite damper weather.
Kerr and Mooney are also making some money by using the video screen to show movies at the stadium. Admission to the family-friendly flicks is free. The company makes money on the concessions.
“We have two or three corporate areas,” Kerr told Business in Vancouver July 8. “There’s a barbecue area and then two suites that seat between 20 and 30 people each. One of those seats is at first base and the other one is at third base.”
“Those have basically been sold out for the whole season. It’s been a major improvement for us. It’s carried us through, even though the weather has caused us to have fewer people turn up on the spur of the moment.”
Kerr, who is managing partner at Lignum Forest Products LLP, joined forces with A&W Food Services Canada Inc. chairman Jeff Mooney to buy the then-marginally-profitable Vancouver Canadians for approximately US$7 million from Fred Herrmann in 2007, with Kerr taking a 70% stake.
Herrmann was rumoured to be moving the team from the city.
Kerr and Mooney invested a further $500,000 to replace 900 plastic seats in the stadium, create a children’s play area, expand Nat Bailey’s barbecue area and move the centre field fence in 15 feet to 385 feet. Other improvements followed.
“We did a major renovation last year,” Kerr said. “The new scoreboard and video system is state of the art – the same level as the one the [Vancouver] Canucks have at Rogers Arena.”
GlenKorstrom
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