Outdated ballpark. Meh team. Record attendance. How are Flying Squirrels doing it? (2024)

Two hours before the Richmond Flying Squirrels played the Altoona Curve on Sunday afternoon, about 50 people waited outside The Diamond’s gates. That number gradually grew to about 500 when fans were permitted to enter the ballpark at 12:30 for a 1:35 first pitch.

A T-shirt promotion for youths and the Flying Squirrels’ standing Sunday invitation to play catch in the outfield before the game helped draw fans. But this level of interest has been common on many game days this season, though the Double-A team plays in an outdated ballpark, has lost more games than it has won (26-31), is not heavy with premier MLB prospects and is affiliated with a West Coast parent club, the San Francisco Giants.

The Flying Squirrels, in their 14th season, are on pace for a record year at the gate following the two-week homestand that ended Sunday. After 5,693 attended the game on Sunday, traditionally a slow day at the 9,560-seat stadium that opened in 1985, the franchise has averaged 7,008 fans in 29 openings. The Flying Squirrels’ highest average home attendance was 6,689 in 2013. They averaged 6,396 last year.

‘Nothing short
of sensational’

Lou DiBella, the franchise’s managing general partner, attended a recent game whose start was delayed due to rain. Despite the precipitation and delay, DiBella said, “Look at the fact that there are 6,000 people here and I’m watching families flow by me, and watching a lot of senior citizens flow by me … We have a fan base that this year just seems to be hungry to have fun.

“Our attendance has been nothing short of sensational to this point in time.”

Among all 120 minor league teams, Richmond ranks in the top four in attendance, which typically picks up through summer months. Ahead of RVA are the Dayton Dragons (8,028), the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (7,513) and the Indianapolis Indians (7,321). The 2024 Flying Squirrels' bump at the gate “hasn’t been a happy accident,” said Trey Wilson, the team’s play-by-play radio broadcaster and communications director.

So why are the Flying Squirrels on pace for record attendance? Good spring weather in Richmond has been a major help, team executives said, but there are other reasons:

Strategic planning

“We spend a lot of time during the offseason examining where attendance comes from,” said Anthony Oppermann, the team’s chief marketing officer. “We really pay attention to a lot of different trends, maybe where we’re seeing some success, and then opportunities for growth and improvement.”

Team analysis breaks down the 69-game home schedule by days, and the staff shares information and implements coordinated action designed to maximize attendance per day.

“I think in large part, our early-season success is credited to the planning we did in the offseason,” Oppermann said.

For instance, the Flying Squirrels heading into this season believed they could draw better on Friday nights, Oppermann said. They explored ways “to grow that day of the week,” he said. The average went from about 5,000 in past years to more than 7,000 this year, Oppermann said.

“We’ve strategically started to position different promotions and giveaways on those particular days,” he said. “It’s really a giant puzzle that you work to put together … Every single day of the week has its own goals for groups, for individual sales …”

The Flying Squirrels, conversely, choose not to invest substantial promotional resources on Sunday afternoon games in August, when the hottest weather of the year and vacations limit potential crowd sizes, according to Oppermann.

Growing work
force, targeting

The Flying Squirrels began operations in Richmond for the 2010 season with a full-time employee roster of 19, according to Ben Rothrock, the Flying Squirrels’ COO and general manager, one of those original 19. That number changed several times over the years, and the team now has about 35 full-time employees, with, additionally, 12 interns and approximately 150 seasonal employees.

In the franchise’s history, there were times when one employee was filling “two or three different positions,” Rothrock said. “Now, we’re taking a step back and realizing, ‘We need this person to focus on X, and we need this person to focus on Y.’”

Targeted social media marketing is the area “that has just blown up,” Rothrock said. “We’ve hired certain spots to fill those roles ... to make sure our messaging is getting out there.

“We’ve been here for so long now that we need to look internally to make sure that we’re doing the appropriate things.”

Deeper roots

Sunday promotions are built around youths: the ability to play catch in the outfield, run the bases following the afternoon games, free admission for members of the team’s Kids Club. Many area youths grew up attending those Sunday games and were parts of groups that regularly watched the Flying Squirrels.

“This is what we want. This our next generation of Squirrels’ fans,” Rothrock said.

Multiple Flying Squirrels’ employees first gained awareness of the franchise by attending Sunday games as a Kids Club member or watching other games in a church group, or Girl Scouts group or as a member of a Little League team, according to Rothrock.

“We’re at that level, that next generation is here,” he said. “That’s kind of cool to see.”

Delving into
the ‘Why?’

According to Rothrock, the organization reviewed and sharpened its programming and promotions initiatives. Programming? Think a season-long, tickets-in-exchange-for-reading platform directed at youths. Promotions? Think Sunday’s T-shirt giveaway.

“Are we doing them just to do them? No. Even down to the fireworks shows, we’re doing them to get a certain amount of groups here,” Rothrock said. “We’re utilizing those different tools in our belt, essentially, to kind of figure out how we get the most amount of people here.”

New ballpark
on horizon

The Flying Squirrels’ 2024 attendance push comes amid growing optimism regarding a replacement for The Diamond. Groundbreaking for the new ballpark is projected for this summer, with a 2026 opening as the goal.

“The build-up is important, right? The build-up to a new facility is what’s going to take us to the next level,” Rothrock said. “We just can’t go into a new facility, quite frankly, operating the same way we’ve been operating.”

The Flying Squirrels will continue to add staff members, and the plan is to have approximately 50 employees when the new ballpark opens.

Keeping it rolling

Rothrock said fresh success at the gate has “truly become the standard to what we’re used to. It’s something that we all get up for every single day. It just keeps us going, keeps us motivated, just trying to keep on finding that next promotion, that next big thing.”

Fans will continue to respond, DiBella believes.

“We’re a quality-of-life business. We’re not overpriced. We’re not unaffordable entertainment. We’re affordable family entertainment in a community that very much needs affordable family entertainment because everybody needs affordable family entertainment,” he said.

“And when you start traveling to Baltimore, or D.C., or elsewhere to see professional major league sports, you’re looking at a whole different level of investment that it takes to do that. I don’t think there’s anything more fun for the dollar, bang for the buck, than a night in our ballpark in this community.

“I would argue as the city continues to grow and expand and develop that we’re more important to the city than we’ve ever been as a unifying force.”