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As Ken Babby sat Monday in the brand new Home Plate Club area of VyStar Ballpark, one of many renovations the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp will unveil to fans on Opening Day (April 1) against the Worcester Red Sox, there was an obvious gleam in his eye and excitement to his voice.
One week before showing off the $31.8 million makeover to the Jacksonville downtown ballpark, the 46-year-old Jumbo Shrimp owner felt like an expectant father.
He simply can’t wait for Babby’s baby to come into the baseball world.
“This has been a labor of love,” Babby said in an exclusive interview with the Times-Union. “This is like giving birth to a child.”
Not that he equates the arrival of a renovated Triple-A ballpark as being identical to the birth of his 16-year-old son, Josh.
However, anyone familiar with Babby during his 10 years of owning Jacksonville’s minor-league team understands his passion for delivering an affordable, family-friendly baseball experience to a community. It aligns with his own deep roots in the game.
Babby may be an entrepreneur who enjoys making money as much as the next businessman, but he does it with a child-like excitement that harkens back to his two seasons as a Baltimore Orioles spring training bat boy in St. Petersburg during the early 1990s.
He wants everyone from the casual baseball fan to a die-hard Fantasy player to soak in the ballpark experience at the renovated VyStar venue at Bragan Field. And if they don’t connect to the game in the same romanticized way he did as a kid, Babby still believes spectators will enjoy it enough to want to come back.
For fans who’ve been to the original Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (constructed in 2003), or its demolished predecessor, Wolfson Park, this massive makeover of the facility next to the NFL Jaguars’ EverBank Stadium is likely going to be viewed as a home run.
“This ballpark is almost going to be unrecognizable when you see it,” said Babby. “When the fans walk in here after the last coat of paint is put on [in right field], it’s going to look and feel like a brand new ballpark.”
From a pricing standpoint, the baseball upgrades for the city’s Triple-A baseball team are only a small fraction of the $1.4 billion cost to renovate the Jaguars’ EverBank Stadium, but its significance to the sport’s future in Jacksonville is paramount.
If the city wanted to maintain its Triple-A affiliation with the Miami Marlins, it had to get on board with meeting the Major League Baseball requirements established when minor league baseball went dark during COVID-19 in 2020.
One of the reasons MLB did away with 40 minor-league teams affiliated with its parent clubs is those cities made no firm commitment to the kind of upgrades that were done with the VyStar (formerly 121 Financial Ballpark) facility.
Immediately, Babby and his staff of employees began the process of trying to meet the MLB criteria. It started with building a relationship with former mayor Lenny Curry, then extended into making the same connection with his successor, Donna Deegan.
All those parties, along with the City Council in February, 2024, approving the $31.8 million funding for Project NEXT, were on board with keeping Jacksonville’s longest running professional sports franchise intact.
“Our ballpark didn’t have anywhere close to the necessary requirements for what MLB required for a Triple-A facility,” said Babby, who is obligated to pay for any construction cost overruns. “We needed to make these renovations, but there wasn’t a funding source to do it.
“We wanted to stay a Triple-A franchise. Jacksonville deserves that. Mayor Curry and Mayor Deegan have been incredibly supportive.”
Thanks to the Jumbo Shrimp partnership with the city, Babby is convinced that the current renovations will help keep minor-league baseball viable in Jacksonville for another “50-70 years.”
A three-phase renovation project of VyStar, which started with a complete rebuild last year of the home and visiting team clubhouses, will be a major makeover for the baseball experience of Jumbo Shrimp fans.
Babby and his team studied many of the newer facilities in the minor leagues (Memphis, Las Vegas, Nashville and Worcester, Ma.) to get ideas of what they wanted for Jacksonville.
The Canopy company founded by Janet Marie Smith, which oversaw ballpark projects like Oriole Park at Camden Yards, was hired to handle the construction through a local company, Birken Construction. A Los Angeles-based company, O Sports, was the designer and engineer.
What will immediately stand out for Jumbo Shrimp fans is how the structures in right field (“Right Field Hall”) and center field (“Center Field Porch”) gives the ballpark a completely different feel.
Beyond center field will be a gathering area for families, birthday parties and other celebrations. Behind center field, there’s also a new entrance to the ballpark, though the one behind home plate will remain.
The most noticeable change will be in right field, where last-minute construction of a multi-level building will continue through Friday when the last coat of paint goes on the wall. That building will make the Jumbo Shrimp Souvenir Store accessible on the street and concourse level.
For entertainment purposes, one of the park’s coolest features is the 225 seats high up in right field that fans can purchase for just $15.
It provides a view of the ballpark on the opposite side from where the Boston Red Sox added seats above the Green Monster in left field. Fans there will also have access to food and beverages without having to walk any great distance.
Despite all the renovations and infrastructure, low-priced Jumbo Shrimp tickets will remain at $5 and hot dogs at $2 because Babby doesn’t want to strain a family’s budget.
As he put it: “Our commitment to affordable family fun is as strong as it’s ever been.”
As with most renovated sports venues, even at the minor-league level, the Jumbo Shrimp complied with the requirement to bring an MLB feel to the fan experience.
The most expensive amenity for Jacksonville baseball fans is the exclusive “Home Plate Club” membership for a limit of 150 people, which carries an annual price tag of $5,250.
Many of those have already been sold to corporations likely wishing to entertain clients and reward employees, albeit memberships are also available on a limited individual basis.
Members get the VIP treatment of convenience, plush seats and upscale dining. Located behind home plate, where the Jumbo Shrimp offices used to be, patrons walk into a large room that seats 150 and offers the kind of food available at high-quality restaurants, though ballpark fare is also an option.
“I’ve seen the menu for Opening Day and it’s as nice as any formal dining restaurant in Jacksonville,” said Babby. “Think steak, fresh fish, pastas, all those things.”
There’s also an ice cream stand inside the club and patrons can walk 25 steps outside to their luxurious cushion seats, providing movie theater comfort from a view behind home plate. All beer, wine, food and choice seats for 75 home games are included in that $5,250 price tag.
“This Home Plate Club is a major-league experience,” Babby said. “This was designed off what you’d see at Truist Park in Atlanta [home of the Braves]. It’s as nice as any home plate club and lounge in the country.
“We’ve had a lot of debate and consternation about what the Jumbo Shrimp should stand for. We are that $5 ticket and not changing from that mission, but there’s a segment of our customer base that wants a fine-dining meal, wants to sip craft cocktails before the game and sit 30 feet from home plate. That’s what this space is all about.”
Back in the 1980s, after the Bragan family, led by patriarch Peter Sr., purchased the team, they struggled for well over a decade to get the city to help bring the defunct Wolfson Park up to any kind of reasonable standard for fans.
It wasn’t until mayor John Delaney, as part of his Better Jacksonville Plan, delivered the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in 2003 — touted as a “mini Camden Yards” — that minor-league baseball in Duval County received any kind of a municipal jolt.
This latest VyStar renovation at Bragan Field gives baseball fans some cool amenities without much price-gouging for non-Home Plate Club members.
Minor-league baseball owners, unlike their MLB, NFL and NBA brethren, have no control over the talent level of their rosters. Babby has no input into the talent level of players the Marlins bring to Jacksonville each year.
So the former newspaper advertising executive and chief revenue officer with the Washington Post — also son of ex-Orioles general counsel and retired Phoenix Suns president Lon Babby — focuses all his energy on what he can control: the fan experience.
The younger Babby’s ties to baseball, where he rode spring training buses with the likes of All-Star outfielder Brady Anderson and Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., run deep.
When he first became an owner of the Double-A Akron RubberDucks in 2012, then later purchased the Jacksonville club when they were the Double-A Suns, his greatest motivation beyond making a living was the desire to have fans love the game as much as he did.
Babby obsessed over every detail of the VyStar renovation. He had Town Hall conversations with paying customers to get feedback about what they wanted, which was mostly greater comfort in the Florida heat. That’s why Babby had fans installed last year in ballpark concourse areas to provide some relief.
Many sports owners ignore fan complaints. Babby instead embraces it because he feels his primary duty is finding solutions or new ideas to improve the fan experience.
“It’s always been part of my dream to come into a community and create something and leave it better than how we found it,” said Babby.
In about the same amount of time Shad Khan has owned the Jaguars, the outgoing, personable Babby has made a substantial connection in Jacksonville by constantly engaging with the Jumbo Shrimp fan base.
Owning the Shrimp is an extension of his childhood. Growing up in Bethesda, Md., he and his father spent summers attending minor-league games at different venues all over the state and in Albany, N.Y.
It wasn’t until the 5-foot-5 Babby couldn’t make it as a starting catcher at Wheaton College that he gave up on becoming a big-leaguer.
Still, his baseball passion is even greater now because Babby feels a responsibility to help fans connect with the game as he did tagging along with his father to all those minor-league venues.
As he told the T-U a decade ago when he took ownership of Jacksonville’s minor-league team: “Hopefully, if I do my job, I can build those same great memories for other people. I want to preserve it, feel it, give it to others.”
Jacksonville getting a renovated VyStar ballpark, and the labor Babby put in to make it happen, is an extension of his own father-son experience.
For Jumbo Shrimp fans, it just means Ken Babby is taking affordable, family fun to a new level.
[email protected]: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp ballpark upgrades bring long-term viability
Continue reading...
One week before showing off the $31.8 million makeover to the Jacksonville downtown ballpark, the 46-year-old Jumbo Shrimp owner felt like an expectant father.
He simply can’t wait for Babby’s baby to come into the baseball world.
“This has been a labor of love,” Babby said in an exclusive interview with the Times-Union. “This is like giving birth to a child.”
Not that he equates the arrival of a renovated Triple-A ballpark as being identical to the birth of his 16-year-old son, Josh.
However, anyone familiar with Babby during his 10 years of owning Jacksonville’s minor-league team understands his passion for delivering an affordable, family-friendly baseball experience to a community. It aligns with his own deep roots in the game.
Babby may be an entrepreneur who enjoys making money as much as the next businessman, but he does it with a child-like excitement that harkens back to his two seasons as a Baltimore Orioles spring training bat boy in St. Petersburg during the early 1990s.
He wants everyone from the casual baseball fan to a die-hard Fantasy player to soak in the ballpark experience at the renovated VyStar venue at Bragan Field. And if they don’t connect to the game in the same romanticized way he did as a kid, Babby still believes spectators will enjoy it enough to want to come back.
For fans who’ve been to the original Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (constructed in 2003), or its demolished predecessor, Wolfson Park, this massive makeover of the facility next to the NFL Jaguars’ EverBank Stadium is likely going to be viewed as a home run.
“This ballpark is almost going to be unrecognizable when you see it,” said Babby. “When the fans walk in here after the last coat of paint is put on [in right field], it’s going to look and feel like a brand new ballpark.”
You must be registered for see images
Jacksonville upgrading to meet MLB standards
From a pricing standpoint, the baseball upgrades for the city’s Triple-A baseball team are only a small fraction of the $1.4 billion cost to renovate the Jaguars’ EverBank Stadium, but its significance to the sport’s future in Jacksonville is paramount.
If the city wanted to maintain its Triple-A affiliation with the Miami Marlins, it had to get on board with meeting the Major League Baseball requirements established when minor league baseball went dark during COVID-19 in 2020.
One of the reasons MLB did away with 40 minor-league teams affiliated with its parent clubs is those cities made no firm commitment to the kind of upgrades that were done with the VyStar (formerly 121 Financial Ballpark) facility.
Immediately, Babby and his staff of employees began the process of trying to meet the MLB criteria. It started with building a relationship with former mayor Lenny Curry, then extended into making the same connection with his successor, Donna Deegan.
All those parties, along with the City Council in February, 2024, approving the $31.8 million funding for Project NEXT, were on board with keeping Jacksonville’s longest running professional sports franchise intact.
“Our ballpark didn’t have anywhere close to the necessary requirements for what MLB required for a Triple-A facility,” said Babby, who is obligated to pay for any construction cost overruns. “We needed to make these renovations, but there wasn’t a funding source to do it.
“We wanted to stay a Triple-A franchise. Jacksonville deserves that. Mayor Curry and Mayor Deegan have been incredibly supportive.”
You must be registered for see images
Thanks to the Jumbo Shrimp partnership with the city, Babby is convinced that the current renovations will help keep minor-league baseball viable in Jacksonville for another “50-70 years.”
What’s new at Jumbo Shrimp facility?
A three-phase renovation project of VyStar, which started with a complete rebuild last year of the home and visiting team clubhouses, will be a major makeover for the baseball experience of Jumbo Shrimp fans.
Babby and his team studied many of the newer facilities in the minor leagues (Memphis, Las Vegas, Nashville and Worcester, Ma.) to get ideas of what they wanted for Jacksonville.
The Canopy company founded by Janet Marie Smith, which oversaw ballpark projects like Oriole Park at Camden Yards, was hired to handle the construction through a local company, Birken Construction. A Los Angeles-based company, O Sports, was the designer and engineer.
What will immediately stand out for Jumbo Shrimp fans is how the structures in right field (“Right Field Hall”) and center field (“Center Field Porch”) gives the ballpark a completely different feel.
Beyond center field will be a gathering area for families, birthday parties and other celebrations. Behind center field, there’s also a new entrance to the ballpark, though the one behind home plate will remain.
The most noticeable change will be in right field, where last-minute construction of a multi-level building will continue through Friday when the last coat of paint goes on the wall. That building will make the Jumbo Shrimp Souvenir Store accessible on the street and concourse level.
You must be registered for see images attach
For entertainment purposes, one of the park’s coolest features is the 225 seats high up in right field that fans can purchase for just $15.
It provides a view of the ballpark on the opposite side from where the Boston Red Sox added seats above the Green Monster in left field. Fans there will also have access to food and beverages without having to walk any great distance.
Despite all the renovations and infrastructure, low-priced Jumbo Shrimp tickets will remain at $5 and hot dogs at $2 because Babby doesn’t want to strain a family’s budget.
As he put it: “Our commitment to affordable family fun is as strong as it’s ever been.”
You must be registered for see images
'Home Plate Club' members get VIP treatment
As with most renovated sports venues, even at the minor-league level, the Jumbo Shrimp complied with the requirement to bring an MLB feel to the fan experience.
The most expensive amenity for Jacksonville baseball fans is the exclusive “Home Plate Club” membership for a limit of 150 people, which carries an annual price tag of $5,250.
You must be registered for see images
Many of those have already been sold to corporations likely wishing to entertain clients and reward employees, albeit memberships are also available on a limited individual basis.
Members get the VIP treatment of convenience, plush seats and upscale dining. Located behind home plate, where the Jumbo Shrimp offices used to be, patrons walk into a large room that seats 150 and offers the kind of food available at high-quality restaurants, though ballpark fare is also an option.
“I’ve seen the menu for Opening Day and it’s as nice as any formal dining restaurant in Jacksonville,” said Babby. “Think steak, fresh fish, pastas, all those things.”
There’s also an ice cream stand inside the club and patrons can walk 25 steps outside to their luxurious cushion seats, providing movie theater comfort from a view behind home plate. All beer, wine, food and choice seats for 75 home games are included in that $5,250 price tag.
“This Home Plate Club is a major-league experience,” Babby said. “This was designed off what you’d see at Truist Park in Atlanta [home of the Braves]. It’s as nice as any home plate club and lounge in the country.
“We’ve had a lot of debate and consternation about what the Jumbo Shrimp should stand for. We are that $5 ticket and not changing from that mission, but there’s a segment of our customer base that wants a fine-dining meal, wants to sip craft cocktails before the game and sit 30 feet from home plate. That’s what this space is all about.”
Maintaining a modern ballpark
Back in the 1980s, after the Bragan family, led by patriarch Peter Sr., purchased the team, they struggled for well over a decade to get the city to help bring the defunct Wolfson Park up to any kind of reasonable standard for fans.
It wasn’t until mayor John Delaney, as part of his Better Jacksonville Plan, delivered the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville in 2003 — touted as a “mini Camden Yards” — that minor-league baseball in Duval County received any kind of a municipal jolt.
This latest VyStar renovation at Bragan Field gives baseball fans some cool amenities without much price-gouging for non-Home Plate Club members.
Minor-league baseball owners, unlike their MLB, NFL and NBA brethren, have no control over the talent level of their rosters. Babby has no input into the talent level of players the Marlins bring to Jacksonville each year.
So the former newspaper advertising executive and chief revenue officer with the Washington Post — also son of ex-Orioles general counsel and retired Phoenix Suns president Lon Babby — focuses all his energy on what he can control: the fan experience.
The younger Babby’s ties to baseball, where he rode spring training buses with the likes of All-Star outfielder Brady Anderson and Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., run deep.
When he first became an owner of the Double-A Akron RubberDucks in 2012, then later purchased the Jacksonville club when they were the Double-A Suns, his greatest motivation beyond making a living was the desire to have fans love the game as much as he did.
Babby obsessed over every detail of the VyStar renovation. He had Town Hall conversations with paying customers to get feedback about what they wanted, which was mostly greater comfort in the Florida heat. That’s why Babby had fans installed last year in ballpark concourse areas to provide some relief.
Building great baseball memories
Many sports owners ignore fan complaints. Babby instead embraces it because he feels his primary duty is finding solutions or new ideas to improve the fan experience.
“It’s always been part of my dream to come into a community and create something and leave it better than how we found it,” said Babby.
In about the same amount of time Shad Khan has owned the Jaguars, the outgoing, personable Babby has made a substantial connection in Jacksonville by constantly engaging with the Jumbo Shrimp fan base.
Owning the Shrimp is an extension of his childhood. Growing up in Bethesda, Md., he and his father spent summers attending minor-league games at different venues all over the state and in Albany, N.Y.
It wasn’t until the 5-foot-5 Babby couldn’t make it as a starting catcher at Wheaton College that he gave up on becoming a big-leaguer.
Still, his baseball passion is even greater now because Babby feels a responsibility to help fans connect with the game as he did tagging along with his father to all those minor-league venues.
As he told the T-U a decade ago when he took ownership of Jacksonville’s minor-league team: “Hopefully, if I do my job, I can build those same great memories for other people. I want to preserve it, feel it, give it to others.”
Jacksonville getting a renovated VyStar ballpark, and the labor Babby put in to make it happen, is an extension of his own father-son experience.
For Jumbo Shrimp fans, it just means Ken Babby is taking affordable, family fun to a new level.
[email protected]: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp ballpark upgrades bring long-term viability
Continue reading...
