The Expedia College Baseball Invitational is the preseason series for college baseball teams to compete at a different site than what teams are accustomed to during their regular season. On February 5th, 6th, and 7th, the Expedia College Baseball Invitational will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is a three-day series and will be held at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium. The stadium is 325 feet (99 m) along the left side of the field and 325 feet (99m) down the right field line and 404 feet (123m) at center field.
At this structure and size, this stadium will provide a great location for the teams that are competing allowing a great venue of entertainment for family, friends, and members within the community. Although the stadium is operated by the government city of San Juan, they are welcoming this event with open arms due to the exposure and revenue the city will gain as a result. This stadium holds 18,264 seats. The invitational is expected to have about 2,500 fans per day, calculating to about 15,000 fans total in attendance over the three-day series.
Since this is a collegiate invitational series, only teams who were notified by invitation are allowed to participate. The goal of Expedia College Baseball Invitational series is to attract the top programs each year, best-known coaches and most outstanding players in baseball while competing in an exciting and diverse atmosphere. Description of Event Competing against the best is what every team wants to do so to start the season the top six teams from the previous year are automatically invited to compete in the Expedia College Baseball Invitational.
The teams that will be competing are: University of Virginia, University of Florida, Vanderbilt University, Louisiana State University, University of Miami, and Texas Christian University. The Invitational is structured into brackets based on the pre-season rankings. Because this is a three day series each day there will be four games played, two games in the morning and two in the afternoon. The last day is the only day where two games will be played and both will be played in the afternoon. The championship bracket and the loser bracket will both be played on the last day to end the three day series.
The structure of the bracket has the top two seeds having a first round bye. And each team playing at least two games. With a minimum two games being played for each team gives teams enough time to work out all of the kinks they may have in the early part of the season. It also shows how they match up against the top teams in the nation in the early part of the season, in what could be a long road to preparing for a possible college baseball championship. Business Overview The Expedia College Baseball Invitational Series will help tourism in Puerto Rico by bringing thousands of people for the tournament.
The tournament will be funded through our Title Sponsor (Expedia), Media Partner (Major League Baseball Network), and our secondary partners (Gatorade, Louisville Slugger, Enterprise, Puerto Rico Tourism Board). This event will attract alumni from the participating schools, college baseball enthusiasts, as well as the locals of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We expect around 15,000 people over this three day event which will also help bring in revenue in excess of $220,000 with the possibility for that number grow as more locals hear about the tournament.
The teams in the invitational will also be involved in the San Juan community in volunteering service days as well as put on instructional clinics for youth baseball teams in the area. The exposure for the teams being on MLB network will also be another opportunity the players involved to get noticed by scouts and potentially help extend their opportunity to play professionally. Operational overview For the operational drive, it can be divided into six parts. Venue and facility acquisitions, accommodations, transportations, event staffing, and government agency participate.
Each part is separate from others, but they all are operated together. There are two ways to get the venue and facility acquisition: (1) rent them or buy them with money, (2) sign contract with the supplier and give them a proper amount of money, rent or buy the items. But in order to maintain our budget, we can use sponsorship rights to exchange the facility, for example, we can give the Gatorade company several large commercial board and give them some area to advertise their product. As a result, Gatorade will provide the athletes with sport drinks.
For the accommodation and transportation, we chose “Condado Lagoon Villas at Caribe Hilton”. This is the closest hotel to the stadium and it provides the most cost effective option. Every team will stay in the same building and the seminar room open to all the teams for one hour each day. Every team would need to register prior to using the room. For transportation, there will be local buses to transport the teams and officials to and from the stadium, with a validate ID indicating that they are competing within the tournament. There will be set schedule for the bus.
The time the bus will depart from the hotel to the stadium will be 8am, 10am, 3pm, 5pm. The indicated time the bus departs from the stadium to the hotel is 11am, 1pm, 6pm, 8pm. There are three types of staffing that will be provided, volunteer, paid workers, and security. Every team will have a team volunteer helping them contact the organizer or other officials when there is a need for assistance. Volunteers will be needed in the hotel, the stadium, concessions, and various locations throughout the stadium. Their duty is to guide audience, contact to staff, help with some simple service.
Safety is very important. Every game there will be full staff readily on-hand. As well as each will will be provided with a member from security for 24-hours. Projected Revenue Putting on a collegiate baseball tournament can potentially be very costly; selecting sponsors, venues and locations all play a large role in the profitability of an event. The Expedia College Baseball Invitational Series can potentially bring in an estimated $425,000. To break down the lump sum, we expect about 15,000 fans to be in attendance over the three day tournament.
Each ticket will cost on average $15, which leads us to an expected ticket income of $225,000. 00. Under ticket sales will be our broadcast media, which we hope to net around $100,000. 00 from the network. The final source of income would be from our sponsors, $100,000. 00. In addition to this, some of our sponsors are providing goods or services rather than monetary exchange. Costs for putting on a tournament of this magnitude add up, but if sponsors are handled correctly, it can still be quite affordable. On average a stadium of this size charges $5,000. 0 a day for baseball tournaments, totalling $15,000 for stadium rental. Once we have the stadium, most facilities charge extra for ticket takers, security, lights for night-time games, traffic control, parking lot attendants, field dragging and lining in between games, as well as clean up after the event is over.
These miscellaneous charges total around $5,000. 00 for a facility of this size. Once the venue is staffed and rented, will have to hire medical staff and umpires for the game. Umpires each cost around $400. 00 per day plus an average $60 travel costs stipend. This ends up costing $1,380. 0 per umpire and bringing the total cost up to $25,520. 00 for the three day tournament. The final expenses would be for the medical staffing, athletic trainers and insurance. EMTs will cost $500 per day, athletic trainers will be $75 per game and insurance for an event like this costs $5,000. This brings the total cost up to $32,770. 00. Once the costs are paid for, the estimated income for the invitational is $392. 230. 00. That total profit will go towards paying the event coordinators, planners, as well as aiding in travel and miscellaneous expenses for the participating teams. Problem Statement
In our group’s problem statement for our tournament proposal, we shed light on the serious financial crisis that is decimating the island of Puerto Rico. Because of the recent financial crisis that has left the island in 70 billion in total debt, Puerto Rico is facing a need for a tournament like this that can bring much needed tourism to the local area (Long, 2016) This in turn will bring in additional revenue and benefit local businesses in the San Juan area. The island is currently resorting to extraordinary measures to pay its bills and this is unfortunately affecting the morale of its population.
As the debt of Puerto Rico has grown, the population has shrunk as many young Puerto Ricans are leaving in droves to live in Florida (Gonzalez, 2016). With our tournament’s ability to bring in a large amount of people, including staff, athletes, parents, and local youth baseball players, there is an opportunity to boost the economy as well as the morale of the community. The local Winter League in Puerto Rico aptly named after Puerto Rican baseball legend Roberto Clemente currently only has four teams.
Interest in local baseball has dwindled, which has unfortunately led to a decline in Major League baseball talent. Some argue this is due to Major League Baseball’s decision to include Puerto Ricans in the MLB draft, where prospects compete with players from the United States who have more opportunities and resources (Castillo, 2015). However, the Houston Astros 21-year old Puerto Rican shortstop and former MLB number one draft pick, Carlos Correa has restored excitement over young island talent.
He won the Rookie of the Year last year and is an alum of the Puerto Rican Baseball Academy. The Academy has other alumni in Major League Baseball and is funded by the MLB. 14-18 year olds are given the opportunity to both get an education and improve their baseball skills (Gonzalez, 2011). Carlos Beltran, a Puerto Rican MLB star, has recently helped fund his own academy called the Beltran Academy. This is just yet another opportunity for young Puerto Ricans to play the game they love and to improve their skills to either get drafted or get college scholarship offers in America.
Ultimately, if we handle this tournament correctly, we can use these academies to offer clinics, discounted team tickets, community service opportunities, and the opportunity to have a youth baseball tournament between the sessions. This will expose young Puerto Rican talent to college scouts and create excitement for the local Puerto Rican community to see future stars. Hopefully the viewing of their country’s future will symbolize patriotism and serve as a boost of morale for the island.
