Cordaro makes move to Michigan
Ruston, Tech grad named GM of Devil Rays' affiliate
By Bret H. McCormick
Prep Editor
Martie Cordaro sat at a table in his parents' kitchen Friday morning, talking about his new job — a job that has taken him some 1,000 miles away from home.
Cordaro, a Ruston High and Louisiana Tech alum, recently accepted a position as General Manager for the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays, the Class A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay franchise.
The move to Battle Creek, Mich., in October was just another in a series of steps up the ranks of Minor League Baseball for Cordaro, who has worked in the business for the past six years after leaving Louisiana Tech.
He began his career as a sales rep for the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, the AA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, in late 1999. Afterwards, Cordaro was promoted to Director of Marketing and Sales for the Diamond Jaxx and eventually moved to the White Sox AA affiliate in Birmingham at the same position.
Cordaro stayed with the Barons, made famous because they were the team Michael Jordan played for after his first retirement from the NBA, for the past two years before he began exploring other opportunities within Minor League Baseball.
"A couple of opportunities came up at the beginning of (2004)," Cordaro said. "Sarah, my wife, and I investigated and didn't really like what we saw. This came up in June. We were contacted about visiting Battle Creek."
The Cordaros decided to venture up to Michigan on July 9 to investigate the Battle Creek community and "see if this was an area where we could be successful," Cordaro said.
"There was a positive enthusiasm for baseball in the community leaders that wasn't apparent in the stadium," Cordaro said. "I felt if someone could put out a product the community could truly support, be proud of and value, it appeared from a local standpoint it could be successful in Battle Creek."
Battle Creek is a small community of about 55,000 to 60,000 people, Cordaro said. However, the market is untapped because the surrounding areas, including Kalamazoo, including nearly 300,000 citizens.
The short history at Battle Creek hasn't been a very prolific one. In 1995, the team opened as an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and drew over 175,000 fans during that first season.
However, since that first year attendance has dwindled, all the way to 94,000 fans in 2004 (roughly 1,400 a game). Cordaro hopes to bring interest in baseball back to Battle Creek.
And he will be aided with a new ownership team. The Battle Creek Yankees have become the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays for the 2005 season after being purchased by Fun Entertainment, which also owns the Lexington Legends and hopes to expand to own more teams in the future, Cordaro said.
"Our goal is to own six or seven clubs in the next four years," Cordaro said. "It's very exciting to get in on the ground level of something like this. We are going to be community focused and charity focused and give people the best in family-oriented fun."
Some good players have come through Battle Creek through the years. Former Tech standout T.J. Soto played there when it was an Astros' affiliate, as did Carl Pavano (1995), Johan Santana and Roy Oswalt (1999).
Pavano, Santana and Oswalt all finished the 2004 season in the top five of their respective league's Cy Young Award race.
Cordaro said a big part of the reasoning behind his move to Michigan was what Fun Entertainment CEO and President Alan Stein has done with Lexington, a Class A team with about the same market size as Battle Creek.
Stein's Legends have drawn over 400,000 fans a year for the past four years, and Cordaro said he foresees the same type of success with the Devil Rays.
"That played a big part in helping me make this decision," Cordaro said. "I can see their success and see what they expect. I want to be counted on by Fun Entertainment to run a successful business in Southwest Michigan."
Cordaro said speculation ran throughout the Battle Creek area that the team might move before the sale to Fun Entertainment, and his first challenge as GM is "to secure in people's minds in Battle Creek and Southwest Michigan that this team is staying."
"Our goal is to create a destination for families to come and have fun," he added. "We want to create an environment that is safe to bring friends, family and business associates. We want to be the destination for all fun in Southwest Michigan. On top of that, we have some baseball going on, too."
The next step for the Devil Rays is to get a new stadium in place. The current stadium, C.O. Brown Stadium, is located in Battle Creek, but the Devil Rays' administration would like to have a ballpark more centrally located in the Southwest Michigan area.
"I want to turn this franchise around, build a new facility and learn as much as I can in the next three to four years," Cordaro said. "Then I want to start moving towards ownership."
That's Cordaro's long-term goal — to own a Minor League Baseball team in some fashion. Whether that's in management with Fun Entertainment or somewhere else is to be determined.
Cordaro said the reason he is involved with Minor League Baseball is the community, and he believes the Southwest Michigan community is ready to embrace the new organization.
"I think if done correctly we can give back to the community, give back to charity and provide valuable entertainment," Cordaro said. "I believe we are valuable to the community year-round. We are not focused on wins and losses and winning the World Series. We don't have a $150 million payroll."
Although the Southwest Michigan Devil Rays won't have a major league payroll, Cordaro said Fun Entertainment wants them to be a part of a major league caliber operation.
Once Fun Entertainment expands to six or seven teams in Minor League Baseball, Cordaro said the group's goal is to draw a major league attendance — roughly 2.5 million fans per year among all the teams.
Cordaro is eager to get started with the challenge of turning Southwest Michigan into a machine, and he believes the Devil Ray franchise will benefit its Class A affiliate greatly.
"Tampa Bay has been great," Cordaro said. "One benefit to us changing affiliates is Tampa Bay is not a major market. They have to develop talent from within (the organization)."
|
|
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Bossdawg
