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| Players of the Goyang Dinos, a second-tier team of the NC Dinos, play during a game in this undated photo. / Courtesy of Goyang Dinos |
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| Tracy Boyoung Shim |
Despite the KBO League being one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the country, its minor league, the Futures League, is at best an afterthought for most baseball fans in Korea.
While many know that the Futures League exists, few have been to a game. For even the teams, minor league baseball seems to be viewed as merely a developmental pipeline for the big leagues and not a business opportunity. This will not be the case for much longer if the Dinos have anything to say about it.
The Goyang Dinos, the NC Dinos' Futures League team, were established this season, having moved across the country from Pohang to Goyang city, which is just outside Seoul. With the change in location, the Goyang Dinos are also trying to change the way they do business.
One of the team's long-term goals is to become a profitable team. In a baseball environment where many of the pro teams are reportedly not profitable, and are seen as a marketing tool and expense for their corporate owners, the idea of a Futures League team being profitable is nothing short of revolutionary. At the heart of this idea is Goyang's business team, led by Tracy Boyoung Shim.
Shim is a lifelong baseball fan and was educated in Korea, the United States and earned her MBA degree at CEIBS in China. Her earliest baseball memories include, "watching baseball with my grandmother, who was a huge baseball fan." She was lured away from her previous job at a multinational company by the opportunity to work in baseball and apply her business experience and education to develop and grow the minor league business for the team.
Shim said the Goyang Dinos' business team, "is in charge of stadium promotion, local community marketing and public relations." Team members look at themselves as a "liaison between the fans and local business." Among the new initiatives implemented by the team is having ballpark events in which fans can participate.
These events, held during weekend home games, are seen as a "win-win-win" proposition for local businesses, the fans and the team. They are trying to move beyond the typical paying for advertising space at the ballpark marketing paradigm and actually providing an opportunity for advertising partners to interact with potential customers, while at the same time exposing their fans to local businesses. A recent example was when the team held a cooking class before a game for fans and invited one of their marketing partners, a local farming company, to introduce their products at the event.
They also see the team as an opportunity to expand their fan base and expose non-baseball fans to the sport. An example of that will come Saturday, which has been labeled English Day. For this event, the team will create five "experience zones" where children will have the opportunity to practice their English by buying tickets and merchandise in English. Additionally, during the seventh inning, they will sing the baseball classic, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
In a year when attendance is down at pro ballparks, the Goyang Dinos have seen an increase from last year, and they are happy with the fans' response to their events so far. While they still have a long way to go in changing both the fans' and the industry's perception of the minor leagues, they believe that in the future their goal of becoming profitable is not as far-fetched as might have been previously thought.
Patrick Bourgo is a Seoul-based baseball researcher and writer. He is on Twitter: @kballhistory.
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