Hey, Hey, Hey, Good-Bye Old Comiskey Park
Situation: As would many organizations, the Chicago White Sox looked at its 80th anniversary as a milestone. However for the Major League Baseball franchise, that milestone also marked the controversial final season in America’s oldest ballpark, a team whose average age was the youngest in the American League – even with 42 year-old Carlton Fisk in the mix – and that was coming off a 69-92 record and the worst paid attendance in recent history.
1990 was a decisive year for the Chicago White Sox.
Approach: As the Sox planned its anniversary celebration, the team’s management saw an opportunity to consider the big picture – improving the team’s image, wooing fans and building excitement for the new Comiskey Park, being built directly across the street from the historic “Baseball Palace of the World.”
The White Sox worked with Public Communications Inc. (PCI) to create and implement a public relations and marketing communications program. Sound Solutions founder Starr McCaffery was the day-to-day account lead, a role she held for five baseball seasons before leaving PCI.
Anticipating longtime Sox fans would come out for the final season and that sports media would thoroughly cover the team, the agency's focus was twofold: to create events that would attract former fans whose interest waned, new fans and those curious to visit a landmark before it disappeared; and to generate coverage from non-sports media thereby expanding awareness of the historic events.
Saying goodbye to the famed Baseball Palace was not easy for many fans, local residents, opinion leaders and media, and the demise of Old Comiskey drew controversy. This was turned around with the support of players and coaches who believed a new ballpark would bring enormous advantages to the team. They, along with prominent figures and "average Joes" who were excited about the move, were there to provide their points of view in media interviews.
The agency partnership allowed the Sox in-house staff to focus on sports reporters and park events while McCaffery and her agency team managed non-sports media and off-site activities, such as White Sox Day at Taste of Chicago and appearances at various neighborhood and ethnic festivals. The effort created a stream of news from before spring training, through the last game and right into the next season, moving from one announcement or event to another.
News and events included:
- Construction tours and briefings from January through the completion of New Comiskey Park, including an aerial photo shoot.
- The first “Turn Back the Clock” day, an event later duplicated by other Major League franchisees, during which Comiskey Park’s famed exploding scoreboard was silenced in favor of a score tender who posted runs, hits and errors by hand, 5-cent popcorn and players in 1917 replica uniforms.
- White Sox Day at the Taste of Chicago – the first time a professional sports team participated in the festival – where a scaled replica of the new ballpark was displayed while current and former players spoke with and signed autographs for festival attendees.
- A 7-foot commemorative montage that was commissioned, unveiled for VIPs and media and sent on a nine-month tour of public buildings in the Chicago area. Numbered, singed and framed versions were presented to sponsors and VIPs, and posters of the montage were distributed in a sponsored-promotion to fans.
- A "Turn Off the Lights" contest kept fans competing throughout the summer for the honor of pulling the switch and turning off the lights for the last night game at Old Comiskey.
The intensive media relations effort continued after the final game to keep the team visible during the fall and winter months when season ticket and Diamond Suite sales needed to hit their peak, and McCaffery developed copy and managed production for a new series of advance-ticket sales collateral.
Results: More than 2 million fans came out to games — the third highest paid attendance in White Sox history.
In addition to traditional sports media coverage, more than 200 million impressions were secured in and on local and national non-sports media including:
- USA Today
- Midway Magazine
- Ad Age
- Crain's Chicago Business
- CBS’s "Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt" and "CBS This Morning"
- NBC’s "Prime Time Live"
- ABC’s "Good Morning America"
along with segments on CNBC and CNN, and literally dozens of placements in and on major Chicago-area magazines, newspapers and broadcast outlets.
Furthermore, the Sox broke their all-time record for pre-season ticket sales, selling more tickets before the first 1991 game was played than were sold in all of 1990.