Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

Erik Greupner On 2025 Season Tickets, Evaluating This Year's Team, And More!

Padres CEO Erik Greupner joined Ben & Woods on Tuesday morning! Listen here as Erik talks about this exciting 2024 Padres team and the energy that's surrounded Petco Park this season, the increase in 2025 season ticket prices that were announced last night, planning for potential playoff games here in October, and MUCH more!

Duration:: 20m
Broadcast on:: 06 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com, we've done your homework. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players and get customized highlights, stories and breaking news right on your home fee. Follow the action with Games Hit, where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus notifications can keep you connected to every pinch, every hit, every game. The MLB app, baseball your way. Download it now for free from the App Store or Google Play. Block out another research and supply major league baseball trade bar to use with permission. Maybe I should just ask, ask Eric Rupner though. Do you want to hear Eric, all of Jukebox hero here for our reopen? Or do you just want to start kind of just getting going with the interview? Yeah, let's get at it. Let's get at it. All right. We'll get at it. Welcome back. It is Ben Pauli. We'll be back tomorrow. But today we've got the CEO of the pod raise, Eric Rupner, who is on. And first of all, Eric, I mean, a lot of excitement, especially here since the All Star break. No hitter winning 11 of your first 14 games since the break. You got a wildcard race. You got a division race with the Dodgers. I'd imagine it's a fun time to be there at the offices. Becca Park. It's a great time. A lot of energy in the office, a lot of energy in the ballpark, all starts with our fans. I mean, they've just been willing a lot of this into existence all year long, showing up, continuing to just bring passionate support for this team. And we've got an outstanding manager. It might shield that from spring training on as preached, you get better as the season goes, you get better as the game goes. And I think we're starting to really see that play out over the course of the season. I know you, you sent out those season ticket renewal emails last night and we're going to talk about it. But I first want to ask you because you just talked about the job Mike Schilt has done. And I remember back in spring training, you were standing next to Eric could send on talking about, you know, everybody has, has goals and is going to be evaluated, including AJ Preller and Mike Schilt and everybody in your office. And I get it. There's still a couple of months left and those final evaluations won't come until after the season is over, but just in the view of the CEO, the job that the, first of all, the president of baseball operations, AJ Preller has done this season in your mind. David, AJ is going to an outstanding job and it's, you know, AJ will be the first to tell you that it's more than just him, you know, he has an outstanding group of people around him. But he is the leader on that side of our operations and I think going back to earlier, you know, right before the season started, to make the acquisition of Dylan Cease, to then acquire the Lisa Rise, you know, those are arguably two of the biggest trade deadline acquisitions they were just made significantly earlier in the season. So I think the sense to know when players might be available a little off-cycle, go get them, you know, and get them opportunistically when they're available and not have to compete against, you know, six, seven, eight other teams as we did at the deadline with a lot of the players that we were interested in, I think, was, turns out to be a real stroke of genius this year and a lot of the pieces that were added to this team to really complete and lengthen the lineup, whether it be Donovan Solano or David Peralta, I think it really performed at or above a level that we could have expected, jerks and pro-far. And then, you know, just really going back to the Juan Soto trade and the pieces that we got back, whether it was Michael King or adding controllable, you know, pieces to the starting rotation for years to come, potentially in Vasquez and Brio and Kyle Higashiyoka has, you know, really come through in some key moments for us. So I think all the way up until the deadline and then through the deadline, you know, we've just continued to improve this team and I think you're starting to see that on full display now that we're in the stretch around here at the end of the season. Are you okay? I mean, AJ, again, very aggressive at the trade deadline, adding two of the top relievers in the game, but obviously sending out a lot of those prospects out there. I mean, as an organization, you're okay with that strategy. I think it's always going to be a balance for us in this market. As I've said previously, I think we have to continue to develop the Jackson Mariles players that we draft and develop and then bring to the Major League level. And for a number of years, they have high impact at the Major League level wall making a league minimum or through their arbitration years, you know, less money than big free agents. We've made long-term commitments to a lot of big free agents. And so we have to have that balance and you find that balance a few different ways. You know, hopefully more often than not, you're finding it through homegrown talent players that you've drafted and developed in your system. There's also times where coming back in trades, you know, I mentioned a moment ago that wants to trade, I think even, you know, Jason Adam and others still have a number of years of control. Sometimes you get players back in trades and then, you know, you stack up good drafts year after year after year and you continually replenish that farm system. And, you know, that is AJ's area of expertise with the group of advisors that he has around him and our baseball operations team. And I think at the end of the day, we trust that the assessments of who's going to have a long-term impact major league level are being done correctly and I believe to date, you know, nobody backs a thousand. But I think there's been a lot of really good decisions made on long-term impact players that we've kept in our system. Leah DeVries, Ethan Salas, others that we already have in our system, I think there's a lot of talent still left in the system that's going to come. And you don't get established, you know, high-levered relievers in a trade market like we have this year without being willing to pay, you know, a price to get those players. It's a competitive trade market. And I think, you know, if anything, it's just signals that we continue to be all in. I'm trying to win a World Series Championship for San Diego. Talking to Padre's CEO, Eric Groupner here on 97.3, the fan. And as we mentioned, the season ticket renewal email that went out yesterday. And I think for fans, for fans, the most important thing is they want to see winning and see the Padre's go for a championship, which you've definitely been trying to do. But fans are also usually family members. And for families, usually the budget, like is the most important thing. And I know you guys take it seriously. So what's, you know, it's a small increase from last year, about 3%, according to the email. Some will be a little bit more, some will be less, as the email said. What's the case and what goes into the decision-making process for you guys when it comes to deciding on, you know, season ticket renewals for next season? Yeah, that's a great question. So we put a tremendous amount of time and intentionality into that analysis. And, you know, it begins first and foremost with the continued commitment that we've made to the ballpark. You know, even though we didn't have a year this year where we increased payroll year over year. In fact, we've gone in a different direction this year. And we've had a sustained period, extended period of years where we have really significantly increased payroll. And that's all been an effort to field urine and your out of competitive team that can compete for the playoffs and World Series Championship. And that comes, the reality of it is that comes at a cost. And I've said this before, but, you know, the outlook that we've had for years and continue to have is, you know, we are looking to put the very best team we can on the field and that may look, the approach to doing that may look a little different one year versus another. At the end of the day, that baseline commitment is there. And we're not looking to make money off of running the operation of the team. We're looking to put anything that we can generate by way of increased revenue completely back into the team and run it in a responsible way in a way that is, hopefully, continues to be competitive year in and year out. So the reality of that is, you know, inflation has, you know, for most of the year, been running in excess of 3%, but we felt like 3% was a fair and reasonable amount of increase this year, reflecting the rising costs we have operating the business and maintaining the competitive team on the field. It was definitely at the very low end of the range that we looked at and is meant to be a message to the fan base that nobody ever likes. Price is going up even if it's only 3%. But at the end of the day, we're trying to be as reasonable as we can and acknowledge the fact that our fans are the best in baseball. They continue to show up and support us in record numbers. There's high demand to come see this team. And we're just incredibly grateful for our fans and the response that we've had and their willingness. You know, they continue to come back and hopefully support us again next year. These in Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies, like backpacks, binders and pencils. And they've got your back. When your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow. Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first, call your parents to say, "I'm sorry." And then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional terms apply. You don't just live in your home. You live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, homes.com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities, and even things like median lot size and a noise score. Homes.com. We've done your homework. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players, and get customized highlights, stories and breaking news right on your home fee. Follow the action with Game Ted, where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus, notifications can keep you connected to every pinch, every hit, every game. The MLB app, baseball, your way. Download it now for free from the App Store or Google Play. Block out another research and supply major league baseball trade parts used with permission. Eric, you mentioned in that email the, obviously, the huge changes at Gallagher Square, which have been very well received. You also mentioned additional quote impactful improvements in this coming off season. I don't know if there's anything you can share with us, but what are some of the things that maybe you could just in terms of the future plans for Petco Park and keeping it the number one ballpark in baseball? Yeah, so we're not quite ready yet to share publicly the details of what we plan to do this off season, but we have a couple of projects that are going to be really impactful. They're going to focus on the Western Metal Building, and so we're excited when the time is right to share those details with our fans and the public. And that's really what I was referencing there, and it's going to be a couple of projects all within the envelope of the Western Metal Building. And we try to really methodically continue on a multi-year phased approach to maintain and improve the ballpark in a way that keeps it looking no more than five years old. That's our standard. Obviously, the 20th anniversary of the ballpark this year, we're really proud of the way that it looks and the way that it functions for our fans. But every year we're looking at ways to continue to improve fan experience, taking feedback from our fans through regular surveys, and then ultimately continually making the investment into the ballpark every offseason to improve and maintain it. I like that. It's a little teaser. Get people speculating on what might happen, but some excitement. Obviously, the Western Metal Building is a big part of the ballpark and one of the things that makes Panko Park distinct. Now, Gallagher Square, one of the improvements, you know, with better sightlines and the hillside and the bigger screen, we've seen record crowds. You guys have been able to get more people in those seats or not seats, but certainly in the area out there. How has that gone from a kind of a management standpoint? Obviously, you know, the difference may seem small between 45,047, but you've gotten up over 47,000 just the last homestand with the new record against the Dodgers. Yeah, you know, we learned a lot then in the first 19 years of operating the ballpark and in particular, Gallagher Square regarding just how we could optimize that space for fan experience. First and foremost, for 81 home Padres games and then secondarily to continue to fulfill the promise of more than a ballpark and all the other events, concerts and otherwise that we host there in Gallagher Square really has become a very vibrant part of the ballpark and we've used it more and more as the years have gone on. So, you know, I would just say, to get that project done as we did in four months from start to finish is a testament to some really great leaders that we have in our area of ballpark operations and managing our construction projects because to get anything done in four months, especially in the state of California, which is not necessarily streamlined to get projects done from a permitting and other perspective, you know, was really a Herculean feat and we're really pleased with the way that it came out. I think you mentioned a few of the attributes that have been really well received by the fans. First and foremost, creating an all new sight line with the Tony Gwen Terrace, elevating Mr. Padre by about 10 feet. So he's now visible from more of the ballpark, creating a Tony Gwen tunnel underneath the Terrace where a new generation of Padres fans can continue to learn about the great career and life, both on and off the field of Tony Gwen. And then to create, you know, a new experience out there for families and kids with a all new playground with a ball field that's in a more optimal location and then the triple the size of the video board. So now wherever you are in Gallagher Square, you've got a view of the game, not only a new sight line down to the field, but also you still feel connected to the game. So it's been really enjoyable for those of us that have put a ton of time and effort both into the planning and the execution of that project to just walk out there and see our fans enjoy the space. And that's the ultimate reward, you know, in what we do is to see fans come and have a great time with people that they love, friends, family, kids, to generations of Padres fans connecting, sharing the team on and just having a good time at the ballpark. And then lastly, and not try to jinx anything, but you guys have to plan, no matter what, how do season ticket renewals impact potential playoff tickets and home games that could, you know, possibly be happening at Panko Park in October. Yes, great question. So we're at a point now where we've continually grown what has become a every year, a new record level of a season ticket number base. And the reality of that is, and hopefully it's a reality we live this year in the postseason, but it's never been more important to be a season ticket number because, you know, postseason tickets are increasingly scarce with the size of season ticket number base that we have right now. So if you think about it, it's a lot like opening day where we've got a lot of half season plans. And if you have two half season plans, you know, inherently they don't have the same seat for every game, so you essentially double the number of people that get access to tickets for one game. And so we don't anticipate there being a ton of tickets available for public on sale during the postseason, the vast majority of those tickets will all be sold to our season ticket members through our presale process. So it's really a great way for us to be able to say, do our season ticket numbers, you know, thank you, you get, continue to get priority for the postseason because of your longstanding commitment to the Padres and your support for this team. And as we saw in 2022 and hopefully we'll see again this year, our fans show up for the postseason like no other, you know, that NLDS series against the Dodgers was magical. You know, it was 98% Padres fans. It was a true home field advantage and that matters most in the postseason. So we're calling on our fans to really support us down the stretch here to continue to bring the energy night in night out, which is just been outstanding this year. Players feel it. Coaches feel it. We feel it in the front office. We're so incredibly grateful for it. And then if we do end up making the postseason, just certainly our plan to then welcome all those fans in for just an electric environment in the postseason and one of the best home field advantages in all sports. Eric, appreciate the time. Good luck to the team going forward on this road trip and the rest of the season and hopefully we will see more playoff baseball in October at Petco Park. Thank you very much. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Padres CEO Eric Ropner with us. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. 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