BusinessTN

This month, on the eve of Opening Day, the country will get to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play the Cleveland Indians in a statistically insignificant game at Memphis’ minor league AutoZone Park on ESPN. The game will commemorate the civil rights movement, raise awareness of the National Civil Rights Museum and for Major League Baseball, encourage African-American participation at all levels of the game.

Rarely does an exhibition game garner so much attention—a Spike Lee documentary, branded merchandise and unique uniforms usually reserved for the World Series and All-Star Game—but these are anxious times for baseball. MLB is trying to engineer its own renaissance despite still being shell-shocked by lingering steroid scandals that could undermine nearly all major milestones and records achieved over the last 15 years and consistently losing ground to football as the country’s new favorite pastime.

With the Civil Rights Game, MLB will try to reconnect with a demographic fading from its stands. And Memphis’ baseball roots are stout: tied in from its Cardinals farm team, the Triple-A Redbirds, to its Negro baseball leagues teams, to its nationally renowned little league tournament across the border in Southaven, Miss.

Baseball can worry about how the marketing strategy will turn out, but what the Civil Rights Game means for Memphis is already clear.

“This is going to be bigger than Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson,” says Dave Chase, Redbirds general manager, referring to the heavyweight championship fight at the Pyramid in 2002 that brought weeklong media attention to Memphis.

“We could never afford to pay for the exposure that the museum will get from this,” says the museum’s executive director, Beverly Robertson, who expects visits to increase 30% to 40% before and after the game.

“It’s a national audience,” she continues. “So many people that come to know Memphis know the Lorraine motel is where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. We’re about to introduce the world to [the Lorraine as the location of] the National Civil Rights Museum.”

For years, the city has labored to build a reputation on its history, spending millions of dollars in private and public funds to capitalize on its ties not only to pivotal historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr., but also to its role in the development of rhythm and blues.

“Anytime you go back to your heritage and history it’s a good thing for a community,” argues John Elkington, CEO of Performa Entertainment Real Estate and an original member on the museum development committee.

The museum has struggled for a long time, but Elkington points out that, thanks to sustained investment, the now-subsidized facility is making good on that investment.

“What is it worth [in international exposure] when George Bush and the Prime Minister of Japan to come here to visit?” he asks.

“This city has struggled for years in its relationships between blacks and whites,” Elkington continues. “Memphis is embracing its history, and when you’re not afraid to do that you have the opportunity to be really sincere. And people like that. These are difficult times in Memphis. People need this.”