BusinessTN

In baseball, it's three strikes and you're out. But Jackson officials and residents are hoping that won't be the case for the city's Double A baseball franchise, the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. At press time, the team was one loan approval away from ushering in its third set of owners, and the community is hoping a non-baseball-related idiom--the third time's the charm--will be more apropos for a transaction that, if finalized, will bring a Nashville investment group up to bat.

They are a breath of fresh air coming in with new ideas and new opportunities," says Paul Latture, president and CEO of the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce. "There are a lot of positive things that can happen as a result."

The prospective ownership group, which has already received the necessary approval from Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, is made up of two names that are well-known in sporting circles in Middle Tennessee. David Freeman, who founded and sold medical waste company Commodore Medical Services, has been in the news over the past several months for heading up the investment team that purchased the Nashville Predators to keep the team in Nashville. The Knoxville native, UT alum and Vanderbilt law school graduate was recently honored with the Nashville Sports Council's Community Spirit Award for his leadership in promoting sports in Middle Tennessee.

His partner in the Jaxx deal, Reese Smith III, is the president of Haury & Smith Contractors, a Nashville-based firm that Smith's father, Reese Smith Jr., launched more than 50 years ago. Clearly baseball fans, the Smith family has had an ownership stake in about nine minor league baseball teams since the 1980s, including a small portion of the Nashville Sounds Triple A team. Reese Smith Field, the Middle Tennessee State University baseball stadium, is also named after Smith's father.

Smith says a love for baseball and a desire to keep the team in Jackson factored into the pair's decision to purchase the team.

"It's just down the road, and everybody who has been to West Tennessee knows where that ballpark is," he says.

But it's also the smallest market of the Southern League teams--a fact that Smith says presents a challenge. In 2007, attendance increased about 19% from 2006, with 17,865 more fans visiting the Jaxx home field, Pringles Park. Despite this, the team's attendance numbers--about 113,351 that year--remained the worst in the Southern League. The team with the next lowest attendance in the 10-team southern league was the Huntsville Stars, which welcomed 164,079 in 2007, while the most successful team in the league, the Jacksonville Suns, welcomed 396,012 in 2007.

"Attendance needs to improve, but [the Jaxx have] drawn more in years past, so we just need to get people back to the ballpark," Smith says. "It's good family entertainment for the money. That's the name of the game in minor league baseball."

One of the most crucial tasks for the group will be revitalizing the team's presence in the community--a task with which previous owners struggled. In fact, it seems that since its inception, the Diamond Jaxx have had a rocky relationship with the city and its potential fans. Originally named the Memphis Chicks, the team came to Jackson under David Hersh's ownership as a Chicago Cubs' affiliate in 1998. Hersh eventually sued the city of Jackson, claiming it violated contract obligations that were contingent upon Hersh moving the team from Memphis to Jackson. The city ultimately won the lawsuit, but Hersh had already sold the team for a reported $7 million to Bob Lozinak in 2002.

While Lozinak, who previously owned a Triple-A team in Albuquerque, N.M., and a Double-A expansion franchise in Altoona, Pa., didn't have problems of the legal variety, his ownership group suffered financial losses due to an inability to get fans back to the stands in an already challenging market. In 2005, the group tried to relocate the team to Greenville, S.C.--a move that further damaged community loyalty. Major League Baseball denied the request, and Lozinak eventually signed a three-year lease to play at Pringles Park. Despite this uncertainty regarding the relocation and sale of the team, which in 2007 began its affiliation with the Seattle Mariners, prevented Lozinak's group from regaining fan trust, an issue that continued to affect attendance.

As for Smith and Freeman, the fact that they hang their hats in Tennessee seems to be scoring points around the community. Upon expressing their interest in the team, they wasted no time in announcing plans to keep it in Jackson. At press time, they were in the process of negotiating a lease agreement with the city that would keep the Jaxx at Pringles Park for at least three more years and possibly as many as seven. (The current contract expires this year.)

"It's about showing a commitment," Smith says.

They also hired a Jackson resident, Tom Hanson, as general manager. Hanson previously served as director of marketing for another Jackson baseball attraction, the West Tennessee Healthcare Sportsplex--a 65-acre, 17-field facility built adjacent to Pringles Park more than a year ago to host regional and national youth baseball and softball tournaments.

"We don't have anything like Dollywood, so we built [the facility] as a tourism destination," Latture says.

In its debut last year, the $11 million Sportsplex welcomed about 650 little league teams to Jackson, according to Sportsplex office manager Jody Smith. At press time, more than 500 teams from around the Southeast had already registered for spring tournaments this year. "Many teams will wait until a week or two before tournaments to sign up, so having this many this early is really big," Smith says. "We have several age groups that are already full, and we also have waiting lists."

So, in addition to attacking Jaxx attendance numbers through increasing season ticket/group outing sales and offering additional entertainment intended to make fans return again and again, Hanson will work closely with the Sportsplex to capitalize on the facility's success. He says the Diamond Jaxx will continue (as they did last year) to distribute welcome bags to youth players visiting for weekend tournaments. If the Jaxx are in town, players will also be given a free ticket.

The area around the two fields has also become a hot spot for development, with restaurants, shops and other businesses generating property and sales tax revenue, as well as jobs, for the community.

"It's a unique setting," Hanson says. "There isn't any other set up in the nation that I know of with a 17-field, state-of-the-art baseball complex next to a professional baseball stadium right off the Interstate [exit 85 off I-40] with retail development there. With the Sportsplex and the Diamond Jaxx working hand-in-hand to bring people to the area, the economic impact is just enormous."

Clearly, it's an area that, like Jackson itself, is ripe with potential. Professional sports teams can boost a city's image and typically aid in generating economic growth, but such positives can only be fully realized when a community rallies around its team. It's too early to tell if the Diamond Jaxx and West Tennessee will hit a home run with Reese and Freeman they've yet to have an official at-bat. Given the size of the Diamond Jaxx market, they'll have their work cut out for them. But the stability afforded by their Tennessee roots could go a long way toward eliminating the uncertainty that has plagued the team in the past.