This was the “what if” scenario that MLB’s global events team, specifically the group dedicated to hospitality and hotel booking, builds contingencies for.
Each league championship series went the distance to a Game 7, and the favored club in both the ALCS and NLCS wound up being shocked by their wild-card opponent. What emerged was a World Series matchup — Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Texas Rangers — that few had on their bingo cards.
“But we were prepared for this,” said Ashley Scherer, senior director of global events for MLB.
In a sense, the planning for Rangers-Diamondbacks began months ago, when Scherer sent RFPs to hotels in about 15 MLB markets where playoff berths were likeliest. But this is not like the All-Star Game, whose site is determined years in advance. In reality, booking plans for the World Series could be solidified only late Tuesday — less than 72 hours before the World Series was set to begin — after Arizona staved off Philadelphia to ensure MLB would not be returning to the City of Brotherly Love for the Fall Classic for a second straight season.
“As soon as we saw the outcome of the game, emails were flying and everyone was calling someone,” Scherer said. Jeremiah Yolkut, MLB vice president of global events, estimated his team of 17 — including eight immersed in hospitality, led by Scherer — continued working at least a couple of hours after Game 7 ended at 11:22 p.m.
MLB booked about 800 rooms — spread over several different hotels — for the first two games of the World Series in Arlington, Texas, a figure that dropped slightly when the series moved to Phoenix for Game 3. The rooms are reserved for a host of people involved in bringing the World Series to life, including league employees, MLB Network staffers, sponsors and community activation partners, among many other groups.
“The World Series provides us with some of the most challenging circumstances,” Yolkut said, “because it’s the play on the field that’s making some of our big events decisions.”
Amid the long hours, Scherer likes to remind her hotel team of the reward awaiting them.
“Once the 800 guests are checked in and fed and at the ballpark and you sit down for Game 1, it’s all worth it,” Scherer said. “The months of planning and all the late nights, they’re worth it.”
