Pam Gardner joined the Houston Astros in 1989 as director of communications, became vice president of marketing seven years later and in 2001 was named president of business operations — making her the highest-ranking woman in an MLB front office. She assumed a leading role in the design and development of Minute Maid Park (formerly Enron Field), where attendance, spurred by the off-season signings of former New York Yankees pitchers Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, is up 39 percent through 29 dates this season. Gardner spoke recently with Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Donald Trump, in his book “Trump: How to Get Rich,” writes, “Subtlety and modesty are appropriate for nuns and therapists, but if you’re in business, you’d better learn to speak up and announce your significant accomplishments to the world — no one else will.” What’s been your most significant accomplishment with the Astros?
Gardner: I would say when we worked on the construction of the stadium. That was probably the biggest thing that turned events for the franchise. Personally, it was the most fascinating and rewarding project that you could ever work on because it encompasses all the business aspects, plus it impacts the city and the team and the kind of team you can put on the field.
Some of the moves you made during the off-season have paid off so far, both on and off the field. It took 15 minutes to sell out Opening Day. [In mid-June,] Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are a combined 13-2. Attendance is up 39 percent from last season, and 3 million is possible.
Gardner: That’s a possibility, yeah. That’s a goal.
You signed hall of famer Nolan Ryan to a personal services contract. What does Ryan mean to the Astros, and what will he do?
Gardner: Nolan’s a baseball icon. He’s a hero, not just in Houston but in all of Texas, and Texans
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| “Nolan’s a baseball icon. He’s a hero, not just in Houston but in all of Texas.” |
have great pride in our own. Nolan’s a good person, and he’s a wonderful baseball person. He’s going to do a combination of things. He’ll work with us on some marketing aspects for the team, but we’re most excited that he’s going to be working with some of our younger players in the development and minor league systems. He makes a huge difference to these young guys.
In Ryan and Clemens you’ve got the No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers in baseball history in strikeouts.
Gardner: Yeah, and they’ve been together here on several occasions since the beginning of the season, when Nolan’s been here to do some work for the club, and Nolan and Roger together working on some things for Major League Baseball and [the 2004 All-Star Game] FanFest.
In the book “Building Reputational Capital,” the author, Kevin T. Jackson, writes, “Reputation is the primary attribute of commercial relationships. If there is no trust, there is no deal.”
Gardner: No question. Deals are made based on relationships. People do business with people. [Astros owner] Drayton [McLane] says that all the time. We have a couple of rules we follow here. You can’t do anything that’s illegal. You can’t do anything that embarrasses you, your company or your family. You have to do the right thing. That’s how we base all the deals that we do here. They’re based on relationships and how you treat your customer. That clearly is No. 1 for us.
You have said, “We’re in the business of entertaining fans. We have to challenge ourselves all the time.” What’s the Astros’ best new fan initiative?
Gardner: We’re entertainment, like anything else, and we compete for the entertainment time and dollar. We also compete with people who stay at home. The most important thing we try to do is take our current sponsors, who obviously are linked with us because they are trying to reach our fans, and take our product and extend it outside the ballpark, which makes the relationship more meaningful when the fans come to the ballpark. For instance, we do a thing with Coke: Family Day With Coke. With a 20-ounce Coke bottle, fans can turn it in and get game tickets and caps. I think putting those kinds of packages together is really the way of the future.
Your background, prior to the Astros, was in entertainment. You studied vocational rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin and worked for a PR firm in Chicago, where you later became vice president of the entertainment division. Much has been written about the convergence of sports and entertainment. How do you see it?
Gardner: I think people are looking for things to do and be entertained. An interesting thing for baseball is our fan base is about half and half [men and women]. Obviously, it’s family-oriented. We’re able to offer dollar tickets, five-dollar tickets, so families can come in and enjoy. I think that entertainment is a huge piece of it. You have to have some value-added to everything that you do. It’s the environment that we live in. People use a credit card to get miles on the airline. Everything is value-added. How can you get the most for your money and have the most enjoyment. … That’s a fact of life now, and that’s the way we have to think and move. You do have your baseball purists and you always will, and then you have the folks who come out and want to eat the food and go to the kids’ zone. There are just different things for different folks, and you’ve got to give something for everyone. So I think it’s critical to where we’re headed.
Where would baseball be without advertising?
Gardner: That’s a chicken-or-egg question. It’s necessary. We have to have it. It’s part of our livelihood. … Baseball used to just be a sport, but it’s a sport that’s become big business, and so baseball probably wouldn’t be without advertising.
What is the one thing you would change if you ran baseball?
Gardner: That’s a good question. I love the entertainment that we’re able to do. … As TV has progressed, they’ve given you different looks at the game, and I would like to be able to do a little more of that in the park.
What’s been the best new idea in baseball?
Gardner: One of the things that I think has really revitalized baseball — and I’m not sure you can call this the best new idea, because it’s an old idea that’s come back to us — is what’s happened with the stadiums. They’ve become unique again. People go to a ballpark because each one is different. We went through a period there in the ’70s and ’80s where they all looked alike. They were all round with the same dimensions. We’ve come back to a place now where the facility itself is interesting, and I think what’s happening with these new stadiums has really put baseball out front in the vein of the experience. I know that sounds like a basic, but, you know, it feels good to be in a ballpark.
What do you consider the best thing about working in sports?
Gardner: When one person does well, it raises everybody up. We have a very team-spirited operation here. We’ve got a group of folks who work together and come to a consensus, and that’s how projects are done. And it’s really great when you get wonderful, creative people and hatch a project and it all comes together because everybody does their part. That’s the most thrilling piece of the business part of the game.
What are you reading right now?
Gardner: I read a little bit of everything. I just read “The Corrections,” which was fascinating. I belong to a book club, like everybody in the world, and so I get to read things that I probably wouldn’t pick up all the time anyway. I read what everybody’s reading — “The Da Vinci Code” and all those good things. But every once in a while, I try to read something that has me think a little harder. I read Katharine Graham’s biography recently.
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| Raitt plays a tune more peaceful than ballpark music. |
Favorite piece of music?
Gardner: I like a lot of the old female artists, like Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris. I’m showing my age now. But I like to have that on when I’m reading or doing something around the house. It’s more peaceful than what you get at the ballpark.
Do you have a favorite quote?
Gardner: Do the right thing. It’s a good way to live your life and it’s a good way to do your business.
Look for more of this conversation in our sister publication, The Sports Business Daily, located at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.
