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05/21/2006Play ball!
Traverse City Beach Bums open inaugural season this week
John and Leslye Wuerfel, owners of the Traverse City Beach Bums. TRAVERSE CITY — Bill Hemming went to a minor league baseball game in Grand Rapids last year with a large family group and had the time of his life. "We just had a ball," said Hemming, owner of a local plumbing and heating company. "There was stuff going on between the innings, things for the kids to do ... it was just a lot of fun. It was real family-oriented." The Traverse City Beach Bums open their inaugural season in the Frontier League this week, and Hemming will be planted in the front row along the first base line, where his company bought two season tickets for his family, employees and customers. "We're excited," said Hemming, who enjoys baseball and typically takes in a couple of Detroit Tigers games each year. But the Beach Bums are a just a couple miles from home, and he's looking forward to spending many nights at Wuerfel Park this summer. "With the price of gas and everything else, that's a big undertaking getting down to Detroit to watch a ball game," he said. "It's nice to be able to support a home team." It's the kind of support club owners John and Leslye Wuerfel need to sustain their dream of bringing minor league baseball to Traverse City. The Wednesday opener culminates almost six years of plans and preparation by the Wuerfels, a journey marked by ups and downs, but one in which things worked out just fine. "We did a really good job on things we could control," said Leslye Wuerfel, the club's general manager and chief financial officer. "I want people to say this is the friendliest place I've ever been." FROM HOTELS TO BASEBALL The Wuerfels started in the hotel business in Traverse City in 1970 and during three decades built and sold two successful lodges along U.S. 31 on the north side of Traverse City. "Our properties were very successful, but it was a lot of hard work," she said. "There were 28 years of long days." They built an elk and deer ranch near their home outside Maple City in Leelanau County, and traveled extensively to watch their youngest son Jason play collegiate baseball. They also took in scores of minor league games around the Midwest and beyond. They enjoyed themselves at most every venue, she said, and that's when the Wuerfels began batting around the idea of owning a minor league team. They tried to buy the Wisconsin Woodchucks, an intercollegiate team, back in 2001. But the owner decided against selling the club, and the couple turned their efforts to bringing their own team to the Traverse City area. It was an idea floated at least three times since the mid-1990s, but it never got off the ground because there was no interest in a publicly financed stadium. "John and I knew if we were going to bring baseball to Traverse City, we'd have to pay for the stadium ourselves," she said. In 2003 the Wuerfels proposed a ballpark on a 45-acre chunk of farm land on M-72 at Bugai Road in Elmwood Township, west of Traverse City. But a zoning controversy erupted and stung the family like a foul ball off a batter's foot, and within months the family scrapped the plans. A year later stadium plans resurfaced in Blair Township and breezed to approval. Wuerfel said the family was disappointed when the Elmwood site didn't work out. But she "couldn't be happier" with their Blair Township home, where the club bought 26 acres in Chums Village business park off U.S. 31 south of Traverse City. The operation is split into two companies. Wuerfel Sports Development LLC is the parent company that owns the ball park, while the Beach Bums are a separate entity that leases the stadium. Besides the ballplayers, the Beach Bums have a dozen full-time office workers, will employ 8 to 10 interns and will have up to 100 part-time workers in the stadium on game days. The team's annual budget is around $1.5 million, she said. The parent company has another half-dozen full-time employees. BRISK BUSINESS Thus far, the club is pleased with both fan and sponsor response, Wuerfel said. Around 1,200 season tickets are sold, and industry standards estimate about three walk-up sales occur for every season ticket. Similar numbers here would put the club ahead of its ticket sales projections. "We need to average 2,500 people a night to break even," she said. "We have a very expensive stadium. There's a mortgage that needs to be paid off." Table seating around the stadium and along the first and third base lines is popular with corporate interests and season ticket buyers, she said. Twenty-four luxury boxes ring the stadium's infrastructure, but only a quarter of those were sold for the season. Wuerfel suspects slow sales are tied to the adults-only status of the boxes, a designation owed to alcohol sales in the suites. But single-game sales for the air-conditioned, cable TV-equipped boxes — at $360 a night that includes seating for 12 — is "pretty phenomenal," she said. And Wuerfel said she's encouraged by regional response to the Beach Bums, with ticket sales reaching to Alpena, Mount Pleasant and Sault Ste. Marie. Interest is strong south of Traverse City, as well, with fans in the Beulah, Benzonia and Manistee corridor along U.S. 31. "The regional interest has been great," she said. "What we've got going for us is the draw of Traverse City." The club also is excited by its early merchandise sales. She credits the Beach Bums nickname and colorful logo, and says it's catching on with baseball fans across the country who collect minor league memorabilia. Another Frontier League team, the Washington Wild Things, sells around $400,000 in merchandise a year because of its catchy nickname, she said. The team recently shipped more than $100 in goods to a baseball fan in Houston, she said. "All over the U.S., they like the name Beach Bums," Wuerfel said.
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