If you’re a Red Sox fan you’ve almost assuredly heard the terms “Fenway Sports Group” and “New England Sporting Ventures”. Because of baseball’s luxury tax situation in which the top payroll teams have to pay the 40 cents on every dollar over the tax cap, Red Sox ownership had to look at new ways to bring money in that didn’t fall into the luxury tax situation.
The Red Sox already had a secondary revenue stream because the partnership also owned New England Sports Network (NESN), the regional sports television network that broadcasts the teams games as well as those of the NHL’s Boston Bruins but it just wasn’t enough.
This led to the start up of Fenway Sports Group.
Mike Dee, who is the president of FSG as well as the Red Sox chief operating officer, was empowered with finding new business opportunities through sports and entertainment.
FSG is owned by New England Sports Ventures, the partnership that also owns the Red Sox and NESN. The Red Sox, while the primary business, are considered the “calling card” not the product of FSG. Dee and Sam Kennedy, who also has roles with the Red Sox and FSG, look at it as the “door opener” to other ventures.
Some of these ventures have included assisting Boston College in marketing its high profile move from the Big East Conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference by assisting businesses in purchasing billboards and advertising for BC sporting events. It’s helping Deutsche Bank with the sponsorship of the PGA Tour event or helping Sovereign Bank with financial sponsorships for BC. They’re all ways of generating revenue.
Fenway Sports Group got its start with FanFoto, which sent photographers out into the Fenway crowd to take pictures that were sold to the fans. Soon nine other major league clubs had FSG’s FanFoto working in their stadiums.
But the big fish was the recent addition of half of NASCAR’s Rousch Racing and renaming the venture Rousch Fenway Racing. And the Rousch Fenway Racing group has four top notch drivers on the Nextel Cup circuit with Carl Edwards, Gregg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray running the speedways every weekend in search of another championship for New England Sports Ventures. While, the goal for FSG is a title, the partnership gave Jack Rousch an influx of cash that allows him to compete as the sport grows and to remain competitive in NASCAR for the long haul.
While Fenway Sports Group recently sold FanFoto at a profit it is continually looking for new ventures. Some of the things the group is working on are post game concerts after Celtics and Bruins games to help fill the TD BankNorth Garden on nights when the local teams don’t. They also draw revenue from all 30 MLB teams from their web sites by selling online advertising through major league baseball advance media.
They also own Red Sox Destinations which sells complete travel packages to fans so that they can see the team on the road in different locations through out the country. Some of the places Red Sox Destinations have gone this year have been Kansas City, Baltimore, Atlanta and Arizona. The partnership felt with tickets for Fenway park being at a premium it would be a good way for fans to have a different kind of Red Sox experience.
New England Sports Ventures, because of Fenway Sports Group, has become someone to do business with outside of baseball. Like it or love it, the Red Sox ownership has not only thought of unique ways to market the team but invented ways to bring more revenue into the partnership to keep the team competitive for a long time.
Kevin Cash is 
The third inning saw the benches clear. After a Figgins strikeout, Yo-Yo threw a pitch that tailed inside on Cabrera and hit him. Cabrera wasn’t happy and voiced his displeasure towards Yo-Yo and started out towards the mound. The other newcomer in the lineup, Kevin Cash, stepped out in front of Cabrera, as Cabrera and Yo-Yo were still exchanging words. Both benches emptied but no punches or shoves were thrown, just a little verbal sparing. The umpires then issued warnings to both benches even though Yo-Yo wasn’t trying to hit him. After things calmed down, Yo-Yo walked Guerrero. Yo-Yo worked himself out of the mini-jam as he got Anderson to ground into a fielder’s choice and Matthews, Jr to ground out.
The local nine would finally get on the Green Monster scoreboard in the 8th inning. Saunders started out the inning by retiring Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis on line drive outs. Big Papi chased Saunders from the game with a single off the end of his bat. Scot Shields came in and his wildness continued as he issued a walk to Manny. Lowell followed the walk with a single that scored Big Papi and chased Shields from the game. After J.D. Drew was announced as the pinch-hitter for Kielty, the Angels summoned Justin Speier from their bullpen. Speier threw just 6 pitches as Drew looked like the Statue of Liberty watching all 6 pitches, the final one for the strikeout.
If you didn’t see last night’s game on TV or in person at Fenway like somebody I know, you missed arguably one of the best games of the season at the Fens. Trailing by 5 runs in the 5th inning, the Red Sox put a can of whoop ass on the Angels and Jered Weaver. The big blow off the inning came off of the bat of Big Papi, who crushed a ball into the rightfield seats. That gave the Sox the lead for good as they would add 4 more runs in a 10-5 win. Before Yo-Yo Tavarez takes the ball today, let’s take a look at the headlines and happenings from the Boston and Los Angeles area media on this fall-like day in New England.
New Red Sox OF Bobby Kielty 
Schilling wasn’t at his best tonight but sometimes that’s ok. In the first, he got Figgins to ground out leading off the inning. Orlando Cabrera then tried to hit Texy on the Green Monster but it hit off the wall for a double. Then one of the weirder plays you’ll see happened. Vlad Guerrero hit a ground ball to Kevin Youkilis at third who had to get out of the way of it due to the fact that the barrel of Guerrero’s broken bat was also coming at him. The ball got by for a single and Cabrera advanced to third. Schilling then induced a ground ball to Garrett Anderson that went Youk at first but Julio “E-6” Lugo’s relay throw was late. This allowed Cabrera to score and make it 1-0 Halos. Schilling finished off the inning with a strikeout of Fenway’s new villain, Gary Matthews, Jr.
The reason? The Red Sox struck for 6 runs in the 5th. Eric Hinske got things started with a broken-bat single to Kotchman at first. Weaver had to get out of the way of the bat so he was unable to cover first base. Coco Crisp then crushed a ball to right center that almost got out but was a double nonetheless with Hinske stopping at third. Weaver then hit Alex Cora with a pitch to load up the bases for “E-6”. “E-6” delivered nicely as he hit a 2-run single that scored Hinske and Coco, cutting the lead to 5-2. Youk then singled to short left to reload the bases, this time for Big Papi. As you know from above, Big Papi absolutely crushed a fastball from Weaver into the right field seats for a grand slam and it gave the Sox a 6-5 lead. After the grand slam, Weaver then got Manny to strikeout for the third time on the night and then allowed a single to J.D. Drew that chased Weaver from the game. Darren Oliver came in and got Ironman Jason Varitek to ground out with Drew moving up one base. Oliver then had some control issues as he walked Hinske and Coco to load up the bases for Cora. However he got Cora to fly out to end the inning and the damage.
