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.
