It’s not something one would see in the posh, high-rise offices of major league sports teams.
Victoria HarbourCats owner John McLean and general manager Jim Swanson helped move pieces of furniture around the West Coast League team’s offices Monday on Vancouver Street.
Welcome to the world of minor league sports, where you can be signing players one minute and rearranging desks and cabinets the next.
Swanson, announced last week as the baseball club’s new GM, replacing the departed Holly Jones, also made the Victoria media rounds Monday after attending league meetings over the weekend in Salem, Ore.
“We were second in league attendance [an average of 1,437 fans per game] last season and there’s no reason we can’t be first considering the size of this market, which is the largest in the WCL,” said Swanson, as he laid out his vision for the future of the club, one of two Canadian franchises in the league along with the Kelowna Falcons.
“I got a sense at the league meetings how much Victoria is valued within the WCL and is viewed as a model franchise. There were no complaints about the border or the ferries.”
The 12-team WCL features top-rated U.S. collegiate NCAA players in summer ball but operates on a minor-pro footing in terms of presentation. A total of 57 players who played in the WCL were selected in the 2013 MLB draft.
“It’s different than college. There are paying customers and it’s a business in the WCL,” said Swanson, who has an extensive background in baseball administration from coaching kids to senior men’s local and provincial teams, instructing at Blue Jays Super Camps around the province, chairing the biennial World Baseball Challenge in Prince George to being co-commissioner of the minor-pro independent Prairie League and GM of that defunct circuit’s Grand Forks Varmints.
“This WCL environment gets the players ready for the next level. There’s a reason why a lot of players who get selected [in the MLB draft,] don’t sign but decide to play at this [summer collegiate ball] level.”
Those players can re-enter the MLB draft in their junior year or hope to later sign a free-agent pro contract. So the WCL offers a great deal of entertaining upside to sell to baseball, as well as casual, fans. But Swanson says he is taking nothing for granted.
“There’s a lot going on in this community and we have to offer a product that fits into people’s lives,” he said.
Sports teams — from junior/college to minor-pro and the majors — are operating in a shifting marketplace.
“It’s happening in all of sports that season tickets are less popular currently, and game packs and flex packs are what people are after now,” said HarbourCats owner McLean, who in his other life is a Vancouver private equity investor.
The HarbourCats were 22-32 last summer in their inaugural season at Royal Athletic Park under veteran baseball field boss Dennis Rogers.
McLean said he will name next season’s coaching staff on Wednesday. He also said 35 players have committed to the HarbourCats for 2014 and they will be announced in December.
The HarbourCats’ 54-game 2014 regular season runs June 6 to Aug. 10. Victoria’s 2014 home opener goes June 10 when the Cowlitz Blackbears pay a visit to Royal Athletic Park.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
