Mark Shapiro
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
That turns the pressure off.
on the other team, and Ernie is a player that applies pressure to whoever we're playing against.
So in a lot of ways, he's a tone setter for this group.
Well, when we sat down and said the things we need to accomplish to change this from a stadium multi-purpose 1980s concrete circle, you know, to a true ballpark, you know, that's meant for baseball and in a modern sense kind of provides best-in-class fan and player experience, too, by the way.
History was a piece.
You know, we didn't feel like we had...
done a good job of incorporating history into our building, particularly that allows our fans to connect with the teams of the past.
And we identified the 50th season as being that benchmark season that gave us a platform to do that.
So as we staggered the work we needed to do over off-seasons, creating the hall, but we've also got some really cool exhibits throughout the 100-level concourse where there's memorabilia
from the greatest hitters, the greatest pitchers, the greatest moments.
And then the Hall of Excellence will be in August.
The statue is going to be unveiled in July.
So we've kind of got history throughout this season that we feel our fans, you know, we're getting to that generational point.
That's what, you know, 50 seasons.
Baseball is a generational sport.
Usually if you love the game, a grandparent, a grandmother hands it down to a grandson or an uncle hands it down to a niece.
It's just that game that gets handed down from generation to generation.
And we're at that point now where grandparents that saw early games in the franchise of success are bringing their grandkids, you know, to games.
And so I think it's fun to be able to provide them with the opportunity to connect generationally about Blue Jay history.
What more can you do?