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Derek Martin is keeping his fingers crossed, among other things.
"I am crossing my fingers, my toes and my hair, anything that can be crossed will be crossed. We have to get some concrete information on how we are moving forward. It can only come from Major League Baseball," said Martin, Altoona Curve general manager.
Martin and Chief Operating Officer David Lozinak remain optimistic there will be a 2021 Eastern League season, but there are many unknowns following the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Professional Baseball Agreement between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball expired Sept. 30.
MLB is expected to take over Minor League Baseball through an agreement with minor league team owners to adopt a new system or through a decision to set up MLB's own development system.
MLB plans eliminate about 40 minor league teams, leaving each of the 30 teams with four affiliates.
On hold
Eastern League members Binghamton and Erie have been mentioned as possible teams to be eliminated.
Martin said he hopes an announcement about what is coming down will be made by Thanksgiving.
"We still don't have a schedule," he said. "We're not sure when we are getting a schedule. We don't know what is going on or what to expect. We won't know who will be part of the Eastern League until we hear from MLB. You can make a plan with good or bad news, but you can't with no news."
With the expiration of the Professional Baseball Agreement, all contracts between major league teams and minor league teams are null and void. The Curve had an agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates through 2022.
"Right now it's very difficult to plan for 2021, since we technically do not have an agreement to be the Pirates AA affiliate," Lozinak said. "We've received numerous assurances that we will continue to be so, and I have no reason to doubt that we will, but here it is halfway through October and all minor league teams still do not have any agreements or a schedule, which is something we usually at least see an initial version of in June of the year before the next season."
Uncertainty over fans
Other challenges await assuming there will be a 2021 season. It is unclear how many fans will be allowed to attend games.
"The governor (Tom Wolf) and (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) will decide the size of the crowds. As of now, we can have 20 percent capacity," Martin said." That number would include players and staff. "That would give us room for about 1,700 fans."
The Curve have been working on many different scenarios with 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent capacity. Season ticket holders and those with the various mini-plans will be given priority.
Martin said the Curve has about 1,400 season ticket holders, meaning with 20 percent capacity, about 300 tickets would be available for sale per game.
"We may implement a buyback program where season ticket holders would sell us their tickets and we could sell them to someone else," Martin said.
Communication is the key to everything, Martin said.
"We have to have 100 percent communication with our ticket holders," he said. "There is a lot of uncertainty. We are in the profession of making plans. When we get word, we have a plan for everything. We will pick the plan; we want to be proactive rather than reactive."
Martin said it will be essential for each game to have a sponsor.
"What will be key for us is that every game is sponsored by a business. It is critical our sponsors column does not have any blanks," Martin said.
Financial challenges
Promotions will look different in 2021.
"A lot of 2021 will probably be similar to our 2020 promotional schedule, since there are numerous items that we had to acquire prior to the season that will still be useful items moving forward," Lozinak said.
Finances will dictate flexibility.
"We will be limited for financial reasons," Martin said. "We won't be able to bring in national acts; our sponsors help underwrite a lot of promotions. We had to cancel (for 2020) all national acts. We had eight celebrities lined up such as Andre Dawson, Rollie Fingers, Kurt Angle and several bobbleheads. We will try to put as much into 2021 as we can. We will have to look at cash flow to see what we can do. National acts and celebrities often cost between $7,500 and $10,000 to bring in."
Martin and Lozinak admit 2020 has been a tough year.
"2020 has been the most challenging year professionally for myself as it has been for many other business owners that fell into the 'non-essential' category, as defined by Governor Wolf," Lozinak said. "The term non-essential is a pretty tough designation to accept when there are so many people in the community that have used this business as a secondary means of income during the summer, and suddenly it's just eliminated from them, causing more financial strain for them, so that's the toughest part of no season has had on me."
"It's been tough," Martin said. "How does any business make it work with zero revenue for 18 months? We had no revenue beginning in October 2019, and won't have any until April 2021. All of the sponsors, season ticket holders and those with ticket plans, we are doing what we can to stay in touch with them. We have been refunding money or crediting it to the 2021 season. We have been doing many small events to try to make things work. It is a chess game to try to figure out every month how to cover payroll."
Neither Martin nor Lozinak would share any numbers, but said the financial impact has been tremendous.
"We successfully got a PPP loan," Martin said. "That helped us retain our 26 full-time staff until July 4. Then we went from 26 to 11. It's been the Lozinak family's commitment to the staff. They have personally been taking care of us; the utility bills don't stop. We know what is needed each month to cover payroll, benefits and utilities. It is not cheap to operate the stadium whether you have games or not. We lost a healthy amount of money."
"As you can imagine, the financial impact of not having any games for over 18 months is enormous," Lozinak said. "When you suddenly lose your normal revenue stream for that time period, you try to come up with some different ways to generate revenue. But those avenues aren't nearly as fruitful as a regular schedule would be, and they also didn't necessitate the needed help that we normally have here at the ballpark. So those things helped a few, but not nearly the amount of people that we would usually be able to impact."
The 20 to 30 nonprofit organizations that run Curve concession stands also took a hit, losing a total of between $150,000 and $200,000, Martin said.
Relationship with Pirates
The Pirates selection of PNG Field as their alternative training site this summer was quite helpful.
"It was huge, absolutely huge," Martin said. "It strengthened the relationship, and it kept the lights on. The biggest part was with Travis Williams as the Pirates new president and Ben Cherington the new general manager, it was a way to strengthen and start a relationship with the key personnel. They helped us offset some of the costs; they helped us with expenses for July, August and September."
"I was extremely happy and proud that we and our staff, as well as the Pirates of course, were able to make PNG Field a safe environment for everyone that was here for three months," Lozinak said. "I was also glad that it presented us with an opportunity to get to know more people from the Pirates organization, especially since the regime change took place after the 2019 season."
Chamber praise
Joe Hurd, president and CEO of the Blair County Chamber of Commerce, said one of the incredible stories of last summer was the way in which the Altoona Curve handled the pandemic.
"It seemed that practically every mandate that came down from the governor hit the Curve squarely between the eyes," Hurd said. "With the unbelievable impact that the Curve has had on our region and its economy since it began playing here, the Curve would certainly be justified to expect the local community to step up and assist them through this difficult time. Instead, the Curve took the initiative to find ways to help those businesses and organizations in the community that were also struggling. Curve employees were involved in practically every effort that took place to make things a little better for anyone whose livelihoods were threatened by some aspect of COVID. The psychological challenges that Blair County faced and continues to face have been far less intense thanks to the Altoona Curve."
Curve officials want fans to know they are doing all they can to make sure there will be a 2021 season.
"We are not going anywhere," Martin said. "We are staying positive there will be a 2021 season. We are ready to flip the calendar to 2021; this year has been miserable. We are doing our best to flip the page and keep going."
Lozinak added: "We are doing everything possible to make Curve baseball happen in 2021, and please be patient as we are also anxiously awaiting our schedule as much as they are for next year. We'll do everything that we can to make them feel as safe here as they always have."
Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.