Sportsbusinessjournal.com announced that Prospector Baseball Group, a relatively new player in the MiLB market, has acquired two MiLB teams. One at AA level and one at AAA level. Until now, the group owned only one independent club.
The acquired clubs are the Akron RubberDucks (AA affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians) and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (AAA affiliate of the Miami Marlins).
The sale, for an undisclosed price, was approved by MLB on Tuesday. The minor league clubs were owned by Ken Babby, now the CEO of the Rays.
In October, Prospector Baseball Group acquired the Lancaster Stormers (former Barnstormers of the independent Atlantic League). Now that two new teams have been added to the portfolio two months later, the group is pursuing an “aggressive” policy towards purchasing teams.
When Ken Babby joined the Tampa Bay Rays, both the RubberDucks and Jumbo Shrimp became a target for buyers and PBG was the quickest to take the bait.
Prospector Baseball Group is led by sports director John Abbamondi and technology investor/entrepreneur Ben Boyer. Both are longtime friends and were classmates at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Abbamondi and Boyer started talking about doing something together in sports a few years ago. This came to fruition in January when they formed PBG, a holding company of MiLB.
With discussions underway about acquiring the next team, PBG’s goal is to have a portfolio of around fifteen teams and perhaps more.
In addition to acquiring MiLB clubs, both men are interested in developing real estate adjacent to the baseball clubs they are purchasing (something like the apartment buildings behind the Fort Wayne TinCaps’ outfield?).
Affordable family fun, local firsts and baseball stadiums as community centers are the mantras Abbamondi talked about. On how PBG can succeed from a business perspective, Abbamondi said, “It starts with having to deliver for your customers. If fans are not satisfied and get value from the experience, then we don’t deserve to be in business. We will share best practices and exchange ideas, but in reality we are going to make money by delivering for our fans.”
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