Jeremiah Yolkut, Vice President, Global Events for Major League Baseball, has a message that befits his title: we might be coming soon to a venue near you. Maybe not as the league’s newest franchise, but to play a one-off series involving two MLB teams.
Yolkut, the Stadiums Keynote Speaker, has been instrumental in the League’s recent forays into markets like Rickwood Park in Birmingham (AL) to honor the Negro Leagues, Omaha (home to the College World Series), and beyond borders and across ponds in Mexico City, London, Seoul, and Tokyo.
“These are special event games where we bring to places you really can’t get baseball coming out,” he said. “Like when we started playing at Field of Dreams, we are focused on future sites.”
Yolkut graduated from Boston University with a major in communications and immediately went to work for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) before moving over to MLB. As with tennis, baseball is a true international sport with many top players from Mexico, Latin America, and Japan, among other places.
As MLB considers future international destinations to play, Yolkut noted there are two strategic approaches.
“The first is we look for a baseball-rich culture, such as Asia and Latin countries,” he said. “Second, we look for media-rich markets, such as London, Seoul, and Mexico City. You have to tell the story more in those markets and explain the game to the fans, which we did in London.”
For example, Yolkut said that instead of a dot race between innings, overseas the message might be on exactly what a walk-off home run means in a game.
“These are markets we want to play in and build the MLB brand,” he said.
Yolkut said that stateside All-Star Games are planned three to four years in advance, while future site games take closer to five years to pull the special game together.
Following the session, several members posed questions to Yolkut, some not so subtly indicating their city might be the next perfect location for the league to expand. While Yolkut understandably could not commit to something like that happening, he did say that MLB likes to keep its doors open to new ideas.
After this uplifting session, expect those ideas to roll in fast and furious.
