Lexington

National Sports Services was instrumental in the development and success of Applebee’s Park and the Lexington Legends Minor League Baseball franchise. The Legends, a Houston Astros affiliate, joined the 16-team South Atlantic League in 2001. The Legends are a Single A baseball franchise which plays a 140-game schedule from April to September.

Throughout the 1990’s, Lexington remained one of the largest markets in the United States without a professional baseball franchise. Several groups during that decade attempted and failed to move forward with a viable stadium finance plan.

In 1999, Alan Stein, an entrepreneur in Lexington, hired National Sports Services to develop the largest totally privately financed stadium in minor league baseball history. The entire project exceeded $20 million, including land acquisition, stadium construction, team acquisition, and other project costs. NSS assisted in all areas of development. The firm identified and analyzed prospective stadium sites and was instrumental in land acquisition negotiations. NSS had a leading role in the due diligence and selection of Stadium Consultants International (SCI) for stadium architecture and design services.

Stein formed Lexington Professional Baseball Co., LLC (LPBC) to pursue acquisition of a team. NSS worked closely with Stein to research all opportunities to acquire a team, including issues of price, availability and geography. LPBC settled on the South Atlantic League (SAL), and NSS was instrumental in the preparation of the extensive applications and supporting documents required by Minor and Major League Baseball to own a franchise. The SAL expansion franchise was approved and acquired by LPBC for $3.5 million.

After thorough research of the market, NSS created detailed projections for operations, which were critical to demonstrate the viability of the project to League officials and lenders. NSS also prepared a detailed business plan and assisted with the preparation of offering documents provided to investors.

With funding in place, NSS worked with Stein and SCI on all construction issues, including final decisions on stadium programming and design. The stadium was designed to include 6,033 seats, 24 suites, an in-stadium restaurant, two large picnic areas, an enclosed merchandise store, children’s play area and a state-of-the-art scoreboard with video screen.

While stadium construction was underway, NSS was responsible for implementing business operations, including staffing, training, sales and marketing, merchandising, media and community relations and accounting. NSS developed the sales inventory, pricing structures and packages and was actively involved with implementing a "Name the Team" contest.

NSS was principally responsible for the development of the suite program, including pricing, amenities, contracts, policies and procedures. Through an aggressive sales and marketing campaign, the Legends were able to contract nearly $500,000 in suite revenue on long-term agreements, over $1 million in annual sponsorship dollars and annual season ticket revenue in excess of $1.5 million, on multi-year agreements.

NSS also participated in negotiations with the Houston Astros on a long-term player development agreement. The Legends became a key ingredient in the Astros minor league system, along with other new stadiums in New Orleans, Louisiana (Triple A) and Round Rock, Texas (Double A).

Prior to the 2001 inaugural season, NSS was actively involved in the process of hiring a concessionaire to provide consulting services and supervision of the food and beverage operation. LPBC hired Legendary Food Services, which made a substantial financial investment in concession equipment, and generated per capita sales exceeding $9.00.

The stadium was completed prior to the 2001 season and became known as Applebee’s Park during the 2002 season. An aggressive marketing and promotional schedule, along with an impressive customer service program, allowed the team to sell out virtually every contest by attracting 6,444 fans per game, and 451,076 overall in its inaugural season. The team followed up the initial success with 428,840 fans in 2002.

During its first two years of existence, the Legends drew the fourth highest attendance among 60 Single A teams. Their impressive fan base ranked them ahead of most Double A and Triple A teams, which generally operate in much larger markets such as Portland, Oklahoma City, Syracuse, New Orleans, Charlotte, San Antonio and Nashville.

NSS provided extensive development and operational services to LPBC, which were critical to the success of the Lexington Legends. The novel stadium funding plan has yielded solid returns to investors, who realized a financial windfall upon the sale of the franchise.

 In the Spring of 2005 the Lexington Legends and Applebee’s Park were sold by Alan Stein to Bill Shea for $24 million; the highest price ever paid for a single A baseball franchise (Source: The Wall Street Journal "Now at Bat: Financiers," June 10, 2005)