Sports Illustrated

Reid Ryan and Jay Miller Online

After his brief minor league playing career stalled in the mid-1990s, Reid Ryan-son of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan-had to decide what to do with the rest of his life. Reid had pitched one season at the University of Texas at Austin in 1991, and he was convinced the state capital had potential as a minor league market. He turned to his father for advice on how to bring a team to the Austin suburb of Round Rock. Nolan suggested his oldest son talk to two people: Houston-based businessman Don Sanders for financial advice, and Jay Miller (who would become co-owner, president and C.O.O. of the Round Rock Express) to tap his 17 years of front-office experience. Ryan's partnership with Miller has turned into one of minor league baseball's great success stories. When the Round Rock Express debuted in 2000, fans flocked to the team. The club set annual Double-A attendance records for five years before moving up to Class Triple-A. Today, Ryan and Miller are also involved as co-owners of a second team, the Corpus Christi Hooks.

Reid, what made you think that Round Rock could thrive as a minor league market?

Ryan: "When I played at the University of Texas before transferring to TCU, I had fallen in love with the Austin area. It's just a great scene, a great town, and the fans that followed Texas baseball were tremendous. My first ever minor-league game was as a player in the New York Penn League (at Hudson Valley) and it opened my eyes to the fun and excitement that the minor leagues provided. After my playing career was over, I decided I wanted to be in the game of baseball but I wanted to do something for myself, to work for myself, and hopefully start my own team. I knew the Austin area was one of the largest areas in the country that didn't have a team, and they'd had a couple of failed attempts. But it wasn't until I called Jay Miller, who was in New Orleans with the Triple-A team for the Astros at the time, that we really got the thing beyond an idea and started making it a reality."

What was it about Jay Miller that made you think he was the right guy to bring into the situation?

Ryan: "When I went to my dad, I said, 'Look, here's what I want to do. I want to start a team and I'm going to need some capital and I'm going to need help getting this thing off the ground.' He had just retired and had been working with the Texas Rangers. He told me, 'I'd be glad to help, but I want you to call two people: Don Sanders in Houston (who was a minority owner of the Astros) and Jay Miller.' Jay had worked for the Rangers for 12 years with my dad and he'd had a great relationship with my family. He worked his way up from short-season A-ball as an intern in Eugene, Oregon to the major leagues. He's won executive of the year at every level of the minor leagues (four times now), and in baseball, Jay Miller is considered the gold standard...He has a philosophy that is modeled throughout the game, and that's basically (a focus on) season tickets, groups, advertising, taking care of the players, taking care of the scouts and taking care of the fans as if they were your family.

You've got a business plan and idea in place, but you're missing a team. How did you, Jay, step in to help there?

Miller: "Reid called me and said he wanted to get a team in Double-A to play in the Texas League, and that he wanted to move it to Round Rock. I laughed on the phone, because two weeks earlier Con Maloney, who had owned the team in Jackson, Miss., had called me and said he was looking to sell. So I told Reid about that, got the two of them in touch, and then Reid handled the rest of the deal."

Ryan: "It was an interesting scenario. We had to find a club that was willing to sell, because in minor league baseball when you are affiliated with major league clubs, you can't just go and start teams. So once we convinced Con that we could relocate the team, he was willing to sell and we negotiated a price. Jay was very instrumental in that process because he knew what values were going for, how to value clubs and what to look for. He also got in touch with the proper accountants and consultants."

Even when you agreed to buy the team though, you still didn't have a stadium deal in place in Round Rock. How did that come about and what sort of challenges did you face?

Ryan: We announced in May of 1998 that we were partnering with the city on the stadium. Originally, the plan was for it to be a $15 million stadium where each side was going to put in half, which at the time was one of the largest private/public partnerships for a minor league team that had ever been done. What we didn't realize was that we would have some adversity when some citizens passed a referendum on us. We passed the election in November, which basically enabled the city council to use hotel/motel tax to fund their portion, but the cost went up from $15 to $20 million. We had some soul-searching to do, but my dad said, 'No, look. We need to build this thing first-class and we'll (along with Don Sanders) help you guys get the financing.' So we shopped it around the country and got loans, and we had about $18 million in debt on this facility. But we really stepped up to the plate to make this thing first-class and a major league stadium on a minor league scale, which in the process sort of established a new gold standard for facilities in the minor leagues.

What were the things you focused on to make the stadium first-class and different from other facilities?

Ryan: One of the biggest things we did was to take all the concourses and have the concessions stands load sideways. So no matter where you were in the ballpark, you could see the field. We rotated the seats so that they all faced the pitcher's mound. We put individual cup holders in all of the seats. We have a 10,000 square foot convention center built into the stadium, and we had one of the first video boards in minor league baseball that was a full LED board.

Miller: And you know, we've done something new every year since to keep it fresh. We've got a swimming pool, a basketball court, and a rock-climbing wall. But again, I don't think you can downplay the concessions and turning those sideways... At the end of the day, it's all about the fan. If I had to put one thing on our ballpark as the most important thing we do, it would be customer service to the fan. So when we were building, our whole thought process was basically, 'As a fan, what do we like best.' We've been to a lot of ballparks all around the country and we just took things we liked and incorporated them into our design.

Ryan: Jay has a saying that I've also adopted as my own and it's 'Without the fans, none of us have jobs.' I think too many people in sports forget about that sometimes. Two of the things that are most important to us are our time and our money. And a lot of times, your time is more valuable than your money. When people come out here, they're giving us three hours of their time and they're giving us their money, which is an honor.

What role did Dell Computers play in this whole process with them being based in Round Rock? You were able to strike a stadium naming rights deal with them, and in the process, establish quite a fan base from the start.

Miller: "Reid, Nolan and I all thought that Dell was such a logical choice for us. They had about 23,000 employees at that time (in the late '90s) in Round Rock. But they kept saying to us that they didn't need any signage or suites or any of that name recognition because they had that. They told me, 'You've got to come up with something for the employees.' So I was standing in line at Jason's Deli for lunch, and with the power in numbers Dell has, they get deals everywhere. The counter guy rang up the meal for the four guys at full price. They said no and showed their Dell badges and got a half-price discount. And I'm thinking that's how we're going to get them. I came back and told Reid that what I wanted to do was offer in the naming rights deal that any Dell employee could come to any game with their family for half price by showing their badge. Reid loved it, and I called the guy at Dell and he said, 'That will get the deal done.'"

Ryan: "Jay really worked a long time, and that was a tough deal to get cracked. And it wasn't because we weren't a good value or this ballpark wasn't going to be great, but it was just that there had not been any minor league naming rights deals done at that time in this part of the country. Now, you look up, and every stadium seems to have one. Ten years ago, it wasn't that way at all in minor league baseball.

That breakthrough brought a corporate partner (the stadium is called the Dell Diamond) and solid fan base. The Express set Class AA attendance records for five straight years before moving up to Class AAA. In 2005, they added a Double-A team in nearby Corpus Christi. What are you doing as partners to continually improve the two teams you have while keeping the community in mind?

Miller: We get asked all the time about whether we think Austin is a viable major league market. And I don't think it is today, but it could be down the road. I can tell you that Reid and I were friends when this all started, but now we're best friends. We've got such a good thing going here, and I think we're so happy running these two businesses. If something else comes along then something else comes along, but we could be here a long time and not miss a beat. We're making a difference in people's lives, and I'll be the first to say that this has made a difference in my life. When I started in 1982 making $500 per month and Nolan Ryan was my idol, I didn't think I'd ever say I was a partner with him. The difference (from my previous posts) is that because of these two businesses, we're changing people's lives and making a difference.

Ryan: For a long time I thought that I wanted to put a team together and buy a major league team. But that's sort of gone off my radar screen. We've got such a great thing here and if you love the game of baseball and want to work in the sport, we couldn't be in two better markets. One of the biggest things I've learned in my time with Jay is that Jay is the best person I've ever met at remembering somebody's name. He's made me a better person because I've gotten to understand the value of each and every person you meet, not only through your business but also as a human being. Each person has a unique story, and if you can get to know the people on a personal level, it enriches your life. Every day I wake up here, I feel blessed that I get to do something I love and it's fun. Every day is a blast. Wherever it goes from here, who knows? I think when it's all said and done, years down the road, no matter how many teams we have, if people say �Hey, those guys do it right,' that's about the best feeling you can have to be respected by the people in your industry.