Ben Mondor

From SoSH

Ben Mondor

1 Biography
- 1.1 Management Style
- 1.2 More Recent Years
2 Awards
3 Trivia
4 External Links

Biography

A Native of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Ben Mondor purchased the Pawtucket Red Sox in January of 1977. Ben Mondor had made his money as a "business fixer", purchasing bankrupt companies, turning the business around, and then selling them. He thought he had retired in 1976 at the age of 51, but his friend Chet Nichols broached the idea of purchasing the financially troubled Pawtucket Red Sox and McCoy Stadium from Joe Buzas. With more encouragement from Boston General Manager Haywood Sullivan, who hoped to keep a AAA franchise within the regional footprint of the Boston Red Sox, Mondor set to work restoring the team's performance, the stadium, and the PawSox fan base.

He originally committed five years to team's turnaround; 29 years later he is considered a paragon of Minor League Baseball ownership. While playing in one of the smallest ballparks in AAA, Pawtucket averages over 9000 patrons per game.

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Management Style

Courtesy of Mike Scanduro/MinorLeagueNews.com

"The philosophy we adopted was we wanted to build a fandom," said Mondor. "We were going to treat them to the best baseball possible … no cheerleaders, no cow milking contests, no jalopy nights. We were going to show the fans our philosophy of a clean baseball game under the best circumstances you can have."

The PawSox took the concept even further than most minor league businesses, which still rely heavily on pyrotechnics, gimmicks and giveaways.

"That first night, we threw everything away. We’ve never had a promotion on the field. We never had a doubt about deviating from our standard."

Pawtucket’s "standard" included a number of reforms to bring in more families:

Free parking, which remains the policy to this day
Single-digit ticket prices. In 2004, the top ticket costs $9.00 and senior citizens pay $4.00
Establishing flex ticket packages
Better alcoholic beverage control: Carding fans, and limiting the number of beers sold at concession stands;
Holding youth baseball clinics;
Making McCoy a smoke-free facility;
Making community involvement and philanthropic endeavors a top priority.

"I’m from the old school, but we always wanted McCoy to be a place for kids and families," said Mondor. "The first day (in 1977) we evicted 113 people. The majority was from two busloads that had come to see a particular player and they had "celebrated" on the way down."

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More Recent Years

A series of Health issues (Including a heart attack in 1988, quadruple bypass surgery in 1994 and being diagnosed with cancer in 1995) slowed him down, and he officially stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2004. However, he still acts as Chairman of the Board and can often be seen working at his office in McCoy Stadium.

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