Crowleys should be the face of the WooSox
Since the Pawtucket Red Sox announced on Aug. 17 of their intention to move to a new stadium in Worcester’s Canal District for the 2021 season, the minor league baseball team has done a masterful job of building up support in the Central Massachusetts community. More than just attending municipal meetings and making nuts-and-bolts announcements, PawSox officials, particularly Chairman Larry Lucchino and President Charles Steinberg, have been familiar faces around Greater Worcester. Their major public events with Worcester city officials – such as the August announcement, the pep rally shortly thereafter last year, and the ceremonial groundbreaking this July – generated significant buzz and goodwill.
That’s exactly what you want from the one business Worcester government officials are counting on to fill up a stadium, neighboring hotels, apartments, offices and retailers, in order to justify the city's $101-million investment in the ballpark.
The latest PawSox master stroke came at the groundbreaking, when Lucchino announced Ralph Crowley and his family would become part owners of the team. The Crowleys, who own Worcester manufacturer Polar Beverages and Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Princeton, are Central Massachusetts business royalty. The 12 other owners of the PawSox have some scant Central Mass. ties – Ben Cammarata is the founder of Framingham retail parent TJX Cos. – but no one is as Worcester as the Crowleys, whose Polar mascot Orson greets I-290 travelers as they enter the city.
The Worcester Railers minor league hockey team appear to have found success by filling up its front office with Central Massachusetts personnel and owner Cliff Rucker’s willingness to invest in Worcester real estate and businesses, despite being from the North Shore. As the PawSox shift their Rhode Island personnel to Massachusetts over the coming two years, the team needs local leadership who will see the 30-year lease agreement with the city through its entire life cycle. Lucchino and Steinberg have done an amazing job, but neither has another 30 years left to shepherd the team in its new home.
Ralph Crowley and his siblings probably are closer to handing off their businesses to the next generation than they are to the time when they took over. Still, they are prime candidates to become the new faces of the Worcester Red Sox. As the owners of a fourth-generation family business with the fifth generation already participating in the company, the succession plan appears secure. That sort of long-term local tie will go a long way with sponsors, advertisers and fans of the team.
Even if the Crowleys aren’t up for the task, the move of Ralph and his family into the ownership group is a step in the right direction. Over the course of the next two years, Pawtucket’s team is going to become Worcester’s team, and it will need Worcester people to protect its interests. The transition doesn’t have to happen immediately, but that is the future of the Worcester Red Sox.
WBJ Web Partners
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