This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition

Jacksonville, Florida – Sports district development doesn’t just mean soccer teams. Jacksonville’s longest-running professional sports franchise is the Jumbo Shrimp. This month, Triple-A baseball took the lead in announcing stadium upgrades at 121 Financial Ballpark.

“We made a big bet on this community, and we’re really excited about it and proud to be here,” said Jumbo Shrimp owner Ken Bubby. “Everything that happened before and after has been like a fairy tale.”

Ken Babby invited us to sit on the third base side of the ballpark for an interview about improvements to the ballpark. We also look at how the team contributes to the local economy and how downtown growth and development can be inspired by the franchise’s recently announced $31.8 million publicly funded stadium renovation. We also talked about.

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“It’s an incredibly fortunate moment. It’s a generational moment for this series, as they say,” Babbie said. He said it’s rare for communities, teams and cities to come together in public-private partnerships to invest in what Babby described as “still one of the best ballparks in the country, still a Triple-A ballpark.” I believe.

“But baseball in 2003 was a lot different than it is today. We now have top prospects at the highest level, and players on major league rosters who are on our teams.” and the team,” he said.

Major League Baseball has tightened compliance requirements for what minor league facilities at our level must have. This was no small factor in Bubby’s need to improve its facilities.

“So the first part of our job is to actually build the building to be compliant, working with Major League Baseball, working with our Triple-A affiliate, the Marlins, and working with the City of Jacksonville. The goal is to renovate the clubhouse to improve the health, nutrition, and wellness of our players by working with them to secure space and ensure the building has the appropriate amenities required in a modern building. Then we dug deep into the player experience and the fan experience and started working on it. ”

This week’s Jacksonville: Business Edition guest is Bubby. He speaks with gratitude, confidence, and appreciation for the business he owns and operates in Jacksonville.