{"id":3161,"date":"2014-11-04T21:06:01","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T21:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2018-01-04T19:04:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T01:04:33","slug":"big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest’s Best Organization Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"bigtoporgofyearwebsmall\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kenosha, Wis. \u2013\u00a0<\/span>Ballparkdigest.com\u00a0has named Big Top Baseball, the parent organization of the Madison Mallards, Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, Kenosha Kingfish and Green Bay Bullfrogs, their 2014 Organization of the Year.\u00a0\u00a0Ballparkdigest.com\u00a0is the standard online publication tracking the business of baseball for over 350 teams across the United States. For more details please see the attached press release from\u00a0Ballparkdigest.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

Big Top Baseball Honored as Ballpark Digest\u2019s Best Organization of the Year<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not content with just two Northwoods League teams, Big Top Baseball added two more in 2014 and added an extensive ballpark renovation to the mix<\/em><\/p>\n

Running two baseball teams is enough of a challenge for the best of organizations. So when Big Top Baseball, already successful with ownership of the Madison Mallards and the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, decided to launch a new Kenosha team and take over operations in Green Bay, many bad things could have happened \u2013 but they didn\u2019t. With all four teams successful in 2014, Big Top Baseball is the Organization of the Year in the 2014 annual awards from Ballpark Digest, the leading guide to ballparks and baseball on the Internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year was basically a year when Big Top Baseball doubled its commitments and investments. The group took over the Green Bay Bullfrogs from the Northwoods League and began the process of turning the team around, installing new leadership and increasing attendance and revenues. Launching the Kenosha Kingfish was also a huge challenge, building an organization from scratch while also working with Kenosha on a major renovation of Simmons Field, the long-time home to baseball in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMost operators would have been happy running the Madison Mallards, the most successful summer-collegiate team on the planet,\u201d said Kevin Reichard, Ballpark Digest publisher. \u201cAdding Kenosha and an outstanding ballpark renovation certainly was not easy, but it paid off, as the Kingfish was a very successful launch at a nicely renovated Simmons Field. Throw in a successful takeover of the Green Bay Bullfrogs, and the Big Top Baseball organization had a great 2014.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are loyal readers of Ballparkdigest.com, so this is a special honor for our group,\u201d President Vern Stenman and COO Conor Caloia said. “This is a tribute to Steve Schmitt for giving us the freedom to pursue our passion and to the Big Top Baseball staff, who are the best employees in all of baseball. There is not a more ambitious and fearless group in sports, and we have the good fortune of being able to work with this amazingly talented team on a daily basis. 2014 was a great year and we are looking forward to continued growth and even bigger things in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The numbers speak for themselves. In the past year, Big Top Baseball drew 364,267 fans to their ballparks in 2014. Madison and Wisconsin Rapids both saw growth this year despite a challenging weather season. Kenosha averaged 2,207 fans per game in a ballpark seating 2,144, finishing with more than 2,000 fans at each of the last 14 games and more than 3,000 fans per game at the last four home games. In Green Bay, Big Top Baseball increased attendance by 31 percent and revenue by 40 percent in just nine months. No other group at the summer-collegiate level operates four franchises nor has enjoyed similar success.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDoubling an organization in just nine months is a major accomplishment,\u201d Reichard said. \u201cLaunching Kenosha alone would have been enough. But for Big Top Baseball to see improvements both in Madison and Wisconsin Rapids while adding Green Bay to the mix is truly noteworthy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

ABOUT THE BALLPARK DIGEST AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each year Ballpark Digest honors noteworthy accomplishments in the baseball world, whether it be Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, independent baseball, summer-collegiate baseball or college baseball. Team officials and readers are asked to submit nominations for awards in specific categories; Ballpark Digest editors then go though the submissions (numbering some 400 pages of documentation in 2014), consulting with industry leaders before a final decision. This is the seventh season for the Ballpark Digest Awards. A complete listing of Ballpark Digest Awards can be found at\u00a0www.ballparkdigest.com\/awards<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

ABOUT BALLPARK DIGEST\/AUGUST PUBLICATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The leading Website covering the culture and business of baseball since its inception in 2002, Ballpark Digest (www.ballparkdigest.com<\/em><\/strong>) has been called an \u201cindispensable\u201d guide to baseball and ballparks by\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>; it\u2019s been used as a source by publications and Websites ranging from\u00a0The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Epicurious.com.<\/em>\u00a0August Publications is a publisher based in Middleton, Wis. Besides Ballpark Digest, August Publications websites include SpringTrainingOnline.com, ArenaDigest.com, YellowstoneInsider.com and NewWest.net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Kenosha, Wis. \u2013\u00a0Ballparkdigest.com\u00a0has named Big Top Baseball, the parent organization of the Madison Mallards, Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, Kenosha Kingfish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBig Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest's Best Organization Of The Year - Kenosha Kingfish<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest's Best Organization Of The Year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Kenosha, Wis. \u2013\u00a0Ballparkdigest.com\u00a0has named Big Top Baseball, the parent organization of the Madison Mallards, Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, Kenosha Kingfish [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kenosha Kingfish\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-04T21:06:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-05T01:04:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"625\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin-kenosha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin-kenosha\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/\",\"name\":\"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest's Best Organization Of The Year - Kenosha Kingfish\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-04T21:06:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-05T01:04:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#\/schema\/person\/f036f87b3f7d223c9907e7e28ac1acd8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":625},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest’s Best Organization Of The Year\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/\",\"name\":\"Kenosha Kingfish\",\"description\":\"Get Ready for the Show!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#\/schema\/person\/f036f87b3f7d223c9907e7e28ac1acd8\",\"name\":\"admin-kenosha\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bc6b7184b4a5f2aee448c8b2853a1cc82399004e45f13f29716916cdfeff458f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bc6b7184b4a5f2aee448c8b2853a1cc82399004e45f13f29716916cdfeff458f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin-kenosha\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/author\/admin-kenosha\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest's Best Organization Of The Year - Kenosha Kingfish","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest's Best Organization Of The Year","og_description":"  Kenosha, Wis. \u2013\u00a0Ballparkdigest.com\u00a0has named Big Top Baseball, the parent organization of the Madison Mallards, Wisconsin Rapids Rafters, Kenosha Kingfish [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/","og_site_name":"Kenosha Kingfish","article_published_time":"2014-11-04T21:06:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-05T01:04:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":625,"url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin-kenosha","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin-kenosha","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/","name":"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest's Best Organization Of The Year - Kenosha Kingfish","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg","datePublished":"2014-11-04T21:06:01+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-05T01:04:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#\/schema\/person\/f036f87b3f7d223c9907e7e28ac1acd8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2014\/11\/bigtoporgofyearweb.jpg","width":1000,"height":625},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/2014\/11\/04\/big-top-baseball-honored-as-ballpark-digests-best-organization-of-the-year\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Big Top Baseball Honored As Ballpark Digest’s Best Organization Of The Year"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#website","url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/","name":"Kenosha Kingfish","description":"Get Ready for the Show!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#\/schema\/person\/f036f87b3f7d223c9907e7e28ac1acd8","name":"admin-kenosha","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bc6b7184b4a5f2aee448c8b2853a1cc82399004e45f13f29716916cdfeff458f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bc6b7184b4a5f2aee448c8b2853a1cc82399004e45f13f29716916cdfeff458f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin-kenosha"},"url":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/author\/admin-kenosha\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/kenosha-kingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}