This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition - How improvements to 121 Financial Ballpark will help downtown growth

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.Downtown development in the sports district doesn’t just mean the football team. Jacksonville’s longest tenured professional sports franchise is the Jumbo Shrimp. Triple-A baseball leads the way this month with the announcement of stadium upgrades at 121 Financial Ballpark.

“We made a big bet on a on a community that we were really excited about and proud to be here,” Ken Babby, the Jumbo Shrimp owner, said. “Everything that’s happened, everything after that -- it’s been a fairy tale.”

Ken Babby invited us to sit on the third base side of the ballpark for an interview about stadium improvements. We also discussed the way the team contributes to the local economy, and how growth and development in downtown can take a cue from what the franchise announced recently: a $31.8 million publicly financed renovation of the stadium.

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“It’s an incredibly fortunate moment. It’s as they call it, the generational moment for the franchise,” Babby said. He believes it’s rare to find a community, team and a city to all come together in a public private partnership to invest in what Babby described as “still one of the best in the country, a triple-A ballpark now.”

“But baseball was very different in 2003 from the way it is today. We now have top prospects coming through at the highest of levels, folks that are on major league rosters that are coming both from our team and on the teams,” he said.

Major League Baseball has increased their compliance requirements for what a minor league facility of our caliber should have. That was not a small component to Babby’s need to improve the facility.

“So the first part of our work is really bringing the building up to compliance, working with Major League Baseball, working with the Marlins, our triple-A affiliate, working with the city of Jacksonville to renovate the clubhouses player health, nutrition and wellness spaces, making sure the building has the adequate facilities that it needs for a building of our time. Then we dug deep on player experience, on fan experience and started working through it.”

Babby is our guest for This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition. He speaks with gratitude, conviction, and appreciation of the business he owns and operates in Jacksonville.


About the Author

Kent Justice co-anchors News4Jax's 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts weeknights and reports on government and politics. He also hosts "This Week in Jacksonville," Channel 4's hot topics and politics public affairs show each Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

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