With FanFest approaching and spring training on the horizon, the Rangers will begin their annual outreach to reconnect with fans this week.
Just one request: No autographs, please.
In a stark change from their past Winter Caravan approach that saw the team travel to out-of-market locations, often to just encounter the same memorabilia hounds camped out for autographs, the Rangers are taking what they believe is a more intimate approach. They will pose for photographs in meet-and-greet style “pop-up” events, but, at the vast majority, autographs will not be available.
“We’ve seen a lot of the same memorabilia seekers everywhere we went, eating up the first quarter to half of the line,” Jim Cochrane, the team’s Chief Business Officer, told The Dallas Morning News. “And that’s not really what these events were meant to be. There will be photo opportunities and getting some interaction with players, which will be a little more personal.”
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For those seeking autographs, which has become a big industry unto itself, the ticketed Rangers FanFest — Saturday at Globe Life Field — is the best route. Tickets for FanFest are $20 for adults, $10 for kids ages 3-14. The Rangers made 75 “fast pass” tickets available for those merely seeking autographs. The “fast pass,” which goes for $750, guarantees autographs of every attendee. They have already sold out.
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“FanFest is really the opportunity to get autographs,” Cochrane said. “And we’ve got plenty of opportunities in-season to get autographs. We think this represents a more intimate interaction that we could do. And players are more open to it.”
The schedule begins Monday with Josh Smith and Cody Bradford, two of just a handful of players who still live locally, at a Dallas Kroger for a late afternoon, hour-long meet and greet. The team also hosts its “Hot Stove Kickoff” show at Hurtado BBQ in the Dallas Farmers Market at 6:30 p.m. Monday with Josh Jung and Tyler Alexander on hand. That is the one public event this week where autographs will be available.
The change, which Cochrane said is an experiment, is also a concession to several external factors that make the old-school style caravans more challenging.
As the autograph industry has grown, many players have contracts that prevent some free events. Also, fewer and fewer players live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, making it more challenging to get them to come in for an extra trip a month ahead of leaving for spring training; under the caravan format, it often required players to be in town for multiple days to make appearances out of market and the financial incentive to do so has dwindled as MLB salaries have continued to rise. He acknowledged that getting better participation from the roster is a goal. The compromise was a shortened schedule leading into FanFest, when the great majority of the roster will be in town anyway.
Cochrane also said the Rangers spoke to officials with a number of other clubs that have faced the same obstacles and found that more and more teams are turning to these “pop-up” events that represent pleasant surprises for avid fans who simply want to see and meet players ahead of the season.
“We will try it this way this year and then we will evaluate,” Cochrane said.
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.