Canaries look to 2022 with more investments ahead

This paid piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Canaries.

The 2021 Canaries season ended on the field Sept. 6. For owners and staff just 100 games into a long-term commitment to the franchise and the community, that 3-2 win over Sioux City marked the beginning of a second year in Sioux Falls much more than it signified the end of the first.

The organization enters its first complete offseason looking to continue to make progress on its robust reboot of an independent minor league baseball franchise that played its first season in Sioux Falls in 1993.

“We had a super-fun year, and we’re not stopping,” said newly named executive vice president Jack Fossand, who was promoted from assistant general manager. “We were not stopping after the 2021 season, and we’re not stopping during the 2021-2022 offseason. We’re going to continue to grow year after year because this is a long-term investment in the community.”

Co-owners Brian Slipka, a small-business leader and Sioux Falls native who is founder and managing partner of True North Equity Partners, along with Anthony Albanese, co-founder of Duke Cannon Supply Co., announced their purchase of the Canaries in mid-March. A lot has happened since then.

“We’re on a mission to provide the hardworking folks of South Dakota a best-in-class fan experience both on and off the field,” Albanese said at the time. “We’re investing in some immediate improvements to the Birdcage, and that’s just the beginning. We’re Canary crazy. We love baseball and South Dakota, and we look forward to having a positive impact on the community.”

The first game was May 18. That barely left time to pop the popcorn and cut the grass, let alone rebrand a Sioux Falls summer tradition that had lost some luster.

When talking with Fossand, a former All-Ivy League pitcher at Dartmouth who grew up in the Twin Cities, it’s encouraging to hear about what is coming next. It is particularly encouraging to those, many of them longtime Canaries fans, who understand it’s more than an attempt to attract attention by ending sentences with exclamation points. These owners buy stuff.

The purchase and installation of a new $500,000 scoreboard before the 2021 season emphatically established a commitment to the brand. Now, more is coming.

“We’re earning the right to be the best stewards the Canaries have ever had,” Fossand said. “We want to bring the Canaries back to life. We’re continuing to invest in achieving that goal.”

Included are long-term plans that could be a few years down the road, but there also are fresh improvements that will be in place to greet those going to games in 2022.

The highest priority? Expanding the workforce. Fossand and the existing staff are going to have more people completing more tasks.

“We were underneath the league minimum for staffing the front office when we came in,” he said. “Our first order of business has been to double our sales staff. We wanted to invest in our people and pare down their responsibilities. We had people who were asked to wear too many hats.”

Minor league baseball is a distinctive enterprise because of the pronounced difference between what happens during the summer and what happens during the winter. It is still important, however, to keep people around from September to May.

“There’s a seasonality to your staff — it’s always going to be a part of this industry,” Fossand said. “For us to be successful, we need continuity in people. We were super-happy to bring back all of our full-time staff and to have the opportunity to hire more people over the course of the offseason. We don’t have any games going on, but we have a lot to prepare for and a lot to do.”

Fossand wants the staff out the door, so to speak, establishing ongoing conversations with businesses, nonprofits, churches and other groups.

“We need to get out in front of this,” he said. “We want to start those relationships early. We need to go to them and say ‘Hey guys, remember when it was 80 or 90 degrees last July? It’s time to pick a game and put it on the calendar and allocate some funds for something that you know is going to be a good time.’ That’s what we want. That’s how we’re going to build rapport with the community and keep building the brand of Canaries baseball. That’s what it’s all about this offseason.”

In partnership with the city of Sioux Falls, offices are being expanded and renovated in part to accommodate additional staff. In addition, the grandstand will include a section of padded seats with a wait service. The kids’ zones, the signage and assorted designated fan areas also will be updated throughout the ballpark.

“We want you to come to the Birdcage and not need to be a baseball junkie to enjoy yourself,” Fossand said. “We want you to come because you know you’re going to have fun. There’s good food, there’s good drink, and there is good entertainment between innings.”

Closer to the competitive end, the Canaries are promising an overhauled playing field in 2022.

“It’s really important in our ability to recruit players,” Fossand said. “The bread and butter in independent baseball is getting players who need a place to land after they’ve been playing major league affiliated baseball. For us to sign those players, they need to be confident in the playing surface. It’s one piece of our goal to return to a championship level of play.”

The franchise will continue to enhance the Canaries Community Fund. Gift recipients, announced in July, will be sent their gifts in the coming weeks. In a sense, the fund represents the franchise’s continued effort to become a more prominent player and partner in Sioux Falls and the surrounding communities. The scope of its impact can bolster the level of engagement for a franchise with many moving parts.

To that end, it’s safe to say a year ago at this time the new ownership was not yet looking at ways of beefing up the franchise’s community fund. They were still months away from buying the team, after all. The progress since then has been brisk on all fronts. Fossand wants to keep it that way.

“We wanted everything to be elite — we wanted everyone to have a more enjoyable experience,” he said.

“Throughout the season, that came true. Reflecting on the first year, the biggest win was the relationships we built. We got to know the community, and we were able to grow those relationships. When we bought the team, our owners put their money where their mouths were. There have been a lot of times where it was ‘All right, it’s time to invest.’ Our commitment persists because we believe in our people and the community here. Now, it’s time to take this offseason as an opportunity to execute.”