In seeking one job,
Lou DiBella found another. That twist of fate led DiBella to where he is today, the managing general partner of the
Richmond Flying Squirrels , headed to a new stadium next season,
CarMax Park . The franchise he oversees, currently a Double-A affiliate, is contractually connected to Richmond for the coming 30 years. DiBella watched the Flying Squirrels play Chesapeake on Wednesday at The Diamond and during an interview motioned to the crowd of 8,277. “They did it. They got us a ballpark,” DiBella said of the Richmond fans.
People are also reading…
DiBella, however, was the central figure in the 15-year process to replace The Diamond, and his position of advocacy for a baseball organization in Virginia’s capital came about largely because George Steinbrenner told DiBella “no” decades ago.
Lou DiBella, the Richmond Flying Squirrels managing general partner, said of fans who attend games at The Diamond: “They did it. They got us a ballpark." Off to HBO, boxing
DiBella, 64, made his money and national reputation in boxing rather than baseball. That's not the way he planned. DiBella was 28 and five years into a job with a New York law firm after graduating from Tufts University and Harvard Law School. He looked into working as general counsel for the New York Yankees, and their famed owner, Steinbrenner. DiBella went through a series of interviews with Yankees officials, and the final meeting, with Steinbrenner, was scheduled. “I was supposed to go in Friday. I took the day off from the law firm I was working at,” DiBella said. “The phone rings at my apartment, literally five minutes before I’m leaving to go to the Bronx.” Steinbrenner’s secretary called to tell DiBella that another candidate would be filling the position. “She felt terrible,” DiBella said of the secretary. “She knew I was all in on the job.” She asked DiBella if he liked boxing. Responded DiBella: “Why are you asking? I love boxing.”
Lou DiBella, the Richmond Flying Squirrels managing general partner, recently said of fans at The Diamond: “They did it. They got us a ballpark." The Flying Squirrels, who regularly are among the attendance leaders in Double-A baseball, will play in the new, $130 million CarMax Park next season. The man who was getting the job with the Yankees also had been offered the position of chief lawyer for HBO Sports, and that vacancy interested DiBella. “I had a suit on anyway. I had my résumé in my pocket anyway. I went to the HBO building on 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue. I snuck past the security guards,” DiBella said. He got the job. DiBella evolved into HBO's vice president in charge of programming from 1989 to 2000 and brought a popular boxing component to the viewing platform. DiBella eventually began promoting boxing matches. “My first love in sports was not boxing, it was baseball,” said DiBella, who grew up in Brooklyn and still resides primarily in the New York area. “My first hero in sports was, arguably, (Muhammad) Ali. But it was Ali simultaneously with Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Tom Seaver. “I never went to a boxing match until I was in my teens. I’ve been going to baseball games since I was 5 years old.”
Ownership ambition
DiBella, a lifelong New York Mets fan, played baseball, recalling that he could hit, but he was a substandard fielder. He thought about some sort of career in sports, with baseball preferable. Then came the law career, pursuit of the job with the New York Yankees, HBO and boxing. “I did two things when I started making real money. I paid off my ridiculously astronomical student loans. I had almost $200,000 in student loans,” DiBella said. “The second thing I did was I bought season tickets to the Mets, because I just loved baseball."
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula and Lou DiBella, the Richmond Flying Squirrels' managing general partner, shared a laugh during the topping ceremony for CarMax Park on Thursday. At that point, he first considered ownership of a baseball team. DiBella invested in the Altoona Curve, a Double-A franchise in the Eastern League. In exchange for funds contributed, DiBella wanted to be involved in operations decisions, a way of learning the business. In 2005, a group led by DiBella purchased the Norwich Navigators Double-A franchise in the Eastern League for about $9 million. It was a struggling setup in Connecticut, with inhospitable spring weather and an unfriendly stadium location. “I thought I could make it work, but the (stadium) was in the middle of industrial park. It was never going to work there,” said DiBella, who was
inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020. “We bled money. Like we lost half-a-million to a million a year for five years. "I had never lost money in my life like that, ever, and it was other people’s money, and I was feeling (uncomfortable) about that. So I wasn’t even taking a salary. I ran the team for five years, and I didn’t make a dollar. “But, you live and you learn, you know?”
Richmond-bound
Some Eastern League owners wanted DiBella to sell the team, which drew poorly. The Richmond market opened, with the Triple-A Braves of the International League leaving town after the 2008 season for Gwinnett County, Georgia, because of dissatisfaction with The Diamond. No other Triple-A franchises in the IL were interested – or able, because of lease agreements at their stadiums - in moving to The Diamond.
Customize your experience so you see the stories most important to you. And sign up for personalized notifications so you don't miss any important news. A few Eastern League franchises desired relocation to, essentially, a Triple-A market with a good baseball history. By a close owners’ vote, DiBella’s franchise was designated as the one on the move, with the strong possibility he would sell to a Richmond-based ownership group. That $15 million deal, very close to completion, dissolved because of the purchasers’ lack of funds. DiBella remained in charge. He brought the franchise to Richmond on Sept. 23, 2009, and invested about $2 million in upgrades at The Diamond. “No one expected an immediate turnaround. No one,” DiBella said.
'Driving' toward Triple-A?
The Flying Squirrels have been among Double-A’s attendance leaders since their start in 2010. The value of a Double-A franchise ranges from $20 to $50 million. Richmond, because of its Triple-A demographics and baseball tradition and new ballpark under construction, would be worth significantly more than that, according to a veteran industry source. A Richmond return to Triple-A, sensibly with the Washington Nationals, will be in play with CarMax Park. The Flying Squirrels since their inception have been the Double-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Major League Baseball determines which minor league teams partner with which MLB organizations. The Giants could want to stay in Richmond, and the Nats could want in, which would initiate an interesting MLB discussion involving geography, the Giants deserving to get time at CarMax Park after dealing with The Diamond for 15 years, and the shuffle in the minor leagues that would need to be executed with a city going from Double-A to Triple-A. Washington's Triple-A affiliate is in Rochester, New York. The Richmond franchise’s emergence coincided with the blooming of Scott’s Addition, the adjacent neighborhood now loaded with residential and nightlife options. The Diamond District, a $2.4 billion, 67-acre redevelopment project, is scheduled to surround CarMax Park, the $130 million ballpark rising just to the south of The Diamond on North Arthur Ashe Boulevard. “I want to be driving the growth of this part of the city from the get-go,” said DiBella, who has roughly 30 partners in the franchise ownership group. DiBella sees Richmond less hesitant to change than it was a decade ago, counts the cranes around the city as a way to gauge advancement and senses an energized wave of young professionals taking root in the area. “I’ve grown to love this town,” DiBella said. “Now I’m here every other week, pretty much, and that’s never been the case. This year, I’ll probably spend 100 days, 80 days, here. I’ve never done that before. “But it’s really easy to do because in 15 years, I’ve made a lot of friends here.”
See the renderings of CarMax Park, future home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels
The city’s long-awaited, $110 million baseball stadium on Arthur Ashe Boulevard will be called CarMax Park.
