First and foremost, Norm Laviolette is a man of comedy and entertainment. Just beyond that, he’s also a big baseball fan, and with a golden opportunity to join the two together in the holiest of matrimonies, he’s seizing the moment.
As announced earlier this summer, the local entertainment mogul and author and the Brockton Rox, the collegiate summer league baseball club he bought into before this past season, are on a mission to further revolutionize the minor league baseball experience for fans, both near and far. The first step in that mission will come in the form of welcoming the Savannah Bananas, the viral baseball club with golden jerseys and unshakeable charisma, for a game against the Rox at Campanelli Stadium next summer. And as if it comes with any surprise, Laviolette is beyond excited for the opportunity it represents.
“For me, being unabashedly entertainment-first, and quite frankly, looking at the baseball aspect second, I’m finding that it gives me a pretty unique perspective. I’m new to this, having just gotten involved with the Rox earlier this year, and I’m looking at it with almost completely different eyes than anyone else involved,” Laviolette tells Vanyaland. “Much like Jesse Cole has done with the Savannah Bananas. They see it being about entertainment, and while the baseball game of it is important, I’m looking at it non-traditionally, and where some people might think it’s not appropriate, what Jesse has done with the Savannah Bananas is 100 percent what I want to do with the Rox, so it’s been pretty fun in thinking about what could be.”
What the Rox bring to the area already is a firsthand look at some bright futures for hopeful Major Leaguers in training, but the issue of fan attendance over the last few seasons had them looking for a more creative perspective. And with a nudge from a close friend, Laviolette got involved in the restructuring process with bananas on the brain and a real drive to give fans an experience that they not only won’t forget, but will want to be a part of again and again.
“I regard the Savannah Bananas as the gold standard of sports entertainment. What Jesse and [wife] Emily have done, which is very difficult, is not listen to anybody else who said it was too much or that the purists weren’t going to like it, or that they were bastardizing or diminishing the integrity of the game. Because of that, they’ve created a whole new product,” says Laviolette. “Jesse didn’t create the idea of promotion, and Jesse will be first to tell you that, because his inspirations for it are people like Bill Veeck and P.T. Barnum, but I would give him all the credit in saying that he is taking the game to a place that nobody else has ever taken it. Going to see major league sports is fine, but their business model isn’t designed for the everyday person to attend games over and over again, and what Jesse is doing with the Bananas, and what we’re doing with the Rox is creating an exciting and amazingly fan-friendly event that you can go to again and again.”
As Laviolette has come to find, there are plenty of ball clubs that want to replicate the Bananas’ approach, but not many are willing to take the risk that comes along with such a move. But for a longtime risk-taker with endeavors like Improv Asylum, Laugh Boston and more, the Grafton native knows that the only way to get it done is to go whole hog in making it a reality in Brockton.
“I’ve had meetings with consultants who have told me that the Bananas are interesting, but they recommend not going that far. To me, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” says Laviolette. “That would be like me telling comedians that they’re really funny, but that they should tone it down, or going to a concert and telling Guns N’ Roses to not go all out. That’s not how you create an entertaining environment. People know when you’re half-assing it, and if this is to work, you have to go whole hog and bring something exciting, which is what we’re doing.”
Looking forward to the big game against Savannah next summer is great, and has Laviolette himself stoked beyond belief, but he’s fully devoted to making sure it doesn’t end there. He wants to provide that experience game after game, and his vision for the future of the Rox stretches for miles, but it’s all about taking one step at a time.
“A lot of people compare the idea to the Globetrotters, but the Globetrotters games are fixed, whereas this is real Baseball,” says Laviolette. “So the question is ‘how do you turn that idea into a league and run that league?’ but right now, you start with one game against the Bananas, and continues with us creating that same kind of atmosphere and appeal with the Brockton Rox at Campanelli Stadium.”