- 9 hours ago
Nats President of Business Operations Jason Sinnarajah joins G&D to discuss Nats Park improvements, Tarps Off, and more!
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00:00is jason sinaragio who's been working in sports for many years many sports including in buffalo
00:04and is now the president of the nats business operation and he joins us in studio it's funny
00:10you're you can talk all sports because you sat down and i said hey i'm not gonna be that fun
00:15right now i'm sending a bunch of texts to try to figure out what's going on with the caps
00:18but yet that's one of your old stomping grounds and you're familiar with buffalo's operation
00:22yeah i i was there in buffalo i was you know running the bill side and we worked a lot
00:27with
00:27the sabers and uh when we when they acquired alex talk uh for eichel i think that was 2021 or
00:3422 i
00:35can't remember which year it was but i was there yeah and i remember alex talk because i went to
00:38boston college he did too so there's a little bit of a connection there but yeah you guys are getting
00:42great winger he's a great guy and good in the locker room it's been fun to be over at nats
00:47park this
00:48year i know you came down half street we wanted to talk to you about some of the things you've
00:52got
00:52going on but also we had you on at the beginning of the season and we put it on the
00:55calendar that
00:56we wanted to have you back out sometime this month and this is roughly the halfway point today right
01:00do it exactly so just a state of the union you took over right before the start of the year
01:06there are a lot of things you wanted to fix to amend to improve what have you been able to
01:11get
01:11done so far and where are we in in your process of just kind of improving the state of the
01:15union at
01:15the ballpark and helping fans to enjoy themselves well uh there's been a lot of progress i think we
01:21have a long way to go but look we're i mean on the field two games over 500 there's a
01:26lot of excitement
01:27we had 29 000 yesterday unfortunately the result wasn't what we wanted but a lot of fans were excited
01:33with our basketball jersey which was a nice uh thing to do especially when the uh the wizards were
01:38picking first yesterday but we've had some great crowds we've had some great uh entertainment options
01:43we had the hot dog day um we've honored a lot of our military like we always do um and
01:50it's been
01:50exciting it's been a good season our season plan holders have been reacting really well to some of
01:54the adjustments we've made for them uh but there's always room for improvement so we're getting better
01:58every day so refresh folks what were the i don't have the right terminology you're a business person
02:03so you do but yeah pain points complaint points whatever they were that hey here's here's the punch
02:08list pre-season and then kind of compare it to right now like when you say progress what is that
02:13progress and what were some of those pain points yeah so i came in in mid-january and one of
02:17the
02:17things i read and heard about from fans was getting into the ballpark was a challenge um and again when
02:24you have 40 000 people any ballpark is going to be a challenge what we wanted to do for our
02:28season
02:28plan holders so your season ticket holder you know the people that are coming on a regular basis was
02:32give them a dedicated entrance so we've done that in left field by all accounts that's been successful
02:36we have some blips every so often but for the most part i walk over there a lot our season
02:41plan
02:41holders are really excited to have their own entry we've expanded our go-ahead entry which is facial
02:45authentication and just walking right through um i think we're at about eight nine percent of our
02:50fan base is using that now which is up from last year so our fans are excited about that the
02:55other
02:55thing we wanted to launch and that you might remember this very vividly is lower priced options
03:01for beer and so we've had 899 16 ounce beers available uh in all of our ballpark we've had some
03:08adjustments
03:08with our partner levy but uh by all accounts our fans are really enjoying that and again just giving
03:14more affordable options getting people in the ballpark has been our focus a lot i don't think
03:20you knew when you were coming here that the team was going to be over 500 right now i don't
03:24know if
03:24the baseball operation expected that that's got to obviously be some wind you know at yourself so to
03:30speak that to help in this process you want to keep seeing more people come out there are also
03:35superstar players right now i mean james wood looks like one of the best players in the sport cj abrams
03:40as
03:40well how do you guys go about marketing those guys and making sure that not only right now we're
03:45getting out the vote things like that but people are coming out to see those players as well because
03:49i know i heard you on the radio with charlie and dave uh recently and you made a really good
03:53point
03:53about wanting to be like a destination for young single people in dc to just come hang out at the
03:58ballpark those types of things and that makes great sense that if you're not catering to those people
04:03you're probably not going to win in this city but also we got one of the five or seven best
04:08players in
04:08baseball maybe in james wood and making that a priority as well well yeah i mean cj's i think
04:14third in rbis he's been james has been having an amazing year i'm excited to see jay you know cj
04:19leading all nl shortstops and all-star voting uh we want to get james into that top six top five
04:26top
04:26four hopefully get voted into the game as well so you know shout out for him but yeah that's been
04:30helpful the way we've been marketing them is we're putting content out around those two again we don't want
04:36to focus just on those two because there's a lot of good things right happening i mean nunez is
04:40with 30 plus steals pitching staff you know foster griffin's been amazing so there's a lot of great
04:46things going on but look with cj and when james wood are playing really well the recognizable superstars
04:53now in the game or or getting there toward that point our fans are starting to recognize our abrams
04:58jersey sales have increased our wood sales have always been strong um so it's been really nice to see
05:03more of those jerseys around and i think the fan base is now effectively almost appreciating or
05:08learning about them again um you know as they've had a lot of success and it's been awesome to see
05:14and they're great human beings and they're great guys so it's an easy story to tell how much for you
05:19since i mean again when we talked to you just like days after you came on board in january i
05:23think
05:23so now that you're a veteran of this position in about six months or so uh what have you kind
05:28of felt
05:28in terms of how much is putting out fires how much is you know planning how much is
05:33like in terms of your time and energy and where you're allocated uh well you know listen i think
05:39this job uh this job has a lot of interesting moments that happen during the course of the year
05:46um you know things happen on a regular basis in the world in our world social media etc
05:53um i wouldn't say it's necessarily putting out fires as much as it is listening to our staff
05:57you know getting to know our staff we have some great staff at our at the nationals right and
06:01getting to know them making sure that you know i'm serving them as well too right that's an important
06:05constituent in my world on the business side then listening to our fans right and getting to know
06:10them so we've been doing focus groups i did my i think i'm doing my ninth one tonight where we've
06:15had
06:15our season plan holders and our single game buyers come and talk to me and we have a set series
06:20of
06:21questions we ask them about what they want to see that we can improve and so you know just trying
06:25to be out there and be present i think is the number one thing i've been trying to do well
06:28i
06:28will say to your credit i have seen you in no fewer than 15 different places in the ballpark
06:32seriously like whether it's like uh uh there was like a i don't say a leak but like a little
06:37tiny
06:37bit of water and like you were dabbing it with a paper towel you gave instructions on where someone
06:42should go when they were in the elevator seriously like to what section yeah i mean i've seen you
06:46everywhere and anywhere just you know as as they say pressed the flesh and kissing babies uh
06:50presidential candidates now so good on you man uh well again i think it's important for me to
06:56learn and observe everything i can so i try to walk out there and lead by example and you know
07:01hopefully uh uh you know our fans can see that jason sinaraja running the nets business side of
07:06things in studio with us for a little mid-season update he told us he would come over and catch
07:11up
07:11with us after several months he was kind enough to make some time on his schedule to do that here
07:15on
07:15grant and danny on the fan i am team tarps off crew yeah i find that to be awesome and
07:22a blast it
07:23started in st louis it was a very natural thing it is spread around baseball um your thoughts on on
07:30just the the growing trend in the sport and frankly in dc where it's becoming a game-by-game
07:35nightly occurrence and at times a couple sections up in the outfield are being taken over by the
07:41youngsters ripping off their shirts well actually one of the days i went up there did you really
07:47very close i didn't go i was very tempted to go and do it myself uh but i think i
07:51was i was did
07:51your tarp stay on i was i was advised not to do that and that was probably the right decision
07:55but
07:55um no i i love that like that energy i actually wanted to go see like what types of fans
08:00are going
08:01up there and it was really striking to me guys like um a young family went up there it was
08:06a mom
08:07the daughter two sons and the dad and they clearly were like inching over there and it was really
08:13interesting the mom was taking video and the two boys and the dad took off their shirts and it was
08:18it just it was really cool because like it's an engagement right at the end of the day we are
08:22an
08:22entertainment option we obviously want to win and all that kind of stuff but people want to be
08:27entertained have a good time when they come up to the ballpark so to see the joy see the excitement
08:32i love it it's also added a lot of juice in the ballpark like there's some really hot saturdays
08:38where we've where i can understand why they're taking their shirts off and it's added a lot of
08:42energy to our fans and also to our players totally this has been my i don't want to say argument
08:48because
08:48i'm not sure that there is one but we've talked about it a lot with different media members in the
08:52press box or whatever and you never know what they're going to yell what they're going to chant if
08:56sometimes there's cursing whatever yeah and my point is the juice is way worth the squeeze here
09:00assuming they're not saying anything terrible and awful because i have been in this ballpark for
09:06years where i had my own bathroom and my own concession stand and most of my own section and
09:12it was it's been dead it's quiet there are way too many nights over the last several years
09:17where you just feel like you're watching a game in a library and if anything else it's a lesson to
09:23everyone that you can be heard like when there's a few hundred kids up there or people whoever's up
09:28there screaming it is so loud you can hear it on the broadcast you can hear it in the press
09:33box
09:34and it just it's almost like we're watching the world cup in studio it's this soccer feel of like
09:40and it just brings something to the environment the same way the drums on half street yeah i really like
09:46it i think you said it really well i think again we're in the entertainment business too and to have
09:52that entertainment to bring an energy when you have 81 games you know when you have 81 games it's
09:58it's uh it's it's something that really you know you need that every so often and it's been great
10:04i i really love it i love the fact that they're moving around now if you've noticed like they were
10:08in right field and now they've moved around yeah i wondered if they were like told them like someone
10:12sitting here tonight who's in charge i'm not listen uh there are some things that we try to
10:17you know help with or whatever this one is totally organic like i i actually noticed it yesterday they
10:22were in right field one game and then they yesterday i think they are sorry two games ago they were
10:26in
10:26right field yesterday they were in the upper deck kind of behind first base i thought that's really
10:30cool and that that section for some reason looked a lot bigger i don't know it was great yeah i've
10:34seen
10:34them in left i've seen them doing pretty much everywhere at a different point what is kind of your next
10:40mountain that you want to climb sort of the next big thing where you go okay i feel settled not
10:43settled
10:43and satisfied because you're always looking to improve but we've accomplished so much here to
10:47this point halfway through the season what's kind of the next big thing you want to challenge you
10:51want to take on well you know look i mean the ballpark is almost 20 years old right we get
10:56a lot
10:56of feedback about the ballpark experience good and bad um there's some things that we can fix right now
11:03our concessions we're continually looking at getting people in and out of the ballpark obviously
11:07cleanliness you mentioned i was dabbing something like i i really take that seriously we want it to be a
11:12very clean environment but longer term we've got to figure out what appeals to different parts of
11:19the fan base you know the vvip to the outfield social seeking fan to the value consumer to the
11:26families to the group outings etc and so we're going through what we're going to look at the ballpark
11:31right now i can't announce anything but we've had some really good conversations with the city
11:35really appreciative of them and and everybody involved with events dc and so forth around what we can do to
11:41refresh this place and that's what i was going to ask because some of that's out of your hands
11:44right some of that not you know you've obviously got a lot of power and you wield it but the
11:48city
11:48has to be involved on some of the maintenance stuff and some of the big picture things right again i
11:52don't
11:52i wouldn't maybe rephrase it as i wouldn't phrase it as power as much as we're partners with them
11:56this is a civic asset the team the the ballpark etc we want to enhance it so that future generations
12:03of our community can have a great experience too for what they're going to want
12:06and we're working actively with with um you know local officials to make that happen
12:11so in the short term coming up my favorite game of the year is always the fourth of july yeah
12:15it's a morning game so that's going to be massive obviously there's a yankee series around the horizon
12:22as well what kind of uh things can you tell us about what would you have coming up well first
12:26off
12:26you know tonight's pride night then tomorrow night is um soccer night so we're going to have a
12:31soccer jersey with the nationals logo on it which is really cool and if you wear the jersey around
12:37after the game to select navy yard bars uh the u.s is playing at 10 p.m you can
12:42drink dollar 50
12:43budweiser's courtesy of budweiser's celebration of oh that's their birthday so that's pretty cool
12:48for any fans coming out so i mean again free beer for those who want to partake in that or
12:53and
12:53lower price beer you know that's what we do but um on the fourth of july there will be free
12:57beer
12:58courtesy of budweiser so keeping to that theme but we have a we have a huge uh homestand from
13:02july 3rd to july 12th and you know we start off with the pirates july 3rd to the 5th uh
13:08we have
13:09fireworks on july 3rd we have the fourth of july game it's even more special this year with the
13:13celebration of america 250 so we're going to be doing some very very cool activations as i said i
13:19think on the radio or tv the other night it's going to be astronomical to give you an understanding of
13:23what's going to happen there um june 5th is a patriotic t t-shirt giveaway uh then we have a
13:29big series against the astros which i know for our fans there's a little bit of a rivalry there
13:33from going back uh and then we have the yankees june uh july 12th july 10th of the 12th and
13:38on july
13:3910th we have marvel night with captain america a bobblehead giveaway but look it's the yankees there's
13:45going to be a lot of energy in the crowd unfortunately there's probably gonna be a lot of yankee fans
13:49there so
13:49i'd ask our fans to show up wear red on sundays wear the navy on fridays wear the city connect
13:55on
13:55saturdays and really you know pump up our team that weekend the team is playing so well yeah we're at
14:01the all-star break after that series you know right there on the middle of july summer kids are out
14:07of
14:07school like it's time let's get the ballpark as i said game 81 is tonight it's wild we are half
14:12this is
14:12tonight is the exact halfway point the midpoint of the season and then she said the all-star breaks a
14:16little
14:16later trade deadline coming up but business is happening right now this is it's so much fun at
14:21the end of the day like that's you said it's an entertainment product this is such a fun team to
14:25follow care about and be interested in because it's you're kind of looking up going i don't know if
14:30they're supposed to be here but they are this is great well look credit to paul to boney and our
14:35baseball ops guys i mean they've created a very exciting team and i you know obviously any baseball
14:39decisions are their uh their purview but look from my perspective it's a very entertaining team
14:45you score a lot of runs so we're never out of it and you know it seems like james wood
14:49hits a home
14:50run every first inning i feel i feel like at times i know that's not true but um so i
14:56just you know
14:56tell our fans you know get into the ballpark early because you may miss a home run and we're up
15:00already
15:00so it's really exciting um you know you mentioned that school's out you know obviously kids eat free
15:06is back this summer it's a great deal and it's very popular in the paulson house we've got four kids
15:11and we get the four brown bags it's a hot dog it's a bottle of water and chips and i
15:17will tell
15:17you that we have uh we have made utilized it yeah of that very nice perk every single time we've
15:23gone
15:23to the ballpark the last couple years i'm glad yeah i mean look it's it's fun on sundays it's a
15:27different energy yeah friday and saturdays are like a little bit more like an event social seeking
15:31you know that kind of atmosphere the music's a little louder sundays it's that family orientation that
15:36we're trying to go for right and you know kids can run the bases afterwards there's story time etc
15:41um we've got post-game concerts so we have jason derulo on july 24th uh jordan davis on august 7th
15:49we've got some really really exciting promotions hawaiian shirt and shorts day uh are set on august 8th
15:56uh we have a harry potter day on july 25th so there's a lot of stuff to come out to
16:00the ballpark
16:00on a lot of excitement come out and cheer the team on uh you know i know the guys really
16:05appreciate it
16:05well we will be over there and we will be seeing you and hopefully they keep on winning because
16:10then so fun man the the house is going to be packed uh jason thank you so much we appreciate
16:16it thank
16:16you so much thank you buddy jason sinaraja of the nationals in studio with us on grant and danny
16:21started the segment we told you the caps for the second time in two days just made a massive trade
16:25they have added a second 30 plus goal scorer back-to-back 30 goal seasons for alex tuck the
16:31last two years we'll break that down next
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