'Faith Day' part of Rockies' promotions lineup

James Paton, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The Rev. George McHendry and 50 of his flock at the First Congregational Church of Eastlake plan to extend their worship at Coors Field one Sunday this summer.

The church is one of many across the Denver area invited to "Faith Day" at the ballpark.

The Colorado Rockies for the past two seasons have hosted "Christian Family Day," offering church groups discounted tickets and putting on post-game shows featuring Christian bands and testimonials from Christian players and coaches.

The team has not publicized the events beyond church circles, so most fans may not have noticed.

The Rockies have scheduled this year's promotion for the July 29 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and have changed the name in an apparent effort to make it more inclusive. While the team has put a new label on the day, it's unclear whether it will alter the content. The Rockies are still ironing out the details.

Sports teams increasingly are using faith days - by faith, they usually mean Christian - as marketing tools to fill the seats.

The Rockies are not alone. The St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers are among the baseball clubs doing a variation on the theme, along with many minor-league teams.

"Sports executives are not doing this for the ministry," said Brent High, president of Third Coast Sports, a Nashville, Tenn., company hired by some teams - though not the Rockies - to host Christian events. "They are doing it strictly for the business opportunity, to increase attendance and associated revenue."

McHendry, an avid baseball fan and season-ticket holder who attends up to 60 Rockies games a year, said he has enjoyed himself the past two years. He recalled listening to Rockies players, including Matt Holliday and Aaron Cook, talk about their faith in God. Clint Hurdle, he said, also gave a stirring speech.

But the Thornton pastor, whose wife, Helene McHendry, is Jewish, wishes the Rockies would reach out to more people of different faiths.

"It's very much a Christian experience," said McHendry, who also pens a religion column for the Broomfield Enterprise. "They could make the effort to broaden the faith experience," yet he admits that recognizing multiple religions on a single day would be tough.

The Rockies are well aware of that point, according to spokesman Jay Alves. "We believe the event should encompass all faiths," he said.

However, with this year's day still six months away, he said it's too early to say how the Rockies would cater to a wider audience or whether they'll try.

A USA Today story last year suggested the Rockies were built around "a Christian-based code of conduct" and portrayed team members as a bunch of choirboys. Rockies executives and players didn't like the depiction. Some said that while they had strong Christian beliefs, the article exaggerated the extent to which religion played a role in the front office and the clubhouse.

High, of Third Coast Sports, said the events his company plans are unambiguously Christian and are effective in driving fans to the stadium. Christians are a "powerful organized demographic," he said, and teams can court them without alienating their fan base.

Religious promotions, traditionally found only in the minor leagues, are increasingly making their way to major-league venues.

Third Coast estimates it will produce 10 to 12 Major League Baseball events this year, five NBA "Faith Days" and another eight to 10 in the NHL. So far High said he has agreements with the Braves, Reds and Rangers and is in discussions with Colorado teams. The firm has talked with the Rockies, but the team has opted to fly solo.

High said he isn't "trying to put other religions down," but he believes the concept wouldn't work if they tried to embrace all faiths.

"People are tied to their beliefs, and the second we start celebrating the Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist faiths together, this idea will dry up and blow away," he said. "People are all for political correctness and for being unified. But there are still divisions, huge differences in beliefs, and to bring them together is not going to work. It's the same reason why all these people don't meet together on Sunday mornings."

Greg Feasel, the Rockies' senior vice president of business operations, said "Faith Day" is merely one promotion that targets a specific group, no different from "Alumni Night" or "Scout Days."

The team has not put any advertising behind it, he said, because there is so much else to worry about. The Christian day has been successful, Feasel said, but he didn't have any figures.

"We need to promote our Web site, our players, our corporate sponsors, different teams coming into town," Feasel said. "To focus on one of the themed days would take away from something else."

Some non-Christian fans may be turned off by the idea of mixing baseball and the Bible, and the Rockies and other teams have to take that into account.

Still, it's a benefit to the clubs, especially those like the Rockies that have struggled with declining attendance in recent years, and it's appealing to plenty of Christian spectators in the region.

"We're directed by Jesus to spread the Gospel, to spread the good news," McHendry said.

A few teams, like the World Series champion Cardinals, have been organizing faith events for many years. Now they are joined by more and more organizations.

"For the first time, teams are not hiding the fact that they are doing this," High said. "It's not something they are putting in game programs or on posters, but for the last couple of years they've been very upfront that they are hosting a Christian-themed event."

patonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2544