Texas Rangers to hold Gay Day

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Heard this on Ticket and they made a lot of fun about this.

Texas Rangers to hold Gay Day

Event scheduled Sept. 14 at The Ballpark in Arlington; gay groups hope to sell 1,000 tickets to game


By Angela Geralds
Staff Reporter


If gay community leaders meet their goal, a human gay pride flag will be seen in the stands of the Ballpark in Arlington on Sept. 14 when the Rangers host the Oakland A’s.
Gay Day at the Ballpark will be the first time a major professional athletic team has reached out to the gay community and offered to help organize such an event.
A sales representative who helped organize last year’s Gay Day for the Dallas Burn, the city’s major league soccer team, now works for the Rangers and brought the idea for Gay Day at the Ballpark with him, according to Gil Flores, services director for the John Thomas Gay and Lesbian Community Center.
Flores invited several gay and lesbian groups to attend organizational meetings. Six groups sent representatives in addition to the Resource Center of Dallas, which operates the community center.
They were DIVA, the city’s gay and lesbian volleyball league; Dallas Diablos, the gay rugby team; Pegasus Slowpitch Softball Association, the gay men’s softball league; the North Texas Women’s Sports Association, the lesbian softball league; the Texas Gay Rodeo Association; and Series 2004, the committee responsible for organizing next year’s gay softball world series.
The Rangers donated a suite for the organizations to meet and organize the event.
All seven groups will sell tickets. The goal is to sell 1,000 seats.
If 1,000 tickets to Gay Day are sold, a company has volunteered to donate T-shirts, said Flores, and the T-shirts will be in all six colors of the rainbow.
The seats will be blocked off in one section, so the group can make a giant rainbow flag in the stands, he said.
The Chicago Cubs sold 1,000 tickets to their last gay day event, Flores said. The Atlanta Braves hosted a gay day last year, and the Philadelphia Phillies have one scheduled for August. “It’s something that’s starting to happen in a few ballparks,” Flores said.
Rangers tickets are regularly $12, Flores said, and tickets for Gay Day will also be $12. But since the Rangers are selling the tickets to the gay organizations for half-price, $6 of the ticket price will go to benefit those organizations.
Some groups will use the funds to benefit their own projects, like Series 2004, and others, like the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, will use the funds to help selected charities.
Organizers agreed the Sept. 14 date was fitting, because it’s the weekend before Pride Week and the weekend the Resource Center of Dallas celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Flores said the gay community will benefit from the event.
Organizing a gay day will create a social outlet, especially with a tailgate party across the street, he said. Tickets to the tailgate party are $6.
The event also helps demonstrate the buying power and organizational strength of the gay and lesbian community, according to Flores.
The economy coupled with the Rangers’ poor performance have led to lower ticket sales, according to John Blake, senior vice president of communications for the team. As of Thursday, the team was in last place in the American League West division.
An average of about 5,000 tickets per game are being sold this year. If the gay community purchases 1,000 of those, it will be responsible for 20 percent of tickets for the day, Flores explained.
Such numbers make people “wise to the gay and lesbian dollar,” he said, and it shows people, “if you’re friendly to the gay community,” gays and lesbians will support the team.
“We’re a very loyal community,” Flores said.
Andy Silverman, the Rangers’ vice president of ticket sales, said the “sheer earning potential” of the gay community was a factor in the team’s decision to sponsor Gay Day.
The gay community has tremendous buying power, and “we can’t ignore that.”
The Ballpark in Arlington has group promotions to everyone from the Jewish Community Center to the Boy Scouts, according to Silverman.
“Everyone is welcome at the ballpark,” he said.
“We’re trying to get as many people as possible to the ballpark,” said Blake. The team isn’t worried that marketing toward gay fans will hurt attendance, he added.
With ticket sales down, Silverman said, the Rangers are marketing to as many people as possible.
Mack Williamson, president of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association’s Dallas chapter, said he was “very surprised” the Rangers contacted the gay community. Members of the community have tried contacting other teams, like the Cowboys and Mavericks, to no avail, he said.
The event is an opportunity to get “all our buddies and friends out for a fun time at the ballpark,” Williamson said.
Organizing such an event takes a lot of time and manpower, Williamson said, and Flores is working very hard to keep track of ticket sales for all the groups involved.
Williamson said Round-Up Saloon has expressed an interest in being the home bar, which means those who attended the event will go to the Round-Up after the game.
While at the game, other fans will see that gays and lesbians are no different from straight people, Flores said.
“We’re All-American,” Flores said, “enjoying America’s pastime — baseball.”
Call 214-540-4425 or contact participating organizations to purchase tickets

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