By KEVIN JAKAHI By KEVIN JAKAHI ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald sports writer The Hawaii Stars reached a three-year radio deal with New West Broadcasting on Thursday to have its games broadcast on KPUA AM 670, starting with Saturday’s game against the Na
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
The Hawaii Stars reached a three-year radio deal with New West Broadcasting on Thursday to have its games broadcast on KPUA AM 670, starting with Saturday’s game against the Na Koa Ikaika Maui.
Japan’s Eri Yoshida, also known as the “Knuckleball princess,” is scheduled to draw the start. Game time is 5:35 p.m. at Iron Maehara Stadium. The Saturday radio feed will be from the Maui broadcasters.
The Hawaii Stars are still evaluating candidates for their play-by-play position. Hawaii’s home opener is Tuesday at Wong Stadium against the Sonoma County Grapes.
“We are ecstatic to have a radio broadcast partner as strong as New West Broadcasting,” Hawaii-Maui owner Bob Young said. “They were the broadcast partners of the former Hilo Stars of the Winter League back in the 90’s, so it was natural for us to forge this partnership with Chris Leonard and his team of radio professionals.”
New West’s four other radio stations — KWXX FM 94.7 and KNWB FM 97.1 in Hilo, and KAOY FM 101.5 and KMWB FM 93.1 in Kona — will be promotional partners for the Stars, plugging radio spots.
The Hawaii Stars also announced that the bugs have been worked out on its live-game streaming feature on its website, hawaiistarsprobaseball.com, and that everything should be in working order for tonight’s game against Maui.
“We’ve got that fixed and hopefully we’ll be streaming games on Friday,” Hawaii Stars marketing consultant Chris Osgood said. “The families and friends from all over the mainland love that.”
In the same manner, Leonard sees the partnership doing the same for the four local products — pitchers Ronnie Loeffler, Cortney Arruda and Michael Kenui and outfielder Reece Alnas — for their followers, as well as Hawaii Stars’ fans in general.
“Having locals helps us on the radio side,” Leonard said. “Hopefully, it helps sells tickets. And if friends and families of the players can’t go to a game, they can hear the games on the radio. There are also friends and families from around the world. There’s an international flavor on the Hawaii roster. They would want to listen as well.
“Our goal going into the partnership is to build something. It’s good family entertainment and hopefully it builds into something positive in the community. I’d like to see Hilo being part of that and making it happen.”
Maui drew a record crowd of 2,818 in the independent North American Baseball League season-opener Tuesday night against the Hawaii Stars. The next night, Maehara Stadium had just 461 fans — an 84 percent dropoff.
Those numbers raised the eyebrows of Hawaii Stars general manager Frank Hecomovich, especially the latter attendance figure.
As the GM his job is taking care of the minute but important details, such as handling air travel arrangements, making sure a Jack’s Tour bus is there to pick up players, and reserving hotel rooms at Hilo Hawaiian.
But a bottom-line function is getting people to the ballpark. Or more precisely doing everything possible to ensure there’s not an 84 percent attendance dropoff at Wong Stadium.
Like Maui, it’s more than likely the Hawaii Stars will be a hit on Tuesday night. The curiosity factor will help fill the stands. The locals will come and check out the local team.
From there, that’s when Hecomovich’s main job really begins. How to make the fans keep coming back for more.
“We have to make it a pleasant ballpark experience,” he said. “We’re making sure the public address system is working fine, the concession stand has enough coverage, the beer garden is staffed.
“The main thing is we don’t want people to wait in long lines. We want long lines, but we just don’t want people waiting. We’re still working to have Minit Stop as a ticket distribution center and have our website to sell online tickets as well.”
The gates will open at 4:30 p.m. and Kids Season tickets are $10, a pass good for all 30 home games. That works out to $3 a ticket for the season.
The team’s marketing strategy is centered around youngsters — cheap tickets for them, an early 5:35 p.m. start to watch a game and go to bed on time, and a concession stand to provide dinner.
“Hilo is a great sports and baseball town,” said Hecomovich, who has lived on the Big Island for 13 years. “We hope to provide good entertainment and that people will come out to the ballpark and have dinner with us.”
Hecomovich pitched in the Minnesota Twins’ farm system for three years. He later worked 12 years as a national crosschecker for the Twins. At heart, he’s always a scout.
He’s letting fans who visit the beer garden a chance to become a scout. It’s a catchy marketing ploy that should entice baseball diehards. Hecomovich will reveal his promotion in a Tribune-Herald story on Tuesday, the Hawaii Stars’ home opener.
Independent pro baseball
Who: Hawaii Stars
Radio broadcasts: KPUA AM 670, starting Saturday, 5:35 p.m.
Home opener: Tuesday at Wong Stadium
Thursday: Brendan Davis hit a two-run homer in the ninth as the visiting Stars beat Maui 6-4 to improve to 2-1.
