This article originally appeared in the The USAExtra Magazine on April 14, 2025 (Volume 4, Issue 4)
Major League Baseball’s Opening Day was a few weeks ago, making this the perfect time to catch up with Revetria. A former Chair of MPI and member of the Executive Committee of U.S. Travel Association, Revetria discussed balancing baseball and events, working at one of the nation’s most unique venues, the opera and more.
USAE:
Can you describe the coordination between baseball operations and Giants Enterprises when it comes to hosting events?
Revetria:
It’s a synergistic relationship that has to work. Oracle Park—Pacific Bell Park at the time—was built in 2000, and it was built primarily for baseball. We hope for 81-plus games a year at the building. It was privately financed, and we had a great ownership group who identified that we can do other things here. That’s how Giants Enterprises was born. Through the 25–26 years that I’ve been there, it has been a relationship out of respect for the game but knowing that every other day there needs to be a conversation.
The integrity of the field is always going to come first through the season, without a doubt, and the integrity the building is always back of mind. We’re not going to do anything that’s going to destroy any part of the building. But we pressed it over the years with a Monster Jam or a super cross or absolutely tearing up the field for rugby. But when you have confidence in your ground crew and the people that work there to put things back in order, and you have the ownership support, it’s a nice process.
Baseball typically releases its schedule, or at least an early version to us, in mid-June or early July. It’s usually made public in an August timeframe. We take the dates baseball plugs in their calendar first, and then then we look at it and say, okay, these are the big conventions coming to town. These are the big opportunities we have. Then we start to fill the calendar. It’s a collaborative process and requires a lot of discussion.
USAE:
A follow up: Could you host an event the day of a game?
Revetria:
Occasionally, and the reality is the expenses go up significantly when you have that opportunity. We’re a union facility in a very union town so you’re paying double time, or sometimes triple time, if you have an extended evening. But we have had maybe a watch party for a World Cup game in the past, and then what could be a potentially big game. Let’s say the game ends at four or five, and a soccer game is that night. We could put it on the scoreboard and let people watch. There are things where you can quickly turn the building over on a large scale and on a smaller scale. We often do things in the morning of an evening game when there’s an opportunity to use some of the ancillary spaces and venues within the ballpark.
USAE:
How much fun is it to have a venue like Oracle Park to sell to clients?
Revetria:
It’s incredible. It’s a dream. It’s become a passion. We like to say in the office that we’re in the fun business. We’re in the entertainment business. We’re in the sports business. We’re in the hospitality business. And it’s the convergence of all of these Carol McGury, Retired Executive Vice President, Event & Education Services, Smithbucklin, accepts her Lifetime Achievement Award during the PCMA Foundation’s Visionary Awards at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on April 10. events and opportunities that makes it fun and exciting. We’re not selling four walls inside of a hotel. We’re outdoors, indoors—great views. We’re one of 30 Major League Ballparks in the country. It’s 30 of us. It’s really special, and I feel so grateful for being in the position that I am and have been for decades now.
USAE:
What is the number one question you receive when someone is inquiring about hosting an event at Oracle Park?
Revetria:
The building is built for 42,000 people. When dealing with meeting planners, convention planners, small intimate dinners, people think it’s so vast. Does my little group of 200 people fit? Are we going feel out of place and is that going to make us uncomfortable?
I’ll say just the contrary. Sit on a f ield and have a dinner on second base with 100 people at a long table—that’s pretty incredible. It’s a wow! It is something not everybody gets to do in their lifetime, and to be able to create those types of experiences is wonderful.
We do these fantasy bating practices where we create an experience that’s second to none. We bring in alumni players and allow people to run the bases and have a game, use the scoreboard, put their employees names up on the scoreboard. That’s pretty incredible. There’s not a lot of places you can do that. You can make an 18-to-25-person event feel really grand in a space like this and not feel intimidated, even though it is built for 42,000 people.
USAE:
Please share a few of the events people would be surprised to hear that have been hosted at the stadium.
Revetria:
We’ve had so many, honestly, but I there are some that are special. Opera at the Ballpark happens to be one of my favorites, and that’s because we partnered with the San Francisco Opera now for 20 years. A simulcast with the very best Dolby sound, we have literally 25,000–35,000 people who come at experience the opera. You think it’s a black tie and fancy and stuffy, but we create this evening every year that is so easy, and they can picnic on the grass and we encourage that. We encourage people sit in the stands and watch. It’s magical. It’s been really special collaboration.
We’ve had some really touching moments too. Willie Mays’s memorial was last summer.
Just to sit there with President Bill Clinton eulogizing him with other incredible players, like Barry Bonds and people from around the country and world coming in, it was special. You sit there on the field and reflect on how sport can really bring people together, and how an incredible player who’s been so active in the community and has done so much really can be inspiring.
USAE:
Do you plan events for possible playoff dates?
Revetria:
There are large events that come to San Francisco on an annual basis using Moscone Center or the hotels, and they want to use the ballpark at any time for any reason. What we’ll do is issue a contract that has in very large bold writing that this is subject to baseball’s playoff schedule and we have the right to cancel. We’ll refund you your money and will be as fair as possible. But people take a chance. It may be there only opportunity to do something like this. Maybe it’s an association with people flying in from around the world, and they think this is a pretty iconic place. They’re willing to take that chance and then have the hotel ballroom as the backup.