An abbreviated Major League Baseball season with no fans means that teams must wait to show off the improvements they made to their ballparks in the offseason. But some teams are still finding ways to make use of those renovations.
The Giants are using that time with no fans to continue marketing the Cloud Club, including offering it as a broadcast venue for virtual events in San Francisco to show off the new space.
Before the pandemic, Joey Nevin, vice president of Giants Enterprises — the San Francisco Giants’ arm focused on developing new ventures — was set to debut the Cloud Club, an all-inclusive, premium lounge on the Oracle Park Suite level with a membership cost of $20,000 to $50,000 per year.
But the pandemic has given the Giants an opportunity to create virtual programming that will showcase the space and more time to sell it to prospective members. Nevin characterized the
Giants’ approach to these events as “using 2020 to build a bridge to 2021 and the future.” “We can’t get people there, but how can we still create programming around it, and kind of build on that excitement of it?” he added.
Giants Enterprises is planning virtual events for college alumni groups with C-level executive speakers and virtual cocktail demonstrations prior to some scheduled ballgames, Nevin added.
The Giants would not disclose the cost to develop the club. As San Francisco and California move to the next phase of reopening the economy, and local and state regulations allow for how many people can gather for events, the Giants plan on taking a hybrid approach to hosting events at the Cloud Club and Oracle Park’s other spaces.
“So if you have a hundred people, you might have 30 people in person and 70 people streaming it,” Nevin said. “Maybe you have a CEO giving a speech, and he’s standing on second base, and it’s being streamed to thousands of people.”
The Cloud Club is not the only venue available for broadcasting events at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Groups or organizations looking for a virtual conference venue in San Francisco can reach out to Giants Enterprises to explore the other facilities at the stadium that can be set up to livestream events.