Last week's speaker was Dave Heller. Heller is the president and CEO of Main Street Baseball and the majority owner and Managing Partner of three minor league baseball teams: the Quad Cities River Bandits (Advanced-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals), the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Advanced-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals), and the Billings Mustangs (Pioneer League, independent).
In 2016, Main Street Baseball earned Ballpark Digest’s coveted “Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year” award – one of the industry’s highest honors. His Quad Cities team, the River Bandits, was named Ballpark Digest’s 2021 “Team of the Year” and one of Baseball America’s “Most Accomplished Franchises of the 2010s.” In 2022, the Kansas City Royals presented Heller with their Matt Minker Award as the outstanding person in their minor league system. Quad Cities was the only non-MLB city to host the Baseball Hall of Fame traveling exhibit (2016) and the only minor league team to host a game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville. Heller’s teams are known for fun, innovative promotions; making significant ballpark improvements; and giving back to their home communities. In 2021, Stadium Journey magazine named both Modern Woodmen Park (Quad Cities) and Frawley Stadium (Wilmington) to its Top-5 list of best game-day experiences in Advanced-A ballparks.
In the Quad Cities, Heller’s River Bandits have enjoyed a stunning resurgence, becoming the only team in Midwest League history to win four championships in ten seasons, setting per-game attendance records, and earning numerous awards. His team has set records for group and sponsorship sales, attendance, concessions, and merchandise sales. The team’s home, Modern Woodmen Park, has earned as many accolades as any ballpark in the country. It was twice named “best minor league ballpark” by USA Today and 10Best.com and chosen the Midwest League’s best ballpark by Baseball America. It earned a 5-star rating from Ballpark Digest, one of the top 10 by Parade Magazine and “the #2 Coolest Minor League Ballpark in America” by Complex Magazine. The team even won multiple awards for best TV commercial!
Under Heller’s leadership, the Bandits have added many fun new features to the ballpark, including two outfield bars, five concourse-level “loge boxes,” an 80-foot HD ribbon-board, a 36’ x 42’ HD videoboard, new sound system, playground, a renovated suite level, new playing field, and a large, multi-purpose banquet hall with glass garage doors that open/close based on the weather. The team also added a new Diamond Club, a triple suite, a Hall of Fame autographed jersey display, three new group areas, a special seating area for our nation’s veterans, a 58-panel solar farm, a permanent home for the Quad-Cities Sports Hall of Fame, and a (sponsored) corn field from where the players are introduced at the game’s outset. Last, the team added more than $4 million worth of new rides, including a 105-foot-tall Ferris wheel, a spinning kids’ coaster, two thrill rides, and a 30-foot-tall Drop-N-Twist to go with a myriad of bounce houses, a kiddie train, and Iowa’s only double-decker carousel.
The team has also seen improvements to the “back of the house”: the entire ballpark is now flood-protected, the batting cages enclosed, three large storage spaces have been added, the home and visitors’ clubhouses were renovated, new weight and workout rooms added along with a new players’ parking lot, the playing field and irrigation system was redone, new protective netting covering every seat in the park was added, the kitchen facilities expanded, the HVAC system replaced and updated, and the team added a video classroom, nutritionist’s office, and new trainer’s room. Modern Woodmen Park was even the first Single-A ballpark in the country to install new, energy-efficient LED lights.
Heller and the Bandits love giving back: the team has donated more than $5 million to area charities, helped raise $101,000 for flood relief, and won multiple U.S. Army Gold Awards for its community service. Its “Bandit Scholars” program, which pays an entire year’s college tuition to three area colleges. In addition, the team annually pays for free flu shots for every Quad Cities child, helps fund Camp Genesis (for kids dealing with cancer) and the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit, and supports the Genesis Family Connects program. In 2015, 2017 and again in 2019, Ballpark Digest honored the River Bandits with its “Commitment to Charity” award, the only minor league team to win that distinction three times (no other club has won twice).
Thank you, Dave, for taking the time to give us a very interesting update on the River Bandits, and on all you do for our Quad City area!
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