Toronto, ON (PRWEB) June 28, 2014 -- If you’ve ever been to a baseball game and saw hundreds of empty seats, you may have felt like Alan Schwartz did. Those empty seats can’t root for their team, cheer for their favorite players, or enjoy a day at the ballpark. Being surrounded by empty seats just isn’t as fun as being a part of the crowd. What’s even better than being a part of the crowd? Being a part of the team! Schwartz saw an opportunity to fill those empty seats and give lifelong baseball fans a chance of a lifetime: to bat before a real baseball game.
Crowd Hitter combines crowd sourcing with the baseball concept of the designated hitter or pinch hitter. At one game, everyone in the crowd who is at least 14 years old is given an entry form to fill out. This form provides the baseball team with information that can be used for marketing purposes. Fans can join an email list to learn about upcoming games and special promotions. It also enters each fan into a drawing. One name is drawn later on during the game and named the Crowd Hitter.
The winner will receive two tickets to the next game plus fan swag such as a team cap, shirt, autographed baseball, and a baseball bat. At the next game, the crowd hitter gets to join batting practice. After all of the team members are finished batting, the Crowd Hitter gets to take ten swings.
Schwartz believes his Crowd Hitter program will make baseball more fan friendly and interactive. There is very little cost to the team, while the public relations from the program would be huge. The entire infrastructure is already in place for such a program. The only cost is a little bit of time during batting practice and the items given to the winner. Considering that very, very few teams sell out every seat for every game, this program would also help with attendance.
In addition to the standard Crowd Hitter program, Schwartz has two special versions in mind. One would be called Curve Ball. The majority of baseball fans are men, so the Curve Ball Crowd Hitter would make sure that a female fan was chosen regularly. Certain games would be the equivalent of Ladies Night—only women would be eligible to be named Crowd Hitter for the next game.
The other special version of the program is called School Days. Some local schools set aside a day during the baseball season to take their students to a game. The baseball team often does something special on these days for the kids. On one of these days, the schools would receive an entry form. The team would draw out a school name, and then the students at that school would enter a drawing to be named the Crowd Hitter. The student would get all of the same prizes as a regular Crowd Hitter.
The idea behind Crowd Hitter is to promote baseball for fans and their favorite team, Mr. Scwartz believe that batting practice is the best platform in the sport to do just that. The entire Crowd Hitter Event would be recorded, from the Crowd Hitter themselves being selected to a routine performed after they take their batting practice swings on the side of the field with a few selected friends. The recording would then be uploaded to Social Media where it could be shared and watched over and over again.
For more information about Alan Schwartz and the Crowd Hitter program, visit http://www.crowdhitter.com/.
Alan Schwartz, CrowdHitter.com, http://www.crowdhitter.com, +1 (647) 694-1984, [email protected]
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