Mike Veeck

Minor League Baseball Team Owner, Entrepreneur, Author, Fun Is Good

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It is a name synonymous with fun at the ballpark. Mike Veeck continues to blaze new trails every baseball season. After all, who else would hire a dog or pig to deliver baseballs to the umpire, a Roman Catholic nun to give massages, mimes to perform instant replays or lock fans out of the stadium to set an all-time attendance record for fewest people at a game.

He comes by his pedigree honestly. The Veeck family started in baseball nearly a century ago when Mike’s grandfather was president of the Chicago Cubs. During his tenure, William, Sr. gained fame as the person who first decided to grow ivy at Wrigley Field. Mike’s father, Bill, was a Hall of Fame owner with the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox and the then-minor league Milwaukee Brewers. Famous for so many occurrences at the ballpark, Bill Veeck will always be remembered for signing Larry Doby, the first black man to play in the American League and for sending 3 foot, 6 inch Eddie Gaedel to the plate for the Browns in a 1943 game against Detroit.

The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. It is with the belief that anything is possible and no idea too silly that Veeck operates his ballclubs. Mike began his baseball career working for his father with the White Sox in the 1970s as Assistant Business Manager and Director of Marketing. He left the game for awhile (there was that Disco Demolition thing in 1979) but returned in 1990 to help resurrect the Miami (now Fort Myers) Miracle. In 1992, he was named winner of the MacPhail award, given annually for excellence in promotions with minor league teams. Mike has worked with four Major League clubs: the Chicago White Sox, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Detroit Tigers.

Currently, Mike is the part owner of five baseball teams and a consultant for one other. He has served to put fun back into baseball while proving his ideas are not specific to sport. An advertising professional, coveted public speaker, founder of the Veeck Promotional Seminar, and all around idea man, Mike recently released a corporate training video based on his “Fun is Good” philosophy. He has also written a book based on the same fundamental principle.

It is with this simple philosophy that his teams routinely set attendance records. He and partner, Marv Goldklang, operate the Goldklang Group, overseeing franchises in Brockton, MA, Charleston, SC, Fort Myers, FL, St. Paul, MN and Sioux Falls, SD. In 2003, the St. Paul Saints welcomed their three millionth fan through the gates while the Charleston RiverDogs set a single-season attendance mark for the sixth time in seven years and Hudson Valley Renegades.

Mike has appeared on 60 Minutes, HBO Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, ESPN Sportscenter, CBS Sunday Morning, ABC’s Nightline, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

In addition to his baseball duties, Mike has spoken and entertained groups at companies such as 3M, the NBA, General Mills, and NASCAR. He has been the featured speaker for the American Bar Association, Newspaper Association of America and students at numerous colleges and universities.

Mike is married to Libby and has two children, William “Night Train” and Rebecca. They reside in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

Speech Titles and Descriptions

Fun is Good

In his book, Fun Is Good, maverick marketer Mike Veeck presents his simple, no-fail formula for business success: Make work fun and you’ll create a culture of creativity where the best people will want to work and customer will want spend their money. At the heart of the philosophy is the need to reexamine the way we do business, from employer-employee relationships to customer service. The Fun Is Good philosophy not only has worked to make enjoyable evenings for everyone at his ballparks—full of laughs, zany promotions, and free giveaways—but it has also transformed half-dozen money-losing or start-up teams into thriving $25 million businesses.

The Culture of Customer Service

“Customer service, the lifeblood of any business, has become a lost art, in large part because we’ve forgotten how to have fun work.” By making customers laugh, Mike Veeck and his half-dozen baseball clubs have built brand loyalists and fans for life. Taking cues from Texas A&M professor, Dr. Lenn Berry, author of Discovering The Soul of Service, Mike Veeck outlays customer service as the lifeblood of an organization. He highlights some of the greatest ideas are born simply by listening to your customers, as they know your business best. Stressing the need for a company wide effort, Veeck names all members of an organization—with owners and executives on the front lines—as ambassadors of customer service.

People Are Your Only Real Asset

“The way you make a living is directly connected to your soul.”

Mike Veeck knows that every business begins and ends with great people. He believes and has seen first-hand that “fun” companies will attract some of the most talented and creative minds out there. “Keep them,” he says, and further “Challenge them—keeping people on edge forces them to develop new skills, and improves the company.” In his book, Fun Is Good, Mike Veeck and implementing a Fun Is Good environment in your workplace creates an opportunity for people to enjoy themselves—loving not just their home lives, but their whole lives.

Avoid BADvertising

You always want them talking about YOU. There are so many ads out there, the key is to make people think—humor them.

Sales, Marketing and The Fear Of Failure

Mike Veeck says “Nothing keeps the walls from the door more than laughter.” Often times what he hears is “I love marketing—I hate selling.” And why not?—society teaches us to be fearful of failure. What the world needs is less use of the word, “no.”

What’dya Mean You Can’t Do It…I Did!

Enough Said.

Baseball Junkie’s Stories

Promotions in an Age of ESPN & Discontent

“Try standing up sometime and talking about how you’ve succeeded…Then tell em’ when you screwed up and they can't love you fast enough.”

Location: SC

This speaker is available to speak on the following topics:

Achievement
Celebrity
Entrepreneurs
Inspiration
Marketing
Motivation
Sales
Values