Fall Lecture: Ken Babby, How to Make Baseball Fun Again

Reservations are required to attend in-person lectures. In-person lectures will be held in the Spring Valley Building, 4801 Massachusetts Ave. NW, in Room A on the First Floor. Registration for the below lecture will open here at 10:00 AM on the Friday prior to the lecture. The direct registration link will also be included in the Friday newsletter the week prior. You must have an OLLI account to register. If you do not have one, you can create an account when going to register. Each registrant may reserve one seat. Your name must be on the list of registrants to enter the lecture and you must be in your seat five minutes before the lecture starts to guarantee your seat.

Ken Babby, How to Make Baseball Fun Again 
Friday, November 4
1:30 PM
Location: In-Person at OLLI
Spring Valley Building
4801 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Room A on the First Floor

Ken Babby, a native of Potomac, Maryland, is the founder of Fast Forward Sports Group, owning the Akron RubberDucks (AA) and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (AAA) minor league baseball teams. He has said that he seeks to create a memorable, unique, affordable, and enjoyable fan experience, and maximize the opportunity to create change in the community through charitable, wellness, and education initiatives.

    Before founding Fast Forward Sports Group, Babby spent 13 years on the business side of The Washington Post, starting as a summer intern, rising to the role of Chief Revenue Officer of Washington Post Media and General Manager of Washington Post Digital.
    In October 2012, Babby went into the baseball business when he purchased the Akron Aeros, Eastern League affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, and rebranded the team as the Akron RubberDucks after the 2013 season. In September 2015, Babby purchased the Jacksonville Suns, Southern League affiliate of the Miami Marlins, which he rebranded as the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp after the 2016 season. In the inaugural season as the Jumbo Shrimp, attendance increased by more than 61,000—the most of any Double-A ballpark and a ballpark-record 23 percent—to more than 325,000 for the first time in seven years.
    Ken was named to Sports Business Journal’s coveted “Forty Under 40" list in 2016. For the growth of the Akron franchise, he was a winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year® 2017 Award in the Northeast Ohio region. He is a graduate of Wheaton College (MA) with an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.