Keeping Young with Minor League Baseball

Keeping Young with Minor League Baseball

PC Profile of Kenneth J. Young OPC ’68

by Rebecca Luzi

Not many people can claim that the parttime job they enjoyed as a 15-year-old led them down the path to career success—in the same industry, no less. Kenneth Young OPC ’68 can. As a Penn Charter sophomore, he sold hot dogs and sodas at two famous local stadiums: the University of Pennsylvania’s Palestra and Franklin Field. Today, Young is executive chairman of Spectra, which he founded as Ovations Food Services in 1985 and later sold to Comcast Spectacor.

Young had a good gig in high school. He took the elevated subway from 69th Street to 34th Street, near Franklin Field, and there he sold hot dogs for Ogden Food Services. Franklin Field, which is the oldest stadium still operating for football, also hosted the Penn Relays and other sports, but it was the Philadelphia Eagles games that Young liked working best. “I’d get to watch the fourth quarter,” he said, and in the end, “I’d make $50 to $60 in tips.”

At the Palestra, the “Cathedral of College Basketball,” where he mostly poured sodas– which inevitably spilled on him because instead of lids they used heat-shrunk cellophane–he was able to see the last 12 minutes of Penn Quakers games. Not a bad job for a high-school kid.

Young’s interest was piqued. A few years later, he graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in food service and housing administration. After working his way up in the recreational food service industry, Young struck out on his own, and since 1985 has owned a number of food service companies specializing in the arena and stadium business. In 2016 he sold his latest company, Spectra, to Comcast Spectacor of Philadelphia, and continues to work as executive chairman. Today, his main responsibility is acquiring small food service companies.

Over the course of his career, Young has coordinated and supervised the food, beverage and novelty services of Super Bowls, World Series, the 1984 summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and political conventions.

He remembers well the 1979 World Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates, especially the games played at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, one of his accounts. “We opened for game one and ended up getting snowed out,” Young said. “Then, the World Series went seven games, so we ended up with five home games. An extra special day.” Alas, better for the Pirates than the Orioles, as it turned out.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A., Young had a terrific view of the 3,000-meter race that world champion Mary Decker was favored to win. “Mary fell on the track, dashing her hopes, so that blew any chance for her to medal,” Young recalled. “I was standing at the corner when she fell, coincidentally.”

Another Ken Young endeavor is the largescale coordination of selling Super Bowl programs. For 16 years, he mobilized and organized a team of 400 to 600 volunteers from all over the country who would pay their own way to get to the game, obtain security clearance and then soak in the Super Bowl atmosphere as they sold programs. Each year, Young has donated the profits, almost $900,000 in all, to his synagogue in Tampa, Fla., where he lives.

Although he enjoys big national events, Young’s real love is minor league baseball. He owns or co-owns five Minor League Baseball teams. As owner and president of the Norfolk Tides baseball club, affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles, he helped supervise the building of Harbor Park, a 12,000-seat baseball stadium. In addition, he is co-owner of the Albuquerque Isotopes (Colorado Rockies), as well as the Bowie Baysox and Frederick Keys (both Baltimore Orioles), and the Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee Brewers).

When he was a kid, baseball was time well spent with family and friends. “My father took me to my first game on a Friday night,” Young recalled. “The next day I went with a friend’s Cub Scout group.” He was hooked.

“Minor League Baseball,” he said, “really is centered around family fun. We provide between-inning contests, popular music—and every game the kids get to run the bases. Anything that can make the game more fun for fans.”

Isotopes Logo

In the end, the Isotopes were also a nod to The Simpsons and the fictional Springfield Isotopes baseball team. Young negotiated with Fox over use of the name, and the real Isotopes Park soon featured statues of Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa.

“The fans have been terrific,” Young said. “They love the stadium; they’re proud. And the name took on a life of its own.”

Young has built a career out of his love for baseball, recreational food service and the challenge of anticipating how customers will spend money. “I am a numbers-oriented guy,” he said. “The part that really excites me is on the operating side—trying to get the customers to spend an average of an extra quarter or 50 cents at a game, whether through menu selection or size selection.”

The quarters add up. So do the hot dogs. Kenneth Young, that numbers guy, estimates that over the course of his career he is responsible for selling well over 100 million hot dogs. How does he take his? “With mustard and onions.” PC

Ken Young OPC ‘68 was the keynote speaker at the Downtown Reception on Jan. 25.