Rick French Combines Agency and Baseball Team Ownership

Just northwest of San Antonio is a town of about 3,000 called Comfort, Texas. Founded by German immigrants in 1854, it isn’t a likely place to center a national marketing campaign for a clothing brand. Rick French and his French/West/Vaughan (FWV) team made that happen, and the founder of the award-winning, Raleigh, N.C.-based communications firm has taken his passion for sports and made it a staple of his offerings.

The Comfort, Texas, campaign garnered national attention for Wrangler Jeans when Comfort named New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees as mayor for a day and had Wrangler clothe everyone in the small town. That Wrangler work holds a special place in the FWV playbook, alongside various marketing pushes the agency has done for the brand with the likes of Brett Favre, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nolan Ryan, rodeo star Ty Murray and many others.

FWV is home to one of the nation’s largest sports and entertainment practices housed within a PR firm. It represents individual and team sport athletes and entities, as well as a who’s who of well-known artists and entertainers. It’s a practice within FWV that is near and dear to French’s heart because it allows him to merge his personal and professional interests. 

The excitement of spring

As spring arrives, the crack of baseball bats and the popping of gloves will fill the air, and French knows a little something about baseball too. He’s a co-owner of a minor league baseball team, the Daytona Tortugas, the Class A Advanced affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. He bought the club with two partners in 2015 and, since then, the club has won awards in minor league baseball for attendance, promotions and its creative theme nights. (Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Minor League Baseball has postponed the start of the season.)

“There’s such excitement in early April when the minor league baseball season starts,” said French, a longtime PRSA member. “Spring is in the air. I typically come to Daytona a couple of days before the first game, host a media luncheon and introduce our players to the media. We also host a sponsor appreciation event. It feels like spring and it’s a rite of passage. It’s fun to be there and thank people for making it successful.”

As the team’s owner, French travels to Daytona Beach 5-6 times per season. When the season starts, he’ll make the TV and radio rounds in his local market and “try to be visible for fans and supporters.” As French’s sixth season owning the pro baseball team gets underway, conversations on his media tour may be different.

The love of the game

French’s love for baseball was even more evident this off-season, when he’s had to fight for his club in the press. This winter, Major League Baseball announced a preliminary plan to drastically alter the minor league baseball landscape. The proposal, introduced by a handful of MLB clubs, and led by the recently maligned Houston Astros, included the elimination of 42 minor league baseball teams all over the country. French was incensed to see his Daytona Beach team on MLB’s team contraction list, and he put his PR skills to work to fight back.

“I don’t know any team owners who have my same background,” French said. “Honestly, it’s allowed me to become more forward-facing on this issue and use the power of earned media to articulate our point of view.” 

This past fall and winter, French appeared on national news and sports talk shows, and also landed a Christmas Eve feature story in the New York Post to push back against the Major League Baseball plan. 

“We’ve been able to use the media to make our case as to why minor league baseball is so important to the economy of these local communities,” French said. “It’s been a beneficial mix of skills in what has been a very public battle that is expected to continue for another 5-6 months.” 

The fight to save the team

For decades, minor league baseball has been an important part of the fabric of towns and cities across America. French’s team in Daytona Beach, Fla., has a special place in baseball lore because it was where civil rights icon Jackie Robinson first broke baseball’s color barrier. Robinson first took the field for the Montreal Royals — at the time, the Brooklyn Dodger’s AAA team — during a spring training game in 1946. That historic game is featured prominently in the award-winning film “42” and the club that French now owns renamed the stadium Jackie Robinson Ballpark in 1989 in his honor.

“Our stadium is beloved. We have one of the oldest stadiums in all of professional baseball,” French said of the park that opened in 1914. “And we wear that as a badge of honor. I can’t imagine tearing down where Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, as some have suggested we might need to do to save Minor League Baseball in Daytona. It would be akin to tearing down Wrigley Field or Fenway Park, and it would be a crime that I want no part of.”

His PR crusade to save the soul of professional baseball aside, French remains active. When he’s not at the ballpark in Florida or at his agency in North Carolina, French serves on the boards of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Buddy Holly Educational Foundation, Texas Heritage Songwriters Association, TowneBank and Teen Cancer America, the national charity founded by the iconic rock band The Who. He’s an accomplished movie producer and even finds time to keep his playing days alive, suiting up at shortstop for an adult baseball team.

photo credit: daytona tortugas

Major League Tips

French, who founded FWV in 1997, offers advice for young PR professionals looking to advance in their careers:

• Get involved in your community. “Part of the job of a PR counselor is to be active in their community and understand the nuances and issues taking place.”

• Be engaged. “Public relations isn’t just writing press releases and making media calls.”

• Read and watch as much media as you can. “Consume media of all types, and focus on the bigger world around you.”