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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 13 F E B R UA R Y 2 3 , 2 0 2 6 F O C U S S P O R T S / T O U R I S M / R E C R E AT I O N "We have 69 days to generate our revenue to pay our expenses for 365 days. If you start piling up rainouts, that can make the difference between whether you're profitable or not," President Geoff Iacuessa says in a late January front-office interview joined by General Manager Jesse Scaglion while ticket staff ring up sales in the ground-floor box office. e team, founded in 1994 by the late Dan Burke as an affiliate of the Florida Marlins, became the Boston Red Sox's Double-A affiliate in 2003. In 2022, the team was sold to Diamond Baseball Holdings, a New York-based, private equity-backed group that owns 50 minor-league teams, including three of the Sea Dogs' Eastern League rivals. While player salaries, medical insurance and housing are all covered by the Red Sox, the Sea Dogs pay for travel and other expenses including 22 full-time employees and 300 staffers on game days. To keep a lid on costs, the Sea Dogs use local vendors as much as possible and have increased ticket prices only three times in the last decade — most recently in 2025. Despite efforts to keep admission affordable, the team has spent years fighting brokers who hawk tickets on the secondary market at inflated prices; a new Maine 10% cap on service fees charged by resale marketplaces is aimed at discouraging the practice. Less of a headache is the aftermar- ket for bobblehead freebies, like last year's golden Slugger statuette to honor the Mascot Hall of Famer — the first minor-league mascot to be inducted — that one seller posted on eBay for $80. "It's really cool that we created something that has that much demand," Scaglion says. With rosters in constant flux as players are promoted and reassigned, the team has been intentional about keeping Slugger as the jowled, furry face of the franchise both in the ballpark and out in the community, while play- by-play announcer Emma Tiedemann (Scaglion's wife) is a trailblazing female voice who'll be honored with her own talking bobblehead this summer. Slugger's stardom is in keeping with Minor League Baseball's focus on "entertainment first, baseball second," Scaglion notes. "If you go out the front gates and you ask someone who won the game, they don't really know because they were having so much fun." Small-business hustle on the hardcourt Taking in a Maine Celtics game is a high-decibel experience, fueled by non- stop tunes and PA blasts between plays in the packed Portland Expo — a 112-year- old venue the team leases from the city and shares with high schools and trade shows. e team has invested more than $1 million on upgrades, including a new court added in 2022. C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » W I N D O W S & D O O R S Damariscotta Showroom H A M M O N D L U M B E R . C O M | 1 - 8 0 0 - H A M M O N D L o o k i n g t o s t a r t a w i n d o w s & d o o r s p r o j e c t ? W e ' d l o v e t o h e l p ! V i s i t o n e o f o u r s t o r e s t o g e t s t a r t e d ! 34 LOCATIONS ACROSS MAINE & NEW HAMPSHIRE SHOWROOMS SHOWROOMS 50+ miles of multi-level trails minutes from Portland. Built by mountain bikers, enjoyed by all. Ride, Explore, and Discover Gorham! MAINE'S HIDDEN GEM FOR MOUNTAIN BIKING Snap the QR code to watch our story. Visit us at gorhammaine.org P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R Marvin Alcantara awaits the umpire's call after being tagged out at home plate in the second inning. The Portland Sea Dogs beat the Reading Fightin Phils 6-3 at Hadlock Field. We have 69 days to generate our revenue to pay our expenses for 365 days. — Geoff Iacuessa Portland Sea Dogs

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