State of the Spokane Indians: Q&A with senior VP Otto Klein on opening day, stadium renovations and return of fans

The Spokane Indians embark on a 132-game schedule, with 66 home dates, in the Northwest League schedule starting Friday against the Vancouver Canadians.

It’s been a trying two years for minor league baseball, with the pandemic and wholesale changes implemented by MLB to improve and standardize ballpark conditions and streamline the product across the four classifications.

It’s been no different in Spokane, where the Indians made the cut of 120 minor league franchises to stay affiliated with MLB, then weathered the COVID storm as best as they could, missing out on the 2020 season altogether then managing the shortened season last year with all the pandemic protocols in place.

But 2022 brings renewed energy around Avista Stadium, and the organization is more than ready to get at it.

We caught up with Indians senior vice president Otto Klein to check in on the state of the Indians.

The Spokesman-Review: How excited is the organization to have 66 home baseball games to put on this year?

Otto Klein: I think we’re more excited for normalcy than anything else. And that the weight of the COVID restrictions … we’ve seen through that, I think that’s the most important thing. And it’s our second year with the Colorado Rockies. We feel like we have a much better relationship and gotten to know them much better than we did a year ago. All these things coming together makes it feel really, really good. Because I think we get to bring the fans back to the stadium without restrictions. We get to do it in a healthy way and we get to put on 66 shows. We stand behind our product, we feel like we have the best family entertainment in the region. And we get to do what we do best.

SR: What’s the condition of the stadium?

OK: The stadium is going to be in great shape. There’s a lot of basic renovations that you do to the stadium waking it up for each year. So paint, polish, cleaning it … all that stuff. It’s happening as we speak. Come Friday, it’s going to have the opening day shine that it normally does.

SR: So the renovations that you did this past off-season, the improvements to the drainage of the field, the section renumbering and the rest, everything went according to plan?

OK: Everything went according to plan. There was a lot of it, and it’s cumulating at the very last minute of the last day. The field project was a really good one, the renumbering of the stadium and all the updates of the stadium signage, the fence signs and all those things are happening and they’ll be ready to go. The improvements, along with Spokane County, insulating the main concession stand so that’s it’s a year-round building for us, that will go right up until the last pieces of metal are put on all the way up until Friday. So it’s all coming together and it’s all just in the nick of time.

SR: There are more major renovations (expanded clubhouses, dugout modernization, etc.) still to come to comply with the minor league affiliate agreement with MLB; can you give us a quick update on where some of that stands?

OK: We are working hard behind the scenes. Every available grant that we can look at, working with all the stakeholders at the county to make sure that everyone is aligned and on the same page. And then carrying that foot forward, whether that’s with some type of vote or a bond or whatever it might be. All those things are happening at the same time too. We wish we just had that magic wand, I think everyone does, where we wave it over the stadium and all these improvements would be fixed and we go on our merry way. But they take time and we’re learning to be as patient as possible, but I know that we’ll also have the best plan possible.

This is the community’s baseball team. All of us have a responsibility to carry forward a legend that’s been here for 120 years that we’ve been in this market. That’s a big weight to bear. And I think that it’s on all our shoulders as the team operators. I think it’s on our shoulders for the constituents at the county and for all the fans that we need to carry this legacy through for the next 100 years. And it’s a lot to hold, but I’m confident we can do it.

SR: With the return of a full season comes a full promotional schedule. How exciting it that?

OK: It’s with great community sponsors and partners that we have that we can do this. With more games come more opportunities to have more promotions.

And that’s what the fans come to expect when they come to the ballgame. You want to forget about your problems. You come here to escape and so if our entertainment value can help you with escaping and being in our world, then it’s great.

So it’s fireworks nights, and princess nights, and Bark in the Park. And the other thing that’s really important to our group is that we have to identify all the different market segments and show that we embrace them all. So whether it’s with our friends at Fairchild and making sure that our veterans and our military folks feel welcome to come to the ballpark, whether it’s a dog lover that can come to a Bark in the Park night – we want to make sure that they feel welcome coming to the stadium.

SR: Everything is back to normal as far as on-field promotions and the like?

OK: Yeah, no restrictions. On the field we’re gonna have between-innings promotions. We have 15 or 20 of them that we’re going to be rotating through the whole year. We have a veteran PA announcer and it’ll feel like home again.

SR: With the longer baseball schedule and the pandemic cutting into the workforce, have you encountered any staffing issues?

OK: We feel really good about our staffing. If COVID taught us anything last year, it’s scalability. We were prepared for having 3,500-person crowds and having 7,000-people crowds. So we can scale up and down our workforce really well. There are going to be some nights where we have smaller attendance because of weather. That’s just the way life is. But there’s also going to be some beautiful days in April and May where it’s 80 degrees and we’re going to have over 5,000 people here at the stadium. So being able to adjust, I think we’ve become very good at it.

SR: You got noticeably animated when you said “over 5,000 people in the stadium.”

OK: We haven’t seen that a long time. Our two biggest games last year were going to be the final two games of the year. We’re expecting you know, almost 6,000 people per night. And unfortunately, COVID took those two games away. So it’s been awhile since we’ve had the return of the crowds, but I also know we’re going to do it in a really safe manner. The hand-washing stations, the protocols that we learned with sanitizing and everything else are going to remain. I feel like that’s another thing that can make someone feel safe coming back. But yes, we can’t wait for the first sellout. That is going to be magical.