by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Features Editor

February 5, 2009

If at first you don’t succeed… Where the Israel Baseball League failed after one season in 2007, the Israel Association of Baseball believes a new group, headed by Marvin Goldklang, might have a better shot.

In addition to Goldklang — a part owner of the New York Yankees and principal owner of several minor-league teams — the group includes Jeffrey Rosen, owner of the Maccabi Haifa Heat Professional Basketball Club of the Israeli Premier League and chair of Triangle Financial Services, and other prominent individuals involved in Major League Baseball and other sports.

The initial agreement would permit the group to conduct due diligence regarding both marketing and facility objectives to determine the long-term economic viability of a professional league. As part of the arrangement, the group also would provide financial and other support for the Israeli and international amateur baseball programs operated by the IAB.

With their deep sports backgrounds, Goldklang and Rosen — who were involved in the short-lived IBL — seem like naturals to head up the new enterprise, which is not expected to begin play for at least another year.

“The IAB is very excited about working with Marv Goldklang and his partners,” said Haim Katz, chair of the IAB, in a statement. “We feel the concepts that he promotes in sports, including unique entertainment features designed to appeal even to non-baseball fans, can revolutionize not only baseball in Israel but other sports as well.”

Katz also praised Rosen, a former West Orange resident, as “committed to promoting sports in Israel and has a proven record of success by taking the Maccabi Heat basketball team in just one year from the doldrums of the lower league to prime-time recognition in the Israel premier basketball league.”

Why does Katz believe this new venture will succeed when the previous attempt failed?

“The IAB has learned many lessons from its experience with the IBL and our decision to move forward with this new group was not taken lightly,” he said. “We feel this group is composed of high-caliber, professional, experienced, and very reputable individuals. They are…investing their own at this point and performing all the necessary groundwork required to protect their potential investment and develop a viable structure for professional baseball in Israel. We have no doubt that there is no better group to carry out this task and we look forward to building baseball in Israel with them.”

Miles to go

“Obviously, there’s work yet to be done,” said Goldklang in a telephone interview with NJ Jewish News from his business headquarters in Florham Park. “We’ll have the funding that may not have existed in the case of the old IBL, and certainly I think we have the operational background and experience.

“There’s no question it’s a challenge certainly to make this a financial success, which we certainly intend to do, but I think we have the ingredients to make it work.”

Goldklang said the first issue involved creating a fan base. “The focus is to appeal not only to olim or people who are there in tour groups from the U.S. and Canada, but to the native Israeli population, and I don’t think that’s something the old IBL really did,” he said.

“That’s the one major difference. We’re going to have a fairly heavy emphasis on creating an atmosphere inside the ballpark that is attractive and enjoyable to people who are not baseball fans.”

The other component, which he said would be more challenging, was developing facilities. The original IBL played at three locations — the Yarkon Sports Complex at the Baptist Village in Petach Tikva; Gezer Field, just outside of Jerusalem; and Sportek Baseball Field in Tel Aviv — which Goldklang described as “not suitable for [NCAA] Division III college, or perhaps even high school.”

The new venture will look into eight possible locations, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra’anana, Modi’in, Beit Shemesh, Netanya, Haifa, and Sha’ar HaNegev region near Ashkelon.

“If we can develop a successful strategy to build two or three ballparks among those eight markets, I think it’s a go,” he said. “I would be reasonably confident that combined with marketing strategies that we’ll be developing, that we can create a reality of a league of at least six teams, a league that people would view as being successful in all its dimensions, not simply on the field.”

Goldklang also said the new venture had to do a better job working with the Israeli media. “There’s no question we will need to establish credibility that this will be a league that will not only be well funded, will not only be operated by people who are experienced and who have been successful in sports, but also a league that is in its own right successful. That’s not going to happen overnight, but I believe — given what we have to work with — we can make it happen.”

Looking down the road, Goldklang said he dreamed of a day when Israel, comprised of Jewish major leaguers, participated in the World Baseball Classic.

Andrew Wilson, a spokesman for Triangle Sports, told NJJN the new project was already on better footing because of the reputations of Goldklang and Rosen.

“Jeff’s number one passion is baseball,” Wilson said. “Triangle Sports was never meant to be just basketball, it was to be involved in multiple sports.

“We have a significant staff in Haifa. Right now it’s going to be the due diligence that never took place” the first time around. “We’re pretty excited about it now that the IAB has granted us this opportunity.”

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