page_title: Larry Schmittou
section_title: Nashville Sounds
hierarchical_section_title: Larry Schmittou / Minor League Baseball / Nashville Sounds
caption_attribution_description: English: Herschel Greer Stadium in Nashville, home of the Nashville Sounds Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League, on April 22, 1978, four days before the first game.
context_page_description: Larry Schmittou is an American entrepreneur and former baseball executive and coach. He owns S&S Family Entertainment LLC, which operates a chain of bowling centers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.
  From 1968 to 1978, Schmittou was the head coach of Vanderbilt University's baseball team, the Vanderbilt Commodores. From 1978 to 1996, he owned shares in several Minor League Baseball teams, beginning with the Nashville Sounds. He also owned shares in the Daytona Beach Islanders, Eugene Emeralds, Greensboro Hornets, Huntsville Stars, Salem Redbirds, Salt Lake City Gulls, Wichita Pilots/Wranglers, and Winston-Salem Spirits baseball teams as well as a minor league hockey team and minor league basketball team.
  While president of the Sounds, Nashville led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance in their first season and went on to lead the Southern League in attendance in each of their seven seasons as members of the league. The franchise was recognized for its promotion efforts when it won the Larry MacPhail Award for outstanding minor league promotions in 1978, 1980, and 1981.
context_section_description: Larry Schmittou  was inspired to get involved with Minor League Baseball when he observed the large crowds the Chattanooga Lookouts saw after owner Walter Reed acquired the Birmingham Barons and relocated the team to Chattanooga in 1976. Schmittou was told by multiple Major League Baseball teams that they would be willing to put a minor league affiliate in Nashville if he provided a suitable ballpark.
  He learned from a member of the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation that neither the Parks Board or the city of Nashville would be willing to pay for such a park. So, Schmittou, along with help from country musician Conway Twitty, put together a group of investors including other country artists Cal Smith and Jerry Reed, as well as other Nashvillians, to finance a stadium and a minor league team. Twenty shares valued at US$15,000 each were issued; Schmittou purchased 2 shares, or 10 percent of the team, and Twitty purchased 4 shares for a 20 percent stake. The Metro Parks Board agreed to lease to Schmittou the site of Nashville's former softball fields on the grounds of Fort Negley, an American Civil War fortification, approximately two miles (3.2 km) south of downtown, for a period of 20 years as long as he built a stadium with a minimum capacity of 6,500 at a cost of at least $400,000 within 10 years. In the second ten years, he would be required to pay the city seven percent of the team's total revenue.
  Stoll-Reed Architects advised Schmittou that construction of a suitable stadium would cost between $300,000 and $500,000, but bids for the project ranged from $980,000 to $1.2 million. Schmittou looked to local suppliers to donate construction materials, took out a $30,000 loan from a bank, sold season tickets in advance of having a team, and even mortgaged his own home to help pay for the facility. The actual cost totaled $1.5 million. The ballpark would be named Herschel Greer Stadium in posthumous honor of Herschel Lynn Greer, a prominent Nashville businessman and the first president of the Nashville Vols, whose family donated $25,000 for stadium construction.
  Having secured a stadium, Schmittou and general manager Farrell Owens attended the 1976 Winter Meetings in hopes of landing a major league affiliate. After sending letters to all 26 farm team directors, the pair received a letter from Sheldon "Chief" Bender of the Cincinnati Reds. Bender met with the pair and agreed to put a team in Nashville provided a stadium was built. Schmittou was then granted a franchise in the Southern League, a class Double-A league, at an enfranchisement cost of $7,500.
  He called the expansion team the Nashville Sounds, a play on the term "Nashville sound", a subgenre of American country music that traces its roots to the area in the late-1950s. Nashville's original logo, which was used from 1978 into 1998, and was initially sketched by Schmittou, reflected the city's association with the country music industry. It depicted a mustachioed baseball player, nicknamed "Slugger", swinging at a baseball with a guitar, a staple of country music, in place of a bat. Further illustrating the city's musical ties was the typeface, with letters that resembled G-clefs, used to display the team name and the cap logo which resembled an eighth note.
  The Sounds led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance by drawing 380,000 fans to Greer Stadium in their first season. Nashville went on to lead the Southern League in attendance in each of their seven seasons as members of the league. Schmittou's business philosophy revolved around earning profits not from ticket sales, but from the sale of souvenirs and concessions. This philosophy also involved promoting family-friendly entertainment rather than baseball games. Through the mid 1980s, the Sounds offered nightly promotions and treated fans to a carnival-like atmosphere between innings. Schmittou and his team developed a promotional calendar that regularly featured giveaways ranging from T-shirts and trading cards to youth baseball equipment and even a player's used 1969 Buick Electra. Other promotions var
caption: Herschel Greer Stadium, home ballpark of the Nashville Sounds from 1978 to 2014, in the final stages of construction
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