Minor league team finds fitting offseason purpose for $71 million stadium
The creativity of minor league baseball teams never ceases to amaze us. Every season, we’re treated to a series of outrageous ballpark promotions that are usually topical and more often than not pretty fun too.
Naturally, the goal each time is to fill as many seats in the ballpark as possible to get more eyes on the product. When you’re the Hartford Yard Goats though, and you recently opened a $71 million stadium, the goals are much bigger. You want to find a use for that stadium year-round if possible, and according to the Associated Press, they’ve found one activity that fits their brand perfectly.
According to the report, the Colorado Rockies Double-A affiliate is bringing one of the latest crazes sweeping the country to Dunkin’ Donuts Park. It involves actual goats, but not just any goats. We’re talking about goats that are into yoga.
This is not a joke. Goat yoga is a real thing, and it’s actually very popular in some areas.
Apparently Connecticut is one of them.
This started as a one-day event with two sessions planned for Jan. 20. When those sessions quickly sold out, the team added another ‘Yard Goat Yoga’ day on Feb. 17. So if you missed out once, you still have a chance.
According to CNN, goat yoga was started by a woman named Lainey Morse of Albany, Oregon. As the story goes, Morse lives on a farm and owns some goats. When she hosted a child’s birthday party on the farm as part of a charity auction, one of the attending mothers suggested hosting yoga classes on her land. That led Morse to suggest that her goats be included, and thus one of the strangest fads ever was born.
Now Morse has a waiting list with the names of 1,200 people who want to participate in one of her goat yoga classes.
“Goats are perfect for the yoga practice because it’s not only combining nature and animals, it’s combining yoga, and they all go together so well,” Morse told CNN.
To clear up any confusion here, the goats don’t actually do any yoga poses. They’re just allowed to walk around and bond with those participating. Every now and then they’ll climb on or over people in mid-pose, but that’s the extent of their participation. Apparently that’s enough to sell people on trying goat yoga at least one time.
Goat yoga is nothing if not unique. It’s certainly not for everyone, but it has to be among the most creative uses of a minor league ballpark we’ve ever seen.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mark Townsend is a writer for Yahoo Sports Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
