Two decades before he became president of the Carolina Panthers last month, Tom Glick was general manager of the Lansing Lugnuts minor league baseball team in Michigan in his late 20s. Glick made it his mission to lure even non-sports fans to the local ballpark.
He introduced a frankfurter-shooting cannon, for instance. Under Glick, the franchise also had belly-bumping Sumo wrestlers and medieval jousters to keep fans amused. Campy and silly, sure, but the non-baseball entertainment worked: Glick helped drive sales for the Lugnuts, who ranked in the top 10 in minor-league attendance under his watch.
“We’re in the fun business,” Glick told the Sacramento Bee in a March 2000 article.