May 16, 2017

Meet Jim Price of Bash Sports Academy in Roscoe Village

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jim Price.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
From 2002 – 2006, I was the president of the Welles Park youth baseball league, one of the largest leagues in the Chicago area. In my last year in that position, I opened Bash.

While I was president, I had started to hear stories of some parents taking their kids to baseball academies in the suburbs — sometimes driving for an hour to get there. We didn’t have our own academy on the north side, but after doing some research and putting together a business plan, I came to the conclusion that we could support one here.

In August of 2006, we opened our doors. Unfortunately, since there had not been a baseball facility like ours in the area, most people had no real understanding of what we did. They were familiar with batting cages and thought that was what we were. It took months before they understood the scope of all that we offered. They could bring their kids to get instruction in baseball — classes, clinics and private lessons. They could bring their teams to Bash for pre-season training. And they could become members and use our indoor turfed space to train whenever they wanted.

Things began rolling along well for us starting late in 2007 and continue like that through the first 8 months of 2008. Then, in September, 2008, the bottom fell out of the economy and the world was thrust into the worst economic recession of our lifetimes. At Bash, customers stopped showing up and I believed that our still-newish business was doomed. With families holding on to their money as they feared for their jobs, I didn’t think that baseball training would be very high on their list of things to spend money on. We cut our costs as much as we possibly could and crossed our fingers.

In January 0f 2009, our customers came flooding back, although for the next 2 years, our revenue streams changed. Far fewer people paid for private lessons. And we started to see more and more people coming in as part of teams. But, the bottom line was that our facility was full and we were able to weather a terrible economic collapse far better than many other businesses at that time.

Since that time, Bash has become an institution for baseball and softball players on Chicago’s north side. Our facility is busy most of the year and our summer outdoor camps have increased in attendance over 50% the past two summers (thank you, Cubs!). If you are a young baseball or softball player in the city, there is a good chance you will come through our doors each year.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
A small business is never a smooth road. There are always struggles — even when things are going well.

As I mentioned, it took months for the north side’s baseball community, which had never had a baseball academy in its midst before, to understand all of the opportunities we offered to them. Bash was basically a ghost town for the first six months of our existence.

When the economy fell apart in the fourth quarter of 2008, we were just 2 years old. While businesses closed left and right over the next two years, some smart moves combined with a bit of luck kept us alive.

The youth sports landscape has changed drastically over the 10 years we have been open. And with those changes have come more challenges and struggles. Our membership took some hits as travel teams became more popular and players were spending their pre-seasons with their teams. The Blackhawks success turned a lot of ballplayers into hockey players, siphoning off even more of our members. But we kept working and coming up with new and better ideas to overcome those challenges.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Bash Sports Academy story. Tell us more about the business.
Bash is an indoor baseball and softball training academy. We have 10,000 square feet of turfed space, where teams and individuals come to learn, train and improve their game. Before we opened, there were academies in many of the suburban areas, but not in the city. Bash filled a hole in the market, giving thousands of players on the city’s north side a place to make themselves better ballplayers and more successful individuals.

We offer memberships for those who want to train on their own on a regular basis. We offer private and semi-private lessons, classes, clinics and camps led by professional coaches. And we offer teams training space for pre-season training.

Our big difference is our customer service. We treat our customers like gold and they keep coming back, year after year.

The thing I am most proud of is represented by a poster that hangs outside my office. The poster has all the names of players who have come through our doors and have continued to play baseball in college or even, beyond. That poster gets updated each year. I like to think that we had at least a tiny bit to do with those ballplayers wanting to continue to play past high school and having the ability to do it.

On the surface, we teach baseball and softball to youth players and give them the opportunity to train in any weather. The truth is that we do much more. We help give youngsters confidence to compete and enjoy the game more. We help show them what they can achieve when they work hard to accomplish something. And we mentor them as they grow up, helping guide them into becoming responsible adults and good citizens.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
It’s been said that luck is the residue of design. I believe that is true. While we have dealt with many challenges over the past 10+ years, we have weathered every storm and continued to provide the type of training and instruction that our customers want.

Were we lucky that we got through the Great Recession? We made some big changes and the customers we treated so well came back when they could have just hung onto their money instead.

Were we lucky when the north side began to embrace girls’ softball and we were in position to help hundreds of girls new to the sport train for it? We had hired good softball coaches and had already created a reputation through our baseball customers.

Were we lucky when 4 players from the Chicago Cubs showed up at Bash to work out the Thursday night before the 2017 Cubs Convention surprising so many young ballplayers? Absolutely!

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