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OnDeck Partners is now in control of the Montgomery club, in a deal approved by MLB. OnDeck is owned by billionaire Marc Lasry and has recently launched into the business of corporate ownership of minor league baseball teams via OnDeck Partners. Lasry, a Moroccan born hedge fund investor, is the owner of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks.
OnDeck also acquired the Single-A Visalia Rawhide ball team on Thursday.
What does it mean?
For Montgomery, it means a shift away from individuals as controlling owners and towards the corporate mc-baseball spreading across the country.
The upside? Probably the first one I see is that it isn't Diamond Baseball Holdings, the big dawg on the block as far as corporate baseball ownership conglomerates are concerned. DBH owns 48 Minor League baseball teams after scooping up three Astros affiliates earlier this week. With OnDeck there is much more of a need to grow the teams under their control, which could benefit Montgomery's team and its fans greatly.
The downside? Too early to tell.
Maybe they spend money to attract fans back to the ballpark. Maybe they upgrade the food services, refurbish the park, add amenities for patrons, find a way to shade the seats or do ANYTHING to incentivize season ticket purchases. As long-time Biscuits fans know, there is a lot of room for improvement around the ballpark.
This new ownership group has likely invested in recent market surveys to get a handle on the Biscuits and knows where they stand - low in attendance and locked into the oldest ballpark in the league until 2040. Improving attendance will be a long, slow process involving investing time and money into community engagement. Corporate mindset doesn't usually include those concepts but it remains to be seen what the new bosses will do.
I do expect some changes to the usual promotional calendar, reflecting the new ownership. The OnDeck website features much Montgomery imagery, the COO is pictured at Riverwalk and Biscuits footage is heavily used, meaning this is not a rush job. The new owners have likely had a hand in the '26 calendar and fans can look forward to getting a first look at how the new-look Biscuits will bring baseball back in Montgomery.
Who are they?
The new boss is likely Mike Carney, CEO of OnDeck, who was recommended for the gig by Major League Baseball after Carney had assisted MLB with business analytics. He is also a veteran of baseball business metrics, particularly with the Washington Nationals. Interviewed by Front Office Sports dot-com ahead of the announcement, Carney said of his entry to MILB “We are going to be an authentic brand, because if we’re not, the fans are going to be able to sniff that out pretty fast.”
There were remarks in the interview that implied Lou DiBella might still be involved in the running of the team in some way, there may not yet be a full decision on that. OnDeck is a rookie in the MILB ownership game, Thursdays double-play for the the Biscuits and Visalia mark their organizations first foray into the minor league baseball venture.
Others with the OnDeck team include COO Jeff Wilen, who "lead efforts to enhance fan experience" according to the company website, which notes his sports experience with the Cleveland Guardians, Memphis Redbirds and others, and includes that he hopes to "leverage data and and technology to elevate fan experience". Chirag Mithani is the OnDeck CFO, a free-agent signee out of the NBA front office.
Only time will tell if Carney & Co. has spotted a metric that can easily improve Biscuits attendance, if the company intends to flip the Biscuits to DBH or some other buyer, spend to improve the gameday experience, or simply let the team coast as it has.
Let's hope this is the beginning of a positive new era in Montgomery baseball history!
