SEATTLE — She’s one of the top-ranking female executives in all of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Catie Griggs was the very first – hired three years ago to run the business side of the Seattle Mariners organization.
We asked Griggs to sit down with us and to go on the record about fan expectations, the challenging television landscape and the backstory of how she found her way to the Mariners front office.
The Mariners will open its 2024 season on Thursday night against the Boston Red Sox. Griggs said it's "all hands on deck for Opening Day to make sure Mariners fans get the best gameday experience she can deliver.
Joyce Taylor: Are you joking right now? (Griggs graduated high school early and enrolled at North Carolina State University when she was 14 years old.)
Griggs: I made my mom when I was like eight I made her drive me to the North Carolina Zoo, so I could actually. So I had an informational interview with a zoo architect at the zoo. Oh my Yeah. When I was eight, I was pretty convinced I wanted to be a zoo architect, which is almost the same thing as the president of a major league baseball team. So I convinced my mom to let me schedule an informational interview with whoever the zoo architect of the North Carolina Zoo was. And that lovely man spoke to me for 45 minutes which was impressive because I was eight.
As I went through grad school, and really wanted to make the transition to sport-over 100 people picked up the phone and shared their life experiences with me and helped me figure out how I perhaps could craft my career to get my foot in the door. And I've spent probably the last 15 years trying to pay it forward.
Taylor: Can you pinpoint for me the one thing you most looking forward to in this season?
Griggs: Well, I think it's it really is the day that you're getting to walk around the ballpark on opening day. Part of the reason I do what I do is that it's sports, we have the opportunity to create safe spaces to bring people together where it's over a shared passion and something that they have in common versus one of the many places where perhaps we could find differences. Getting to see that come to life - it makes what we do worth it.
Taylor: You’re talking about the fans. Fans want to win. So how do you manage fan expectations?
Griggs: I don't think you do. We want to win as well. And I think that's where we face every single day, we wake up every morning and we want to win period, full stop.
Taylor: Do you feel the pressure of those expectations?
Griggs: Of course we do. Of course we do. This is an incredible sports market, we serve a five-state region that we know lives and dies with his team. And we want to bring that world series here to Seattle. And so that's something that we're aiming to do. We’ve got such a diverse community with so many different people and this team really reflects that. And we at the Mariners are dedicated to creating a diverse workforce that reflects that community, recognizing that while we try to be as open-minded and creative as we can, everyone's life experience is going to help them see the world differently. And that's going to make us better.
Taylor: When you talk about the diversity of our community, it reminds me of the all-star game, which was by almost all measures hugely successful. (But) there was some pushback about the international districts being passed by left out. And I just wanted to give you an opportunity to respond to that.
Griggs: It brought in 100,000 visitors to the city of Seattle, and Visit Seattle estimated about a $50 million economic impact. So we are very proud of the work that was done around it. But to your point, it didn't necessarily fall evenly around the entire city.
Taylor: Were you even surprised by the criticism, after such a successful All-Star week?
Griggs: I was disappointed. And so, for us, it was truly an opportunity to say, okay, you learn from the things that go well, but we also have to learn from the things that didn't go the way that we hoped and face it from the standpoint of how do we continue to get better.
Taylor: I want to talk about TV access, the rate hike from Comcast. How has that impacted this organization?
Griggs: It's a complicated landscape. And I would say that the local media landscape is in a significant state of flux. Right now, we aren't the only team that's feeling it. What it did is it created a challenge for us. Because I think we can be honest and say, we are not currently as effective as we need to be at getting our content to our fans in the way in which they want to receive this.
Taylor: What is it about the mindset that you bring to work every day that has made you successful in being president of this organization?
Griggs: I think I'm very comfortable with what I don't know. I really like to surround myself with people who are going to push me to think differently. I have blind spots. All of us have blind spots.
Taylor: How do you define success for yourself in this job?
Griggs: It's hard. I think success for me is ultimately: Are we putting the right team in place? And are we delivering against our mission and our mission is to win championships, create unforgettable experiences and serve our communities.
Taylor: And the hardest part of delivering what you'd like to deliver is what?
Griggs: Patience - not my strength.
Taylor: I don't have to remind you that the Mariners have not won a World Series title. Is this going to be the year?
Griggs: Gosh, I hope so.
Taylor: Would it be great under your watch, too?
Griggs: We are going to win the World Series and I very, very much hope to be a part of the organization when it happens.