Business World |
April 2015
218
Peter Bragan Jr. Formerly serving as the Suns’
vice president and general manager for 20
years, Bragan Jr. became president prior to
the 2006 season. Now in his ninth and final
season as team president Bragan Jr. has fond
memories of the state of minor league base-
ball those 30-odd years ago.
“My dad bought the franchise in 1984 and
this was around the time when minor league
baseball fell into the doldrums,” Bragan
Jr. said. “It was almost like an axiom that
couldn’t make money operating a minor
league baseball team anymore.”
For a pastime embedded deep into the
American DNA, however, the Bragan reign
in Jacksonville did not begin to inherit im-
mediate results and value. Considered to be
a sport at odds for heartstrings and purse
strings alike with America’s most-watched
sport, football, Bragan acknowledged that
only time would alter the public’s perception
of minor league baseball across the country.
“The 40s and 50s was the golden era of mi-
nor league baseball,” he said. “By the early
80s with cable TV and Ted Turner and The
Atlanta Braves – America’s team – minor
