New School Learned From The Old School
Young developed his new school approach to marketing baseball from a very old-school upbringing in the food service business.
Graduating from Penn State in 1972, Young went to work for Aramark at the Spectrum in his native Philadelphia, taking the experience of his youth with him. Aramark moved him to the Providence Civic Center, where he rose from trainee to running the 13,000-seat arena that hosted hockey, college basketball, and entertainment events.
"I found that [my high school] experience was just great. Learning the controls, how to handle people."said Young of his entry into the business world. "The vendors couldn't b.s. me as well as they could somebody else."
Aramark put Young through his paces, transferring him every so often to horse tracks and other arenas. He helped open the Market Square arena in 1974 (which found its way under the wrecking ball not too long ago.).
He did a stint in Kansas City with Volume Services in 1975 to run the food service at
Kemper Arena which, at that time, had both an NBA and NHL franchise as tenants, and the Truman Sports Complex, the old home of the Royals and the Chiefs. In 1977, Young transferred to Tampa Stadium, the new home of the Buccaneers for a few years before spending time in Chicago.
In 1985, Young quit his job with Volume Services to set up his own business, Recreation and Leisure Services. The business thrived, often in partnership with larger companies, and led Young to his first turn as the owner of a minor league baseball franchise.
Finding A Harbor In Baseball
In 1992, Recreation and Leisure pursued the account of the new Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia, a new 12,000-seat facility being built to bring the Mets AAA franchise up from Tidewater.
The deal was negotiated with Al Harazin, the G.M. of the New York Mets. Young had worked with Harazin earlier in his career when one of the food service accounts that he supervised was Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
Al asked Ken if he would be interested in buying the Tidewater Tides from the Mets organization.
"I put together an investor group," recalls Young, noting that buying a minor league franchise at that time had its challenges. "Only about a third of the people that I spoke to came into the investment." Thirteen or fourteen people ended up making up the group.
