Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle / Staff Photographer

If it weren’t for the fans, Reid Ryan says he wouldn’t have a job.

Reid is president of operations of the Houston Astros as well as the founder and former CEO of the Corpus Christi Hooks and the Round Rock Express minor league franchises.

He recently talked with Texas Inc. about the business of baseball, the major renovations he’s making to Minute Maid Park, and what it was like growing up in the shadows of a Major League Baseball legend.

Related: Test your baseball knowledge

Q. What’s it like to manage the business of a baseball team?

A. Well, it’s a lot of fun. The goal of having a baseball team in a community is really to bring joy to people’s lives. And we get to work in a business where people are coming out to spend quality time with their family and friends and connect with their community and watch a group of players chase a dream, which is winning a world championship.

Q. As the Houston Astros’ President of Business Operations, and founder of the Corpus Christi Hooks and Round Rock Express, and a long list of other positions, how do you divide up your time?

More Information Things to know about Reid Ryan Home: Memorial area of Houston. Family: Nicole (wife) and kids, Jackson (19), Victoria (17) and Ella (14). Favorite quote: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” - Luke 6:31. Hobbies: Tennis, watching his kids play sports, and going to the Ryan family ranch. Leadership philosophy: “Your business is only as good as your people. Build a culture where people can grow and succeed both personally and professionally.” Favorite movie: Caddyshack. “It’s an American masterpiece.” Favorite book: “One of my favorite books is John Grisham’s ‘Playing for Pizza’. It’s the story of an American football star who finds his passion for the game playing semi-pro in Italy.” Favorite food: Tex-Mex.

A. My full-time job is president of business operations for the Astros. The Corpus Christi Hooks are now owned by the Astros, so we manage the Hooks as part of our regular Astros business. The Round Rock Express is still owned by Ryan-Sanders Baseball which is a partnership between Houston businessman Don Sanders, his family, and my dad Nolan Ryan and our family. I’m a board member over there but I’m not active in the business. I built those ballparks and started those teams, so they’re dear to my heart.

Q. What is the Astros’ business model?

A. The business model for the Astros, really, our goal, is to win championships. That’s why we’re here. Nobody works with the organization to try to finish third. We want to win World Series. Our business model falls into two buckets. The first bucket being national money that is coming through Major League Baseball. That is everything from licensing deals to our national TV partnerships, radio partnerships, national advertising that goes with our events, such as the World Series, playoffs, all-star games, and stuff like that. So that’s the national revenue bucket.

And then we have the local revenue bucket which includes our local TV deal with AT&T Sports and all the revenues created due to people coming out to Minute Maid Park, from corporate partnerships, to ticketing, to concessions, to parking. Our job every year is to field the championship team, and we’re putting all of that national and local revenue back into our team’s payroll. We’re still drafting and developing players which costs money as well. Every year we have a draft and we end up putting those players in seven of our minor league teams across the country. And we continue to try to have the best ballpark in the game. We do all that, and try to leave room for payroll flexibility. That gives our general manager, Jeff Luhnow, the opportunity to make moves in the trade deadline, as we’ve done in the last couple of years — especially the year with Justin Verlander, which helped us win the World Series in 2017.

So that’s the basic business model: national revenue, local revenue, take all that money and try to build a championship team, maintain a great ballpark, and give ourselves some flexibility so we can make some moves at the trade deadline.

Q. What are the seven Minor League Baseball affiliates you have now?

A. We have Triple A in Round Rock (Round Rock Express) and Double A in Corpus Christi (Corpus Christi Hooks). We’re opening a new High-A facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina (Fayetteville Woodpeckers). Then we have a team which is called Low-A in Davenport, Iowa (Quad Cities River Bandits). And a team in the New York-Penn League (Tri-City ValleyCats), which is in the Troy, New York area. We also have a Rookie League team in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a team in the Dominican Republic. Each one of those teams have our players and coaches on them. We’re involved in some of the facilities more than others, but they all take resources.

Q. Can you tell us about the Astros’ Triple-A Affiliate, Round Rock Express?

A. In 1998, I put a group together including my dad Nolan Ryan and Don Sanders, and we bought a Double-A team in Jackson, Mississippi, which was an Astros’ Affiliate, and we moved that to Central Texas and opened up the Dell Diamond in 2000. In 2005, we moved up to Triple-A and became the Astros’ Triple-A franchise. In 2011, that franchise switched over to the Rangers, but we are bringing it back this year into the Astros’ family. That will be great for us because it puts our Triple-A club and our Double-A club both within three hours of Minute Maid Park. That helps us to field the winning team here on the field in Houston, and it also helps us from a business perspective because it’s growing our Astros fanbase across Central and South Texas. It’s really a win-win when we can have both our top affiliates within our television market; it’s great for growing fans and showing off our product.

Q. What’s it like working with Nolan, your dad?

A. It’s a lot of fun. We have a great relationship. Growing up the son of somebody famous, you end up having a unique bond because only the people there, in the family, can really understand the day-to-day grind that goes with being a celebrity. Over the years, our family has always had a tight relationship and my dad’s been a real mentor to me. You probably hear stories of athletes that make a lot of money and lose it, or get in trouble with the law, or have all kinds of other issues, but my dad’s always been an example of how to live right and not forget where you came from. And he’s stayed true to the values that my grandparents instilled with him. So I try to soak up those lessons and I talk with him probably every other day. He’s a great sounding board for me.

Q. Can you tell us a little about the Astros Hall of Fame, which is the first Hall of Fame in franchise history?

A. We are really excited about this. We’re the oldest major league baseball franchise in the state, and we have a rich tradition going back to Houston getting a franchise as Colt 45s, and then moving into the Astrodome which was a revolutionary stadium, but we’ve never really had a way to formally honor all the greats of our game, all people that have been a part of building our organization. So we decided to do that with a Hall of Fame. We took the old Home Run Alley and transformed that into Hall of Fame Alley. And we formed a committee with former players, media members, front office personnel for the Astros, and each year that committee will vote and we’ll put one or two players in every year. We’re mirroring what other clubs like the Cardinals and the Red Sox have done, and we think it’s a great way to build a tradition and connect with the fan bases of players from years gone by, and create a sense of family and tradition.

Q. Could you tell us about the recent renovations and upgrades to your stadium?

A. As the first thing, we’ve been continuing to make sure the ballpark has really good ingress and egress. We built a new entrance behind Home Plate, and we’ve gone from 40 to 70 mags [magnetomer security checkpoint locations] which will help with people entering the ballpark. We built a new Karbach Love Street Bar behind Home. We did that in conjunction with Anheuser-Busch and Karbach. This will bring locally brewed beers into the ballpark, which our fans really like. We’ve added a Pluckers, a popular Texas brand of wings, in Center Field. And we’ve remodeled the Coca-Cola Deck, a group area in Center Field. We’ve also added several self-serve concessions stands, kiosks, out where fans can order and swipe their credit cards. This turns the entire concession stand into a cooking and food preparation space, enabling us to better utilize our existing footprint so we can serve more fans and reduce wait times and lines.

Q. Can you tell us about the Crawford Bock beer?

A. The Crawford Bock is a special bock beer that we’re launching in partnership with Anheuser-Busch and Karbach. It has the Astros’ rainbow stripe and logo on the can; it’s really cool looking. A percentage of sales go to the Astros Foundation, and thus back to the community. To date, it’s been very popular. (The Astros Foundation supports youth baseball and causes such as the childhood cancers, homelessness, the military and domestic violence.)

Q. How is your transition towards electronic-ticketing going?

A. We have been increasing our fans’ ability to use mobile tickets over the last couple years. And we’re encouraging fans to download the new MLB Mobile app; they just upgraded it. What’s great about that is you’re able to manage your tickets right there on the app — you can email them to your friends or whatever you want to do. It also has enhanced ballpark experiences where we offer rewards and special contests. So yes, we have been pushing towards mobile ticketing over the last few years and I think you’ll continue see more of that.

Q. How are ticket prices determined?

A. All of our tickets are priced to demand. Season tickets are the best way to ensure that you get lowest prices because those prices are set for all the games for the whole year. So if you want the very best prices, become an Astros’ season ticket holder.

Q. Is there anything you’d like to add?

What’s great about my job is that I’m entrusted with making sure that our fans have a good experience. Everyone has a somewhat different reason for coming to the ballpark, so we work on things that we can control, like customer service, the cleanliness of the ballpark, the quality of the experience for the price, and the way that people get in and out of the facility. Those are the things we really focus on because we know we’re competing for people’s time as much as we are for their money. We have to give people a great experience so they realize that investing 2 or 3 hours with us is good business for them.

We’re excited about the future of the Astros. We believe that we have built a team that is going to compete for championships for years to come. We believe our ballpark experience is one of the best in baseball, and we have some of the most passionate fans in baseball. Our jobs as management of the Astros is really to be the caretakers of the people’s asset which is a major league franchise that was awarded to this city back in the 1960s.

We always say around here that without the fans, none of us have jobs. And it’s an honor and a privilege to get to work in the game of baseball.