Community members continue to invest in the York Revolution

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To call the Rev. Mark Kearse a “people person” is an understatement.

“You show yourself a friend to me, I’ll talk to you about anything,” said Kearse, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in York.

So when the chance arose to invest in the York Revolution – the hometown minor league baseball club that competes in the independent Atlantic League – as a community owner, he saw tremendous opportunity.

Kearse is one of a handful of Black investors in the Revolution, and he sees this new role as providing a platform to show younger generations, particularly persons of color, that the sky’s the limit.

It also allows him, as a sort of team ambassador, to engage with the public, where Kearse excels.

He is one of nine investors, all with significant York connections, recently added to the ownership group. The others are Robert Lambert, Dommonick Chatman, John Klinedinst, Rebecca Countess, Jeff and Cindy Lobach, David and Linda Davidson, John and Denise Gilliland, and William Yanavitch.

They join 13 other fan owners and Bill Shipley, the team’s chairman and majority owner.

“It’s a really neat concept,” Kearse said. “It allows the community to be more engaged.”

Ownership of sports franchises and major companies is usually only available to the few, with African Americans, other minorities and women often shut out.

“This provides a template for what can be done,” he said.

Diversifying ownership brings a different perspective, Kearse said, and shows “our ability to move up is possible.”

As a community owner of the York Revolution, he wants to mentor the next generation, to be an example of what’s possible, to encourage these youth to dream.

Being able to do that “was a big factor for me” in becoming an investor, Kearse said.

Raised in York city, he felt the call to ministry at age 23 after serving his country in the Navy. Kearse has been pastor at Cornerstone since 2009 and recently graduated with a doctorate from Ashland Theological Seminary.

“Because I’m a pastor, I specialize in telling a story – it’s what I do every Sunday,” he said.

Behind the scenes, Kearse is an investor; but his public role as a team ambassador is what he most enjoys.

“I wear a lot of Revolution T-shirts and hats,” he said.

And because that’s not his normal attire, people ask questions.

Engaging with the public “really fits my personality,” Kearse said.

A relationship-focused business

York Revolution President Eric Menzer said the fan ownership option was born in 2018, when the club faced a major stadium renovation.

Rather than borrow money, the team decided instead to raise funds through community investors. And that germ of an idea has since turned into 20-some fan owners.

“I think we are in a pretty limited category,” he said, with the Green Bay Packers the most famous U.S. sports franchise with this type of ownership.

In a press release announcing the nine newest investors, majority owner Shipley, chairman of Shipley Energy, noted that it’s rare for sports clubs with large ownership groups to be “explicitly and completely tied into the local community.”

“It has become a very valuable tool for us,” Menzer said, to have this whole army of team ambassadors.

“Ours is a relationship-focused business,” he said, so this is a tremendous benefit that goes well beyond the investors’ financial contributions.

Menzer said the Revolution “has tried to move beyond the usual suspects” in bringing community owners onboard who are more ethnically, racially and otherwise diverse.

What they have in common is “deep roots in or a demonstrated commitment to York – or both,” he said. “That’s how we operate.” The Revolution plays its home games at PeoplesBank Park in the Arch Street neighborhood of York.

Paula Wolf is a freelance writer.