Having put three boys through baseball, Bob Mondoux knows that America’s pastime can really wring out a wallet.
“It was getting way too expensive,” Mondoux said. “Organizations charged an arm and a leg.”
That’s why, seven years ago, he began a career in baseball with the goal of giving Plant City an option both competitive and affordable. Now, Global Sports Alliance Baseball has become that option for Plant City and many travel teams around Florida.
GETTING STARTED
Mondoux jumped into baseball as a full-time job in 2009, after he was one of 15,000 laid off from Dearborn Express when the company was bought by DHL Express. Because of his ties to the area baseball scene as both a parent and a coach, his father-in-law suggested he do something within the sport.
He worked as a Florida director for Nations Baseball for six months but wasn’t big on its prices. After laying the foundation in 2010, Mondoux helped GSA Baseball get incorporated in Florida in 2011.
“We started GSA to be a nonprofit organization to bring the cost of travel ball down,” Mondoux said. “It costs half of what any other organization out there costs — registrations, insurance, everything.”
GSA started exclusively in Plant City and charged $125 to play in a tournament. If teams wanted to play in two or more, the cost dipped to $100. According to Mondoux, this was about a $100 difference from what other groups were charging.
“The going rate at the time we started, not including umpires, was $200 (per tournament),” he says.
GSA is also able to bring the cost of insurance down. Mondoux says bigger groups, such as AAU and USSSA, charge $140 for the same team insurance that GSA offers for $74.
“We modeled ourselves after AAU: 501(c) 3 umbrella coverage, but without the prices,” he said.
Using his connections around the area, Mondoux was able to get local travel ball teams to sign up for the early tournaments. Eventually, word spread out of town and interest in GSA grew. The organization can now be found in Plant City, Tampa, Winter Haven, Auburndale and Brooksville, with each area overseen by one director.
TOURNEY TIME
To maintain interest, there’s usually only one GSA tournament held each month.
“I don’t believe in oversaturating the market,” Mondoux says. “There’s one in Tampa each month, one in Plant City. A lot of organizations host every two weeks. We don’t do that. You only have one chance a month to play in GSA.”
The only exception is July, with the Summer Slam and Summer Sizzler tournaments at the beginning and end of the month.
“This month, we have two because everybody moves up (into the next age group),” Mondoux says. “I put up fences for 12 year olds at Randy L. Larson (Softball Complex) for this weekend so that some kids who haven’t hit homers yet have a chance to hit them.”
Because GSA is a nonprofit organization, all tournament fees are put toward future events. For example, teams who rack up tournament wins in the fall and spring get paid entries into the GSA World Series.
“Eighty percent of the teams that were in this past World Series didn’t have to pay,” Mondoux said. “All money we get goes toward this, to pay for umps, field costs, etc.”
Mondoux makes it a point to visit every field at every park during every tournament and is constantly busy fielding calls from area directors on the board and interested teams. He estimates that he puts in 80 to 100 hours of work each week, and also employs six college-aged interns from the area to help out.
IMPACT
GSA has plans to add branches in Lake City and Miami soon, start a program in North Carolina and reach out to international players.
“A couple of the kids that graduated with my son in North Carolina are going to live up there, and they want to start baseball up there,” Mondoux says. “Two of the players are from Venezuela. One will be down here with us full time and will work with international teams, bringing them to Plant City, plus do all the marketing for GSA.”
GSA can also be found sponsoring events all over the city, including the City of Plant City Fourth of July celebration, and helping local travel teams that want to play in other tournaments but may not have the money.
“All funds raised go to teams — not GSA,” Mondoux says.
At the rate the organization has grown, Mondoux feels that GSA has accomplished exactly what he hoped it would when he got on board.
“We made it affordable for everybody to play travel ball,” he said. “We’ve grown leaps and bounds.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
IT’S PLAYED EVERYWHERE
If there’s a baseball field in Plant City, it’s safe to bet GSA Baseball will use it for a tournament. In fact, the tournaments can get big enough that the group has to branch out of greater Plant City and host games in Dover, Brandon and Lakeland.
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