INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Vero Beach Chairman Peter O’Malley announced that Steve Snure and Jeff Biddle have each been named Vice President, Historic Dodgertown.
“Steve Snure is in his 27th year at Historic Dodgertown, starting in 1988 as executive chef during Spring Training for the Dodgers,” O’Malley said. “Steve’s duties expanded to operations manager six years ago and he has always handled his added responsibilities extremely well.”
“Jeff Biddle has been with us since 2009 and he deserves credit for bringing to Historic Dodgertown athletic teams from all over the world year-round. He understands the business of attracting and accommodating unique teams. Steve and Jeff will continue to work closely with longtime Vice President Craig Callan, as well as Vice President Brady Ballard,” O’Malley said.
In the past year, Historic Dodgertown has welcomed professional and amateur teams from Canada, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea to train at Historic Dodgertown. In addition, participants from multiple sports who train, stay and play at Historic Dodgertown have traveled from nearly every U.S. state.
Snure served as executive chef for the Conference Center at Dodgertown until the shuttering of the site in 2008, when the Dodgers moved their Spring Training headquarters to Glendale, Ariz. When Minor League Baseball leased the facility from Indian River County to reopen it in 2009, Snure was among the first to be called to return to work. He was hired to become the operations manager of the facility which includes the entire Conference Center – housekeeping, kitchen, dining room, lounge, and maintenance departments.
Snure and his wife, Helga, reside in Fort Pierce and have two sons, David and Christopher and two grandsons, Alex and Dawson.
Biddle is responsible for sales and marketing to men’s and women’s teams including baseball, softball, football, lacrosse, soccer, crew/rowing, swimming and rugby. Since he started the spring training program for high school and college baseball in 2011 to today, the number of schools participating has more than tripled from 54 to 176 in 2015. Historic Dodgertown has now expanded spring training for high school and college softball and lacrosse.
He handles booking of all sports teams that use the 80-acre campus for camps, showcases, tournaments and training. The Montreal Alouettes and the Edmonton Eskimos, both Canadian Football League teams, will hold mini-camps at Historic Dodgertown in April. Historic Dodgertown is frequently filled to capacity for tournaments, resulting in more than 27,000 off-site room nights booked in 2013 and 2014 combined. As calculated by the Treasure Coast Sports Commission, the direct economic impact from Historic Dodgertown events over the last two years resulted in more than 26 million dollars to Indian River County.
A native of Dansville, N.Y., Biddle was the General Manager for Northeast Collegiate Baseball from 1986-1989. He became the Assistant Director of Athletics for Cocoa Expo Sports Center in 1989 and was promoted to Director of Athletics in 1995. He served in that capacity until 2009, when he joined the Historic Dodgertown staff. Biddle and his wife, Crystal and daughter, Kaleigh, live in Vero Beach.
World-famous Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach is a multi-sport, 80-acre complex on Florida’s Treasure Coast managed by former Dodger owner Peter O’Malley in a partnership since 2012. O’Malley, whose family developed and expanded the site formerly known as “Dodgertown” for nearly 50 years, partnered with his sister Terry O’Malley Seidler and former Dodger star pitchers Chan Ho Park and Hideo Nomo.
On Nov. 10, 2014, Historic Dodgertown was named a Florida Heritage Landmark for its unique historic significance extending beyond baseball, as the first completely integrated Spring Training site in the South. The “Baseball and Dodgertown” historical marker is located at the entrance to the conference center.
The home of Dodger Spring Trainings from 1948-2008, it was the starting place for six World Championships and 14 N.L. Pennant-winning teams. Numerous Baseball Hall of Fame players trained on these hallowed grounds, as well as 20 visits from professional teams in Asia.
The all-inclusive facility, owned by Indian River County, gives teams of all ages the unique opportunity to train, play, dine and stay together in on-site villas. Participants utilize one of 10.5 playing fields (seven are Musco-lighted for night games), including a new cloverleaf of youth baseball/softball fields with concessions area and new multi-purpose field (110 by 130 yards) for football, soccer and lacrosse.
Other amenities include clubhouses, two full-sized weight rooms, dining room, Stadium Club lounge and a competition-size swimming pool. The home of 6,500-seat Holman Stadium, Historic Dodgertown of Vero Beach provides an all-encompassing experience for guests and is the ideal setting to build a championship team.
It’s the perfect location for tournaments, camps, schools, business conferences and seminars. Continuing its tradition since 1983, the Los Angeles Dodgers Adult Baseball Camp returned to Historic Dodgertown in November, 2014. Visit historicdodgertown.com for more information.
