SOX WANT DRAKE IN THE LINEUP
LEDYARD, Conn. — From Big Papi to Champagne Papi?
The Red Sox are at least trying.
In their ongoing effort to make Fenway Park a destination for non-baseball events, the are pursuing one of the biggest rappers in the world. “We’ve been approaching
Drake this year,” Sox president Sam Kennedy said yesterday. “We would love to have Drake come and we understand he’s not doing a big summer tour. But that’s an example of someone (we’ve) pro-actively gone out after. And we’d love to have him come to Fenway Park given his popularity.”
As Kennedy alluded to, Drake (whose nickname is Champagne Papi, among others) isn’t scheduled to be on tour this summer, which makes a pitch to bring him to Fenway straightforward. The Red Sox can suggest dates that would be flexible for both parties.
Kennedy didn’t sound overly optimistic that they could book Drake — at least this year — but he said they’ll continue to pursue him.
“We’re not going to give up,” Kennedy said. “It sounds like he’s coming up pursuing different sort of one-off ideas. Typically the concerts are routed either by Live Nation or AEG and a very set number of dates are going to play and a set number of cities and locations. But when folks go off and do one-off shows like Pearl Jam did last summer, we’re able to make a pitch directly to them and say this is why you should come to Fenway on a one-off basis. But yeah we’re going to continue to pursue one-off opportunities with someone like Drake.”