Gary Green (baseball owner)

Green is currently the CEO of Alliance Building Services.[1] Alliance is one of the largest privately held building service providers in North America.[1] The company supervises or employs approximately 5,000 employees.[2]

Alliance offers a variety of services through four different companies: First Quality Maintenance, Classic Security, Bright Star Messenger Centers, and Onyx Restoration and Painting.

Green formed First Quality Maintenance out of a frustration with mediocre cleaning service companies that overcharged landlords and tenants.[6] He wasn’t satisfied with just mimicking an "old guard" business; he wanted to change the business model.[6] Green continued to grow the company from 1992 to 1997 and expanded from servicing the family business's properties to third party properties.[6] By 2004, First Quality Maintenance was providing cleaning services to more than 100 buildings.[7]

In 1997, Alliance bought Classic Security and acquired a lighting and electrical company as a complement to the First Quality division. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Alliance Building Services' security business took a major role in protecting the city and providing cleaning services in the aftermath.[6]

Alliance acquired Bright Star Messenger Centers in 2001.[6] In 2008, Alliance purchased Onyx Restoration and Painting.[5][8] Currently, Alliance provides services to more than 165 buildings, encompassing more than 55 million square feet.

In 2009, Alliance provided maintenance services for the inaugural seasons of the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets.[2] Alliance also provides cleaning services to the Empire State Building.[2]

In 2009, at the pinnacle of his building services career, Green spun his business savvy and love for baseball into co-founding Alliance Baseball LLC with business partner and fellow baseball enthusiast Larry Botel.[2]

Green and Botel negotiated to a buy a large stake in the Connecticut Defenders from owner Lou DiBella.[9] At the time, Richmond, Virginia was the largest city in the country without a professional sports franchise.[9] Seeing this opportunity, Green and Botel conditioned the deal on moving the team from Norwich, Connecticut to Richmond, Virginia. Green, Botel, and DiBella closed the deal in 2009 and immediately relocated the team to Richmond under its new name: the Richmond Flying Squirrels.[9]

Green and Botel's investment in the Flying Squirrels is one of the great success stories in Minor League Baseball over the past few years.[10] The team drew nearly a half-million fans in its first year and led all of Minor League Baseball in merchandise sales in 2010. Style Weekly named Green, Botel, and DiBella 2010 Richmonders of the Year.[9]

Warren Buffett (left) and Gary Green (right) at news conference announcing new ownership of the Omaha Storm Chasers.

In June 2012, Green leveraged his success with the Richmond Flying Squirrels into acquiring the Omaha Storm Chasers.[2][3][10] Green successfully negotiated and closed the deal to buy the franchise from owners Warren Buffett, Walter Scott, Jr., and Bill Shea.[3] Green’s ownership of the franchise ended a 21-year streak in which an Omahan had owned at least a piece of the team.[11] Former Storm Chasers owner Warren Buffett was confident that Green’s record as a successful businessman and team owner would transfer over into the new venture and lauded Green's experience at a press conference announcing the change in ownership: “We know he’s a great owner, we know he has enormous enthusiasm for the game, and he loves Omaha,” Buffett said. “It doesn’t get better than that." Buffett continued, “After 21 years, we want someone who is going to keep it for the next 21 years or more, and he’s that sort of fella.”[11]

In February 2017, Green led a group to buy the baseball media company Baseball America. In announcing the deal, Green stated, "We're excited to take ownership of one of the great baseball media brands. No other outlet covers the sport so thoroughly and definitively as Baseball America". [12]

In May 2017, Green and Botel again partnered with Lou DiBella to purchase the Montgomery Biscuits, the Tampa Bay Rays' Double-A affiliate.[13]

Green and Botel took their experience in the professional sports industry and formed Alliance Omaha Soccer Holdings, LLC. After negotiating with United Soccer league (USL) for a couple of years, Alliance Omaha Soccer Holdings was granted the rights to own and operate a professional soccer team in the greater Omaha area.

In May of 2019, Green and Omaha Storm Chasers President & General Manager Martie Cordaro along with officials from USL League One announced Omaha as the home of a new franchise to begin play in 2020. Green’s new team, Union Omaha, is the first professional team in Omaha to play this level of soccer. The team will play matches at Werner Park alongside the Omaha Storm Chasers, also owned by Green.

Of the new franchise, Green said, “The Omaha soccer community has been yearning for a team to call their own and, more importantly, deserve a team to call their own. The USL’s vision to grow the beautiful game has shifted the dynamics of cities and communities across the country, creating an energy and passion that these communities have never seen before. Like other USL cities, Omaha metro and Sarpy County will experience this same shift.” [14]