When it comes to sports and sports marketing winning or losing can be one of the biggest factors in whether or not your team brand sells. In almost any professional league be it the NFL, MLB, NBA etc. Having a winning team is one of the easiest ways to sell tickets to your events and thus create more revenue for your company (team).
A study was done on minor league baseball teams to figure out what could be done to increase ticket sales. What they found was very interesting. While most sports teams that are successful athletically will also be successful financially, when it came to minor league baseball teams winning percentage did not correlate very strongly with the financial success, or attendance. It was found that almost 70 percent of the people leaving a minor league baseball game couldn't tell you who won and another large percent couldn't recall who was even playing.
The study found that minor league baseball and other sports in which people do not have a large emotional investment in were successful based on other promotions the team offers. This includes food, drinks, giveaways, family nights, etc. This is extremely interesting on the subject of sports marketing because before this study was done it was thought that "winning is everything". This opened up a world of change and new strategies when it comes to promoting certain sports franchises.
That's interesting. I would think that most people would still have some sort of emotional interest in minor league teams. I also think its crazy that most people couldn't even tell you who was playing. These events sound like huge money makers if you can just offer food and drink specials to fans and keep them coming back. If this could only be applied to major league sports then enormous ammounts of money could be made. Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting set of facts that I was totally unaware of, great post. I am from Greenville, SC and we have the Greenville Drive minor league baseball team, and the games are fun to go to for the atmosphere and for hanging out with friends downtown. The success of the Greenville Drive makes a lot more since based on the statistics you have written about here, interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteSo this is why they shoot out T-Shirts at Little John.... (kidding).
ReplyDeleteBut it's interesting; it seems like selling crowds on the awesomeness of a team is more related to their experiences in the stadium. I saw the Greenville Drive play baseball, and it was awesome. Then again, I can't remember who they played.
Everybody is going to have to face it that minor league teams are never going to have the marketing that their bigger brothers are accustomed to. This is because nobody takes the time to learn their names or numbers, because they are not going to be there but for a season or two. I've been to several pelicans games at myrtle beach. I can't tell who they played, I can say that the pelicans lost just because they are one of the worst one a teams in minor league. That being said, I had a great time, there were pretty college girls every where and the drinks were sort of cheap. The same phenomenon happened in Charleston at the riverdogs games. I don't know who they played, but there were pretty girls and cheap drinks. People came to the games not to watch baseball, but to have a good time. Jeter and A-rod will be talked about the next day if somebody goes to major league game, but the only thing that will be talked about from a minor league game is the girl that was sitting a row down. Sorry, you can't market that on a large money scale
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree. I've never been to a Greenville Drive game, but when I was younger I went to plenty of Greenville Braves games. I remember always getting bored by the 5th inning and running around with my friends until we left sometime in the 7th inning. Now, this doesn't necessarily reflect too poorly on minor league baseball, because I can't even watch major league baseball on TV for very long before I get bored. Regardless, the main reason I had fun at those games was because I got to hang out with my friends. I doubt I even knew the name of the team they were playing at the time, and I sure don't know it now.
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