Wish the people I talked to on a daily basis were from Wellington. Talking about the Nix until the cows come home (well actually use some discretion here) is the cheapest marketing available to the Club (and is actually probably more valuable than a lot of paid marketing truth be told).
Doesn't cost us anything apart from time, and it's time talking about a Club we are all passionate supporters of anyway. And it will make a HUGE difference to the attendance this Sunday, beyond, and to the long term success of the Club.
Ok I'll get off my lectern and go to bed now.
In have my thoughts on this.
When we had our playoff run 2 years ago and we had massive crowds, what bought the casual fan along then to be part of that massive crowd. Was it to support a winning team, was it to support a playoff game, was it because the media covered the sh*t out of it? Probably a combination of all 3.
1: Its quite a common saying in Laker land that the fans don't turn up until April when the playoffs start and the games then start to mean something. I know that's an American way of thinking but do we as a sporting nation suffer from that too? Too many meaningless games where the fans don't bother until it counts for something because even the casual fan is not going to tune in for 8 months/82 games? Perhaps playoffs are the death of the casual fan attending sports games during regular season because of the fact that regular season game don't always mean something and are just that, regular games? There is now talk in the NBA of reducing the 82 game regulation season (baseball has like 150 I think) purely to keep the players fresher to produce a better product, makes the games mean something and keep the fans engaged. Super 15 - no one really tunes in seriously until near the end of the season when playoffs are close and then the people start coming along. The Breakers are probably the only team that don't fit that mould because they tend to sell out their games regardless although you are talking a smaller base with a max crowd of 3000. All Blacks have been struggling to sell out Eden Park games against AU and SA - perhaps cause they have seen it too often and its just another game? To sum it up, do the Phoenix now suffer from this whereby fans are only really going to tune in closer to the end of the season and playoffs when it starts to mean something? (from another persons perspective)
2: Nothing breeds success like success. Compare the Kingz crowd to the Phoenix. In the beginning when they were at least mid table, they were getting good crowds. As the team dropped down the table, the crowds did too. The Phoenix average has been dropping off but when you look at it, we were bottom 1st year, just missed 2nd, play offs the last 2 and most likely again this year. So perhaps the size of the crowds are not related to the success of the Phoenix?
3: It is interesting to note the correlation between the coverage of the side and the attendance and thus, the chatter. Media will cover sides extensively when they are doing well. The coverage the Warriors got on last years run is a good one but think back to our run 2 years ago when there was positive articles everyday and in volume. Everyone knew what was going on and everyone was talking about it and thus, everyone got along to the home playoff games. Attendances in the EPL are usually a full house but again its the dominant sport. Do they suffer from fan drop off (no) or is it because its constantly in the media and thus front and centre in the psyche. Do we simply suffer from not enough media coverage for the Phoenix?
I only put these out as something to think about. I find it interesting that people will come for a one off but not regular season games and thus require 'marketing' to get them there and found chord with Ahmad talking about word of mouth.
"Phoenix till they lose"
).
Blew.22012-01-22 14:12:06
Sorted someone to use my season pass tho.
