Tuesday, June 26, 2007

How not to market a low-profile sport

The San Jose Sabercats -- best record in the American Conference, bitches! -- might be playing good (indoor) football, but maybe they could provide the Las Vegas Gladiators marketing team some basic strategies.

The Sabercats squeezed by the Gladiators 73-46 Monday in Las Vegas, but playing a Monday afternoon game, there were only 26 people in attendance.
"There were only 26 people in attendance," sources said.
That's not entirely true. There were 5,000+ to watch San Jose win its tenth straight, but 5,000 people at a sporting event is more or less the equivalent of 26. Still, a 1:35 kickoff on a weekday, in Las Vegas, indoors, watching unknowns play football isn't exactly the best way to attract fans.

The Vegas squad just doesn't want to compete with dinner buffet crowd. Or strip club goers. Yeah. Strip clubs.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

very cool! SaberCats have won the division, now they're going for home field advantage throughout the playoffs (they may have clinched that with the win over Vegas). Here's hopping the Cats win their third ArenaBowl Championship!

wjackalope said...

the arena league is terrible at marketing. they barely advertise. and what's worse is that they show 1 game a week on national tv, which means the chances of seeing your own team are slim to none. sure, the FSN channels show some of the games to each market, but it just seems like it's too much work to figure out when your local team is playing and if so on what channel. have some consistency.

THN said...

Crazy, though they could have pulled in some convention goers. The AFL has been slacking lately, seeing that they are on ESPN and tehy are still underexposed.

The sad thing is that the league typically "papers" its crowds (meaning most of the tickets are given away).

The AFL would do better to combine with Vince McMahon and form some sort of AFL/XFL hybrid that would kick ass.

Anonymous said...

The Who?

The What?

Sabercats?
You're making the whole thing up right?

Next you'll tell us that Yao Ming is getting married to a 6 foot Chinease woman.

Anonymous said...

It would take at least 6 LIs to watch an arena game.

Anonymous said...

name another por sport where you can sit in the first row for $50.

-noah

Anonymous said...

hi....nice site, keep  sport forever