вторник, 11 сентября 2012 г.

Atlanta Sports Teams Innovate Amid Economic Slump. - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

By Mike Tierney, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Nov. 11--Youngsters squirmed at face-painting stands or body-surfed down steep inflatable slides. Adults lined up at a booth to toss footballs or shimmied to a funk band.

Just outside the Georgia Dome, site of last Sunday's Falcons game, a carnival had broken out. The two happenings, however, were connected. Before every game, except in the late-season cold, the team trots out its Birdsnest at International Plaza.

The city's other three major pro sports franchises also are pulling every trick out of their duffel bags to entice fans while the economy is performing as dismally as the squads themselves.

The Braves, who recently closed their tumultuous season with a whimper, handed out bobblehead dolls in promotions at Turner Field. The Hawks and Thrashers, stumbling right off the bat, hold player autograph sessions at games, take e-mail questions for the general managers, scatter costumed mascots all over Philips Arena and pipe in music 'every available second, I think,' said Stan Kasten, president of both clubs as well as the Braves.

Philips' two tenants went to the extreme -- cutting the cost of certain tickets. By and large, though, prices for tickets -- and concessions -- send many fans into sticker shock. Because in-the-seats support of local teams can be tepid in the warmest economic climate, the turnstile counts seem vulnerable in the months ahead.

Early this year, well before the economy turned bleak, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey of 555 adults in 13 metro Atlanta counties found 54 percent who blamed ticket prices for decisions to skip at least one pro sports event.

If fans need another reason to stay home, there is the extended fear factor over stadium and arena safety. Police presence on the ground -- and, in some cases, overhead -- is a constant reminder of increased risk, real or perceived, at games.

Ticket prices haunted some fans Sunday. Ernest Newton, enjoying the pre-game festivities with his wife and children, pulled from his pocket four tickets for which he paid $37 each. He regretted having to leave two kids home and promised to rotate them in for the next outing.

'I love football. I could go every week,' said Newton, a construction foreman from Conley. But the expense limits him to three or four Falcons dates per season.

So many factors affect the ebb and flow of attendance figures that the impact of costs is difficult to measure. Still, Sunday's game against New England drew an announced crowd of 44,229, second-lowest of the day in the National Football League. 'The economy is so bad, a lot of people don't want to go out and spend the money,' Newton said.

The night before, the Hawks barely half-filled Philips with a gathering of 9,742. Earlier in the week, the Thrashers lured a near-franchise low of 11,548.

Special occasions can lure fans en masse. A wall-to-wall throng of 20,072 turned out for the latest coming of Michael Jordan against the Hawks. Today, the Birdsnest will be chirping and the Georgia Dome will be standing-room-only when the Falcons engage the Cowboys, no longer 'America's Team' but still with a loyal national following.

Sports and other forms of entertainment often withstand the pressures of a recession. 'It's more inelastic' compared to other types of business, said Frank Vuono, a partner in 16W, a New York sports marketing company. 'It's a release of tension.'

Yet fans can turn choosy, shifting their allegiance from losing to winning programs or to sports on other levels, such as high schools.

'Ticket prices are so outrageous,' Newton said. 'For a winning franchise, yeah, they'd be OK. It'd help if (the Falcons) win.'

Newton would spend more in almost any other NFL city.

The Falcons rank 29th among the 31 teams with an average ticket price of $39.14, well below the leaguewide norm of $53.84, according to Team Marketing Report, a Chicago-based publication firm that culls cost data from the clubs.

'We know price is an important factor in making a decision to come to our games,' said Rob Jackson, Falcons vice president of marketing and sales. The team trims ticket prices in half for the military and college students and knocks off $5 per seat for groups of 25 or more.

The Hawks and Thrashers have settled into the middle of the pack, says TMR. The Hawks stand 20th of 29 teams after reducing their average price nearly $3 this year to $42.81. The Thrashers also got cheaper to see, down slightly to $49.91 for a ranking of 14th out of 30.

The Braves, which charged the most of 30 baseball teams when they unveiled Turner Field in 1997, slipped to eighth this season at $22.05. A decade of success and the accompanying fat payroll have kept them out of baseball's bargain basement for some time.

Typical of most teams, Atlanta's athletics foursome has little trouble selling the high-priced real estate -- seats close to the action. Those buyers tend to be established companies or well-heeled individuals, their leisure spending least affected by a recession.

'We still have plenty of people to buy the sideline tickets,' Kasten said. 'We need to reach out to the people in the upper deck.'

Plans to reach out at Hawks and Thrashers games were in the works well before the economic malaise hit. Value pricing, as Kasten called it, 'has never been more important. (Sept. 11) put the exclamation point on the softening of the economy.'

Family packs, consisting of four tickets plus concessions, cost $49 and $59. The Hawks pitched partial season ticket packages of five, 10 or 15 games, while the Thrashers offer deals to business people that include four $55 tickets and spending money. Both sell 1,000 nosebleed seats to each game for $10, a price billed by the Thrashers as the league low for an unobstructed view.

Ray Warren applauds such an approach. He is president and CEO of Raycom Sports, a sports marketing and entertainment company.

Ticket prices, he said, 'are hitting the ceiling on tolerance.' Warren maintains that the pendulum should swing away from teams catering to their corporate customers and back toward single-game buyers.

'Fans haven't revolted -- yet,' he said.

For the computer-savvy, the Hawks and Thrashers permit tickets to be ordered online and printed, sparing fans long waits in will-call lines. The service will extend to the Braves next season.

Once inside the arenas, fans encounter a treat for -- or assault on -- the senses as entertainment is designed to enhance fans' satisfaction with sport. A few, selected at random, are invited onto the field, court or ice to win prizes. Among the new features at Philips is a $2 million lighted sign board that circles the stands, flashing scores, ads and trivia.

At the Thrashers game on Halloween Eve, clips of horror films were shown on a screen. When a fight on the ice erupted, the DJ cued up John Mellencamp's 'Hurt So Good.' The players may stop for timeouts, but the playfulness in the building never does.

Neither does concern about keeping fans in the seats.

'Does (the slumping economy) make someone come six times instead of eight? That's a possibility,' Kasten said. 'We want to get them up to 10 or 12.'

The Hawks were among 16 basketball teams that reduced ticket prices, bringing down the league average about a dollar to $50.10 -- a trend almost unheard of in pro sports. Partial season ticket options was an NBA plan. 'That's good strategy in this climate,' Kasten said.

Vuono recommends more: 'Teams must become much more proactive -- or proactive, period -- with their ticket operations.'

Concession costs also should be addressed, Vuono said. To charge a Braves fan $5.50 for beer, a Falcons follower $3 for soda and a Hawks or Thrashers devotee $3.50 for a hot dog is another potential deterrent.

In the AJC survey, 29 percent of people identifying themselves as pro fans cited steep concession prices for causing them to stay away.

While cost may drive some to other pursuits, stepped-up security may not be. The consensus in the sports world is, fans are more accepting of the hassles and delays resulting in body checks and lines at metal detectors.

'It's time-consuming,' Kasten said. 'But once we're in, we're fine. Fans feel reassured.'

Said Vuono, 'Everyone I've spoken to realizes now how spoiled we were. In the back of your mind, you think this is the way it should have been done all along.'

Braves officials, who have raised ticket prices for three straight seasons, are mulling over how to kick-start enthusiasm with an innovative or attractive new plan. Attendance this season was the worst in Turner Field's brief history. Next season's prices are scheduled for release before the end of the year.

'Our demand is suffering,' Kasten acknowledged. 'We're going to do what we can do.'

They have discussed the most radical approaches -- from higher ticket prices and dirt-cheap concessions to rock-bottom ticket prices and increased food and drink costs. Neither is likely to be adopted, but to even consider such steps suggests the clubs are confronting the business equivalent of pitching to Barry Bonds or guarding Michael Jordan.

Said Kasten, 'We can't take fans' support for granted.'

To see more of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ajc.com

(c) 2001, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.