Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: Question of the day
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Posted in:
* Let’s try a late-night, non-political, non-Illinois post for a change. I napped twice today because I wasn’t feeling well, and was having trouble sleeping tonight, so, among other things, I read this story about how a former corporate CEO is ruining Michigan football…
If the people running college football see their universities as just a brand, and the athletic departments merely a business, they will turn off the very people who’ve been coming to their temples for decades. Athletic directors need to remember the people in the stands are not customers. They’re believers. Break faith with your flock, and you will not get them back with fancier wine.
If you treat your fans like customers long enough, eventually they’ll start behaving that way, reducing their irrational love for their team to a cool-headed, dollars-and-cents decision to buy tickets or not, with no more emotional investment than deciding whether to go to the movies or buy new tires.
Beware, Ricketts family.
HT: Zorn.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 10:41 pm
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: Question of the day
Next Post: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
This will never happen. Humans, especially men, are predisposed to a pack mentality. Whenever there is a proxy for battle, aka sports, men are going to emotionally connect with the “us” and fight against the “thems.”
10,000 years of survival instinct can’t be changed.
Comment by Rhino Slider Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 10:49 pm
The Cubs brand is “swell” but the last few years, right around this time is when more people show up as green seats.
The Ricketts make Michael McCaskey look competent.
…
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 10:50 pm
Administrators look at sports simply as recruiting tools for their campus. Schools treat athletes like gladiators.
Comment by Liberty Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 10:51 pm
What I have found especially interesting is the discussion among Cubs Brass as to the “Business Model” and that model needs to lead the Ball Club out of the baseball doom and gloom.
I have felt for a long time the Cubs business and legislative/governmental relations public front, while inept at many turns, drives a business model that sometimes runs counter-productive to reinforcing and solidify the rabid fan base concerned about …”the product on the field”… while trying to appease “the alderman” or Daley and Rahm.
It would be ridiculously fun to have that conversation, as simple as it could be;
His do you feel your “Business Model” works with the goals and the needs of the fans, city and state government, and your neighbors in Lakeview?
I can tell you watching the on-field product, the off-field blunders, and the very often mis-calculations, some so blatant and easily avoidable, the understanding of the governmental/political and the fans/neighbors angles are rarely, if ever on the same track, wavelength, and pulling together for the common goals.
That is a conversation over a beer I would enjoy very much.
…
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:01 pm
Yikes….
“How do you feel your “Business Model” works with the goals and the needs of the fans, city and state government, and your neighbors in Lakeview?”
I am a Dope
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:08 pm
===This will never happen===
Click the link, dude. It’s happening.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:09 pm
You can also make the case Jerry Jones has destroyed the Cowboys field product, while making the business/franchise is the most valuable football franchise in the NFL… while not winning a Super Bowl going on 19 years.
You need to make a Billion dollar building commitment to keep the fans happy? While the facility is a money-maker, and in of itself an experience, wasn’t “Cowboys” football on the mid- 90’s, with Super Bowl championships better to appease fans and the brand?
They call it “Jerry’s World” that building, because the product isn’t winning anything to change that appearance it isn’t about Jerry, the value of the franchise, maximizing profits from area with greater margins…
…and…football?
Ricketts are going down that road, but without winning, even 19 years ago in the franchise history.
…
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:19 pm
“And I tink da Cubs should trade Castro for Jeter and den maybe stop playing night games. I’ll hang up and listen for your answer…”
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:22 pm
Somewhere in the dim past it was, the boys from our town can beat the boys from your town. At the pro level it got to be, our mercenaries can beat your mercenaries. College is not really much different. Our school can recruit better players than your school.
I have to admit I follow Illni sports and would like to see them get better but I am not digging in my pockets to sit in the bleachers. Pro sports got out of my price range long ago but I will watch on the tube on occasion. The concept of beating the crap out of someone over who’s mercenaries are best astounds me.
We the people chipping in to build these folks a place to play does not sit well either. Yes I understand the economics involved. Sorry just another corporate giveaway.
Comment by Bemused Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:24 pm
From the article…
“Michigan football fans don’t just love football. They love Michigan football — the history, the traditions, the rituals — the timeless elements that have grown organically over decades. They are attracted to the belief that Michigan football is based on ideals that go beyond the field, do not fade with time, and are passed down to the next generation — the very qualities that separate a game at the Big House from the Super Bowl.”
Wrigley Field WAS that special, at least to me.
Now Wrigley, or Opening Day, for example is looking at “who is sponsoring this inning’s gimmick?”
Great read.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 16, 14 @ 11:42 pm
The way that writer talked about the way the profit-hungry CEO AD’s management style took away a lot of what made going to Michigan Stadium special resonated with me big time as a Cubs fan with what the Ricketts have done with Wrigley.
But I think it’s too much to just blame kids not getting to sit together and prices for why students don’t come out as much. Even powerhouse schools like Alabama have had issues with getting students in the seats, or at least getting them to stay in their seats a whole game.
I just am not sure college students today like football or at least the communal experience of attending football games in person as much as past generations.
Comment by hisgirlfriday Wednesday, Sep 17, 14 @ 12:42 am
Great article. The TV timeouts are what kill attending football games for me. It drives home what a sucker you are for paying to basically be a studio audience member. Baseball has its own pace of play problems but at least the commercials come between innings.
In Michigan’s case this year’s home schedule is pretty lousy. That student ticket package looks a lot better when you get to see MSU and OSU. Miami OH, Utah, Maryland don’t get the blood pumping. Better games abound on the tube.
Comment by LizPhairTax Wednesday, Sep 17, 14 @ 3:15 am
Good article. College football attendance is a problem nationwide. Student attendance even worse. Cost to buy tickets and travel, concession cost and the ability to watch the game on high def TV at home with a cheap beer. As someone also pointed out, pace of game a problem too in college basketball and football.
Comment by Peoria guy Wednesday, Sep 17, 14 @ 8:40 am
I used to go to Comiskey and Wrigley, sit in the cheap bleachers with the drunk guys doing a beer an inning, families chowing down on hot dogs, old men talking about players from 20 years before, the fireworks for a home run, the magic of the patterned green grass, and just sitting in the sun with friends killing an afternoon with baseball. It was a communal crowd thing that had to be experienced to understand and all at an easy to handle price. Now the prices have skyrocketed, EVERYTHING is a sellable commodity, and the fan is just a butt in the seat.
You want corporate thinking to run your business? Great when you sell something like pizza, cars, internet services, and investments. That same thinking kills the dream when you are loyal to the Bears because you grew up with Butkus, your best memory with your grandfather is sharing binoculars in the third deck at Cardinal stadium, or that hot night when Buddy Guy taught you to be a believer. You cannot sell that stuff. It becomes an emotional attachment that never leaves your brain. Cell phones and HD TV wrecking attendance? Please. Try again…with feeling this time.
Comment by zatoichi Wednesday, Sep 17, 14 @ 8:49 am
Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I am impressed!
I care for such information a lot.
Extremely useful information specially the last part
I was looking for this particular info for a long time.
Thank you and good luck.
Comment by kenza farah karismatik télécharger Thursday, Sep 18, 14 @ 6:57 pm