Spurs Are Facing Big Hurdles In Hard Times

[duncan228]

Spurs are facing big hurdles in hard times
Team’s parent looking for ways to expand audience
by W. Scott Bailey
San Antonio Business Journal

The San Antonio Spurs entered the 2007-08 NBA season as defending champions. But the four-time champs failed to sell out all of their home games or to get past the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

Now the team’s parent company, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, is working to create a more diverse market-penetration strategy in an effort to connect with a larger potential base of support. Some marketing experts caution, however, that the parent company of the Spurs faces multiple challenges.

In July, Spurs Chairman Peter Holt announced a series of top-level front-office changes within the organization. They included the promotion of Rick Pych to president of SS&E.

Now, with the 2008-09 season only weeks away, Pych says SS&E officials are working to find more Spurs fans.

“The initial mission is to step back and do the research,” Pych explains. “We’ve done a pretty good job of knowing who our customers are. We haven’t done as good a job of knowing who our potential customers are.

“That’s what we want to find out. Who are they? How do we get them to our events?”

SS&E has tapped The Atkins Group, a San Antonio-based advertising agency, to help it reach a larger audience. Atkins replaces Creative Civilization, which resigned the account this summer after working with the organization for more than a decade.

Pych says Atkins will play an especially key role in the research effort.

“We’re going to spend a lot more time figuring out how to reach that 70 percent of the city that probably has not been to AT&T Center,” he says.

Atkins principal Steve Atkins says his agency will also help the Spurs find new places to deliver their messages.

“We hope to bring a lot of interactive and online strategies to the table,” Atkins says.
No piece of cake

The Spurs say the way they need to do business moving forward requires some shift in strategies.

“So much has changed in the last 10 years in how you reach people,” Pych explains. “It used to be that if you put an ad in the local paper and on local TV, you probably covered everyone. But that doesn’t work anymore.”

The plan, he says, is to put more emphasis on new media outlets. Atkins, Pych says, will be key in helping SS&E find those outlets and make the connections.

“The Spurs’ promotional efforts can and should be reaching specific larger audiences — not just with more messages or greater media volume, but rather more targeted messages to more specific lifestyle segments with more relevance,” Atkins explains.

But one veteran marketing executive familiar with the Spurs says Atkins is taking on the Spurs account at a tough time.

“You had four championships in nine years, the economy was in better shape, AT&T was still (based) in San Antonio,” says the marketing executive about the team Creative Civilization worked with in recent years. “But all of that has now changed.”

Earlier this year, AT&T Inc., for which the Spurs’ arena is named, did indeed announce its plan to relocate the company’s headquarters and some 700 top-level personnel to Dallas.

Since then, there have been more concerns raised about the state of the national economy, and about more potential belt tightening among Americans.

“There will be some challenges. This is no piece of cake,” says Al Aguilar, co-founder of Creative Civilization. “But San Antonio has a love affair with this (Spurs) team that dates back to the ’70s.”

Atkins agrees these are more complex times.

“The reality is economic pressures are growing and the discretionary income available for family-based entertainment is going to be more and more stretched by gas prices, food prices and such,” he contends. “Right now, we are also bombarded, involved and distracted by a national election.”

Atkins adds, “I believe all of this creates the need to be very different, relevant and value-oriented in messaging the Spurs game experience. Campaign efforts will need to compete aggressively for those entertainment dollars... .”

Pych acknowledges that there are some hurdles ahead. “People do have more (entertainment) choices and less free time, it seems, than ever before,” he says.

How do the Spurs break through the clutter and address any concerns?

“It starts with the research,” Pych says. “We’ve got to know the market better. But I think we also need to take a look in the mirror, to see if the product that we are offering needs something different to appeal to more people.”

Pych says the SS&E may also have to consider making some “infrastructural changes” at AT&T Center in order to attract more fans.

“The research will hopefully help tell us some of this, how we can reach more people, how we may need to change with the times,” Pych says.

Meanwhile, Pych says SS&E will also be working closely with Atkins to create a new brand for SS&E that should benefit its teams and AT&T Center.

“We’re all excited about the opportunities,” Pych says. “There is a lot of enthusiasm and passion about this.”

Says Atkins about his firm’s opportunity to work with the Spurs: “It represents the big time.”

[Phenomanul]

Hosting pre-season Games in McAllen, Corpus Christi or Monterrey Mexico would certainly boost their fan base. Other than a pre-season game last year in Laredo (which quickly sold out); the Spurs' Marketing/Management Teams haven't tried all that hard at bringing the Spurs closer to their fans.

All three of the cities mentioned above have new Arenas; Arenas which haven't had the priviledge of adopting the Silver and Black as their home team.

Season ticket holder(s) like T_Park would be the first to object (rightly so I imagine)...

[Allanon]

It is rather amazing that the Spurs have been able to build a solid championship franchise in San Antonio.

One of the most amazing things about the Spurs is the very low player salaries which have brought all those championships these past few years. Dollar for Dollar, the Spurs must have the best championship to salary ratio.

The other genius part of the Spurs is that they've had an international cast of characters for years now. Having Manu on the team has brought in much attention and marketting from the entire nation of Argentina. Tony Parker brings in the french basketball afficianados and Eva Longoria watchers have tuned into Spur broadcasts. Unfortunately, Duncan's nature is actually a letdown as far as marketing goes.

Those things combined have brought the Spurs into prominance and the reason the Spurs have enjoyed some kind of success given their relatively tiny market...probably ranked about 35 in the US markets.

The Spurs are smart in trying to secure more market share now because as Timmy gets older, the Spurs chances of being champs will go down with him. It's a little late but the Spurs have to make an active push to grab as many fans as possible before Timmy retires in a few years. If they can increaese their fans significantly, then the Spurs can live off the fat of the land while they go find their next superstar during the slowdown years which are sure to come.

Hopefully, the next Spurs superstar will be a more dynamic and affable player like David Robinson, Shaq, DHo, etc.

[duncan228]

Unfortunately, Duncan's nature is actually a letdown as far as marketing goes.

I've always been mixed on that.

I respect Duncan's right to choose what he'll endorse and how he's marketed. But I think the League has missed a great opportunity to promote an elite athlete, who happens to be well decorated and "clean", as a role model. I don't know exactly how much Duncan controls and how much is the League's decision that maybe he's not marketable because he's "boring."

Either way, I think Duncan could have, and should have, been promoted much better than he has been. I think he'll be appreciated even more after he retires. Like the song says, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

[ChumpDumper]

The Spurs are still in San Antonio because of Duncan. What the Spurs are dealing with now is the fallout from the shortsightedness of the "leaders" of the City of San Antonio who didn't take the opportunity to build an arena downtown where it belonged. This is why they got such a favorable arena lease from the county in the first place, and why they will be pushing for redevelopment around the AT&T Center in the future.

[picnroll]

Building the arena where they did topped the stupidity of Cisnero's folly the Alamodome which was no easy feat. San Antonio has the worst city planners I've ever seen, starting with their amamie idea of how to build a road system

[td4mvp21]

Maybe if ticket prices weren't so damn expensive.

[ShoogarBear]

The Spurs are still in San Antonio because of Duncan. What the Spurs are dealing with now is the fallout from the shortsightedness of the "leaders" of the City of San Antonio who didn't take the opportunity to build an arena downtown where it belonged. This is why they got such a favorable arena lease from the county in the first place, and why they will be pushing for redevelopment around the AT&T Center in the future.

I'm not so sure that the Spurs would be selling out if they had built the arena downtown. I agree that the lack of development around the AT&T has hurt, though.

[Manufan909]

Hopefully Ian and Splitter can be a more vibrant and intense version of the original twin towers, even if they won't be as great as players.

[m33p0]

I've always been mixed on that.

I respect Duncan's right to choose what he'll endorse and how he's marketed. But I think the League has missed a great opportunity to promote an elite athlete, who happens to be well decorated and "clean", as a role model. I don't know exactly how much Duncan controls and how much is the League's decision that maybe he's not marketable because he's "boring."

Either way, I think Duncan could have, and should have, been promoted much better than he has been. I think he'll be appreciated even more after he retires. Like the song says, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

i agree. the league failed to grab the opportunity to market a great and clean superstar and happens to play the game the right way.

[ChumpDumper]

I'm not so sure that the Spurs would be selling out if they had built the arena downtown.

According to ESPN, they did sellout pretty much every game last regular season. I imagine they are talking about projections into a prolonged economic downturn. It's just that going to a game is now an asspain with nothing happening before or after as was possible downtown. Probably more of a personal complaint, but I imagine there had to be some kind of peripheral impact on downtown businesses from the Spurs and vice-versa.

I agree that the lack of development around the AT&T has hurt, though.

I haven't heard anything about the great development plans lately. Maybe Buddy Holly has an update.

[Shelly]

Why hasn't that area been developed? It really is out in BFE

[ShoogarBear]

According to ESPN, they did sellout pretty much every game last regular season. I imagine they are talking about projections into a prolonged economic downturn.

Yeah, they did. But even last year, there were a lot of soft sellouts, and you could tell that unless something amazing streak or something happened this year that they weren't going to continue. And then to have the rash of empty seats the way it did in the playoffs was somewhat embarrassing.

I think it has to do with a) Spur Fan is spoiled and b) at heart, San Antonio is still not really a hardcore basketball town. Certainly not in any way they follow football. Does anyone really follow high school hoops in SA? And if you made the typical San Antonio sports fans choose between the Cowboys and the Spurs, the Cowboys would win. Even if you polled the core Spur fan population, the Cowboys would get an embarrassing percentage of the vote.

[timvp]

Atkins principal Steve Atkins says his agency will also help the Spurs find new places to deliver their messages.

“We hope to bring a lot of interactive and online strategies to the table,” Atkins says.

Hopefully the Spurs see ST as a positive in their attempt to attain an online presence rather than an obstacle. If it's the latter, the result will not be pretty . . .

[ChumpDumper]

Hosting pre-season Games in McAllen, Corpus Christi or Monterrey Mexico would certainly boost their fan base. Other than a pre-season game last year in Laredo (which quickly sold out); the Spurs' Marketing/Management Teams haven't tried all that hard at bringing the Spurs closer to their fans.

All three of the cities mentioned above have new Arenas; Arenas which haven't had the priviledge of adopting the Silver and Black as their home team.

I agree with that idea, though I don't think places with new arenas are critical.

[DPG21920]

Hopefully the Spurs see ST as a positive in their attempt to attain an online presence rather than an obstacle. If it's the latter, the result will not be pretty . . .

Do the Spurs people dislike SpursTalk? Or were you just saying if they discover it what could happen?

[tlongII]

Interesting thread. There are a lot of parallels to my home team here.

[timvp]

Do the Spurs people dislike SpursTalk? Or were you just saying if they discover it what could happen?

The Spurs are well aware of the existence of ST.

[picnroll]

Putting the arena where it is doesn't capitalize on the out of town tourists that would want to take in an NBA game.

And the Express-News certainly is going all out, helping draw attention to and keeping interest in the team.

[dav4463]

Play exhibition games in the Dallas area. Denton, Dallas, Ft.Worth triangle perhaps. I remember when the Spurs played a pre-season game in Dallas at SMU and it generated a lot of interest. I think there was one in Denton also. It gave the Mav fans a chance to see what a championship NBA team looks like and a lot of those fans will continue to follow the team. Many will come to games. Quite a few people in the Dallas area move to South Texas as well. Heck, play one in Abilene and San Angelo. There is nothing to do in either town. Those fans will drive to San Antonio in a hearbeat. I know because I used to live near Abilene and we would drive to San Antonio to see games.

[TDMVPDPOY]

play in New orleans? since they got no team.....

[mrspurs]

Hopefully the Spurs see ST as a positive in their attempt to attain an online presence rather than an obstacle. If it's the latter, the result will not be pretty . . .

The key word is..........Hopefully.

[ambchang]

Online broadcast rights could give a boost in revenues.

I don't live anywhere close to San Antonio, but I would seriously consider getting Spurs broadcasts online, with an option to download classic games, for a fair price.

Merchandise sales could be reached out to a further audience, including those in Argentina and France/Belgium. They are probably doing that right now, but I am not sure how effective it is. Autographed basketball items could fetch a healthy sum.

As for tickets, target corporations and tie the Spurs with some kind of company reward system. Demand from individuals fluctuate far too much for a stead stream of income other than season ticket holders. And of course, winning helps.

[SenorSpur]

If you build a winner - they will come.

[m33p0]

If you build a winner - they will come.

will the Spurs be needing Terrence Mann or some other 60s writer to make this come to fruition?