The Coyotes like every other team, are a business.
by Gildo on Dec 6, 2010 4:19 PM MST
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PrintI'm so sick and tired of hearing about how the Coyotes are in a non-hockey market, and that "hockey doesn't work in the desert". I'm excited by the news that has come out from the Hulsizer meetings, as maybe finally we will have some closure to this ongoing mess. Many people fail to understand how the news circulating about this team over the past two years has badly hurt the team. Basically, the only marketing that the team could get (and afford) were press releases (which are technically free) about how they were doomed. Not necessarily great for business.
One of the largest expenditures for a business beyond payroll (player salaries) is marketing. The Coyotes have lacked sufficient marketing dollars for years. And yes, even Detroit and Toronto (two "hockey markets") spend a lot of money marketing their franchises. Essentially, a business can run without an owner, but only for so long before it starts to decline. Without proper management of the "inside" of the business/team, the "product" will start to fail.
The Coyotes are kind of an anomaly of sorts. They are succeeding on the ice right now, with one of the smallest payrolls in the NHL (they are scratching the salary floor). They also have a GM and a head coach that have proven to be winners. What the Coyotes are lacking is attendance, and we all know it. Hell, we are told about it after almost every home game. Well what fixes that? Winning. And that fix doesn't correct the problem overnight. It seems that some journalists and bloggers expected the Coyotes attendance woes to be corrected after their exceeding-everyone's-expectations performance last year. Well, it didn't, however attendance is up this year slightly. This all with even less media support and marketing than ever. Do you see the late news covering Coyotes games? Are they ever showcased in the newspaper? This isn't a Phoenix market problem, more than a visibility issue.
Yes, people are smart enough to find the Coyotes schedule online and purchase tickets without a commercial telling them how to do so, or a radio ad, or even seeing ads at other sporting events such as Suns or Cardinals games. However, even the Suns, the bread and butter of the Phoenix sports market, spend countless dollars "selling" their team. Sports franchises are a business, but without having the funds to create more visibility for your team, they will falter.
The Coyotes for the foreseeable future will have a competent and entertaining on-ice product. New ownership will hopefully provide what the Coyotes have lacked since the Moyes days... visibility. Not every fan is a die-hard hockey fan in Chicago, or Detroit, or Toronto, but they enjoy being entertained. I for one would say that the Coyotes were not entertaining on a nightly basis for several years, and I love hockey. How can you expect "fair-weather" fans who make a large portion of attendance in ANY CITY, to root for seemingly last place teams year in and year out (see Cardinals attendance prior to move to Glendale)?
This problem seems to be fixed. They are entertaining, even when they occasionally lose they are still competitive. The seemingly easy quote to use here is... "When you win, they will come". Now its the new owner's job to make sure it happens. Fans are out there... The Chicago Blackhawks averaged around 13,000 fans a game from 2002-2006, and that is an arena that can hold 20,000 plus. I didn't hear any word of that franchise moving during that time. Oh, and look at that, their attendance went up in 2007 to around 16,000, and again in 2008 to 20,000. They got a franchise player, and they started playing competitive. The attendance gains were not overnight, but they happened.
The point of this rant is simply that I wish journalists and bloggers would look at the bigger picture. The Coyotes are a business and by the looks of their on-ice product, it won't be long until business (in Phoenix) is a boomin... Sorry Winnipeg.
Five for Howling is a fan community that allows members to post their own thoughts and opinions on the Phoenix Coyotes and hockey in general. These views and thoughts may not be shared by the editor(s) of Five for Howling
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thank you.
glad someone read it.. I didn’t realize how long it was until after I was done:)
You can actually thank Travis. I sometimes do a poor job of remembering to check the Fan Shots & Fan Posts.
The Artist Formerly Known as CP2Devil.
Links guy at Five For Howling.
Excellent post. Tho, I don’t like the Winnipeg msg. Just because others have treated us like crap and were classless, we should act better and continue to have class.
Really
AlI want is for the news to spend 15-20 seconds reviewing a game every time the Coyotes plays, similar to what they do to the Cardinals and Suns. That’s all.
agree....
that kinda started my rant… a week or two ago one of the games was not televised, my xm wasn’t working because I had a x-mas tree on the roof of my car and it wasn’t on any AM station that I could find… And then the news made no mention of the game which ended long before the news started. what’s up with that? Is there a local AM station that broadcasts that I just don’t know about? I never listen to anything but XM, so I don’t know our local stations, but I could’ve sworn that 93.3 FM used to broadcast games in the Roenick days…
Man
The only mentions of the Coyotes on radio as far as I can tell was when they went on their streak last year, something along the lines of, “How about those Coyotes eh? They’re looking hot.” So basically, something extraordinary has to be accomplished, emphasis on the extra. Otherwise, even radio is a long shot.
by KholdStare88 on Dec 8, 2010 11:07 PM MST up reply actions
The Games are on XTRA 910. On occasion, because of the other contractual obligations, they move games over to their sister station KFNN 1510 AM.
Yes, a large amount of games were simulcast on KDKB (KDUS had the games on AM) back in the day.
The Artist Formerly Known as CP2Devil.
Links guy at Five For Howling.
good to know, thanks Carl...
I don’t see my strange string of misfortune occurring again causing me the need to listen to AM, but you never know, I probably won’t have XM forever… Hopefully by the time I don’t, the Coyotes actually acquire a radio contract and gain a little revenue from that end as well…
I was a bit confused by your response. They do have a contract. It’s with XTRA 910.
The Artist Formerly Known as CP2Devil.
Links guy at Five For Howling.
my bad, meant better radio contract.
If they get bumped due to other contractual obligations, I assume that their contract is not a great revenue source as it stands, and the one they had when they were broadcast on both AM and FM was probably (I assume) better for the team…
No doubt they aren’t a great source of revenue, but the chances of any NHL team in a US market not getting bumped from time to time is probably slim. DBacks get bumped at times for the Suns on radio and TV. Nature of the beast. The one plus of the media conglomerate is that the games almost always end up somewhere.
The Artist Formerly Known as CP2Devil.
Links guy at Five For Howling.
great read!
this was a great read…and its the same thing ive been saying for years
yesterday when i watched the news…i would think that the glendale approval would be the top news story (at least in the sports section)
but all i saw was “suns are in action today, but the BIG news is golf…”
every time i watch the sports recap, they go through the suns and the NBA, the dbacks and the MLB, the cards and the NFL…then more about the NFL, then nascar, golf, tennis…
and if we are lucky, then they MIGHT give the score to the yotes game…but no other news from the NHL
(although some news stations i dont watch…so this might be untrue for some of them)
and yeah, sometimes it matters if a team is winning (look at the islanders…a team with a great history, but lately have been lacking on ice, and their attendance is one of the worst in the league)
someone ive talked to who lives in detroit has said that if the wings were to start losing attendance would go down fast at the joe…i somehow dont really believe that, but i wouldnt argue against it since he lives there
but if that were the case, and the “dead wings” era part II began…you can bet there would be absoluately no talk about moving the wings
but it also sometimes doesnt matter as long as theirs a big build up to hockey
the leafs have been doing horrible lately, but continue to sell tix
so yeah, its kinda sad that the news will report about when the team might move and how they are bankrupt and all that…but then neglect to mention the actual games
i do remember that when the yotes were playing at the AWA, they got alot of press
and it was also when attendance was way up…there would be sell outs (or close to sell outs) even at the games against teams that no one really was interested in (as opposed to just selling out for the big teams)
thanks for the comment...
I actually was astonished the other day when even on talk radio during “the herd” with colin cowherd (which I listen to in the mornings on my way into work), they had their hourly sportscenter update; read off every hockey score, and conveniently left out the Coyotes score… Not that I needed a reminder of the Devil’s trouncing of our desert dogs, but I couldn’t believe it. They spent a lot of time on Cliff Lee, understandable, but then spent more time talking about where Adrian Beltre may end up than all of the previous nights hockey scores combined (including leaving out a game, hell coulda been two for all I know)… And thats in the 3 minute sports update every hour that is read lightening fast. Hell I would even take a Crosby or Ovie remark or update over nothing from ESPN, it hurts that they do not support hockey AT ALL. Its not just scores, but the ESPN bottomline doesn’t usually even list players that score, or saves by a goalie…
I digress, ESPN doesn’t recognize hockey at the national level, so I wouldn’t expect any less. However, non-sports fans in AZ could probably tell you players on the Suns or Cards or even Dbacks (doubt it, I can maybe only name 4-5 now) by simply watching the news and seeing the occasional highlight (or epic postgame interview blunder, or what we call “FAIL”), but not the Coyotes, not even hat trick performances make the cut. The media is what makes Phoenix’s hockey market fail, because that is the simplest and cheapest form of advertisement when your team is winning. That will probably be one of the new ownership’s points of concern, local visibility. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the long reply, I have to vent somewhere.
Oh, and I agree with the losing resulting in poor tix sales
people fail to realize how long the Coyotes culture of losing has endured. It wasn’t until Tippett came in last year that close to a decade of poor hockey and mismanagement of talent was ended. Attendance woes are never erased overnight, but everything seems to be on the up and up with the Yotes. If it continues and they do not have 15k+ averages by 2012-2013, then the media portraying Phoenix the way they have will have a leg to stand on. Until then, they need to shove it…
no appologies needed (infact, i appologize in advance for the long read ahead!)
its good to read what other yotes fans think
and yeah on that note of naming suns, cards, dbacks players…i kinda doubt if any non yotes fan could even name any player on the team…even if it was doan or jovo or bryz or any of our other top stars
and really…i kinda doubt if they could even name ANY NHL player (other than sid or ovi…although even that would surprise me)
i mean this is phoenix, but i hear so many people talking about favre, lebron, a-rod, etc., but never hear anyone talk about zetterberg, brodeur, pronger, etc.
farve, lebron, a-rod, etc. dont play in phoenix, but they get talked about all the time
zetterberg, brodeur, pronger, etc. arent in phoenix either…but are never mentioned in the news
after the suns, cards, dbacks highlights, its straight to “in other news from around the _”
but after the yotes score (if they show it), i never hear “and from around the NHL tonight…”
some people might like to think this is all because “no one likes hockey in phoenix”
but i disagree with this…
i think the problem is that the media just fails to cover hockey
and honestly, i think phoenix is the PERFECT place to cover hockey…
anyone who lives here knows how many “snowbirds” we get from up north, who all grew up with hockey
i mean ive worked with quite a few people who moved here from chicago, detroit, new york, minnesota, etc.
and every winter i encounter plenty of people from those cities as well as toronto, calgary, vancouver, pittsburgh, etc. who all love hockey
so im sure they appreciate having hockey here in phoenix, so they dont have to miss games when they visit/move down here for the winter
so no doubt they would also appreciate watching our local sports and hearing about what happened in the NHL as well
and continuing on this (something i forgot to mention in my previous comment), one thing that upsets me every sunday (mainly on FOX 10 sports night) is how they can dedicate so much time to how horribly the cardinals lost…but not a single mention of the yotes
yeah i get football is more popular…but still, i would think people would get bored from always hearing how the cardinals found a new way to screw up
a couple nights ago, i happened to be watching (i think) CBS 5s sports…and they showed highlights of the yotes win against the isles
i mean it shouldnt be anything to get excited over seeing highlights of a game on TV…but i was genuinely thrilled to see coyotes highlights without having to watch them online
(im not sure if CBS 5 happens to be one of the stations here that does show yotes highlights, but i hardly watch their news)
as far as ESPN goes…youd think they would report on hockey since their whole thing is all sports all the time…so reading off the NHL scores should be as routine as reading the scores for the NBA, NFL, and MLB
but i also think the NHL could help with this…i mean im not too sure exactly why the NHL no longer has a deal with ESPN for playing games on their network and all that, but i think it was a bad move going to versus, considering alot of people dont even get that station (i know i didnt when i had satellite)
hockey was already lacking exposure, so to go to a station where even less people would watch just hurts the NHL
i dunno, maybe it was the whole lock out that drew people out…but basketball has had a lockout, and baseball had their strike, and they managed to get their fans back and never really lose any coverage (if anything, it almost seemed like the media was helping them out to try and get their fans back)
so i really hope that the NHL can get better TV deals so more people can watch the games
and regarding the yotes losing culture…hopefully this new found attitude the yotes have (with tippet, maloney, hulsizer, the wins, playing style, etc.) will start to attract not only old fans back, but new fans as well
i really do think that last season was a whole new beginning, and an end to the drought the yotes have been in
i honestly didnt expect such a huge turn around from the 08-09 season to the 09-10 season
i mean going from one of the worst teams in the league to one of the best in just a single season? it usually seems unheard of, and it takes a team a couple years to rebound
and after reading up about hulsizer, and hearing what he had to say about the yotes, and how he sees potential in them and in phoenix being a hockey market, i have high hopes for the next few seasons
so hopefully the new ownership also brings new advertising to get the message out to everyone about the yotes
plus, with the NHL all star game promissed to us within the next three years, its sure to bring at least some attention to the yotes and hockey in the valley (i mean wrestlemania, the BCS championship and the superbowl sure did)
but then again…alot of that was media exposure and building up to it…so we will see exactly how much media attention there is
and just one more thing to add, when the yotes finally win the cup, i just hope that our news can see it in them to broadcast it as their top story…as opposed to just tucking it in somewhere between the cardinals latest loss and what steve nash had to say about the next suns game
(ok that might be an exaggeration…at least i hope)
agreed, though I do like Nash interviews:)
Between Kurt Warner and Steve Nash, Phoenix had some excellent players to market for the local teams. Players that kids could and will idolize. The Dbacks had theirs with Gonzo, and you saw their names plastered everywhere, and used to sell tix. Where is Doan? He used to be everywhere as well. However, you just don’t see his mug like you used to, and I think its bad for the team as a whole. They need an identity, and the captain provides one.
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