Defending Denver

Great article, this isn’t just a great hockey town. This is a Great Sports town.

The casual fan in Denver is like “WTF” after Joe, Peter, and St. Patrick all left town. Give them a little while to learn the new team and see how exciting this team is and they will come back to the Pepsi Center in force.

You know those beer commercials where someone does something really unmanly, like chooses to watch a chick flick on TV instead of going out with the guys, and a giant beer can drops on his head? How about have a giant Av logo drop on a supposed Av fan’s head when he does something un-Av fan-like.

Example, my friend Dan, wearing his Tucker jersey, says something like "Actually, I was rooting for the Wings over the Pens in the Cup finals last year. Boom! Dan is flattened by the giant Av logo. Then some sort of tag line like “Av fan rule number 12. Never, ever, ever root for the winged wheel.”

I think this follows along the lines of marketing, but it is a HUGE problem.
Previously, we enjoyed Sakic, who was a known, celebrated hero throughout North America. Now, we have no face. No established identity.
Identities are often molded through success – especially playoff success. With SO many rookies and young players that people don’t feel connected to quite yet, it’s hard for average Joe Avalache to get really stoked over players he doesn’t recognize. It’ll take time. But with a couple of heroic playoff performances from Anderson and Duchene, the future (and attendance) will take care of itself.
If you prick us, do we not bleed burgundy and blue?

I’ll bring over here what I said on Dater’s blog:

SELL THE HOTTIES!!! Let’s face it, boys. You all want your ice girls. Whatever. The fact is, this team is FULL of hot ass boys. Seriously, I think the Avs probably have the best looking team in the league. Take advantage of that, Avs. Get the boys out there signing autographs. Do a “Hockey 101” for the ladies: sell tickets for $50, max occupancy of say 50 or so, have a couple of the guys (say, Quincey and O’Reilly for starters) teach some basics about the game and then personally sign and take pictures, and give a ticket to the game to each chick.

Target those who play the game. Have on-ice clinics and include tickets to the games as a part of the deal. Do 4 week clinics, 1.5 hours each once a week. Use former Avs players, coaches, trainers, whatever to teach them. Have the last clinic be a scrimmage at the Pepsi center after the game they get the ticket to. Charge $150 per person.

Oh, and commercials on regular TV wouldn’t hurt either.

It’s not rocket science.

KSE has no control over this, but the media doesn’t give much time to the Avs either. Stories at the DP rarely make the front page (in print or online). Local news spends about 10 seconds on the Avs while they give much more time to the other teams including a whole minute in a half interviewing McDaniel’s, brothers, 2nd cousin’s, former roommate on who the new defensive coordinator will be for the Broncos. I know the Broncos are the main draw but you can back off of them a little considering they won’t even be playing an actual game again until August.

Do what I do. Go to AD’s blog and flag all the ’tard comments as inappropriate. Good times.

And they had those “hockey fans are tough” commercials? They were not specific to the team but they were memorable. There was one where a guy was throwing some garbage in a dumpster when the metal lid fell on his head, and the guy just shrugs it off. Then it would say Avs vs. whoever Tuesday at 7:00am. Those were great. The commercials now are generic and terrible for marketing purposes when they are so easily forgettable.

and don’t forget we still have some of the highest ticket prices in the league, even with the deals they have. I consider that the largest factor, marketing close behind.

…but daily reader. just thought i’d throw in my two cents on things the avalanche can do better in terms of marketing. the goal should be to get people in colorado to have a connection with the guys on the team. they’re failing miserably at this. why:

- social networking. they’re starting to figure out the facebook part. but they still haven’t figured out twitter. i know, groan away, but it’s a huge deal. this team doesn’t have an official team twitter account. and none of the players tweet either to my knowledge. this is an absolutely free way to start building a connection between players and fans.

- commercials/viral video. they have some good material from their avalanche all access show; why don’t they use it? get that stuff viral. more creating personal connections with the players and make more of it. stop with the generic “avalanche experience” ads. i don’t go to the game to experience “slap shot” and “game time”. stupid.

- more promotional ties. just as an example, every denver sports team does the promo with taco bell – except for the avalanche. why?

- make the playoffs. this is probably what they’re praying for in the marketing department at pepsi center.

anyway, you know what opinions are like. everyone has one. but, i liked this topic and got me juiced to join the fray. :)

and see if the organization could come up with a budget to match. Anybody interested in helping me out?

Those commercials with their mascot are HILARIOUS. I’d love to see a commercial where Bernie knocks a beer out of the hands of someone who wears a red wings jersey to an Avalanche vs. someone who isn’t the red wings game. Marketing is huge. I think it’s even bigger than ticket prices.

I also think we need a face for our franchise. And as much as I think it should be the Stastinator, he’s just too damn awkward. I think he would die if he was asked to do too many TV commercials or appearances. Though I think his ties to DU would be huge. I suggest Duchene. He’s good, he’s part of what I anticipate to be known as the “all important 2010 rebuilding season,” and he’s got a wholesome look. Now that he’s secured himself as a solid member of our team (since you can never really tell if a rookie will succeed in the NHL or not) he’d be a great jumping off point.

I still think the biggest reason for the drop in attendance is the season ticket holders the Avs, by all accounts, lost during the offseason. That’s both a guaranteed sold seat you can announce and a seat that is more likely to be filled that you are losing. Pricing is too high as well, as shown by the fact that the holiday pack games, which were reasonably priced, all have drawn well.

The marketing is also a huge problem. Denver is a small town, relatively speaking, with franchise in every single major professional sports league (and MLS too!) In that kind of environment, two things draw: championship contenders and stars. After last year, I don’t think anyone who isn’t already watching the Avs every game buys that this team is going to be contending for a cup anytime soon. Sakic, Forsberg, Roy, Tanguay, Blake, all these guys were stars for this team and they are all gone. Marketing a team on the star power of Milan Hejduk is not a recipe for success, as much as I love him.

If you can’t convince people this is a cup contending team (it probably isn’t, this year), you have to create stars. Obviously, the easiest way to create stars is to win a cup, but you have 50 games worth of highlights of Duchene, O’Reilly and Anderson at this point. You have YEARS of footage of Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski. Why are there not Matt Duchene billboards? Why aren’t there commercials locally during Sportscenter with Anderson making ridiculous saves, Stastny making cross ice passes, and Duchene and Wolski dekeing people out of their shoes?

I still think KSE’s “win and they will come” philosophy will work eventually. When this team is fighting for playoff position in March, people will probably notice. If they make the playoffs, they’ll draw for playoff games. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a terrible marketing strategy. Just because you have a good team doesn’t mean SLAP SHOT SUDDEN DEATH is all you have to do.

This line cracked me up! Forgive me, I am an avs fan in texas, but I don’t understand the problem. The points above are well taken, but for cryin’ out loud, not only are the avs a great team this year but they are one of the most entertaining teams to watch. Avs have speed to burn, and they have to be up near the top in odd man rushes. They play a team game as evidenced by the balanced scoring. They are also being led by mostly rookie and second year players! Andy has been stellar in the net. Maybe because of the recent decline in the last two years of the Denver Broncos and the fact that the AVS were bad last year people believe that a late season implosion is in the works. THOSE PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW THIS TEAM! Anyway I will watch the AVS destroy the Stars again when they come to Dallas on Friday night, and I will also be at the game in March when the Avs return to the Lone Star state to dole out some more punishment! GO AVS!!!!

Things I want:
- Cheap tickets

Things I don’t want:
- 2 beers
- 15 Arby’s sandwiches
- A $10 Altitude Authentic gift card
- A “Guys Night Out” shirt

CalGARY is freaking falling apart.

St. Louis shuts out Calgary 2-0…

Side note-well thought out, rationalized anaylsis? rcw91, you have to start drinking more.
Ok, now what I really want to say:
Kids, I want you to remember a time long long ago when a team finished with horrible record and ended up with the third pick where the Denver team got lucky that the team before them took a bust (sorry victor hedman, you’re a loser for the duration of this analogy). Despite having that much bally hooed 3rd pick the Denver nuggets didn’t really draw until they picked up Allen “We’re talkin’ bout practice” Iverson. It’s worse for this years avalanche because of the economy.

Why no one showing? I blame the Colorado Rockies (the non-hockey team with the worst mascot in sports) the put an inferior team on the field so often and took it for granted, I think that the average sports fan saw, got a little pissed about that and now holds all their teams to a higher standard. It would have been interesting if the broncos had struggled early if the attendance would have struggled. Look at the rockies now, they pull for the first game of the year and the last month of the year and only if they’re doing well and they’ve made the playoffs 2 of the last three years.
I see this years avalanche drawing like the rockies. I will bet $10 to a swift kick in the ass that if the avs are in the hunt the last two or three weeks of the year they sell out over half of their final 10 home games and all the playoff games.

once again I apologize for posting sober.

the average ticket price is too high. period, end of story. I’m not going to too many games where my ticket is $60 and sit in the sky. I dang sure am not going to many games where my ticket is $185 which was the value of a club level ticket I won.

Rockies games, I can get in on $10 most nights.

all this talk about not being willing to spend the $$ to sit in the nosebleeds…and preferring to sit at home and watch it in HD…I just don’t get it. I would rather pay $60 and sit in the rafters and get the whole experience of being with the crowd and chanting “Osgood Sucks!” and screaming when Duchene scores a sick goal and loving a fight and feeling that energy than sit on my couch and listen to the Altiboobs drone on about someone’s hair cut. Maybe this is because I’m stuck out here in So Cal and am forced to watch usually 78 out of the 82 games on TV and the 4 I get to see in person I’m in enemy territory, one of a handful of people wearing burgandy and blue and I don’t get to celebrate with the crowd and I don’t get to hear the horn sound when the good guys score and I don’t get the “Avalanche Experience,” no matter how lame the commercials are.

are there any cities with both an NHL team AND and NBA team not in NY/NJ, Chicago or LA where both the NHL team and the NBA team are drawing well? MLB and NFL, while they lap over, really are seen as separate seasons, and have larger fan bases in general, but the NHL and the NBA really are the same time of the year, and I think they poach fans (the casual fan anyway) from each other.

Miami, Charlotte, Phoenix, have had issues in attendance in one sport or the other. I don’t follow it closely enough to know about Dallas, or Atlanta.

Just a thought to throw out.

You’re going to let Dan get away with saying that “Denver’s a pretty shitty sports town?” Or did you stop reading his post because it started “I like the Red Wings …”?