TellItToTheDA
08-14-2010, 11:10 AM
http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2010/07/12/story1.html?page=1
Maybe the Seattle Mariners should let Safeco Field’s new Executive Chef Jim Makinson pick the batting lineup, as well.
It was Makinson who helped the Mariners spruce up the ballpark cuisine this season. He’s the one who persuaded the team to serve poutine, a surprisingly trendy Canadian dish of french fries smothered with gravy and cheese curd.
Poutine has been a hit with fans this season. The Mariners, not so much. The weak-batting M’s are drawing the lowest number of fans since moving into Safeco Field a decade ago.
The ball club started the season full of promise, increasing its full-season-equivalent ticket package sales by 1,000 over last year’s 10,700.But as the team has fallen farther out of contention in the American League West, attendance has mirrored the struggles on the field.
“We had a nice launching pad coming off of last season. Season ticket sales went up and everything was looking good. But we came out of the gate slow,” said Kevin Martinez, the Mariners’ vice president of marketing.
As Major League Baseball takes its annual midseason break for the July 13 All-Star Game (which will include only two Mariners), the brain trust at Safeco Field is trying to salvage the season through efforts that highlight what can be controlled off the playing field — not just exciting new menu items, but value ticket pricing and the association of baseball with family bonding.
The marketing challenges might be familiar to many businesses trying to move upstream against unfavorable conditions.
One key tactic, club officials say, is to not panic. Despite fan discouragement over cold bats and a last-place record, the Mariners are doing slightly better at the box office than team officials had projected in the offseason. And now that school is out and the weather has warmed, the team expects that its popular ballpark will draw in more people, most of whom come from outside of King County to attend games.
“We don’t get too discouraged, obviously you’d like to see more people in the ballpark,” said Martinez.
There’s still half a season left, and in the words of Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” But history shows that it takes a steady diet of wins to consistently pack in the fans.
“They have that saying that winning cures all ills, and that’s still a large part of it,” said Maury Brown, a sports business analyst who runs the popular Biz of Baseball website.
Ticket sales account for about 60 percent of a team’s revenue, Brown said.
Safeco Field, with its views of the city and water, is still one of the “gems of baseball,” Brown said. But without wins, he said, it can be “exceptionally challenging” to increase ticket sales.
On special occasions, the M’s still pack ’em in. In fact, the club is charging $5 extra to attend games with the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox — teams with national followings. A June 24 day game with the Cubs drew 41,300.
And on June 18, the M’s also pulled more than 40,000 people to the ballpark thanks to a Hall of Fame-themed bobblehead giveaway featuring Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki.
Other than on special occasions, though, the Mariners have struggled to fill the stands. In 2002, when the team was winning, the M’s led baseball in attendance. Since then, crowds have decreased by 38 percent.
The team finished 2009 with average home attendance of 27,102, according to Major League Baseball statistics. That was the worst showing since 1995, when the team was still playing in the cavernous Kingdome.
Through 40 home games this season, the Mariners are averaging 26,336 fans at Safeco, 17th out of 30 teams.
Despite the bad economy, the club kept regular ticket prices stable for 2010.
“We didn’t feel like there was this situation where we needed to jump off a bridge with the economic downturn. We felt like we had already got a lot of things in place,” said Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale.
But the team has added more special discount packages, especially during midweek.
Meanwhile, the team targets smaller groups with 70 “micro-events,” including Vampire Night on Aug. 7 to tap into the “Twilight” craze. .
Following the success of teams such as the Seattle Sounders FC pro soccer club, the Mariners also have been more aggressive in using Twitter and Facebook to interact with fans.
The M’s have drawn nearly 170,00 fans on Facebook. In another effort to fill midweek seats, the club held a Mariners Facebook Fest for the July 7 game against the Kansas City Royals. Fans were offered a $20 ticket for $11, along with a Mariners Facebook T-shirt.
The team lets fans text which songs will be played at weekend games. And it was texting fans that let the Mariners know early in the season what they thought of the new ballpark cuisine, especially the $7.50 poutine. The M’s knew they had a winner when the text messages started flying.
“Poutine was like the greatest thing in the world. They were texting us asking, ‘Where can I get the poutine?’ ” Martinez said.
“Poutine is a hit.”
Now, if only the players could follow suit on the field.
Maybe the Seattle Mariners should let Safeco Field’s new Executive Chef Jim Makinson pick the batting lineup, as well.
It was Makinson who helped the Mariners spruce up the ballpark cuisine this season. He’s the one who persuaded the team to serve poutine, a surprisingly trendy Canadian dish of french fries smothered with gravy and cheese curd.
Poutine has been a hit with fans this season. The Mariners, not so much. The weak-batting M’s are drawing the lowest number of fans since moving into Safeco Field a decade ago.
The ball club started the season full of promise, increasing its full-season-equivalent ticket package sales by 1,000 over last year’s 10,700.But as the team has fallen farther out of contention in the American League West, attendance has mirrored the struggles on the field.
“We had a nice launching pad coming off of last season. Season ticket sales went up and everything was looking good. But we came out of the gate slow,” said Kevin Martinez, the Mariners’ vice president of marketing.
As Major League Baseball takes its annual midseason break for the July 13 All-Star Game (which will include only two Mariners), the brain trust at Safeco Field is trying to salvage the season through efforts that highlight what can be controlled off the playing field — not just exciting new menu items, but value ticket pricing and the association of baseball with family bonding.
The marketing challenges might be familiar to many businesses trying to move upstream against unfavorable conditions.
One key tactic, club officials say, is to not panic. Despite fan discouragement over cold bats and a last-place record, the Mariners are doing slightly better at the box office than team officials had projected in the offseason. And now that school is out and the weather has warmed, the team expects that its popular ballpark will draw in more people, most of whom come from outside of King County to attend games.
“We don’t get too discouraged, obviously you’d like to see more people in the ballpark,” said Martinez.
There’s still half a season left, and in the words of Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” But history shows that it takes a steady diet of wins to consistently pack in the fans.
“They have that saying that winning cures all ills, and that’s still a large part of it,” said Maury Brown, a sports business analyst who runs the popular Biz of Baseball website.
Ticket sales account for about 60 percent of a team’s revenue, Brown said.
Safeco Field, with its views of the city and water, is still one of the “gems of baseball,” Brown said. But without wins, he said, it can be “exceptionally challenging” to increase ticket sales.
On special occasions, the M’s still pack ’em in. In fact, the club is charging $5 extra to attend games with the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox — teams with national followings. A June 24 day game with the Cubs drew 41,300.
And on June 18, the M’s also pulled more than 40,000 people to the ballpark thanks to a Hall of Fame-themed bobblehead giveaway featuring Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki.
Other than on special occasions, though, the Mariners have struggled to fill the stands. In 2002, when the team was winning, the M’s led baseball in attendance. Since then, crowds have decreased by 38 percent.
The team finished 2009 with average home attendance of 27,102, according to Major League Baseball statistics. That was the worst showing since 1995, when the team was still playing in the cavernous Kingdome.
Through 40 home games this season, the Mariners are averaging 26,336 fans at Safeco, 17th out of 30 teams.
Despite the bad economy, the club kept regular ticket prices stable for 2010.
“We didn’t feel like there was this situation where we needed to jump off a bridge with the economic downturn. We felt like we had already got a lot of things in place,” said Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale.
But the team has added more special discount packages, especially during midweek.
Meanwhile, the team targets smaller groups with 70 “micro-events,” including Vampire Night on Aug. 7 to tap into the “Twilight” craze. .
Following the success of teams such as the Seattle Sounders FC pro soccer club, the Mariners also have been more aggressive in using Twitter and Facebook to interact with fans.
The M’s have drawn nearly 170,00 fans on Facebook. In another effort to fill midweek seats, the club held a Mariners Facebook Fest for the July 7 game against the Kansas City Royals. Fans were offered a $20 ticket for $11, along with a Mariners Facebook T-shirt.
The team lets fans text which songs will be played at weekend games. And it was texting fans that let the Mariners know early in the season what they thought of the new ballpark cuisine, especially the $7.50 poutine. The M’s knew they had a winner when the text messages started flying.
“Poutine was like the greatest thing in the world. They were texting us asking, ‘Where can I get the poutine?’ ” Martinez said.
“Poutine is a hit.”
Now, if only the players could follow suit on the field.