Interview with Dynamo SVP Rocky Harris

Thanks for adding new info about developments, Rocky! (sarcasm)

 

thanks to all the families and hispanics who braved the rats and assorted critters to venture into Robertson Stadium. now buzz off, we're going after the $$$. seriously, that's a baaaaaad quote to all the diehards on these boards.

 

thank god they are going to start going after fans that can bring some money into the club.

 

*rey*, I think we've both been on the bullhorn on this for a while now. Like I posted in the all-star thread about the "VIP" events, the FO is shifting to the corporate/club/suites/high-end folks and this will only be more apparent in the new stadium.

Harris: "Our marketing strategy will definitely shift to address the opportunity to attract a few segments that have been difficult to reach by playing in an antiquated college football stadium in Houston’s 3rd Ward"

Translation: we're going after the West U crowd that is afraid to go to games any place east of 288. Who cares if they are really soccer fans!!

Go to myfoxhouston.com and they have a story on there about Garber backing Canetti to get the permanent Dynamo president job and he talks about the "great business plan" that Canetti & Luck brought to MLS HQ earlier this year. $100 says that the business plan was mostly on sales of premium seats and sponsorships to the groups that Harris mentions.

I think the FO has fully bought in to the notion that an entirely new type of customer will be in their sweet spot in a new stadium that isn't there at Robertson. That has to be what the business model is to support dumping $60M of equity into the stadium. It doesn't compute filling the stadium with a bunch of $59 McDonald's four packs.

I don't blame the FO for going after the money and I assume they are running an AEG-built playbook on this modeled after the Galaxy. But having been in a client service business for most of my career, I can assure you that retaining clients is far easier than going out and getting new ones. That's something they need to remember.

 

yup, i was about to give you credit in my original post. funny thing is that another poster on here mentioned the same thing to me on pm (he can choose to identify himself and risk his seat being wet next time he shows up at Robertson).

but the highlighted above is soooo true. i am in sales too and i always take care of those clients that have taken care of me. they've put food on my table and have paid my mortgage. going after a fair-weather client that may show me minimal loyalty is always dangerous. i won't turn away business, but i won't treat them like the ones that have been with me for years.

 

Which is why a "Good Riddance" attitude doesn't work, MLS problem has always been thinking that there is a huge market somewhere out there that is much better than the loyal current fans.

Right now I feel like the girls in those movies and soaps which are married to those guys finishing their M.D who have 2 jobs to support their soon to be Doctor and onece they graduate, they divorce them and get atrophy wife.

 

I just love all this new terminology.

"What's your brand"?
"Our stakeholders"

"Client service" - sounds like some kind of escort service

 

If the Dynamo were smart they would focus on their current STH, ex-STH and families and fans who have gone to games in the past. After they are done with this then they go after the "corporate" community. I think attracting so called "international soccer fans" will be a tough one still and "urban" 18 - 34 year olds makes no sense.

Hopefully they have the Seattle and not the AEG playbook because the Galaxy's attendance is nothing to brag about.

 

I don't want to start a pissing match, but I don't think you can deny that the area around Robertson Stadium is pretty damn shady when you leave UH. Even if it's not as bad as some think, the place has a horrible reputation with many Houstonians and I wouldn't be shocked if there are some people who refuse to attend a Dynamo match because of where they ahve to go. At the same time, I don't know if the new location is that much better. If it's being built near Minute Maid, that area on the other side of the freeway is pretty shady as well.

Either way, I'd like Houston to approach things similar to how Seattle is. They look like they have done a great job of advertising all of the city the importance of CCL, while other clubs seem to be silent on it. We'll see how attendance is tomorrow for their match, but if they pull in big numbers, it'll be a nice change from Houston's empty Superliga matches or the Galaxy's empty CCL match yesterday.

 

us on this board that show up for USOC matches in thunderstorms are definitely the chubby ex-girlfriend in this scenario.

its up to us to keep it non-corporate.

 

I think the FO can satisfy both segments. They have to in order to continue to grow. Corporate sponsorship and the $ it brings is HUGE in sports business and needs to be part of an overall strategic marketing plan.

I hope the "non-corp" crowd understands that and does not correlate that effort to neglecting other people.

 

I agree with this. All he said was the same sentiment that EVERY sports franchise in the world wants. 18-34 year olds are advertising gold, getting them to the games will lead to more corporate and advertising money. I think people forget that it is a business that happens to be a sports team.

We love them on the field and give our all to support them because these guys give their all on the field! But it stops there, neither side owes the other anything beyond that!

 

i function in both worlds, so i understand it. doesn't mean i have to like it especially when statements made by VPs can be misconstrued. although its not only this statement that has me troubled, but other recent actions (or inaction) by the FO that has me scratching my head. there are already peeps on this board pine-ing for the 'good ole days'. that's not good considering we're going on 4.5 years.

ah yes, but some of us come from magical places where it can be 'more than just a club' (Catalan identity anyone?). i understand the American corporate NBA/NFL/NHL/MLB mindset, but we shouldn't short-change ourselves as to how we as supporters can influence the development of this club.

 

I hear ya! But every team has to make the money in order to survive (in any country). Hey the more money made, the more spent on players, the better players the more fans, the more fans the more likely the team is to be ingrained in the Houston psyche! Of course, the opposite is what happened in San Jose.

 

I think that "pine-ing" is more for the Championships they won more than anything else. Time to grow up and be big boys. This is not a case where we found an alternative band before they became famous. Then once they hit it big, to turn our backs on them because they "sold out".

 

I was going to say, we're not talking about a major upgrade in location here It's a bit more cool being downtown and right across from the ballpark but that area is currently rather questionable. I'm hoping the stadium will bring in some new development there.

 

I think you guys are reading way to much into this. It's not like they are going to push out the current fan base, they are just expanding the fan base. And i think it’s a very good thing.

I like the idea of going after the 18-34 demo and not necessarily just from a $$ perspective. The ‘old guard’ (OGs) of fans will provide the core of the atmosphere and the new crowd will just join that. You want TA and EB to grow? 18-34 demo is where you’re gonna find lots of recruits. They may not know much about soccer, but they do have pride in Houston, hate Dallas, and like to drink… im pretty sure we can teach them the soccer part.

I have always said it’s easier to sell the Dynamo (thus soccer) to general sports fans than it is to sell MLS to general soccer fans. Houston fans are known for being ‘from somewhere else’ and having the “well, I’m a steelers fans, but like the Texans” attitude. But for MLS very few people have existing loyalties. The Dynamo have the unique opportunity to pop these virgin fans’ cherry. Also I believe the atmosphere and city pride will sell the team more than the quality of the game, because they don’t know any better.

For the core soccer fans out there from Mexico, Central, and South America, I really believe that if you bring in the teams, the players and the quality, they will come and if not, no amount of force feed marketing can bring them out. Don’t forget plenty of these fans still fall into the 18-34 ‘urban’ demo.

 

What else would we do on a forum?, It as our right, no, our duty to read way to much, to bitch, to complain, to be completely optimistic, and to be completely pessimistic on the same day, to come up with weird ideas, conspiracy theories and to be immature with other fans.

Good day sir.

 

Nothing in his comments suggests that he sees attracting new demographics as mutually exclusive with retaining the existing fanbase.

I would have expected people to support efforts to expand the fanbase and generate additional revenues through corporate partnerships/suites/etc that can be used to improve the quality of the team.

 

I don't think it's the 18-34 market that has people worried, it's the corporate crowd. Go to a Rockets game at Toyota center and you'll see what catering to the corporate crowd leads to, higher ticket prices and fans that only show up when it's the "in" thing to do and are disinterested in the game when they do bother showing up.

 

As I've said before, the FO has to go after the money and shouldn't make any apologies for it. It's the way the spreadsheets compute. However, the constant playing on loyalty and devotion to the Dynamo by the FO to the long-time Robertson followers who get left behind or relocated to the Bob Uecker seats (I hope folks get that reference) in the new stadium is going to rub some folks wrong.

The argument is that going after the 18-34 & corporate crowd and keeping the Robertson diehards are mutually exclusive. Except it rarely works that way in practice. The tendency is to beef up the corporate and high-end sales side and service and leave the "common fan" side alone if not give them less attention. Every business does this. I hope that isn't the case with the Dynamo and I do think they may get it more than most.

You may end up with more of an LA Galaxy "plastic" crowd. Folks who aren't as interested in being at a Dynamo game as they are at being at a new place. And that's OK for a while but pretty soon you end up with an antiseptic environment.

That's what happened to the Rockets in the last 15 years. I'm fortunate enough to get to go to a few Rockets games each on corporate-type tickets and about half of the club seat holders spend more than half of the game up at the club bar. It's got little to do with basketball. So you end up with bunches of empty seats on TV and little fan involvement.

I'm not saying everyone needs to be in a supporter's group, but the vast, vast majority of folks who go to Robertson each week are there for the soccer and that gives a real authentic feel to the event. I hope we don't lose that.

And some of this is just progress and it'll never be like the good 'ol days (How many original Dynamo fans does it take to change a light bulb? Four -one to change it and three to stand around and talk about how good the 2006 one was!)

A new stadium means we've got a permanent and perpetual MLS team here in town and nothing but good can come from that. I hope they find away to keep everyone on the bandwagon.

But don't be disappointed if we never have games and memories like the playoff games from 2006 & 2007 in the new stadium - you can rarely create moments like that that just happen naturally.