metrofanatic.com/story.jsp?ID=5734 Looks like the front office has finally gotten tired of not having a sold out stadium and now the blood is going to run. Really though, they have no one to blame but themselves. Marketing for this team is way below what it should be--Port Authority buses notwithstanding. Anybody remember that "Red Bulls Take Manhattan" mime/performance art disaster of a few years back? It was so bad the Revs made fun of it in a goal celebration.... =( TV is also a sore spot. As much as I like MSG, the Red Bulls have to get local games off MSG and work out a deal with some of the local over the air tv stations like PIX 11 or WOR 9--hell maybe even Fox 5 in order to get more widespread exposure. I remember when I was growing up in the 80's the Rangers regularly had hockey games on 9. Yankees and Mets were on 11 and 9 respectively for many years. 11 and CBS 2 always have preseason Jets and Giants. Part of what made the NHL in NYC go down in buzz was when it went off major local TV. Now catching the Rangers, Devils, or Islanders, is an almost entirely cable exclusive affair. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that their highest rated game of the year is the Winter Classic Exhibition which is shown on NBC.
I agree that putting a better broadcast on is critical. Cangialosi constantly references the wrong players; and Shep is.....welll Shep. He'll jump to Cosmos anyway when they get in to the league.
How about the shitty camera work from MSG? The constant zooming in on players while important stuff is happening on the field. It's embarrassing and I hate that network even with the Rangers in hockey. Stupid technical difficulties are always happening as well.
camera work is ATROCIOUS. It would be awesome if there was an open tryout to find a new broadcast team. But that would require a new broadcast partner. The negotiations between MSG and RBNY were difficult, can imagine what they'd be like with another network.
So the organization is fed up with 2 things: a half filled stadium (sales/marketing) and also they feel they could do better with the hispanic fanbase. It's a tricky question. With the latino fanbase they have to be friendlier as far as making walk up tickets available and easier to buy and also cheaper pricing. Although with a new stadium to pay for I really dont know how low they can go with the ticket prices. I'm sure that team exhibitions against powerhouse south of the border teams like Boca, River, Sao Paulo, Cruz Azul, etc. would help as long as the team was able to hold its own against them. If they are truly serious about the latino fanbase they would make a local spanish tv contract with univision 41 or telemundo 47, but that's probably dreaming at this point.
Don't think for a minute these changes will translate into an enhanced marketing budget. Stover would have loved one. One of the "new" initiatives: get your youth club team on the pitch against a team from your rival club if you both buy 500 tix.
Just give me HD and good camera work. I could give a hell about the announcers at this point. And I wouldn't continue to play up to the spanish population. There just isn't enough money there. Keep trying to get the families in. There are so many people in New Jersey they could get just by showing them th experience. A good amount of people in NJ are worried about Harrison being a rough area when it's really not. I live in Central NJ and only became a huge fan because there was nothing to do last summer on a particular saturday so me and my brother watched a RB game. Because I play soccer I paid enough attention to the big names and had heard the rumors of Henry coming. Then I became hooked once he showed up. Now I watch every game and it's my favorite sport just behind american football. I went out of my way to get to the stadium and those were my concerns before getting there. Plus, driving's really not that tough so I'd even recommend that.
being in the philly broadcast area, i'd be pretty disappointed to see RBNY jump to a local NY network instead of MSG.
I figured all this was coming down once they got a new GM. I dont think they ever thought after building RBA and having Henry and Marquez on the team that they would still draw 15k for games like against Toronto. I still think it will not be easy getting larger crowds as long as they continue to have such a low media profile.
Well you can't argue that these guys did a very good job marketing the team. Especially to the Hispanic demographic. These guys have been here for a while and they really haven't seen any growth in any of these areas.
Anyone marketing the Red Bulls would be a fool to ignore the Hispanic population. It's a substantial part of the population and one that may already be predisposed toward soccer. The money is there. Which isn't to say that one segment of the population should be targeted at the expense of another. Why can't the team try to bring in Hispanics, suburban families, urban 20 and 30-somethings, retirees, Europeans, Asians, etc.? As long as they are all buying tickets, it's good for the team.
Maybe they hire Kemsley, Cantona ans Cobi Jones so we can finally have our rightful name. That will take care of the attendance issue instantly.
The parking is really bad. They surround the stadium with complete idiots (save for a few). Up until recently this year they made people walk an extra quarter mile because those nimrods could not figure out how to let people cross the street at that path train/parking lots end of Harrison. When you try to leave from the parking lots there is no one directing traffic. After seeing a great game, the powers that be appear that they could give a sh## what happens to you. It makes for a poor experience. How hard would it be to hire a few rent-a-cop traffic directors or work with Harrison traffic to either lend a hand or insist that the parking lot people provide that. They stopped giving out programs. That bs line about saving trees and energy just made them look really cheap. Please do not bring back little kids playing on the pitch at the interval. You need to treat this like a professional sport it is. The simple fact to me why the sport has not grown well is that they have not developed any player profile at all. People do not know the team. Back in the day when Mathis, Petke and Aman played there was much more awareness of the players. I constantly hear people say, who is that. Pick a team, stop shuffling the deck and let people get to know and like them. When sports figures do commercials they get recognized. Pick four of the guys and make a real effort to get some spokesperson deals that the general public will see. And stop trading people every ten minutes !!!!!! Maybe a few every year, but the wholesale replacement stuff has to stop.
So Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp finally got fired... Tough market to be looking for work. Mcdonalds is supposedly hiring.
Marquez, Captain Mexico, was signed it didn't move the needle. Cubans and Puerto Ricans don't give a flying flip about soccer those that do are the extreme exception not the rule. Hispanics are not all the same they just happen to sort of speak the same language. They just need to "Market and Sell" irrespective of which community. Their marketing dating back to the Sackiewicz days has been nonexistent to embarrassing. Unless anyone thinks Metro playoff fever or having a few interns embarrass the hell out of themselves, slowly walking around Manhattan, was good marketing. They finally have a good product, that plays in a stadium in Jersey. Now they have to find a way to sell it to New Yorkers. Capturing the attention of people that live east of the Hudson has always been their problem.
Neither of them are a niche or called a pansy sport by the average American sports fan. Soccer is. Having a bunch of kids falling over themselves on the field at halftime smacks of amateur hour in a league and sport looking to gain respect in this country.
I know your NEW and all but that playbook was expolited in the early 2000's with pretty poor returns. In fact in recent years we have seen a huge league wide shift away from the heavy youth soccer marketing for a reason.
^ What he said. There are soccer fans out there. They just have to figure out how to sell their team to them. Without the ethnic shilling or soccer mom BS.
Mls is moving away from that demographic. They used to focus on that group and suffered because the adult soccer fan didnt take the league seriously. Mls gained momentum once they focused on attracting the adult soccer fan.
Something which I don't understand: Red Bull Arena is where it is because it's a short walk from a PATH station. Why isn't the next Red Bulls home game on posters in every PATH station? Let the thousands of people who take PATH every day know when the next game is, a game they can get to using the same train they take every weekday. The posters can be right next to the signs that are already there that tell you how to get to Harrison. It can't possibly cost very much to do this. It boggles the mind why they don't.