From http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/oped1001connolly.html • There are so many reasons to love Columbus and the quaint little stadium the Crew call home out there. One of them certainly has to be the poster-sized action shot of Brian McBride that greets you in the airport. Correct me if I’m wrong -- and I know you will -- but I don’t think I’ve seen such a thing in any of the other nine airports one has to fly in to catch an MLS match. I know we have billboards and some radio and TV, and I've even seen Fire gear at the old Midway. But he raises a good point. If we settle in either Bridge____, but especially if we settle in Bridgeview, I hope we have more of a presence at Midway. And yes, I suppose we should advertise at the overpriced, international airport up the road, too. Any other places we need to advertise?
These are expensive, but you get what you pay for: 1. sports talk radio -- drive time. 2. 10:00 news right before the sports report. 3. CTA bus and train ads. I just heard an add this morning on ESPN radio for the 85 Bears flag football game that bumped the Fire to a Friday night from Saturday. They are selling tickets for $33 and the main selling point is "come see the new SF without paying Bear prices." It would be nice to hear an add saying "come see the Fire in the middle of a 1st place run at new SF for less than Bear and less than old fat Bear flag football prices." btw, are people actually coing to shell out $33 to see old men play flag football? The Chicago Rush bought a consistent block of ads right before the sports report -- I believe on Ch. 7. I got use to them, so the message was certainly getting through. Finally, bus and train ads can be effective for blanket coverage to get better brand identity -- which we still need at this point.
With half of a 60,000 seat stadium empty, there are a lot of interesting marketing tactics the fire could use to get people to matches next year. The white sox have 1/2 price mondays/tuesdays that work well.. the fire could have a super cheap section marketed to "new" fans. For instance, "community" nights (i.e. all residents of neighborhood/village X get into the game for $5 in the cheap section), or other discount plans to get new people to the games. they need to tell people that like soccer when the games are; and give people that don't already like soccer incentives to go to games. I like the billboards i've seen around town, but they don't tell people to do anything, I think they give the ticket office number.. but don't list the upcoming games.