Imagine you are a billionaire paper and cardboard mogul who happens to own some sports teams and real estate interests in New England. After a hard day at work, you push away from your mahogany desk and look out your window at a cold, barren, empty snow filled stadium. You sigh and wistfully think of what could have been as you collect your papers and prepare for a weekend of partying in Dallas. You realize that your stadium won't be filled to the rafters again until August. Then you remember that red haired stepchild of a sports team that you own. You are not going to get into personnel issues because your friend Jerry Jones really mucked up his team when he spent too much time looking over his coaches shoulders. The tv in your office plays an ad for the local baseball team and the ad states, " we won't rest until order is restored." It makes you think. You ask yourself three important questions. 1) How do I attract more fans to the stadium?** 2) How do I connect to the fan base like my other sports team? 3) How do I put more money in my pocket with this team? Here's how I answer these questions: 1) How do I attract more fans to the stadium? I pick up the phone and call my coaching staff. They have plenty of local college connections. Extend an offer to those coaches. We charter buses from your campus which include a ticket to one of our soccer games. Ask the coaches to enlist the aid of their captains. Fill up a busload of soccer fans and I'll pay you 5% of the gross proceeds for your captains efforts and 5% as a donation to your program for each busload. Do this with both the Mens and Womens programs. Talk to colleges in Boston, Providence, Worcester, Manchester, etc. You realize that you each busload represents 50 young, affluent , enthusiastic men and women. Potential long term fans. Ask them to wear blue.** Offer the same 5% commission to the owners of the local indoor soccer arenas. Extend the offer to local ethnic clubs. Make it work for soccer clubs and town soccer programs. Create a contest for the best fans. Each busload gets recognized on the stadium jumbotron. 2) How do I connect to the fan base like my other sports team? The fans come. The new fans come by the busload and bring more energy to the crowd. Get some drumers and horns in the stadium. Invite the soccer fan clubs to set up tables inside the stadium to recruit these new fans. Tweet it. Facebook it. Hire some local college students **/ interns working towers a degree in sports management and have them YouTube it.** Build a brewpub, "The Cross Bar", next to the Hall of Fame so soccer/football fans can get a drink before games or to watch away games.** 3) How do I put more money in my pocket with this team? You have a tv deal and a uniform supplier who kick in some money. Lay down some grass and bring in some international teams for some summer doubleheaders with your team.** Get some ad revenues by selling space on your shirt, but, who is the right sponsor for your demographic? Gillette makes razors for both men and women and maybe splash a razor name across the chest. CVS is a national drug chain that Moms, Dads and kids all frequent. America runs on Dunkin' Donuts. Sam Adams, Ocean Spray,TJ Maxx, Staples, Welch's, Fidelity, etc., there are plenty of candidates. Pick one. Offer a special 3rd kit. Fans love it and it's another piece of apparel to sell them. Play on the 3rd of July and have fireworks afterwards. Eh, enough of these random thoughts. **Gotta get Myra, Jonathon, the grandkids and get to the airport so I can make it to Dallas before it snows again. Where did I leave the keys to the Bentley.....?
Covered. Absolutely phenomenal post. I've blabbed about what I'd do enough in every other thread so not going to respond to this one.
If I was Bob: I would kick my sons ass for acting the way he does to others, it doesnt matter if they work for "you"(really me). Then go back to letting others manage my assets
If I was Bob: I would laugh at all the suckers who gave me money while I invested the bare minimum back into the club.
1. I would practically give away tickets to all the youth soccer leagues, club teams, ethnic leagues, etc. I'm talking $5 tickets. You'll still make money on fried dough. 2. Rebrand. Now that the Wiz aren't the Wiz we are the most bland "brand" in the league. 3. Embrace Gillette. Sorry folks SSS is a pipe dream. Why pump money into Boston when he owns his own little city down in Foxboro. Improve it as much as possible. I love the soccer pub idea. I would hope the cheap tickets would boost the numbers to 20K in the stands. That would look and feel much better. 4. Be seen. The Krafts need to be seen at Rev games. 5. Affiliate with a Euro or South American team. Good for getting loaned players or sending players out on loan. How about a club like Rangers. They are American friendly. 7. Boost your scouting network. Put college coaches from the ACC's, Big East's, etc on the payroll. Put some Rev alumni on the payroll and send them out on international scouting trips. 7. Take chances on some Yanks who are out there. Charlie Davies should have been given consideration (BC ties too). Don't like him but how about Freddie Adu? What about Kamani Hill who's rotting away in Portugal? 8. Quality Signings. Sign 2 solid DP's. Try to get some players loaned here. Just 2 rock solid players that aren't in their twilight years. It would be a plus if they are handsome and married to a supermodel, but not a requirement. I would prefer to grab someone who is consistently on the US National team starting 11 and a foreign star. I propose Benny Feilhaber as our Yank marquis guy. Not sure about the foreigner.
Great post. We should all print that post, and put it on all the car windshields at 1 patriot place. Especially Bob's Bentley.
Must spread rep.... In addition to Mr. S.'s excellent suggestions: 1a. Separate family and young adult tailgating areas. Live band in the young adult parking lot - when feasible - for tailgating. 1b. Separate family and young adult areas for seating in the stadium. Have a designated seated fans only section - perhaps in the front. Fans can stand anywhere else. 1c. Bring back the oval Rev bumper sticker. 1d. Foster the re-birth of the fan-zine and fan-generated Rev-ware to be sold in the parking lot. It will always be more clever than the corporate garbage, and will foster enthusiasm. 1e. Better Rev tchatchkes for the kids - How about Rev Subbuteo? 2a. Use the Kraft's deep and broad connections in Israel to bring in Israeli talent. 2b. Establish connections with a half dozen major clubs with youth development systems on every possible continent to establish loan agreements. They loan us a player - We loan them a player. 2c. Expand Rev academy to have a residential option. Establish satellite Rev academies in areas with warmer climates. 3a. When we get players from another country, offer TV rights in that market.
It was my impression that they kinda already do this, at least with youth leagues. As much as I want a stadium closer to the city, I would be OK with this. But it'd have to be a major effort to make Gillette more soccer-friendly - grass on the field, the upper decks tarped off with images of the team and players, Patriots imagery cleverly hidden or toned down, the lower deck full of 20-30k people. If that happens week in and week out, the grouching over a stadium would wane considerably. At least from me, it would. Yes. If I were Kraft, I'd insist that either myself or my son (or both) attend every single Revs home game, wearing a scarf, and instruct the broadcast producer to cut to us intently watching the game at least once per half. But that's not enough. If the guy wants to strike a blow for the Revs, he should be waging a constant media and PR campaign for the team. The Pats will take care of themselves, particularly when it's NFL season, but the Revs need all the help they can get. When he appears at charity events or makes statements during the summer months, the answer to "How are the Pats doing?" should always be "Well, we're focusing on the Revs right now," followed by a thought on the team. There oughta be a plan of attack that involves getting the Revs mentioned in at least one major media outlet per week. I've talked to Revs PR people and they tell me that this is really, really hard, even when they try to exert Pats-related pressure on their media partners, but IMO that's because they have no momentum. If the organization can just get the media used to talking about the Revs during the summer, the rest follows. Right now, there's a huge shared perception that Bob Kraft is disengaged from his soccer team, and perception is reality in this case. I think there should be more coaching and support staff in general. The draft put the spotlight on this issue. Every team, especially wealthy NY, LA, and Toronto, had a retinue of 5-8 coaches and front office personnel manning their stations. The Revs were noticably thin, with only Nicol, Roy, and occasionally Bilello (was Myles there?) at the desk. I'm part of the 'South America or bust' contingent for foreign guys. I've long wanted the team to go after someone like Dario Conca, a tough, adventurous Argentine playmaker who never quite broke into the national team but has been awesome in the Brazilian league for a few years. Guys like that could be lured to MLS for DP money, but not as much as Euro stars - mid-six figures, probably better value. Unfortunately, Conca is probably out of reach now, as he just signed a 5-year extension at Fluminense and seems to love it there. Thing is, there's plenty of treasures like Conca in Brazil and Argentina - you can really just start by assessing each of the top 5 or 6 teams and looking at their #10s. If the guy is young or durable enough, go in and try to make the steal! Unfortunately, I don't think the Revs have enough people to allow them to send coaches down there, and highlight DVDs don't tell you much. One league that has pursued this strategy successfully is the J-League - look at guys like Washington or Bare. They'd do just fine in MLS. Another thing I'd love to see: Since US Open Cup games are always poorly attended, insist on having the games in striking distance of Boston, even though that might mean renting the Harvard soccer stadium and its 2500 person capacity. 5 bucks per ticket, sit where you want, paper the city with leaflets advertising your chance to see the region's only high level team get down and dirty in the country's oldest knockout tournament. Have the street team out in force at these games, handing out stickers and posters and calendars and holding dumb contests for free tickets to league games. Finally: start buying ads on TV. I only ever see ads for the Revs during Revs broadcasts. That's preaching to the converted. Look at the TV campaigns that Seattle and Portland are launching, and go for something similar, and just get it on TV during a popular show. Yeah, it'd be expensive, but people already aren't coming to the games in force, so it's worth a try.
And not just Bob. It's hard to feel like they care about the Revs when Jonathan is on radio talking about soccer on a weeknight, when the Revs have a home game that same night ... and it's not even mentioned. Agreed. Been saying this for a while ... showing Revs ads during Revs away games, which let's be honest, not many outside of the die-hards watch ... doesn't really do much.
Showing Revs ads in general on CSN during the Celtics off season isn't very helpful. How about stir things up and run a few on NESN?
Must spread rep for Mike. Great comments here. If the boo-bahs at Kraft central read this and act on half of the suggestions made here, they will have done more in 15 minutes than they've done in 15 years. A lot of this is just a matter of paying attention. Yes, the King of All He Surveys should not be down in the weeds with minutiae, but someone somewhere down the lackey food chain should hand him a single sheet of paper with the 3-4 talking points every time he (either Bob or Jonathan) speaks to the media. It disgusts me to no end to hear Jonathan prattle on about how the World Cup, blah-blah-blah, and lots of kids play soccer, yadda-yadda-yadda when he is supposed to be talking about The Revolution, the team he actually owns. There is soccer and then there is soccer. He needs to promote his team instead of the plain vanilla generic comments about the sport in general that were just as true 25 years ago as they are now.
Hmmm can they read... I think they might be able to... seemed too coincidental... From the Revs Girls Facebook: " Rev Girls In college and love soccer? Be a Revs Ambassador! Email us at revgirls@revolutionsoccer.net for more info 57 minutes ago"
Good. GREAT. This could be a huge step in the right direction. Find some college kids that love the sport and are full of energy, reel them in with match tickets and free swag, make them feel a connection to the organization, and bam! Street team.
I've been thinking a street tema in the traditional sense would be a great idea... doesn't work as well in music as it used to but i think this is an instance where it could do well
If you were Bob Kraft, not even all the Montgomery Scott's in the world could harness that matter/anti-matter reaction.
Can we change the title of this thread to ... Desperate fans attempt to wish themselves a better experience by restating decade old list of previously mentioned improvements. Is that too many characters? Let's Recap: Leverage Beantown College Connection - check Leverage College Soccer and League Soccer - check Build On-Site Drinking Establishment? - check Install Grass - check Find Shirt Sponsor - check Leverage TV Deal with Shirt Sponsor - check Create Attractive 3rd Kit - check Provide Low Priced Incentive Tickets - check Rebrand - check Affiliate With Established World Teams - check Boost Scouting Network - check Sign DP's - eternal check Give Bob and Jonathan Revolution Specific Talking Points - check Bring Back Fanzines - check Create a Compelling Gillette Lower Bowl Environment - check Hire More Scout and Support Staff - check Purchase Optimal TV Ad Buys - check Provide Free Beer! Sorry, I added that last one. A personal favorite!
Embarrassed to say I'd like an FC after Revolution when we get our new crest ... I think it's PNW envy...