Bobcats Expect to Average 12,500 Fans by 2003
Kevin Sheller
Tuesday March 27, 2001
Both teams have averaged less than 5,000 fans per game for four straight years – Florida has done it four out of the last five. (They reached 5,118 per game in 1999 when they moved to the Ft. Lauderdale area.) Until the recent Lawrence Phillips announcement, the biggest news about the Bobcats came from a rumor that a buyer in Minnesota was interested in the team.
But they didn’t sell. Oh lord! They didn’t even move! Fans and media alike wondered why they would put themselves through it again. Another year of less than 5,000 fans per game? How can they afford to take that kind of financial hit? Who owns this team? And what are they doing?
Thankfully, the tides have been changing at the Bobcats offices in Sunrise, Florida. In February 2000, Denny Petro came on board as Senior Vice President in charge of Operations. He has been around the AFL since the days of the Pittsburgh Gladiators, where he was the team’s General Manager and one of Jim Foster’s original hires. Since then, Petro has hopped around from team to team, taking on various leadership roles in cities like Charlotte and Tampa Bay. He achieved his most recent success by helping the Nashville Kats get off the ground. As a result, the Kats have played in front of more than 10,000 fans at every regular-season home game throughout their franchise history.
“I didn’t perceive myself as a savior,” said Petro of his new position of with the Bobcats. “It was just a challenge to try to restore some stability to the franchise and assess the overall situation to see what could be done to make things better. It was a matter of coming in on the heels of back-to-back 3-11 seasons and a very small marketing budget to try and reach out in some areas where I’ve been able to gain some immediate results.”
According to Petro, former Bobcats’ owner Jay Frey was very hands-on. Any expenditures had to go directly through him. Such demands from an owner can slow down a franchise – or worse – undercut necessary purchases.
Shortly after Petro was hired to help turn the franchise around, Frey sold the team to minority owner Dr. Michael J. Gelfand. Gelfand wanted to run things differently, but the team found itself in the middle of preseason, so he decided to bear down and focus his staff on operating a football team – while taking a “wait and see” approach on promotions.
So, what could Petro and company do to help a floundering Bobcats franchise? Well, when he accepted the job, he discovered the team was in disarray. There was no merchandise. The staff was small and overworked. They were told to promote and plan only during the 90-120 days before the season started instead of the entire offseason. The team had focused entirely on football operations instead of promotions. Heck, they didn’t even have a ticket manager two weeks before the season started!
The team struggled through the 2000 season, but they made changes as the year wore on. “All we’ve done is try to get everyone on the same page, which I believe we did last year,” said Petro. “If we had a problem, we corrected it.”
By the time the season was over, the front office was more organized, and football operations had learned plenty. They knew things were not perfect, so they addressed the problems with those who mattered most: the fans.
“At the end of the season, we called all of our season-ticket holders and said, ‘Don’t hold anything back. If you are upset with me, if you are upset with the team, if you are upset with anybody, let us know,’” said Petro. Of course, they received plenty of suggestions, but overall the feeling was positive. The team listened and wanted to improve, so they addressed the most common complaint. They knocked parking prices from $10 to $5.
Then it was time to increase the fan base.
“When the offseason came, we sat down with the marketing plan again and decided to appropriate a major cash infusion; make it a little bit more pro-active,” said Petro, who was named VP of Marketing, Communications, and Operations. “As far as last year, we’re spending more money on advertising. Does that translate into success? Not necessarily, but we’re with the right partners. We have a major print campaign with the Sun-Sentinel (in Ft. Lauderdale).”
Petro has taken a fresh perspective for 2001. “I’m treating it like an expansion team. Dr. Gelfand has approved a lot of programs that we didn’t have last year.”
For example, Bobcats players were recently introduced during a Florida Panthers NHL game. In the weeks leading up to the season, the Bobcats will showcase promotions on five different radio stations. They have sent out direct-mail invitations to Miami Dolphins and Panthers season-ticket holders, which includes 24,000 fans. They have new dancers and a new choreographer from the University of Miami. They are re-designing their mascot. They will be holding post-game concerts with local talent. And they’ve approached 3,187 churches to find large volumes of new fans.
“All I’m trying to do is do the things...that I’ve done or seen other people do in my 30-years of this business. I could spend a million dollars, here, or Nashville, or Grand Rapids,” says Petro. “It may buy me a few more walkup fans – it may get me some more interest when I walk into a company who doesn’t even know who we are, but it does not guarantee success.”
“Can I make it like Nashville? They had an 18-month advance before we played our first-ever game. We did everything right, and the ownership spent a ton of money. It’s a different story here. We’re building from the ground up. But we have dedicated people who come in here seven days a week. We’re out knocking on doors. It will be better.”
But how do we know it will be better than years’ past? Those of us in the Arena Football world have heard the same credo from these Bobcats before. What’s different this season?
“This is a three-year game plan. [Dr. Gelfand] is committed to South Florida,” assures Petro. During the offseason, they began their 18-month plan; which means we may not start to see big changes in attendance until 2002.
Newly appointed General Manager Judd Lando believes the long-term route is the path to success. “We’re concentrating on group tickets and individual game tickets. At the end of this season we’ll put a big push into season-ticket renewal,” said Lando. “Typically people all of a sudden aren’t going to buy season tickets three weeks out without having seen the product. What we want to do is get them in the door this year, either through group packages or individual game specials. Then push a season-ticket campaign following the 2001 season.”
Lando also has an attendance goal for the next three years. He’s looking for 5,000-6,500 per game this season, 7,500-9,500 next season, and 11,000-13,500 in 2003. Although modest, Lando feels his goals are realistic. Florida Bobcats attendance last year averaged only 2,785 per game.
So how do they double their fan base? “First of all, we need to win games. Point blank. No doubt about it,” stressed Lando. “South Florida: If you don’t win, you can forget about it. We know that from the ownership standpoint, from the coaching standpoint, from the front office standpoint. We know that in order for us to have people in the arena we need to win, and win early.”
The fans concur. Bill Long has been a season-ticket holder since the team moved to the Ft. Lauderdale area two years ago. A true-blue die-hard fan, he’s endured two seasons of 3-11 records and two seasons of small crowds. What else could the Bobcats do to get more fans? “Win.” says Long, “That always helps too. Winning brings out the fans, especially down here in South Florida. I like that they went out and signed players. That’s a commitment to me. They’re actually going to try to win here.”
Although Long has seen newspaper ads this season, he’s still skeptical, “If they would just get the word out. I don’t think that a quarter page in the paper is going to do it. I think they need a radio or TV contract so people can see the games.”
Unfortunately, no radio contract has been signed, and Lando does not believe the Bobcats will have any games aired on the radio for 2001. However, they are still negotiating a deal with local television stations to air one or two away games.
More to come next year (and the year after), say the Bobcats.
South Florida Bobcats
“We wanted to try to add the word ‘South’ to our logo,” said Petro, “We were denied that on the short time-period by AFL Properties. But we wanted to add a red cursive ‘South’ across the Bobcat logo to the left of
its head. We also submitted supportive data that linked "South" to the area. South Florida is a huge region that stretches for nearly 100 miles through three counties. There are 367 businesses that have the word ‘South Florida’ in their name in this area. We thought that would give it more of a marketing image and a regionality to it.”
The Bobcats will resubmit their request to make the word "South" official for 2002.
Even More Promotions
Then there’s the May 3 game against Los Angeles. Get this: The Bobcats are trying to work out a deal with the Universal Wildlife Rehabilitation Foundation, Inc to hold a fund-raiser field trip for high school students in the area. The idea is to get 10,000 high school students into the National Car Rental Center at 8:30-9:00am to conduct a classroom session for about 35 minutes, using videos, live animals, etc… to teach the students about the organization and about the animals. Then clear the field, do the smoke and pyro show, and kick off, assuming the league allows a 10:30am start time.
Sound crazy? Hey, whatever it takes to get fans into National Car Rental Center to see those Bobcats. At the very least, the backup plan would be to do a Florida Panthers’ night, inviting all of the Panthers’ fans to that Thursday night game.
Staff Size
While the Bobcats have made some great strides in their approach to promotions and day-to-day operations, there still appears to be one main problem area: staff size. Petro’s title alone, VP of Marketing, Communications, and Operations, says it all. It’s a tall order to ask one man to sell tickets, promote the team, find sponsors, work with the media, and plan game-day operations like pre-game, halftime, and post-game acts and talents. Of course, he has help, but he and the front-office staff must work around the clock, seven days a week, to compete with other South Florida entertainment.
I asked Lando why his staff was still so small, despite the team’s new marketing budget. “Good question. At this point that’s just where we are. Hopefully over the next couple of months and leading into the 2002 season we’ll be expanding our staff number-wise. We are a very dedicated one, and one where we do have a bunch of very qualified people who can wear more than one hat. But certainly in the years to come we will have to expand the size of our staff a little bit.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
