Losing More Fans
Matt Walsh
Monday September 10, 2001
In five seasons the team has averaged nine wins a year, won two division titles in a very competitive division that includes Orlando and Tampa Bay, and have made it to the Arena Bowl for the past two years.
Within no time the Kats became one of the AFL’s higher echelon organizations. They became the model team for every budding expansion franchise. The Kats’ rise to the top and their blueprint for success—on and off the field—set a new standard in the league.
Sure, the Kats’ organization has lost money almost every year. Most teams do in this growing yet volatile league. And, yes, attendance at Kats’ games took a dip this season. But what has given the Kats so much potential, and is the number-one contributor to the team’s success, is their ardent fan base.
Throughout the past five years, the Kats have averaged over 12,000 fans to their home games.
So if it came to anyone’s surprise that the Kats might be moving to Atlanta at the end of the 2001 season, it was the loyal followers of the team. Due to the team’s poor lease agreement with the Gaylord Entertainment Center and the NHL’s Nashville Predators, which has resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenue for the Kats, majority owner Mark Bloom is being forced to sell the team. Since nobody locally has made a serious pitch towards buying the team and keeping it in Nashville, Bloom had to look elsewhere.
The details and ins and outs of the selling process are complicated and have been in the hush-hush stage. But the threat of a possible Kats relocation is very real.
It’s a real predicament that the Kats have found themselves in and it has been enough to discourage even the most diehard arena football supporters in Nashville. One of those supporters is Nashville Kat fan, Larry Rumsey.
Super Fan
To simply call Larry Rumsey a diehard Kats fan would be an understatement. Like many of the Kats faithful in the Music City, Larry has purchased season tickets every year of the franchise’s existence, attended every home game, went to team rallies and parties, and purchased a closet full of Kats’ merchandise. He even sports a tattoo of the Kats’ logo on his leg. But it’s what Larry has done outside the diehard fan’s commitment to the game that puts him on another level.
He’s organized home-game ticket sales for his office and sent out E-mail updates to all the employees who have shown an interest in Arenaball. Last season Larry sold over $500 worth of discount tickets to his coworkers. “Friends called me the ‘Kats Ambassador,” says Larry.
His emotional and financial investment to the Kats goes way beyond a fan’s call of duty.
Two seasons ago, he gave up his season-ticket seat so that he could help the team’s Web site designer, Neal Cook, with the game photography for the team’s Web site, Katsfan.com.
“What better job can a die hard fan have than to actually be on the field with his favorite team, every home game?” Larry boasts.
Larry represents the type of passion and support that has built the league’s foundation.
But times have changed in the Arena Football League. The new collective bargaining agreement that resulted from last year’s labor dispute has left teams with much higher operating costs. Instead of depending on its fans for the league’s survival, the AFL has put itself in a position that requires a major TV contract and teams in larger TV markets.
And it’s beginning to show.
“The [AFL] has quickly become more about business, and less about the game,” says Larry, who over the past year has become a much more cynical Arenaball fan. “All of this posturing and jockeying for position marketwise is rupturing the very fan base that’s helped bring [the league] to this level of respectability.”
“Hotlanta”
Reports of the Kats’ potential move to Atlanta have also tainted Larry’s attitude about the sport.
The worst part for Larry and other Nashville fans has been the uncertainty of the Kats’ relocation process. Rumors and innuendoes that are being passed throughout the team’s message board are giving supporters mixed signals about what’s really going on.
“We need FACTS,” Larry recently posted on the Katsfan.com message board. “How close IS the Atlanta deal? How IS the league leaning at this point? IF the Atlanta deal falls through, IS the league going to buy the team and keep it here?”
Throughout the rumors is an inkling of hope shared by a few Kats supporters that the team will be saved by Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams. But mostly, the fans have become disillusioned throughout the whole ordeal. Many of them feel alienated by the league.
Last year, the AFL pulled out of two of the league’s most popular markets, Albany and Des Moines. As a result, thousands of the most dedicated fans in the league were left without a team. For its trouble, Des Moines was given an AF2 franchise, which was greeted by an emphatic show of nonsupport by former AFL fans.
This year two more of the league’s top teams, Nashville and Milwaukee, are in danger of relocating or folding. While it could be argued that the Firebirds’ and Barnstormers’ moves were done as a result of a growing league, the Kats’ and Mustangs’ situations can only reverse that progress by decreasing the valuable fan base that the league was built upon.
If the Kats do move to Atlanta, there will most likely be press conference in which Commissioner David Baker will state something along the lines of “we think the AFL will be great fit in Atlanta.” Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Atlanta hasn’t exactly proven to be a greatest sports town in regards to its fan support for the city’s professional franchises. But that’s missing the point.
The AFL already has a great fit in Nashville. It has a powerhouse football team with popular players. It has a franchise that was once honored as co-winner of the Arena Football Commissioner’s Award, which is given to the league’s top organizations. And, most importantly, Nashville has Larry Rumsey and thousands of other proven fans on its side.
What the city doesn’t have is an arena with a viable leasing agreement to house the Kats.
The good significantly outweighs the bad in this situation. If the AFL can’t recognize that and is powerless from preventing the Kats’ move to Atlanta, the future of the league looks bleak because it proves that no team is safe and that all fans are expendable.
Matt Walsh was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2001.
