Virginia:
I was listening to NPR today on my drive home and they had a segment on the dolphins. Apparently in lieu of relying on a winning team to draw fans into Dolphin's stadium the franchise has decided to focus on other ways to keep the seats packed. Part of this marketing strategy was creating a superficial business partnership with Jimmy Buffet that included renaming the stadium Landshark. Landshark, in case you did not know, is the official beer of Jimmy Buffet and is also probably one of the worst beers around. When I was bartending we could not give that beer away. Plus I am not a Dolphin’s fan but living in south florida I am annoyed at the consistent name changes for the Dolphin’ stadium. I remember when it was Joe Robbie than Pro Player and now they name it after a shitty beer that Jimmy Buffet makes. The Dolphins, in addition to the name change, have also taken on several celebrity owners including the William sisters, Mark Anthony, and of course miss Gloria Estefan. They figure that even though the Dolphin’s probably will not win that often people will still decide to dish out the money for over-priced tickets to go to the games in hope of spotting a celebrity or to hear a free Buffet tailgate concert. Which leads me to wonder why not put that extra effort into the team itself. I am no sports team expert by any means but I do not think all the marketing in the world can take away from the fact a team is consistently losing. I do, however, think that the initial novelty of the new marketing techniques will probably draw people in but to keep loyal fans and create new loyal fans, which is where the money is, they need to focus their energy primarily on how the team is playing and not on all the other hype. When it comes down to it winning will generate the most profit. They do not even have to win the superbowl or anything just enough games to keep people excited and to keep my boyfriend from wanting to slit his wrists every Sunday.
ahhaha. so true. in their defense however. they did go out and get bill parcells last year to come be the head of the team. he is kind of the come fix our crappy team guy...and he's fixed a lot of teams. but yeah...im all for not wanting to slit my wrists. =]
