Béisbol, Southern Style

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on their site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/08/25/beisbol-southern-style/

Baseball is the same everywhere, except that in some places the mascot might stand ten yards behind the third baseman, almost in fair territory, and a vendor might bring you donuts and Icees at your seat.

Attending a sporting event in another country means enjoying the aspects of the game you already love, like superb running catches and perfectly thrown 12-to-6 curveballs. It also means getting to enjoy unfamiliar nuances that make the presentation unique.

On a recent visit to México City, I didn’t eat the ballpark donuts because I had already filed myself with burritos and tortas from the concession stands. I did do a double-take when I saw the Diablos’ doglike mascot, Rocco, hang out a step and a dive from the leftfield line as the players kept playing, oblivious to the guy (or woman) in the costume. I thought about how jealous Rangers Captain will be when I tell him he could be cantering mere feet from Adrian Beltre during a game.

The Diablos Rojos del México franchise plays in its nation’s capital and is one of the country’s top teams. Rangers fans may remember the red-clad jugadores from the exhibition games they played in 2012 and 2013 at what is now Globe Life Park in Arlington. I feel sure that experience seemed as different for them as visiting their home park was for me.

The yard where I watched the Diablos take on the Aguascalientes Rieleros isn’t actually the club’s true home. Their regular stadium, the Foro Sol, is unavailable this season. That facility sits in a turn of the Mexico City Formula 1 auto racing track and is undergoing renovations in preparation for a race over Halloween weekend. The game took place in the nearby estadio Fray Nano, a much smaller ballpark situated among a group of fields used for recreational sports. They’ll play there this year and next until a new stadium opens in 2017. Fray Nano measures 408 to centerfield and 327 to the foul poles, so its dimensions satisfy American professional expectations. The team did a superb job of making it feel as polished and inviting as possible, and provided a game experience on par with that of good U.S. Minor league teams. Photos of players plaster the back walls of the main seating bowl. The press box shared space with several suites. The scoreboard had a video screen, and while it didn’t show replays, it did offer well-designed graphics and crowd prompts.

The food selection extended far beyond standard stateside baseball fare. An American fan would be pleased with the number of offerings. Whether his stomach could handle the hot sauces in which natives might douse a cup of potato chips or a taco would likely prove another matter entirely. Other concession stand selections include fruits, vegetables, flautas, and sushi. The Fray Nano happy hour allows you to buy 24 ounces of Corona for half price (a little less than $2.50) until 8pm.

On the field, the quality of play is high. The Mexican summer league is considered near Triple-A quality. Late-inning relievers showed mid-90s fastballs and both the home team and the Rieleros played error-free baseball.

We talked strategy the same way one would at a Rangers game. Should the Diablos’ manager have burned through his bullpen playing matchups in the 7th? Why, after throwing two swinging strikes outside, then a ball a little further outside, would the pitcher then shake off his catcher several times and throw an inside fastball? Aguascalientes’ Ramón Ramírez must have wondered the same thing after what turned out to be his last pitch of the night ended up over the right field wall for a grand slam.

Ancillary on-field details differ from their American equivalents, including:

• Everybody wears the socks high, including batboys.
• Team pants and jerseys carry sponsor logos.
• The batboys were mostly little people who took their jobs seriously and did them well.
• Said batboys don’t stay in the dugout during play. They station themselves near what would be the on-deck circle were one marked off. If the catcher drops his mask chasing a pop-up, the batboy retrieves it for him.
• Foul balls might go all the way out of the stadium. Be alert if you’re headed for the beer stand.
• All the players line up outside the dugout to congratulate the batter after a home run.
• The stadium sits close to the airport and descending planes appear to be within range of a Josh Hamilton or Nelson Cruz longball. Surely that’s an optical illusion, right?

Rangers fans may remember one guy who looks to have airliner power. Japhet Amador played with the Diablos when they visited Globe Life Park. He stands a memorable 6’4”, 310. With an OPS over 1.100 and more than 40 home runs already this season, he generated a buzz among the spectators when he approached the plate. Unfortunately, Aguascalientes mostly pitched around Amador, walking him three times, so we didn’t get to see him launch any balls 747-ward.

Some Americans play in this league. Californian Cyle Hankerd has put up big numbers hitting behind Amador. The Diablos have employed several former Major Leaguers at various times this season, including Boston native Manny Delcarmen, who blew a save in the 8th the night I attended. They also have a Texan, catcher Luis Flores of Del Rio, who got as high as Triple-A in the Cubs and Astros organizations.

The atmosphere, even on a Monday night, was compelling. We saw a few fans with wigs and others rattled matracas when the situation suggested noise. Coordinated chants chimed in even after an opposition jonron: Diablos, Diablos, rah, rah, rah!”

In the later innings, a prompt from scoreboard  resulted in a “Vamos Diablos” cheer.

I didn’t quite understand the playing of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” after the third inning and I cringed a bit when the Tomahawk Chop song started up. “Rock and Roll, Part 2” was also a big player. However, I was pleased to hear a number by Austin’s Eric Johnson as we exited the ballpark.

I spotted spectators wearing gear for at least half the Major League teams. A kid in our section had a Mike Piazza Mets shirt and another guy sported the untenable combination of a Yankees jersey and a Red Sox cap. A México shirt with a deer and antlers made me flash back to the 2010 Rangers.

Also noticed among the attendees: a Tom Brady Patriots jersey, an FC Dallas jacket, and a dude in a Cramps shirt. A seemingly random assortment of Padres, Cardinals, and White Sox shirts were on sale alongside Diablos gear in the team shop.

You can’t buy Diablos Rojos tickets terribly far in advance (I’ve seen stateside teams try that strategy as well and never liked it), but the scalpers can get a lot closer to the gates than they can in the U.S.

People all over the world, with different backgrounds and customs enjoy baseball, and I’m sure you will in México as well. I did notice one potentially polarizing difference, however, with this ballpark. Like in Fort Worth bars and 1970s Arlington Stadium, you can smoke there. I looked up and saw a guy puffing away in a suite. Try to keep your American sensibilities to yourself (or else offer the guy a light – a universal gesture of friendship).

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

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Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

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Lucha Libre: A México City Must-See

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on their site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/08/18/lucha-libre-a-mexico-city-must-see/






The man would exude sex appeal if he didn’t weigh 300+ squishy pounds and prance around in no shirt.


He’s a professional athlete who goes by the name “Super Porky,” and he’s really good at his job.

A recent trip to Texas’ southern neighbor provided a couple of sports experiences I felt compelled to share. Sports are an important part of every nation’s culture, so when I travel, I like to explore ballgames along with food, museums, and serpentine passport control queues. This time, my native hosts assured me that watching the performance of the large man in the tight pants and his cohorts represented a thoroughly Mexican experience. Super Porky, aka Brazo de Plata, is an icon in the world of Lucha Libre professional wrestling.

I won’t pretend to understand all the nuances, so I’ll just offer a few entertaining details and the recommendation that if you find yourself in the México D.F., consider a trip to Viernes Espectaculares at the Arena México. It is pure entertainment.





What it’s not, technically speaking, is sport. Like U.S. pro wrestling, it’s a pre-planned performance under a sporting veneer. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t see a lot of athletic ability on display. Some of these men and women show amazing acrobatic talent, diving and flipping through and out of the ring with impressive precision and serious hops. Even Super Porky could balance himself on one of the ropes using only his belly (something I can’t seem to unsee).


The show’s producers at CMLL appear to understand the concept of brand consistency. If you’re going to do something, do it all the way, every time, and don’t stray from your core message. That message is “over-the-top” and they do it well enough to have generated consistent crowds for decades. I’d peg a lot of the fans as hardcore attendees, judging by the number wearing masks and branded shirts. They participated noisily when goaded by performers. We sat near some aficionados with horns and drums who reveled in receiving acknowledgment from wrestlers whose names they periodically chanted.





Multiple video screens and lights pump up the energy level within the nearly 60-year old arena. Full-volume music choices included ZZ Top’s LaGrange and plenty of selections I didn’t recognize. Stands outside the arena sell souvenirs. I got my 8-year old niece a pink mask.





Inside, you can buy soup or nachos from an in-seat vendor. That’s not a misprint where I meant to type “super nachos.” The lady’s tray contained instant soup plus chips/cheese that looked just like the ones you’d have bought at the old Arlington Stadium. You might also fancy tortas, bagged chips, churros, or 32-ounce Victoria beers.


In the ring, the half-dozen bouts consisted of five 3-person tag team matches and a single one-on-one affair. Six women competed in the night’s first fight, which set the tone for the evening (and tag team contests everywhere) with a plethora of blows struck from the ropes and by contestants inside the ring who weren’t supposed to be there, according to what might pass for rules.


Selectively observant referees play a big part in the evening’s proceedings. In the second bout, a point deducted for kicking turned a one-sided contest into a disputed draw. The disagreement took the form of continued fighting after the decision.


Wrestler Disturbio earned disqualification after “accidentally” hitting the referee while crushing his opponent. The official raised the victor’s hand as the latter lay incapacitated on the canvas.


Super Porky, who had a brief WWE stint stateside a few years ago, entered doing stripper poses. He ended his team’s bout when he pinned an adversary by sitting on the poor guy. Earlier, he had rubbed that rearmost part of his anatomy in the face of a competitor who had no doubt drawn the short straw backstage.


The last couple bouts included more great characters. Bárbaro Cavernario was a shaggy caveman who would have looked at home in a Geico commercial. Marco Corleone provided eye candy for the ladies with occasional ab flexes in his tight red trunks. He absorbed every blow directed at him without flinching until, of course, he didn’t and got thrown from the ring. A red-bodysuited wrestler kicked his teammate after a disagreement over who would fight.


The last bout also included an unmasking, which is apparently considered a great dishonor for the de-masked wrestler. At one point an Australian (maybe) in a mask had interrupted a previous bout and stomped on a sombrero. He was challenged to a “mask vs. hair” bout, but declined the challenge. In such a bout, the loser would have either been unmasked or had his head shaved, depending on how he normally presented himself. Hopefully we’ll get to see that drama next time.


One test the show fails is that of political correctness, which I justified overlooking by ascribing it to cultural differences. Two little people in costume accompanied wrestlers to the ring. One of the little persons ended up getting dragged into the ring and flung around a bit in retaliation for unknown offenses. An effeminate man with a pink ribbon in his hair reveled in getting spanked (literally) by his opponent. He came on to one of the other wrestlers, forcing the latter to apologize to the jealous female teammate who was apparently his significant other. And, of course, the male wrestlers entered the arena surrounded by scantily clad females.





If you’d like to learn more about the bout I saw, CMLL posts results and photos on its official website. If you find yourself in México City and want to get tickets to see wrestling at the Arena México or a few other venues, Ticketmaster can hook you up. The dollar is strong right now against the peso, so it might be a great time for you to pick your favorite Técnico (hero) or Rudo (villain) and mask up.






Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

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Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Major League Beer Selection

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on their site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/08/12/round-rock-express-ballpark-beer-map/

Rangers fans, you need to know about a recent arrival making an impact for the club’s top farm team. He goes by the colorful name Beer Shake.

That’s not a bizarre nickname a playful Derek Holland hung on some young Round Rock Express reliever. It’s an actual milkshake made with beer, available for purchase on the Dell Diamond concourse. The concoction’s deliciousness represents just part of the beer story at the suburban Austin ballpark.

This week marks the second in an occasional series of posts designed to help fans know where to find the beer they want at notable sporting venues. Last week, we guided you through finding suds at Globe Life Park in Arlington. This week, we thought we’d help you plan a road trip to get a taste of what the Rangers’ Pacific Coast League affiliate has to offer.

The baseball fan in you wants to see some of the Rangers top prospects play, but you don’t have to even like baseball to have a good time. If you’re a kid, Dell Diamond has bounce houses and play areas for you. If you’re over age 21, they stock a lot of good beer.

The facility holds about a quarter the number of fans as Globe Life Park, so they have one main concourse. The concession stands there aren’t called “concession stands,” explained Brian Candler, General Manager for Concessions at Dell Diamond.

“One of the things that we’re really proud of is that we don’t have concession stands, we have restaurant storefronts,” Candler said.

All the food kiosks have themes reflecting what they serve, so the Rojo’s Southwestern Hideaway by section 121, for instance, offers nachos, tacos, and quesadillas, while the Southside Market BBQ by section 123 provides brisket, sausage, potato salad, and other Texas barbecue staples. Ryan-Sanders Sports Services (RS3), the stadium’s concessionaire, includes beer in the thematic planning, so the Ono Pacific Grill near section 113, for example, serves Longboard Island Lager alongside the Polynesian Sorbet.

RS3 prioritizes beer selection because the company wants to give its home market what it wants. “This is very Austin,” noted Candler.

They also want to set themselves apart. Candler said “We want people to think ‘I can’t believe this is a minor league ballpark.’”

With respect to beer, the selection available means there’s a chance you won’t believe it’s a ballpark at all. What can you find there?

Let’s start with basics. The team’s mega-brewery sponsor is Anheuser-Busch, who announces its presence with signage throughout the park, including in both bullpens. You can get A-B products at stands throughout the park, with Bud Light, Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, and (happily for craft beer lovers), ZiegenBock their most prominent offerings.

There’s a lot more than the basics available, though, with even a Miller Lite tap popping up at the Papa Murphy’s Pizza location near section 115.

You’ll find the aforementioned beer shakes at the FrozenSational Tiki Bar across from section 123, which stocks lots of other beers and frozen drinks like margaritas. Candler explained that they came up with the Beer Shake idea this past offseason. They narrowed five prototypes down to three that made the final cut, all of which include four ounces of ice cream plus a half bottle of beer. You can choose from Chocolate Stout (made with Convict Hill Oatmeal Stout), Vanilla Caramel (made with Firestone DBA), and Orange Creamsicle (made with Shock Top Apple Crisp).

There’s another FrozenSational Tiki Bar near section 117 on the third base side. While it doesn’t have Beer Shakes, it does offer some 20 varieties of canned and bottled beer, including the Pedernales Brewing Company’s Robert Earl Keen Honey Pils and Rahr’s Pride of Texas Pale Ale.

Speaking of Fort Worth brews, you’ll find the Rahr Amber Lager at Rojo’s Southwestern Hideaway. Other Texas brews abound, most especially at the Brew at the Rock Beer Garden, located down the third base line near section 112. They boast 16 draft beers here, including Rahr & Sons Bucking Bock. This stand also serves the stadium’s most popular craft brew, which, ironically, doesn’t hail from Texas.

“The Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale is our number one seller,” said Candler of the Alltech Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. brew, which boasts an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 8.2%. “We can barely keep it in stock.”

If you’re not convinced the Lexington import is as good as, say, Independence Brewing’s Austin Amber Ale or Karbach Brewing’s Weekend Warrior Pale Ale (both of which you can find at the Beer Garden), you can try a flight of four sample-sized servings to compare.

If you find the willpower to move on from the left field beer garden, perhaps with a full plastic Express-branded mason jar cup (available for an extra dollar with any of the beers), you might make your way back to your seat to watch a few innings from there. RS3 usually has ten or so beer vendors filtering through the seating bowl, although they had to up that total to 30 at a recent soccer game. These men and women will bring 16-ounce Bud Lights, Budweisers, Michelob Ultras, and ZiegenBock to your seat.

If you’re lucky enough to have seats allowing entrance to the Intel Club behind home plate (or you can pay a $10 cover charge for admission), you’ll find a unique selection of beer on tap there as well. The available drafts include Pedernales’ Lobo Negro, Power & Light Pale Ale, and Karbach Hopadillo IPA, with several more brews in cans and bottles.

If you’re in the Intel Club and feel the need for a supplementary intoxicant, you might consider trying one of mixologist Connan Hill’s infused liquors. Selections vary depending on the game, but might include such delicacies as Don Julio tequila combined with habanero or Makers Mark whiskey infused with cinnamon apple.

We should note that team policy stops alcohol sales of all kinds at the first pitch of the 8th inning. Hopefully when you came in, one of your party stopped at the Budweiser Good Sport cart just to the left of the Home Plate Entrance and signed up to be a designated driver in return for free soft drinks. If not, Yellow Cab sponsors a scoreboard feature at the top of the 9th reminding you to get a ride home with them if you’ve had too much to drink. Candler recommends starting that process at Guest Services. They’re located just to the right of the Home Plate Entrance and can help you get a taxi.

Make sure you plan your exit in advance, because once you arrive at Del Diamond, you’ll have much beery yumminess to entice you. A lot of you have apparently succumbed to the temptation. Candler says craft beer sales are up 46% this year. That’s a lot of Beer Shakes.

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


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Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

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You Like Beer

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on their site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/08/04/rangers-ballpark-beer-map/

You like beer. I feel confident making such an assertion because you’re reading a sports column. Sponsorship Today reports global beer brands spend $1.4 billion annually sponsoring sports properties. They would spend those sponsorship dollars on musical theatre or societies for creative anachronism if it made sense, but sports fans are the ones consuming a lot of suds.

As a public service, then, I’ve decided to start an occasional series of blog posts in which I will offer you guidance about where to acquire beer while attending your favorite sporting events. My kitchen cabinet populated with plastic Rangers souvenir cups prompted me to start at Globe Life Park in Arlington.

When a beer company sponsors a sports team, it also typically negotiates an agreement for favorable placement of its product within the team’s venue(s). You won’t have a difficult time guessing who scored the deal at Globe Life Park. You can’t flee an errant line drive without careening into Anheuser Busch products and signage.

Unless you’re, say, PeeWee Herman, and have a real thing for bowties, you care more about the product than the signage, so we’ll focus on the liquid refreshment. Entering through any gate but Center Field, you can walk straight ahead and encounter small stands stocked with Bud-branded goodies on ice, including ZiegenBock.

If you enter through Center Field Gate by the office building, you’ll walk smack through the Budweiser Bowtie, a concession area in which they sell food and, well, yeah, beer.

So basically you can buy a beer within seconds after you enter the ballpark. And, as noted at the top of this column, you like beer.

So now you have an aluminum bottle to enjoy while walking the concourse scouting out where you might get your next one. Before we proceed further, we want to mention some important safety tips with which you should familiarize yourself. First of all, the Budweiser Good Sport program offers rewards to designated drivers. Inquire at the guest relations office near Mazda Home Plate Gate.

Secondly, the concessionaire sells enough food products at that stadium to feed Mr. Creosote for a year. They have more than 100 concession stands, some selling comestibles the size of your labradoodle. When you can access a Choomongous, the Rangers 2-foot Korean beef sandwich named after outfielder Shin Soo Choo, you have no excuse for drinking on an empty stomach. Thirdly, you’ll find the cabstand outside Southwest Airlines Third Base Gate (or you can have an usher find it for you). Fourthly, there are, by my count, at least 189 restrooms in the stadium, if you include the suites, the clubhouses, and the office building. Your gender may disqualify you from using some of them, but you should still easily find a WC toward which to stumble if you’ve filled your bladder.

Since you probably finished that first brew while reading the last paragraph, you’ll want to assess your options for a refill. Turn left or right after entering at any gate and you’ll find a few of the aforementioned concession stands, each with taps primarily dispensing standard Bud products, like Bud Light. The Rangers must sell a lot of Bud Light. If you’re in that “Up For Whatever” kind of mood, you can satisfy your BL jones a lot of places.

How about if you crave something different? Maybe you’ve progressed past the point of choosing the cheap Arlington Stadium bleacher tickets so you could afford more paper cups of suds? Luckily, the craft beer revolution has not bypassed the Rangers’ current stadium.

Casey Rapp serves as Operations Manager for SportsService, the company that manages concession and merchandise sales for Globe Life Park in Arlington. He provided me some info on the variety of barley/hops available there.

“Section 18 has the biggest selection on draft and it’s called Major League Brewhouse,” he wrote me. “We rotate the draft, but there are local beers like Franconia, Real Ale, Deep Ellum, Revolver, Karbach, St Arnold’s, and other craft beers like Alaskan, 90 Shilling, and the list goes on and on.”

You’ll find Major League Brewhouse on the ground-level concourse near Southwest Airlines Third Base Gate, and the nearby 3rd Base Alehouse also serves a variety of drafts, bottles, and cans. If you’ve entered via Southwest Airlines First Base Gate, turn left and you’ll quickly happen upon the Beers of the World stand, near the entrance to mid-30s numbered seating sections, offering a number of beery options.

Incidentally, if you have some members of your party who prefer vino, you’ll find a wine stand across the concourse from Beers of the World. Such is Anheuser Busch’s dominance that they even sell Shock Top and Bud Light at the wine stand.

If you enter from Mazda Home Plate Gate and want something out of the ordinary, turn right and go just past the Pro Shop, across from the entrance to the good seats in the upper 20s sections. You’ll find the LandShark Lager stand. In addition to its namesake, the kiosk can sell you a draught of Montejo, Stella Artois Cidre, and the obligatory Bud Light.

Hard by Greene’s Hill (the grassy expanse in the batter’s eye named after a former Arlington politician) in centerfield resides the Beers of Texas stand, headlined by ZiegenBock. The location also offers some Shiner, Lone Star, and Lakewood brews. Rapp informs me they have such stands near sections 25, 51, 210, and 328 as well.

On the other side of the Hyundai Club from Beers of Texas, you’ll find the Centerfield Alehouse, just across from the Centerfield Market. It features, among other offerings, Stella Artois on tap. Its cooler includes cans of Modelo Especial, Heineken, Corona, 312 Urban Wheat Ale, and more.

If you visit the Lexus Club Level, there are a handful of stands and barlets that serve suds. The small bars offer a chance to enjoy some air conditioning as you order your beverage. I took special note of the left field emplacement, as it replaced my previous favorite spot in the ballpark, the ersatz Irish pub known as the Dublin Up. The new incarnation is Shock Top branded and offers its namesake’s varieties on draft as well as Bud Light.

If you choose to remain in your seats, SportService will have 75 or so beer vendors at a typical game to bring beer-filled aluminum receptacles to your very row. Rapp tells us, “You can get Bud Light, Budweiser, ZiegenBock, Michelob Ultra, Shock Top, LandShark, and the Rita family.” The Rita family means Bud Light with citrus favors. Be sure to tip the vendor something. Rita family members are heavy to carry around.

If you get up to go to one of the aforementioned necessaries, you may encounter a roaming beverage cart. Mr. Rapp tells us, “there are four on the lower level, one on the club level and three on the upper deck.  They roam each baseline, stopping to make sales on the concourse. You can get all the same things you can get from a vendor, plus wine.”

Rapp also tells me I can find Firemans #4, Rahr’s Blonde, Rahr Pride of Texas Pale Ale, and Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s Dallas Blonde in cans on portable carts.

What if you spend some of your evening in one of the onsite clubs? Of course, in the likes of the Captain Morgan Club, the Jack Daniel’s Club, and the Capital One Club, they serve beer. Casey Rapp describes it as a “wide array.” He also notes they often have Shock Top seasonal on draft, including Lemon Shandy, Banana, and Pretzel depending the time of year.

We’ve established that sports fans like yourself really like malted beverages, and a lot of folks like you attend every game. How can you feel certain the Rangers won’t run out of beer? Rapp assured me they keep a three-day supply at every game and can get same-day deliveries if needed. Whew.

Here’s one final note, for the benefit of Michael Newquist and the Fort Worth Weekly sales staff:  if you’re a beer brand, consider sponsoring this column. The people who read it like your product.

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

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How The WNBA Can Succeed in North Texas

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on their site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/07/28/sports-how-the-wnba-can-succeed-in-north-texas/

It’s got the makings of a great story. Oklahoma girl, originally from Detroit, leaves the hinterlands of Northwest OK and heads to the big city in Texas to make her fortune.

We recently learned of such a story in the offing, although it involves not one girl, but rather several women (really tall ones at that). The ladies in question play basketball for the Tulsa Shock of the Women’s National Basketball Association and the team’s owner announced last week he wants to move the franchise to North Texas. They expect to play home games at UT-Arlington’s College Park Center.

To that, I say super. It means more high-quality basketball in the area, with visits from the best women’s players in the world. It also pleases me because I have two nieces who like hoops and could benefit from the chance to observe, and become invested in, a team of that caliber.

So I hope the team does well, but they should know success won’t come easily. Local arenas are strewn with remnants of pro teams that have come and gone. I still own Fort Worth Fire jerseys and a Fort Worth Cavalry golf shirt. Maybe your attic houses a Fort Worth Cats cap (old or modern) or a Dallas Chaparrals program your dad bought. To help the A-Town Shock (or whatever decide to call themselves) avoid the fate of, say, the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, I put together a committee to make some recommendations.

It’s a committee of two. I got a spot because I write this column and because I did broadcasting work for a lot of the defunct teams and marketing work for some of the ones still in existence. The better half of the committee (in so many ways) is Nancy Lieberman. She made the cut because she’s in the dang Basketball Hall of Fame, she played pro ball here, and she knows a heck of a lot about the WNBA and hoops in general. I also picked her (blatant plug alert) because she runs a really great foundation that helps a lot of kids. I’ve done some videos for it and helped at some NLF events.

Lieberman pointed out “You get one chance to do it right,” which means the team has to hit the ground running and have a good plan.

Let’s start with the challenges. This seems like an attractive market because of its large population and affinity for sports. The NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS certainly liked the looks of it and their teams have shown staying power here. The newest of the Big Five pro franchises, the one I wish they still called the Dallas Burn, has lasted in the area since 1996.

In 1992, the new Central Hockey League began with, among others, the Fort Worth Fire, Dallas Freeze, and Tulsa Oilers. The Oilers won the league’s first championship and still reported drawing 5,479 fans a game last year despite never having won another title. The Fire and Freeze exist only in my closet, I think. I might still have a Fire puckhead somewhere.

The point is that the North Texas market is a lot different from Tulsa and so are the teams that stick here long term. The Shock moved to Tulsa from Detroit, so they could have some institutional memory about the challenges of sharing a large media market with teams from the country’s dominant sports leagues. In fact, Lieberman coached them their first three seasons in Motown. She had a strong opinion about the most important thing they could do to start carving a local niche.

“Grassroots, grassroots, gassroots!,” she said emphatically. Trust me, you could hear the exclamation point in her voice.

She suggested the team be everywhere from “camps to birthday parties.” She cited a model used by the NBA D-League team with which she is affiliated.

“Every team in the WNBA should borrow from the Texas Legends,” she said, noting also their kid-oriented approach to game presentation

My top point of emphasis relates closely to Lieberman’s: “Group tickets, group tickets, group tickets!” I didn’t actually say that out loud, but if I did, you would hear the exclamation point.

They can’t monetize their grassroots strategy without building in reasons to come to a game. Not only does a solid groups strategy allow a team to sell a bunch of tickets at once, but it can do so before the season starts. Preseason sales offer some revenue certainty that isn’t subject to the vicissitudes of a won/loss record.

Speaking of “Ws,” that “W” in WNBA matters. It’s a point of differentiation for the team brand. Lieberman pointed out one has to “get with the parents who are going to send their kids to you.” Parents who see value in inspiring their girls to pursue sports and fitness would seem a vital community outreach target.

Geography matters when it comes to the grassroots outreach. A WNBA team will have the advantage of being the most high-profile women’s pro team in the area, so they can draw some fans from throughout North Texas. Because the area is so enormous, however, driving distances will discourage fans in East Dallas and the northern suburbs from coming to games in Arlington. The Shock, then, need a solid strategy for establishing a base of fans near where they play. I’d start a lot of the grassroots activity by identifying pockets of likely ticket buyers in Arlington, Grand Prairie, and eastern Fort Worth.

They must keep regional tensions in mind as well. The Cowboys can play in Tarrant County and get away with having “Dallas” for a first name. Another team that tried that would risk alienating potential fans in Fort Worth and its environs.

The size of this media market can seem daunting as well. Going beyond the grassroots in Tulsa by, say, buying TV ads or airtime to broadcast games, incurs costs appropriate to the 61st largest media market. In North Texas, top-five market costs mean major sticker, um, shock. One has to pay to reach millions of viewers/listeners who live too far away to drive to many games. Big-market media costs make a more targeted PR strategy really important (and grassroots outreach, too).

The franchise will still want earned media attention, certainly, and an NBA-affiliated entity offers advantages there that are unavailable to, say, the Grand Prairie Airhogs. But one has to keep in mind that the media will expect major-market service. The D-League’s Fort Worth Flyers, for instance, didn’t put an emphasis on PR support. They lasted two seasons (with lack of media savvy helping compound lots of other issues).

One tricky part, then, of operating in this market is that one has to act major league without having the budget of a team that generates substantial TV revenue and draws 18,000 fans a night. Lieberman believes that doesn’t have to be an insurmountable problem.

“Even if you don’t have the budget, what you have to do (to be major-league) is work hard,” she said. The Shock do have to go the extra mile as a little fish in a big pond, and have to show creativity as well. For instance, they may not be able to afford to shell out the scads of money the Mavs spend to produce scoreboard features, but digital technology has made it possible to create really good ones much less expensively than ever before. Quality concepts can make up for lack of cash outlay.

Part of the hard work element comes in the form of digital strategy (creativity is pretty important here, too). A strong social media plan, one that goes hand-in-hand with the grassroots fan engagement plans, is a must, especially with a spread-out fan base and high traditional-media costs. Constant updates and new features require a significant time commitment.

So, to summarize, here’s what our committee thinks the team needs to do to succeed:

1.      Get involved in the grassroots (with an exclamation point).

2.      Sell group tickets like crazy.

3.      Understand the market and overcome its challenges with creativity and hard work.

One thing I didn’t add to the above list: Win.

Winning a lot of games never hurts, but finishing first is actually not as important at driving fans as it is for the Mavs or Rangers. The Shock won three titles in Detroit and moved. The Houston Comets won four and folded. Establishing a loyal fanbase matters more than even championships.

Lieberman won a title in this area in the WABA and also led a team to the WBL finals. Her Dallas Diamonds drew sustainable crowds but the rest of those leagues did not. Since the current well-established NBA-backed women’s league seems unlikely to fold like those earlier circuits, the Shock would seem to have a chance at success.

For the record, Lieberman thinks they will. “(Owner) Bill Cameron is a wonderful person,” she said. She believes he will put a plan in place to turn the move to Arlington into a success story. Heeding the recommendations she made in this piece would probably be a great place for Mr. Cameron to start.

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

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