Isaac
Years ago

Spirit-NBL crisis meeting over small crowds

Tim Morrissey, never short of opportunities to rail against missed opportunities in Sydney basketball, writes today about a meeting between the NBL and Sydney Spirit.

NBL boss Chuck Harmison will hold a crisis meeting with the Spirit this week to address the alarming lack of support for Sydney's only basketball team, which is heading for a $1 million loss.

The Spirit reportedly lost around $800,000 last season when they were called the West Sydney Razorbacks. However, since rebranding themselves following the demise of the Sydney Kings all they've achieved is alienation from the majority of fans from both organisations.

That was highlighted by Friday night's dismal crowd of 1,476 at the Spirit's showcase game against Brian Goorjian's new club, the South Dragons, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
Here are my suggestions to try and fix this:

1. Go back in time.
2. (optional) Don't vote against giving the Kings more time to stay in the league (pissing off their fans in the process).
3. Pick a venue and stick with it.
4. Don't change your name to something already used by a WNBL team (a freebie poll on OzHo showed that 'Sydney Razors' was your best bet if you absolutely had to change something).
5. Don't transparently try to appeal to abandoned Kings fans.
6. Don't alienate your few existing fans by trying to pick up the Kings fans as well.
7. Don't get the kid down the road to create your corporate brand.
8. ???
9. Profit!

Now, admittedly, #1 could be a challenge, but CEO Steve Aquaman Aquilina could take the money spent on "appointing a fulltime media manager and contracting a marketing company", and throw it all into time travel research instead.

Here's the full article

What would you do?

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HAHA  
Years ago

Isaac, is it any wonder that this has happened?
Spirit players and fans were having to get themselves a second day job to join forces and form their own marketing when the NBL accepted them into the League and pretty much told them they're on their own now.
Negligent, negligent, negligent!
What is the point of a review when they continue to make half assed decisions like this?

Reply #208109 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

I wonder how many schools they have contacted or visited this year?
Do they have school teams or district clubs play curtain-raisers? Do they otffer those communities discounted tickets to get people through the door?
You actually have to work at drawing a crowd people!

Reply #208120 | Report this post


Isaac  
Years ago

I think they offered tickets at $10 or less, so we can rule out price as a factor. What does that leave? Awareness, interest, location/difficulty - I think they probably struggled with all three of those.

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Ben Fitz  
Years ago

Thought i might throw hoops tv ep 6 in here as Beveridge talks about what they are trying to do to get crowds in already.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Awareness - I would bet my house that more people in Adelaide have heard of the Spirit than have in Sydney.

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The_Champ33  
Years ago

Rub out Sydney in the new league and bring back the Brisbane Bullets.

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HAHA  
Years ago

As a Sixers and Bullets fan who doesn't care much for Sydney, there's no way though, that you could have a proper comp without a proper Sydney team.
I feel sorry for Spirit- they were behind the 8 ball from day one and if that cascades down to the team in any way I seriously couldn't blame them.
Bring back the Bullets for sure but get rid of Chuck's Hawks- if he didn't still look after them, they'd be long gone already.

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