Kenny Speaks

[doublem23]

Originally Posted by nsolo

This is of importance when it comes to tv revenue. Live sports in the ultimate in reality tv, and a boring show garners poor ratings.

Perhaps someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that the Sox TV ratings are up and actually outdoing the Cubs on the season. At least locally on CSN. Probably not for national games on WGN.

[Lip Man 1]

This and that:

Sox ratings are up 10% on Comcast this year. Cub TV ratings are down 11% on the same network.

Solo:

You might find this interesting:

Research by Scarborough Sports Marketing, of New York City, indicates contrasts, some distinct.

Compared with fans at the Cell, a slightly higher percentage of adults attending Cubs are employed full time — nearly 59 percent to 56.4 percent, while fewer are self-employed, according to Scarborough surveys. Also, nearly 54 percent of adults at Cubs games are white collar; 52 percent attending Sox games are white collar.

Scarborough's research also shows that nearly 40 percent of adults who attend Cubs game are college graduates while that figure drops to 34.1 percent at U.S. Cellular Field.

Nearly half of all adults in 17 counties in the Chicago area watched, attended or listened to a Cubs game in the past year, Scarborough's research shows, while slightly more than 41 percent of them did the same for a White Sox game.

But the White Sox draw a higher percentage of first-time customers than the Cubs do, Scarborough found, and TV ratings of Comcast SportsNet, which broadcasts many of each teams' games, show the Sox have gained ground while the Cubs have dropped. About 70,000 households tune in to Sox games on CSN, the network reports, 10 percent more than last season.

The Cubs, meanwhile, draw slightly more than 66,000 households to their CSN broadcasts, down 11 percent from last year.

Boyer then makes an interesting statement that the Sox are lowering some ticket prices for the remaining games because "it was an effort to regain the trust of fans."

The story concludes on this note, long-range optimism for larger crowds at U.S. Cellular Field may be found in the higher TV ratings, a sign that the pool of new Sox fans has expanded, said Bill Nielsen, vice president of sales for Scarborough.

Lip

[soxfanatlanta]

Originally Posted by doublem23

No. The fact that they haven't changed anything in years says everything you need to know, unless, of course, you subscribe to the theory that Reinsdorf and the Sox ownership haven't been raking in the cash for the last 30 years which is, in two word, ****ing stupid.

This is their plan.

I now understand your point.

The look at is from a business perspective: JR is raking in a lot of cash, but I believe with a better marketing department, he could rake in much, much more.

[Hitmen77]

This coming from the guy who seemed to have written off the season before it started. I like Ventura and am hopefully he'll grow into being a good MLB manager. But, when KW hired someone with ZERO professional coaching experience to manage this team for 2012, I took that as a message that he didn't expect this team to do much this year.

Originally Posted by asindc

The players.

Agreed....but who is in charge of getting those players? If it's 4 years in a row of saying the players have failed us, that sounds like the problem is that the GM and his underlings haven't done a good enough job of putting together a team that is good enough and has enough depth to make to the post season.

I applaud KW's ability to find hidden gems, JR's willingness to put up money for Dunn and Danks's extension. I'm glad that the Sox have farm system successes in Sale and Reed. ....but that's obviously not enough. This team needs more depth and we can't continue to hope year after year that we ride scrap heap acquisitions and a couple of high-priced, yet flawed contracts (Dunn, Rios, Peavy) to the post season.

We can argue all we want, but the results show that the current management's approach isn't working. It seems to be good enough to keep this team at around .500 most seasons with a surprise playoff run every 5 years or so. But it's not enough to make this team one of the real contenders in the AL.

Quite frankly, I'm fed up with hearing KW "speak" to the same Sox failures year after year. It's like hearing Ozzie say "we need to get better at fundamentals" year after year only to have the same results.

Originally Posted by doublem23

Perhaps someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that the Sox TV ratings are up and actually outdoing the Cubs on the season. At least locally on CSN. Probably not for national games on WGN.

I believe that is correct. I'm not all that surprised. TV ratings are going to rebound much more quickly to a winning team than ticket sales (which are heavily dependent on season tickets and other advanced sales).

I can believe that people are tuning out the Cubs....but those tickets to Cubs games were sold months ago and they still count in the attendance numbers.

[hawkjt]

I heard the Haugh interview and he went to great pains to make sure that everyone knew that Kenny was not blaming the fans.

He did say that Kenny talked about de-linking attendance and payroll,and that they will be trying to approach marketing the team with a clean sheet ....and look at everything.

They know that just winning is not enough after this year,so they need to go back to the drawing board. I suspect that could mean cheaper tickets.

With good TV ratings,and new TV deals with Fox/TNT, they might just have the revenue to operate without concerns about attendance.
Haugh said that Kenny made it clear that they were going to be looking to win next year...again. No retrenching.

[Dan H]

Originally Posted by doublem23

Williams has consistently said about the Sox attendance issues that the team and the organization have to work harder to earn their fans' attendance. I don't think I have ever seen him outright blame fans for not coming to the park. I don't know where this comes from, I guess people are more comfortable feeling persecuted rather than embarrassed by the stark reality that Sox fans were just outdrawn at the gate by the Pirates. Whatever, I guess people are just going to sing this stupid tune.

At any rate, I still find it very amusing that people actually think the MBA's in the Sox marketing department are the ones that are clueless. Chortle.

I am not embarrassed by anything, certainly nothing that the Pirates have done whether on the field or at the gate. I don't care about somebody having an MBA. These team has never fully understood its fan base.

[DeadMoney]

Originally Posted by hawkjt

He did say that Kenny talked about de-linking attendance and payroll,and that they will be trying to approach marketing the team with a clean sheet ....and look at everything.

They know that just winning is not enough after this year,so they need to go back to the drawing board. I suspect that could mean cheaper tickets.

1. When I said 'blaming' the fans earlier in the thread, this is essentially what I was referring to. I'd say it's more of the empty threat to fans that we're all sick of (at least I am).

2. Cheaper tickets would be a nice start. It also wouldn't hurt to follow cheaper tickets up with a massive media campaign highlighting the fact that the South Side is a safe and enjoyable place to spend time.

[bunkaroo]

The parking cost is what keeps me from going to more than 10-13 games a year. Give me a $20 reduction in what it costs for 2 lower reserved or lower box tickets and I'll be there more often.

[bunkaroo]

I can also say without a doubt the heat kept me away from at least 3 games I would have gone to as walkups in July and August. It was just unbearable. Awful summer this year.

[DSpivack]

Originally Posted by hawkjt

I heard the Haugh interview and he went to great pains to make sure that everyone knew that Kenny was not blaming the fans.

He did say that Kenny talked about de-linking attendance and payroll,and that they will be trying to approach marketing the team with a clean sheet ....and look at everything.

They know that just winning is not enough after this year,so they need to go back to the drawing board. I suspect that could mean cheaper tickets.

With good TV ratings,and new TV deals with Fox/TNT, they might just have the revenue to operate without concerns about attendance.
Haugh said that Kenny made it clear that they were going to be looking to win next year...again. No retrenching.

The most interesting angle here to me is, assuming that Nightengale is correct, in KW's role as team President. If Hahn is handling the personnel moves, then I wonder if that frees up KW to handle more of the business side of the team. Sounds like he could be taking a more direct role in terms of the marketing of the team, and that he is possibly not happy with how Boyer is doing there, how the team is being marketed, and how they are drawing at the gate.

[kittle42]

Originally Posted by DeadMoney

It also wouldn't hurt to follow cheaper tickets up with a massive media campaign highlighting the fact that the South Side is a safe and enjoyable place to spend time.

This is a great idea. The casual fan stays away because of the misperception about the area. The tourist, even more so.

[nsolo]

Originally Posted by Lip Man 1

This and that:

Sox ratings are up 10% on Comcast this year. Cub TV ratings are down 11% on the same network.

Solo:

You might find this interesting:

Research by Scarborough Sports Marketing, of New York City, indicates contrasts, some distinct.

Compared with fans at the Cell, a slightly higher percentage of adults attending Cubs are employed full time — nearly 59 percent to 56.4 percent, while fewer are self-employed, according to Scarborough surveys. Also, nearly 54 percent of adults at Cubs games are white collar; 52 percent attending Sox games are white collar.

Scarborough's research also shows that nearly 40 percent of adults who attend Cubs game are college graduates while that figure drops to 34.1 percent at U.S. Cellular Field.

Nearly half of all adults in 17 counties in the Chicago area watched, attended or listened to a Cubs game in the past year, Scarborough's research shows, while slightly more than 41 percent of them did the same for a White Sox game.

But the White Sox draw a higher percentage of first-time customers than the Cubs do, Scarborough found, and TV ratings of Comcast SportsNet, which broadcasts many of each teams' games, show the Sox have gained ground while the Cubs have dropped. About 70,000 households tune in to Sox games on CSN, the network reports, 10 percent more than last season.

The Cubs, meanwhile, draw slightly more than 66,000 households to their CSN broadcasts, down 11 percent from last year.

Boyer then makes an interesting statement that the Sox are lowering some ticket prices for the remaining games because "it was an effort to regain the trust of fans."

The story concludes on this note, long-range optimism for larger crowds at U.S. Cellular Field may be found in the higher TV ratings, a sign that the pool of new Sox fans has expanded, said Bill Nielsen, vice president of sales for Scarborough.

Lip

Thank you, Lip. Very informative.

On another note, has anyone considered the link between attendance and concessions sold? For example, if ticket prices were to be reduced and fan attendance increases, will the probable increase in concession and other sales offset the reduced ticket sales profit?

[gosox41]

Originally Posted by RedHeadPaleHoser

Haugh was just on the Score, and between M&H and him they all agreed the the comments relating to September's record was directed moreso at Ozzie in that the team was burned out from the BS at the manager level. This season, they pressed too much.

Haugh also commented that KW took careful steps to not blame the fans for not coming out to support the team - the experience at the park needed to be improved.

If KW is president next year, maybe he can help with killing dynamic pricing!

We can't talk too much on this or risk getting in trouble.

I will say that my experience at the park has been great.

Bob

[gosox41]

Originally Posted by TaylorStSox

I read somewhere that the Sox were under .500 against teams not named the Twins and Mariners. That's kind of eye opening IMO.

They went 6-3 against the Rangers.

Bob

[Lip Man 1]

Apparently the plan to develop more retail business around U.S. Cellular Field has reached a dead-end. Kenny comments on that and other things regarding Sox attendance issues:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,3093254.story

Lip