Sports Marketing Group Project

Angie Pietrykowski

Justin Joldrichsen

Patrick Krcmar

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Table of ContentsExecutive Summary.........................................................................................................................3

Introduction and Background..........................................................................................................4

Proposed Marketing Situation.........................................................................................................6

SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................8

Strengths:.....................................................................................................................................8

Weaknesses:.................................................................................................................................9

Opportunities:...............................................................................................................................9

Threats:.......................................................................................................................................10

Marketing Strategy........................................................................................................................10

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Executive Summary

This report will provide an analysis and evaluation of the current situation of the National

Hockey League (NHL) team currently known as the Florida Panthers. Various topics will be

discussed, such as the Panthers’ attendance records, location, performance compared to other

teams/sports, and reasons why the Florida Panthers should be moved to Seattle.

It was concluded that the Florida Panthers would benefit from relocation rather than

staying where they are. This is based on their low attendance records over the last few years

compared to other teams in the league. The Panthers have little to no sponsorship which equates

to the loss of potential players that could be attracting fans to the arena.

Seattle is the “perfect fit” for this NHL team. There are numerous Fortune 500 companies

that could potentially be sponsors for such a team. With funding coming in from the sponsors,

we can place offers to attract better players. Once the players join the team, we can attract a

fanbase that will come to watch the team play in their new home arena. The people of Seattle are

extremely fanatic about their sports teams, which is proven by the high attendance record other

current and former Seattle teams have shown. The rowdy fan base would ultimately motivate the

players to want to play for their new hometown.

Promoting the “new NHL team” will take time. Local radio stations will need to be

involved with the front office and our marketable players. We can have fans call in and ask

questions to the team members. Local stores can get involved to host signings and pictures taken

of their favorite players. Team technicians can create an app that could promotes the games,

display ticket prices, and get the fans and players interacting with one another.

The marketing strategy for this recommendation is based on attracting younger fans that

could end up being lifelong fans in the long run. This can be attained by holding free giveaways,

promotional games during the hockey game breaks, and having throwback games. Local schools

can become involved by having the students write an essay and allowing the author with the best

essay to meet their favorite player of the team.

Introduction and Background

As the new owners of the NHL franchise, the Florida Panthers, it was never our intention

to keep this struggling team and business in south Florida. Before making the purchase of this

team, research was conducted to see whether attempts should be made to rebuild the team in

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Miami or to relocate it. Avid sports fans were interviewed face-to-face and many thought Tampa

Bay was the only city in Florida with a hockey team. Even the people who live in the

metropolitan area care very little about the team’s existence. They are unaware that the Florida

Panthers are an NHL team in their city. Needless to say, most of them have no intention of ever

attending a game. Based on the research that was conducted and the results from the interviews,

we decided it would be difficult to make a team profitable in a city/state where the people are

likely to quickly forget it.

When thinking about the successful hockey teams in the United States, cities such as

Boston, New York, Chicago, and Detroit come to mind. Although Miami is a great city, it just

does not feel like a location for ice hockey. People in the area are more excited about the warm,

pleasant weather and enticing beaches than a subpar hockey team. Thus, with the backing of the

NHL, it has been decided that the Florida Panthers are to be moved to Seattle to become the

Seattle Storm.

The move may be exciting, but it is understandable that just simply moving a franchise

may not always equate to success on the ice. However, being in a city like Seattle that puts the

“fan” in “fanatic” when it comes to sports will drastically improve attendance and make the team

more attractive for higher quality players to join. The team will experience a complete

transformation; the team name, team colors, and team logo will all be changed. As all

professional sports teams in Seattle have names that start with an “S” and every team has some

sort of green incorporated into their team colors, the plan is to abide by these same traditions.

Since the people of Miami hardly notice that the team exists, losing current fans is not

considered a major issue. There may be a few die-hard fans that will be lost in the move, but this

will be remedied by the amount of new fans that are more than likely waiting in Seattle.

Current Marketing Situation

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The perfect word to describe the Florida Panthers’ current marketing situation is “quick

sand.” The team is gradually disappearing from the minds of the people in Miami and before

they know it, the team will just quietly cease to exist. The license plate above also sheds light on

the team’s current dilemma. Clearly shown, the Heat, Marlins, Dolphins, and even the

Hurricanes are all represented, but there is no sign of a Panthers logo. On top of that, the

Panthers had the lowest average attendance of NHL teams, averaging 11,265 people per home

game last season. This is over 1,000 people less than the next lowest team. Since the Panthers

arena is far from being small, it gives the team a negative appearance: 11,265 fans only fills up

66.1% of the stands each night. When the team played away games last year, there was an

average of 17,860 people in attendance and on average, 96.4% of the stands in all other arenas

were filled. It is really hard to attract new players and keep young prospects from leaving the

Panthers when fans are much more supportive of their rival teams. The games are more fun and

the players are more invigorated when they have a loud crowd cheering them on. In competitive

sports, it is really hard to perform at your highest level when almost half of the seats are empty

every night. Looking at the graph on the next page, starting from 2013 to 2015 the Florida

Panther’s attendance was at the lowest it has been in then team’s history.

As stated previously, Miami is a great city with great people, but an NHL team is clearly

not a match for this market. Hockey is a gritty, blue collar sport and the fans usually match that.

Miami is a beautiful, glamorous white collar city whose passion does not lie with hockey--and it

shows in the attendance records. The evidence supports the claim that poor attendance and poor

win/loss records are directly related. There are other variables involved in this issue, but the fact

is, no one wants to pay to see a losing team play. Additionally, no all-star players want to play

for a team that has a poor fan base. Unfortunately, there are no signs indicating a change, as the

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decline in attendance has increased over the past couple of years. Franchise reports show that

the Panthers set records for both lowest home opener attendance and lowest home game

attendance in the first two games of the season last year. Unfortunately, this franchise has no

future in Miami, so the team's talents will be taken out of the south beach and moved to Seattle.

Proposed Marketing Situation

Seattle is renowned as one of the best professional sports cities in the country. It has

even been known to register on the Richter scale during Seahawks games. We believe that a

rambunctious Seattle crowd is just what is needed to rejuvenate this franchise. Seattle fans have

been desperate for a professional winter sport since the SuperSonics were sold and moved to

Oklahoma City in 2008. Seattle also has that hard-working and gritty vibe as a city that feels just

right for a hockey team. As the 12th largest metropolitan in the country, there is a big enough

population to house two successful winter sports team if Seattle were to attain a home to our

farm home to our farm National Basketball Association (NBA) team in the future. To be a

formidable NHL arena, it should be able to hold around 20,000 fans with a projected cost of

$250,000,000 to build. The arena is planned to be funded by the independent financiers of the

Seattle area. During the last year in Florida, the average ticket price was $33.38 a game, by far

the cheapest ticket for any Miami sports team. Based on the average attendance of 11,265 of

fans per game, an average of $376,025.70 in ticket sales per game was earned. With this move

to Seattle, we plan the average attendance to be nothing less than a sold out crowd, like the rest

of Seattle’s sports teams. An increase in ticket price is more comparable to the rest of the league,

an average of about $75, gives us the room to increase the price for big games and decrease the

price for smaller ones. With a minimum of 20,000 fans, on average, per game at $75 per game,

we are projecting that we will average $1,500,000 per game. This would be a 75% increase in

ticket revenue from our final year in Florida. Our plan is to hype up games against Vancouver,

San Jose, Los Angeles, and Anaheim in hopes of developing some long term rivalries. Our goal

is for Seattle Storm to be heated rivals with Vancouver since there is already a rivalry with

Vancouver’s professional soccer team, as seen in the chart above. Our plan is to sell that game

well above the $150 average ticket price since they are the closest in proximity. These prices are

all projections and subject to change once we find out how hot of a ticket the Seattle Storm

actually is in Seattle.

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Portland is the current home of our farm team, so moving closer to them will cut down on

costs from transporting team members back and forth from Portland to Miami. We have very big

aspirations in attracting young future all-star prospects and will plan on using our farm team to

develop more young talent than ever before. As owners, we have been on the lookout for a

superstar-type player to make the move with us to Seattle so that one marketable player can be

used for print advertisements, such as billboards and posters displayed all over the city to really

hype up our inaugural season.

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

The first strength of our new team would have to be the new location. As mentioned

before, Seattle is well-known for being a great sports town. The Seattle Seahawks have some of

the most loyal and passionate fans the National Football League (NFL) has to offer. Their games

are constantly sold out and they have broken records for being one of the loudest stadiums. There

are also other professional franchises that have experienced successful stints in Seattle, showing

that the city can support multiple franchises. The second strength of the Seattle location is its

large population. Stated previously, Seattle is the 12th largest metropolitan area in the United

States. This is beneficial to the Seattle Storm because it creates a larger target market. It would

help to increase the team's attendance numbers, which was one of the major problems the Florida

Panthers originally faced. More people will also help generate higher merchandise sales, which

will create more revenue for the franchise. The final strength of our move from Florida to Seattle

is the proximity to Canada--more specifically, Vancouver. With Vancouver being only a couple

hours away by car, this is the perfect situation to create a major Seattle-Vancouver rivalry. This

rivalry exists in the Major League Soccer (MLS). Having the hockey teams battle against each

other will strengthen the sense of competition between the two cities, benefiting both the NHL

and the MLS. Hockey is still recognized more in Canada than in the United States. Being close

to Canada, where hockey and many of its top players originally are from, will present many

opportunities. With many Canadian hockey fans, the Seattle Storm will have a greater chance of

attracting an audience to our arena.

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Weaknesses:

One of the first weaknesses we are faced with by our move to Seattle is that there is no

stadium available. This means that one must be built before we can begin our season. There is a

plan currently in place that has been approved by the city to have one constructed. As the

contract stands, Seattle wants a team before an NHL team. We intend to present our plan to the

city of Seattle to show that NBA can be successful along with NHL. Seattle has been pushing for

an NBA team, with high hopes that a team is coming soon. An NHL team could actually help

attract an NBA team to Seattle because the arena could be used by both teams. The final

weakness the team faces is its poor identity and success. The Florida Panthers has not been

regarded as one of the best franchises in the NHL. They have not won a playoff game since the

1995-96 season when they made the Stanley Cup Finals. The Panthers have also made the

playoffs only a few times since then. They have not had many star players on the rink for the

franchise and have hired and fired many coaches. We need to do the best we can to show that the

Seattle Storm can now be a stable and worthy franchise.

Opportunities:

This move has created a larger opportunity to generate more revenue. The average

median income of a household in Miami is approximate $48,000, whereas the median average

for Seattle is around $68,000. This could help generate more income, as the people of Seattle

will have more money to spend on the team than the people in Miami. NHL fans on average

have the highest incomes, which make for a better target market than the prior market. Another

opportunity is being able to attract more diverse fans. The NHL has not been known for being

diverse and has been doing everything possible to establish more diversity. Being located in

Seattle will help create more interest in the sport. The largest racial groups in Seattle are

Caucasian, Asian, and African American. The large Caucasian population will help support the

team, but if we can focus on attracting more Asians, African-Americans, and other groups, it

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would result in the diverse fanbase that the NHL seeks. This can also help the league generate

more awareness and grow the NHL’s overall fan base.

Threats:

The one threat that we are able to foresee would be the Seattle Seahawks franchise. They

have been extremely successful over the last few years and won the Super Bowl two years ago.

The football season overlaps with the hockey season, but football played is only on Sundays, and

occasionally Mondays and Thursdays. If fans can only afford season tickets for one team, many

would probably opt to go see the Seahawks. We believe that between the large population, high

incomes, and passion of Seattle fans, they will do their best to find ways to attend and watch

games from both sporting events.

Marketing Strategy

Every marketing strategy begins with figuring out who your target audience is going to

be. We want to attract any and all potential hockey fans to our team. As far as a focus, however,

we want to target adults in the age demographic of 18 to 54 years old. As the chart above shows,

63% of NHL fans are between the ages of 18 and 54. We want to push our franchise toward

these individuals because this is where we are going to get the majority of our true fans. We want

to target business owners and CEOs, as there are several major companies headquartered in

Seattle that would be interested in sponsoring the team and purchasing season tickets. This is a

great way for us to expand our brand and generate more revenue for the team.

We plan to market our franchise by selling tickets to games and selling team merchandise

at numerous locations. We are going to sell tickets online and with our sports team app. We also

plan to sell tickets by phone and at the box office in order to appeal to the older fans. Season

tickets will be sold at a discounted rate, as most season ticket packages do. We want to try to

incorporate free parking for seasonal ticket holders along with possible food and merchandise

vouchers on a limited number of items. The number of parking lots that will become available

will determine whether or not all fans will obtain free parking. Club seating and suites will also

be available for purchase. Suites will include cable and the option to get video games. This way

we can attract those who come in groups, but may not be interested in actually watching the

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game. The club seats we hope to eventually incorporate an “all you can eat” section. We want to

make our arena as fan friendly as possible. We want to have activities before, during, and after

games. For example, before the game, there would be sign decorating and face painting. During

the game, there can be fan contests to win prizes and free t-shirt tosses. Also, in between periods,

there can be Zamboni rides. We can randomly choose fans as they enter the stadium and offer the

opportunity to them. After the games, there could be a skate with the players, a meet up with the

players, and the opportunity to score a goal. Our hope is to make sure there is something for

every type of fan. We also want to have promotional games throughout the season to attract a

larger following. These games could include free giveaways at the door, like team apparel and

team memorabilia. We could also do throwback games where the team wears historic jerseys

from a previous Seattle hockey franchise. In another game, the team could wear the Seattle

Metropolitans to honor the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. Shown below are the

jerseys that were mentioned above.

Showing our games to fans is also a priority of ours. We understand that not everyone

can attend the game, but we want fans to be able to enjoy the experience. We plan to work with

local sports networks to negotiate contracts so that our games can be broadcasted on television.

Currently, Root Sports is the northwest affiliate for Fox Sports and is a network that we would be

interested in coming to an agreement in order to have games broadcasted to the public. Once we

generate more money, we may look into acquiring our own television network. This way we

could have a station to broadcast games and another way to generate money when the hockey is

not in season. The sports industry is starting to stream live and digital footage, something we are

looking to incorporate into our franchise as well. We want to try to get some of our games

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broadcasted online or on our official website so those without cable can still follow the team. We

want to draw in as many fans as we can and this is a great way for us to do so. We hope to

include replays on our website for those who missed the game and want to watch them.

To promote the Seattle Storm brand, we plan to advertise using all of the resources we

have available. Seattle has a strong television network, as shown above, and we plan to utilize

this as best we can. We are going to have commercials during local sporting events as well as

local stations that many individuals can access. We plan to sign a deal with Root Sports to

broadcast games and advertise commercials to encourage people to attend games. The Internet is

also another way we plan to market our franchise. The web is becoming increasingly accessible

to people and is a great way to attract younger fans. We are in the digital age and have to make

sure that we do all we can to keep up with the latest technology. We are going to post

promotional schedules on our website to keep fans informed on what is going on. The website

will include a comments area where fans can voice their opinions and what they would like to

see out of their team. Creating a strong relationship between the team and fans can be extremely

important, especially during difficult times. To accompany our website, we are creating a Seattle

Storm team app where you can follow the team, and purchase merchandise and tickets. We are

also going to have a rewards system for those who become members of our app. You can earn

points that can be used towards any purchases. The Seattle Storm will also have Facebook,

Instagram, and Twitter accounts so that the team can connect with fans and update them on team

news. These social media sites will also provide a great opportunity for fans to connect and share

pictures of their special experience.

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Works Cited"10 Reasons Why the NHL Must Expand to Seattle." The Hockey Writers. 17 Feb. 2015.

Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

"Florida Panthers Attendance Woes Are Not a Cause for Celebration." SBNation.com. 14 Oct.

2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

"NHL to SEATTLE." NHL to SEATTLE. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

"Play Under Review:: Which NHL Teams Should Relocate (Part 1)." Play Under Review: Which

NHL Teams Should Relocate (Part 1). Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

"TheHockeyFanatic." TheHockeyFanatic. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Thompson, Derek. "Which Sports Have the Whitest/Richest/Oldest Fans?" The Atlantic. Atlantic

Media Company, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

"Panthers' Home Attendance Woes Continue against Sens." SI.com. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

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