The LA/Oakland Raiders, Baltimore/Cleveland Browns, St. Louis/LA Rams. What in the wide world of sports is going on here? Thanks to the complex and emotional pseudo-science of team franchising agreements, sports fans can no longer assume that the team they grew up supporting will be a permanent hometown fixture.
San Francisco’s 49ers are the latest victims of this shell game. This past June, voters in Santa Clara approved Measure J, to construct a new 68,500-seat stadium for the team – 40 miles south of the team’s current San Francisco home field. For a team whose current digs at Candlestick Park are shoddy at best, the promise of a sparkling new stadium and a wider fan base seems like a winning proposition. Die-hard Niners fans see it slightly differently.
“I hate it,” says Daisy Barringer, a Niners Faithful and sports blogger for SFist. “They’re the San Francisco 49ers, not the Santa Clara 49ers. I don’t care if the name isn’t going to change. The 49ers belong in SF.”
“I hate everything about it,” agrees Marc Blinder, whose allegiance to the Niners spans more than 20 years. “I’m a season ticket holder, and we have so much history here.”
Do franchises need to give a damn about their fans?
Product marketers the world over would no give their eyeteeth to tap into the intensity of sports fans. While consumers’ loyalty to certain brands is undeniable (there are people who vehemently choose Pepsi over Coke), it hardly rivals the ferocity with which loyal fans stand by their teams. And who in the process often throw down oodles of cash on paraphernalia, season tickets, and splurges on premium cable to ensure they can watch a game, regardless of which market they live in.
Most goods and services providers would never rock the boat too vigorously when it comes to major corporate decisions about their products (hello, Gap completely reversed its decision to go with a new logo after customers lost their minds over the whole thing), but when it comes to sports teams and their fans, it’s an entirely different thing.
The loyalty for a team, something that is usually groomed and nurtured over generations and lasts an entire lifetime, rarely, if ever wanes, no matter what the circumstances (see: Detroit Lions fans). And that is why sports franchises can make giant decisions, such as moving a team, safe with the knowledge that even the angriest fan is probably ordering a new cap, jersey, or what have you, even as they vent their outrage on fan sites.
But Can It Last Forever
Still, that built-in loyalty shouldn’t be taken for granted, especially during the hard economic times that continue to push down on so many. Season ticket sales for NFL teams have fallen for three consecutive years. And in the case of the 49ers, asking fans to pay for tickets to see a team no longer in their backyard, so to speak, on top of a long commute (which is almost impossible on public transit) could slice even deeper into the franchise’s already dismal budget.
The Niners and everyone else should heed the advice of Jon Last, who suggests, among other things, communication efforts that feel one-to-one, something easily achieved when coupled with Kristian Gotsch’s advice from CustomerThink about how sports clubs that take the lead on various social CRM strategies can also help boost fan experience.
Is it for the fans?
Something else to consider is whether a new stadium is the biggest gift the franchise can give fans. It’s not like anyone’s raving about the stadium.
“Candlestick is an embarrassment to the team and the sport of football,” Barringer says. “It’s old and run-down. It’s incredibly windy. The seats are small, the bathrooms are gross and it lacks any of the modern amenities that most of the newer stadiums have. The only thing that’s great about it is that, well, it’s Candlestick. There’s a lot of history there.”
“It’s a total dump,” agrees David Feldhouse, a Yahoo Sports producer who has witnessed several other franchise moves and the subsequent effect on fans. “It’s one of the worst stadiums in the NFL.”
And while he agrees he’ll miss having the 49ers in San Francisco, San Francisco columnist Peter Hartlaub likens the stadium to one giant urinal.
The 49ers management, headed by Denise DeBartolo York (sister to Eddie DeBartolo, the team’s former GM who resigned after he was linked to an extortion suit) and her husband, John York, still have time to reconsider: a union contract dispute has already delayed construction for the proposed Santa Clara stadium, which is now slated to open in 2015. In the meantime, San Francisco officials (including Gavin Newsom) are working to keep the team within SF city limits. But there’s no official fan movement to keep the Niners in San Francisco.
So at the end of the day, is it better to honor loyal fans by keeping a team true to its geographical monikers or to build a state-of-the-art stadium that will make for an overall much improved fan experience?
