Dear Mike Repole

[u/astroknight1701]

So you’re demanding 5,000 Stallions season ticket purchases in the next few days, and then you promise “better marketing” AFTER that? Forgive me if I find that a little @$$-backward, Mike.

How about a month of solid advertising and then see how many purchases are made? Otherwise this sounds like Stan Kroenke saying he’ll keep the Rams in St. Louis if only the city spends a billion on the dome, when in fact he decided he was leaving years before.

I’ve talked to friends and family in Birmingham, big football fans, who didn’t even know the Stallions existed, and it would certainly be easy to not know given the near-total absence of marketing! If you truly believe in Birmingham as you say, let’s see it. Give the city a chance. Really get the word out and allow a little more time, and I think you’ll get the response you want.

[u/Vector1013]

Honestly I can’t believe this big marketing guy is gonna come in and move teams with out even trying to market them better. Kinda like he doesn’t even believe in himself. If he is so good at what he does, he should be able to leave the teams where they are and fix them.

[u/MCallanan → u/Vector1013]

The problem with this thought process is it assumes you can put a team in any market and it will succeed with proper marketing.. that’s not the case.. it would be like opening a steakhouse in a vegetarian community — marketing isn’t going to work no matter how much of it you do.

[u/Vector1013 → u/MCallanan]

I understand what you are saying but I disagree with it.

Memphis has a population over 600k, Birmingham a population over 1 million, Michigan a population over 600k and attendance was rising, and Houston a population over 2.3 million. Getting minimum 10k butts in seats is possible. Especially since most of these places have multiple professional sports teams.

The base is there. They are sports cities. But like OP said, people still have no idea that the league is even running.

I live in Baltimore. People in both DC and Baltimore had no idea this league was going on. And I work in an industry where sports and sports betting is a HUGE thing.

The message has to get out there. They need to let people know the league is happening.

[u/MCallanan → u/Vector1013]

Birmingham a population over 1 million,

Birmingham has a population of 200,000.

Getting minimum 10k butts in seats is possible.

That’s very possible considering they averaged close to that the last two seasons. The problem is the league / new owner aren’t happy with that number and seem to want a minimum of 15,000 per game.

They are sports cities.

But sports city doesn’t not necessarily translate to minor league football city. We’ve regularly seen this thought process in spring football — ‘this is a football city, so spring football should succeed here’ they market it to the tilt, no one shows up and the question becomes where did they go wrong? The simple truth is that not all markets are going to turn out for minor league football even if it’s marketed well and taking place in a ‘football city’.

But like OP said, people still have no idea that the league is even running.

But television ratings and previous well attended games tell us that’s not accurate. I know everyone’s anecdotal evidence about their Mothers deceased Aunt not knowing about a team is fun to listen to but the actual hard data tells us otherwise. Fans know about the Stallions in Birmingham, the league needs to figure out how to get them to come out to games.

At the end of the day if marketing alone solved the riddle that is spring football it would’ve been successful long ago.

[u/Vector1013 → u/MCallanan]

You are right about the Birmingham population. I looked at that wrong when I looked it up. Thats on me.

I can agree with you that sports cities may not translate to minor league football. So glad you called it that by the way. I hate that they try to push it as Pro Football. But I do think with the proper marketing any sports city could be viable for this league. Even if they are looking for 15k butts in seats.

TV ratings are a nationwide thing though. So sure, there are a lot to people watching them on TV. The UFL is averaging 669k this year. US population between 18 & 65 is around 207 Million. We aren’t even getting .5% of that population. Where as an NGL games viewership is 17.5 million viewers. There is plenty of growth for awareness in this league.

I can agree with you that if marketing was the fix then it would have been solved a long time ago but there was little to no marketing at all this year. Especially around the DC/Baltimore area.

I think they at least need to try.

[u/MCallanan → u/Vector1013]

But I do think with the proper marketing any sports city could be viable for this league. Even if they are looking for 15k butts in seats.

We all have to remember that we’ve seen previous football leagues who marketed as heavy as heavy can be go into some of these markets and fail miserably. A lot of people forget the NFL, yes that NFL, failed in Memphis. So we have to be cognizant of the fact that marketing can work in areas where people are enthusiastic about the product.. But if you aren’t enthusiastic about the product marketing alone isn’t going to change that. For instance, Memphis had that amazing beer and food promotion deal all season long, right? No one showed up, it didn’t move the needle. But do you think that’s evidence that same beer promotion would fail in DC or STL? I’d bet my left hand that beer promotion would increase numbers in both those cities.

TV ratings are a nationwide thing though.

They are both. We have data specific to just the market. So we know how many people are watching the game just in Birmingham or Memphis or really any other city in the country.

I think they at least need to try.

Of course but we also have to be honest that they have tried and we need to be honest that not all markets are created equal.. Some are going to be enthusiastic about spring football some are not and sooner or later you have to cut ties with those that don’t have that enthusiasm.

[u/TwizzlersSourz → u/MCallanan]

The NFL "failed" in Memphis because the Titans were destined for Nashville and everyone knew it.

[u/MCallanan → u/TwizzlersSourz]

And then? Fella, we ain’t talking MLS or the NHL here.. We are talking about the most profitable and arguably the most popular sports league on the planet.. A league that regularly pulls 70,000+ fans for neutral site games. Most cities in this country would kill for a neutral site NFL game never mind two full seasons of a team to call their own.

[u/gorogergo → u/MCallanan]

Now I want beer promotions in DC and STL.

[u/astroknight1701 → u/Vector1013]

The Birmingham metro area is much bigger than the 200k in the city proper. The city of St. Louis only has a population 279k. It’s metro area though is almost three times bigger than Birmingham’s.

[u/astroknight1701 → u/Vector1013]

I agree. I say give cities a real chance and if they don’t respond, fine, move them.

[u/stillflyn86 → u/Vector1013]

Zero reason to throw good money after bad in Memphis, at a minimum.