28 October 2008

Part two took me a while

I had invoked the Heroes because I think they, rightly or wrongly, reinforce a stereotype about Huntington that we either cannot or will not support professional sports. The problem, though--and of course anyone reading this feel free to help me elaborate, or correct me, whichever needs to be done--is that from my reading the sports teams in this town have generally suffered from either terrible marketing or terrible ownership of one sort or another. Hockey will not sell itself--sure, it has its niche in the area, and I think on a consistent basis you would have a rock-solid base of 1500 fans, but a professional team in the Big Sandy Superstore Arena is not feasible on 1500 fans per game. "Feasible" in a league of 5000 or so seat arenas means a ballpark figure of 3000 per game. This REQUIRES promotion, it REQUIRES stability, and REQUIRES a real understanding of what it takes to succeed in the market you're in. Any one of these absent, and the whole enterprise is doomed to failure.


No comments: