I'm finishing up a research on sports marketing and I'm looking for some good ideas on social behavior, ideas to promote a sport... Some ideas I'm thinking about: Assume you're in a country where the most popular sport is soccer. However, only 2 of the 15-team league teams remotely fill up a stadium. There's just not very much support. However, you know for a fact that people are interested because EVERYONE watches on tv.... Are these ideas practical: - Blackout rule. I know American Sports have enforced them. I don't want to know if you're pissed about it, I want to know if it has worked in terms of filling the seats. - To stimulate more interest among non-UAE nationals (united arab emirates), propose a holiday (one day) for the city that wins the league. Keep in mind: this city is desperate to improve attendance across all sports and UAE nationals are only 15% of the population.
To me it is a price control issue. People WILL go to something they are interested in if they can afford it. Lower the ticket prices until you have capacity crowds. I don't care if it is $3 US per ticket. Drop 'em until the fannies are in the seats. Then bring the prices up until you fill only 90% of the stadium and leave them there while you work on your product and match-day presentation. Hone that until you are full again and raise the prices until your stadium is only at 90%.. Repeat.
5th highest GDP in the WORLD. I've studied income, it's not the problem. This is a rich country. I'm thinking right now that maybe the route to take is use positioning to build high-tech stadiums, never-before-seen stuff... Basically, absuing the luxury suite way of doing things. Build a whole bunch of luxury boxes, a crazy proportion, and see how that works. Noise is not something to worry about right now. Right now they PAY people to go watch soccer games here. It's laziness and a bit of snobiness. The country is world-class, but the stadiums are nothing close to world-class. Factor in that the weather is horrible most of the time. Retractable roof, pricey and WAY more luxury boxes may be smarter.
it would also depend which country/continent we are talking about..In Latin America,4 owners own most of the league corruption in soccer is High
For the stadium, throw in giveaways, a nice kids' area, free wi-fi, restaurants, and a "Red Rowdies"-like section. A section (up top) of really cheap tickets would help, too.
Do people watch local soccer on tv or are they watching European soccer. Seems like that's the case in a lot of Asian countries. Interest is high in soccer but never in the local leagues. But you basically said what I was going to say. Stadiums have to be a huge issue. It's the desert after all. Who in their right mind would go watch a soccer game in that heat.
