Marketing The Raiders

Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle is dead wrong in his recent column about Oakland Raiders game attendance and related team marketing. He suggests that performance on the field is paramount and correlative to stadium sellouts, and that marketing is essentially meaningless in comparison. So how do you explain 62,000 in paid attendance at Ford Field to watch the Lions lose again on October 31? How do you explain 70,000 in paid attendance at M&T Bank Stadium to watch the Ravens lose again on November 6? In the parity-ridden NFL, in which today’s victor is tomorrow’s loser, no team can count on winning as its foundation for economic viability.

I’m not saying that winning doesn’t help, but it’s far from the whole enchilada. In fact, rooting for the underdog is a quintessentially American pastime—as is marketing. Thus, the potential of marketing should not be underestimated when it comes to the Oakland Raiders. The fact is that the average consumer appreciates and responds to good marketing. We expect a hard sell. We welcome a strong pitch. We love a great idea.

The great idea for the Raiders resides in growing the team's fan base, specifically in terms of game attendance. It resides in countering misperceptions about Raiders fans and the Coliseum experience while remaining true to the authenticity and intensity that define the Raider Nation. This is a fine line that will require some smart marketing.

Let me say this: Pretending that a Raiders game is all sugar and lollipops, as earlier advertising campaigns have implied, would be a mistake. However, the same old thing won’t work, either, as evidenced in the lack of sellouts, as well as in the ample anecdotal feedback from folks who confess to being scared to attend a Raiders game, or who are otherwise misinformed about what it means to be a Raiders fan. In this context, it is the marketing message, more than the marketing methods, that will pave the road to success.

At this point, you may be asking: Why should I care about all this? Here's why: In the wake of the recent decision to eliminate the Oakland Football Marketing Association and to turn ticketing and marketing matters over to the team, the marketing of the Oakland Raiders enters a new and crucial era—one that will likely determine whether or not you and your kids will be able to attend a Raiders game in Oakland six years from now.

Raiders fans are the finest and most dedicated fans in the NFL. We in the Raider Nation don’t need to worry about losing fans. But we do need to worry about adding fans and filling seats. The Coliseum lease is up in five years. The Raiders rank near the bottom in revenue in the NFL. The Raiders are a business. If you connect the dots, you will quickly see that if the team doesn’t become more economically viable by 2010, Oakland could find itself in the Raiders’ rear-view mirror.

We can’t count on a fancy new stadium to save the day (what's wrong with the Coliseum, anyway?). We probably can’t count on cheaper tickets, either. Winning is never assured in today’s NFL. So what’s left? Smart marketing, the kind of marketing that will open people’s eyes, that will tap into the greatness of the Raiders gameday experience and bring newcomers into the fold.

The best kept entertainment secret in the Bay Area is a day at the Coliseum, in the company of good people, in appreciation of a great team. It's time to let the secret out.