Will Hartford Athletic ever win a game?

[Waquoit]

If the Yard Goats leave, there will a number of teams jumping at the chance to play in that stadium.

Sea Dogs anyone?

 

[whaler11]

Sea Dogs anyone?

You don’t need the Sea Dogs to get the Red Sox.
The major league affiliations are contractual and not permanent.

 

[whaler11]

Be honest, you're trolling because you're a troll.

I engage in good faith with good posters. Who amongst us doesn’t enjoy trolling some of the clowns who pollute the Yard?

 

[Adios]

I engage in good faith with good posters. Who amongst us doesn’t enjoy trolling some of the clowns who pollute the Yard?

Yeah, trolling without even reading posts. Brilliant.

 

[TheDoggPound]

I engage in good faith with good posters. Who amongst us doesn’t enjoy trolling some of the clowns who pollute the Yard?

A vast majority of your 43,000 posts (talk about pollution...) is denigrating things you claim to support. Good faith? C'mon now

 

[TheDoggPound]

Why not use your intellect to help build us up instead of trying to tear us down? We're supposed to all be on the same side.

 

[Palatine]

Just wondering where exactly HA is supposed to get revenue from even at 16 bucks a ticket and 4K attendance I don’t see how they will make money.

Soccer doesn’t have as many home games and they need ticket and concessions revenue to carry them through.

Parking (ten bucks)
Concessions
Merchandise from both the stadium and on-line
HA sells corporate sponsorships and advertising
The USL has a broadcast contract
HA has a contract with WTNH
The team will probably start running camps in the future

That probably adds up to a negative cash flow at this point. But its makes the situation you describe less dire. Hard to say when their plan starts to turn a profit. There are probably other existing or planned revenue streams I missed.

 

[ZooCougar]

Parking (ten bucks)
Concessions
Merchandise from both the stadium and on-line
HA sells corporate sponsorships and advertising
The USL has a broadcast contract
HA has a contract with WTNH
The team will probably start running camps in the future

That probably adds up to a negative cash flow at this point. But its makes the situation you describe less dire. Hard to say when their plan starts to turn a profit. There are probably other existing or planned revenue streams I missed.

Are we sure HA isn’t paying WTNH? And that they aren’t fronting production costs? MLS teams usually pay for production.

It’s actually more dire because these teams very rarely turn a profit.

 

[whaler11]

A vast majority of your 43,000 posts (talk about pollution...) is denigrating things you claim to support. Good faith? C'mon now

Lol - yeah its way more productive to pretend Bob Diaco or Kevin Ollie can coach. Or that the AAC doesn’t blow in spectacular fashion.

Maybe if I pretend recruiting like a mediocre FCS achool translates to winning at the FBS level that will come true too!

Or that UConn is going to go to the Big Ten.

Not everyone chooses to deal with reality - that’s not my fault.

 

[Palatine]

Are we sure HA isn’t paying WTNH? And that they aren’t fronting production costs? MLS teams usually pay for production.

It’s actually more dire because these teams very rarely turn a profit.

The USL has it's own production unit. And even if they the USL is paying WTNH (or Hartford is) it would only be because they are making a profit on commercials. There is no way HA would enter into an agreement with WTNH where they losing money. That makes no sense.

 

[Palatine]

BTW, the USL has a small deal with ESPN. On October 9th Hartford Athletic vs. Birmingham will air on ESPNews as the game of the week. The last paragraph is how WTNH content is produced.

Now in its third season, the USL’s agreement with ESPN will see six USL regular season games and the 2018 USL Cup aired on linear networks, a major increase from a season ago. The full 2018 Game of the Week schedule will be released in the coming weeks.

In addition to the USL Game of the Week on ESPN3, the league’s regular-season contests will be available in the United States through ESPN+ after its launch on April 12, where the league will reside alongside Major League Soccer, the English Football League and UEFA Nations League on the new direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company Direct-to-Consumer and International group in partnership with ESPN.

Prior to the launch of ESPN+ on April 12, all USL regular season contests will be available through the league’s YouTube channel.

Games will be produced by USL Productions, the league’s state-of-the-art broadcast production, broadcast and distribution facilities with VISTA Worldlink in south Florida. Now in its second season, USL Productions produces and distributes more than 500 league matches and more than 1,000 hours of original content to national partners and local affiliates. The USL Match Center will also return for the 2018 season, with up-to-the-minute match statistics provided by industry leader Opta.

 

[ZooCougar]

The USL has it's own production unit. And even if they the USL is paying WTNH (or Hartford is) it would only be because they are making a profit on commercials. There is no way HA would enter into an agreement with WTNH where they losing money. That makes no sense.

Yeah it’s called a time buy. And it’s not always profitable. You’re paying for exposure.

 

[whaler11]

Lol perfect timing for this email... shot

 

[whaler11]

And the LOL chaser

 

[Palatine]

If it is a timed buy...my guess is they already have sponsors bought in for the commercial time or they wouldn't buy the time. I highly doubt they are paying for exposure. That doesn't make any sense.

 

[ZooCougar]

If it is a timed buy...my guess is they already have sponsors bought in for the commercial time or they wouldn't buy the time. I highly doubt they are paying for exposure. That doesn't make any sense.

Usually it’s the same sponsors that are giving you money for other signage and exposure. The commercials are part of the package deal.

If the TV station knew the club could make more money selling commercials than the timebuy cost then they probably would just let them broadcast for free and keep the ad revenue.

 

[Palatine]

Usually it’s the same sponsors that are giving you money for other signage and exposure. The commercials are part of the package deal.

If the TV station knew the club could make more money selling commercials than the timebuy cost then they probably would just let them broadcast for free and keep the ad revenue.

True... sponsorship often involves up to a third or half in trade rather than direct payments. But I highly doubt HA or the USL is losing a dime with the WTNH deal.

 

[zls44]

USL produces the entire telecast. WTNH basically just broadcasts what comes back producedfrom Florida.

 

[kibblesnbits]

View attachment 45187 And the LOL chaser

Those are small discounts ($3 per seat) available through youth programs. That’s just smart marketing. I get discount offers from the Yankees all the time - tickets as low as $5 for less attractive games. Apparently they don’t know what they are doing either.

 

[whaler11]

Those are small discounts ($3 per seat) available through youth programs. That’s just smart marketing. I get discount offers from the Yankees all the time - tickets as low as $5 for less attractive games. Apparently they don’t know what they are doing either.

we’ve hashed this out a million times but it’s not smart marketing. training your customers to only buy at discounts catches up in time. the yankees have a different equation than HFA but all you have to do is follow UConn’s attendance downfall and it’s pretty simple to see the short ter cash grab comes home to roost in the long run.

and the greater point here is they missed the boat on pricing by a lot more than $3.

 

[kibblesnbits]

we’ve hashed this out a million times but it’s not smart marketing. training your customers to only buy at discounts catches up in time. the yankees have a different equation than HFA but all you have to do is follow UConn’s attendance downfall and it’s pretty simple to see the short ter cash grab comes home to roost in the long run.

and the greater point here is they missed the boat on pricing by a lot more than $3.

If they missed by more than $3 then the discounts shouldn’t hurt. Besides, it is smart marketing. Offering small discounts to groups and affiliates is standard practice for virtually all successful sports teams outside the NFL. UConn has been criticized for offering large discounts to anyone, including free tickets for a few games to any fan that can navigate a web browser. Those are far different circumstances.

 

[whaler11]

If they missed by more than $3 then the discounts shouldn’t hurt. Besides, it is smart marketing. Offering small discounts to groups and affiliates is standard practice for virtually all successful sports teams outside the NFL. UConn has been criticized for offering large discounts to anyone, including free tickets for a few games to any fan that can navigate a web browser. Those are far different circumstances.

Yes they are just starting their decent into stupidity. They already annouced freebees for AARP and now CJSA is giving them our emails so they can harrass us with $3 discounts. It’s about the same price they offered us for our fundraiser (to which UConn sells us tickets for $1 without a ridiculous minimum). The degree to which people in the local youth soccer community have already dismissed them is stunning.

If you don’t get how badly they misread the pricing market I don’t know how to help you understand - but the idea they were going to consistently sell tockets where the cheapest is $16 is laugh out loud funny.

The economics of American minor league soccer don’t work - there is a reason why minor league baseball teams use busses exclusively below AAA.

Either a deep pocket benefactor loses millions or a corporate sponsor foots the cost (good luck with that in Hartford).

I don’t know how old you are but I’ve watched everything from the Hellions to the Bluefish - I’ve seen teams most people have never heard of come and go. Most of them didnt burn 13 million in public money on the way to the scrapyard.

 

[whaler11]

A’s take fans’ pulse, tweak popular ticket plan for 2020

The Oakland Athletics’ popular A’s Access plan will feature some fan-driven changes...

www.sfchronicle.com

sort of stuff forward thinking orgs are doing....

 

[kibblesnbits]

A’s take fans’ pulse, tweak popular ticket plan for 2020

The Oakland Athletics’ popular A’s Access plan will feature some fan-driven changes...

www.sfchronicle.com

sort of stuff forward thinking orgs are doing....

The net of that is that the A's claim to have increased their pathetic attendance by about 1,200 per game by further cutting prices via offering general admission freebies, free or discounted parking and 50% off concessions to entice partial season ticket plans. I have no problem with it and the packaging as a membership is in keeping with trends (many soccer teams were playing the membership angle long before baseball discovered it) , but the heart of the offer is still price cuts.

I also don't have a problem with critiques of the USL business model. I really don't understand flying a team to KC to play a reserve team on a Wednesday before far fewer than 1,000 fans (not to mention letting the parent club stack the roster because it was a rare mid-week game). The league should have much more regional scheduling and bus travel. Something like 6 divisions of 6 teams each where teams play division rivals 4 times and each team in a second division twice for a total of 32 games would make far more sense.

Lastly, I don't think HA is as far off on pricing as you do. The mid-field chair seats should be $30 and an end line $10 option would have helped, but had to be cut due to budget. That's why the mere $3 discount helps through affiliates. This is a team playing 17 games, overwhelmingly on weekends. It's not comparable to the Yard Goats trying to sell 72 games, including weekday games in the 1/2 of the season before the kids get out of school. If the Yard Goats were only playing on weekends you can be sure their tickets would be significantly more expensive too. Even so, I paid about $25 to sit upstairs at one of their games in May and I don't think I've ever paid less than about $12-$15 (similar for a family to the $13-$16 sideline seats at Dillon). At $30 a season membership would be $500 or less for the limited number of the best seats in the house and getting it down to $200 or so at the low-end would help.

I think the biggest and most inexplicable screwup is the lighting issue that's forcing 5:00 starts in the baking sun. I can understand the construction schedule slipping as that's happened in many places, particularly at the minor league level and when schedules are very tight. But how hard is it to obtain a few light poles and fixtures that meet modern standards over a period of 9 months? I don't get it. That should have been one of the few off-the-shelf items.

 

[Waquoit]

USL produces the entire telecast. WTNH basically just broadcasts what comes back produced from Florida.

So that's the Gary Bailey connection.