We can also take some lessons from the Saints, Colts, and even larger market teams like the Broncos in regional marketing. We don't draw very much attention, much less attendance, from secondary markets like coastal Georgia, the Daytona area, or Orlando, and our radio footprint has decreased over time along with our regional marketing efforts. Some of the other small-market teams do much more work in regional marketing and team identification. If the Saints can be Jackson and Shreveport and Lafayette's team, we can be Savannah and Charleston and Daytona's team.
The Colts' story is similar to ours. After getting loads of attention and full houses in their first few years after moving to Indianapolis, they struggled to sell tickets when the team struggled. Even after Peyton Manning came to town there were occasional blackouts--two or three as late as 2003, and that was with a 56,000 seat crackerbox stadium. Not until 2004 did the team begin to sell out on a regular basis. Much credit went to the Colts' concerted effort to market regionally, sending ticket sales caravans, promotional appearances, etc. to Fort Wayne and South Bend and Evansville and so on. It took a few years for their efforts to take root but it eventually paid off.
The Broncos faced a similar situation in the late 1960s when it appeared the team was bound to move to San Antonio, Birmingham, or Chicago. The team had good attendance despite a consistently subpar team, but had a small revenue base due to a small stadium (below the capacity the pending AFL-NFL merger mandated). Denver aggressively marketed itself to surrounding states to furnish not only grass-roots support but the funding to expand the stadium.
I grew up a Bronco fan before the Jaguars came into existence and there are some interesting parallels to our current situation to the Broncos' in the 1970s. 15-year old team, market of about 1.3 million people undergoing growth but still facing the sneers of larger markets, still working on building a winning tradition and an identity. The Broncos obviously were successful in rendering themselves a local as well as a regional institution under the circumstances. We must do the same.
The Jaguars had extraordinary success on many occasions in selling tickets almost exclusively within the Jacksonville metro area, but that's an enormous burden for just the fans of the immediate area to bear on a year-to-year basis.
