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Can the Rams – and maybe the Chargers – reach a generation that's grown up without an NFL team?
By RYAN KARTJE
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fans-700209-team-nfl.html
LOS ANGELES – Two days before the NFL announced it will make its triumphant return to Los Angeles, ending a decades-long drought for professional football here, the view from inside the dark confines of Mom’s Bar seems to suggest that America’s most popular league is doing just fine in the nation’s second-largest city, even without a team attached.
It’s wild-card weekend in the NFL, and a sea of football fans has packed inside this Westside lounge for the final game of the playoffs’ first round. Wearing jerseys and tightly clutching their beer glasses, they stand shoulder to shoulder, front to back, with barely an inch to spare among them. It’s the kind of crowd that might give a fire marshal hives.
But the bar is electric anyway. Fans are buzzing with anticipation, whispering of Super Bowl runs. In a city often labeled as relentlessly uninterested in the NFL, the excitement here is undeniable.
The problem – for Los Angeles and its future NFL franchise(s) – is that the gathered fans at Mom’s are here to watch a team from Green Bay, Wis.
Since the Rams and Raiders left after the 1994 season, a generation of fans in Los Angeles has grown up without an NFL team. The result is a city of complex, mishmashed allegiances, where, a few miles away at Joxer Daly’s in Culver City, one could find a similar bar equally filled to the brim with fans of the other team in this playoff game, Washington.
Even for those who grew up with Rams or Raiders loyalties, time – 21 years of it – has weathered ties. Most are happy to welcome the NFL back. But with the Rams – and, possibly, the Chargers – returning to Los Angeles next season, it’s fair to wonder: In a city of transplants and scattered sports loyalties, how exactly would an NFL team capture the hearts of fans – new and old?
HARD TO SWITCH
Near the bar at Mom’s, Corey Goldstein and Ben Cohen are debating the most fundamental tenet of this question. Each has parents who grew up die-hard Packers fans. Both are wearing Aaron Rodgers jerseys. But as NFL fans who live nearby, they wonder aloud whether they could ever add the Rams or Chargers to their short list of allegiances.
“I don’t know, I think you can be a fan of two teams,” Cohen, 26, says, eliciting a glare from Goldstein.
“I won’t be rooting for any other team, even an L.A. one,” Goldstein, 25, responds. “Packers only.”
Dan Wann, a professor at Murray State University who has studied the psychology of sports fandom, suggests that having allegiances to more than one team is not uncommon. Pinning down reasons behind why – or how – fans choose those allegiances, though, is far less conclusive. A study he conducted years ago on why fans bonded with certain teams produced wildly inconsistent results.
“It’s not near as simple a question as most people would think,” Wann said. “But as a species, in terms of our social identity, we are naturally more inclined to be a part of a community. If L.A. embraces a team, then people will want to be a part of that.”
Among Packers fans at Mom’s, sentiments about rooting for a Los Angeles team are split, though no one seems eager to jump on the bandwagon from Day 1. Fans allude to a desire to be wooed – by the product on the field, by the buzz around it. Still, most are shocked it took this long to bring the NFL back. Even Goldstein says he would pay to see the NFL here, especially when the new, multibillion-dollar stadium opens in Inglewood in 2019.
“There’s just one thing standing in their way,” Goldstein says. “They have to be good. That’s it. People aren’t going to waste their time otherwise.”
In selling an NFL team to Los Angeles, this is obviously the crux of any long-term success. But succeeding, in that sense, will take time. The Rams have missed the playoffs for 11 consecutive seasons. The Chargers have one playoff appearance in their past six seasons. Combined, they finished last season 11-21.
‘TRENDY CITY’
“Neither figures to be in Super Bowl contention right away,” said Leigh Steinberg, a longtime sports agent and former head of “Save the Rams.” “So you can’t come here and just sell winning to the fans. You have to sell a unique experience. … There’s a misnomer in Southern California about fair-weather fans. It’s simply not true.
“This is just a trendy city. If they can create enough heat and excitement around the team, people will naturally gravitate towards it.”
Joe Baratelli is familiar with the challenges of marketing teams perceived as “second fiddles” in Los Angeles. As the chief marketing officer at Rubin Postaer and Associates, his company has worked on campaigns to rebrand both the Clippers and the Kings.
In both cases, Baratelli said, RPA sought first to identify core fans who stuck with each team “through the thick and the thin.”
“You build the campaign around that passion,” he says. “What is it about the Rams or the Chargers that draws people in?”
From the perspective of several sports business experts, that initial galvanizing of fans around the NFL’s return isn’t expected be a problem. Most point to the sheer size of the market, with almost 10 million people in Los Angeles County alone, as reasoning enough that people will fill seats early on. But long-term plans to establish a fan base, they agree, are far more tenuous.
That’s why Steinberg suggests a marketing approach that, on one hand, plays to the star power of Los Angeles, by trotting out celebrities and creating a flashy spectacle, and, on the other, “markets the team like it’s from Des Moines, Iowa,” by slowly building a young fan base and establishing a presence with community groups. The squandering of community credibility, he believes, is what ultimately pushed Rams fans away before.
Two decades later, however, the landscape of the NFL – and live sports – has evolved in a significant way. Technology made it possible for fans to follow any team, in any city, from pretty much any medium. The rise of fantasy sports also increased demand for such accessibility, leaving fans to question whether the live product is worth the price of admission.
That could especially be a problem in Los Angeles, where, according to USC Sports Business Institute executive director David Carter, some fans are certain to experience serious “sticker shock.” Inevitably, any team based at the proposed $2.66 billion Inglewood stadium will cater to a windfall of corporate revenue streams, which could lead to a “more upscale product” that ups the awe factor of the experience, but shuts out certain fans.
“Once the novelty of the NFL wears off, the teams here better be about providing that all-in-one game-day experience, one that’s worth fans’ time and money,” Carter said.
This would be a tall task for one team. But should the Chargers follow the Rams to Los Angeles, establishing a foothold for two NFL teams in a city that, for 21 years, had none will be a marketing challenge otherwise unprecedented in American sports.
With local fans forced to choose between the two, experts agree that one will inevitably emerge as a stronger brand. “Which means,” Carter said, “distinguishing your product right away from the other team is going to be critical.”
“The Rams have the historic fan base in Los Angeles,” Carter added. “But the Chargers might be able to more quickly convert their regional fans and convince them to just drive up the 405. It just boils down to how strong these marketing teams are.”
CONFIDENT MARKETERS
The marketing team at RPA, like the NFL itself, doesn’t seem all that concerned with the challenge of finding untapped markets for two teams.
“You’re dealing with a huge population that can overcome any of these obstacles pretty quickly,” Baratelli said. “People are so much more passionate about the NFL these days that you could probably support three teams with the numbers we’re talking about here.”
Viktor Nehring, 51, is not so sure. He grew up a Rams fan, but in the NFL’s long absence, took up rooting for the Packers. With the Rams now set to return, he’s undecided whether to renew his loyalties.
“I mean, I’ve lived 20 years without an NFL team,” Nehring says. “I don’t really need one here.”
It’s a tone that some in Los Angeles have taken – and many elsewhere have clung to – in criticizing the Rams’ move. But for Nehring, talking about the team is bringing back old memories. Now a day trader living in El Segundo, he longingly recalls being in the Coliseum stands in 1977 for the Rams’ legendary “Mud Bowl” loss. The memory has him feeling nostalgic for the NFL’s last stint in Los Angeles.
Ultimately, it’ll be up to high-priced marketing teams of one – or both – franchises to persuade Los Angeles’ massive population to get behind an NFL team, or two. But here, as an old Rams fan rethinks whether to return to his childhood team, there is proof of how quickly sentiment in a region of mismatched but passionate fans could turn.
“Maybe I’ve just gotten used to not having (the Rams) around,” Nehring wonders, as a beat passes.
“What the heck,” he exclaims. “I probably will go back.”
By RYAN KARTJE
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fans-700209-team-nfl.html
LOS ANGELES – Two days before the NFL announced it will make its triumphant return to Los Angeles, ending a decades-long drought for professional football here, the view from inside the dark confines of Mom’s Bar seems to suggest that America’s most popular league is doing just fine in the nation’s second-largest city, even without a team attached.
It’s wild-card weekend in the NFL, and a sea of football fans has packed inside this Westside lounge for the final game of the playoffs’ first round. Wearing jerseys and tightly clutching their beer glasses, they stand shoulder to shoulder, front to back, with barely an inch to spare among them. It’s the kind of crowd that might give a fire marshal hives.
But the bar is electric anyway. Fans are buzzing with anticipation, whispering of Super Bowl runs. In a city often labeled as relentlessly uninterested in the NFL, the excitement here is undeniable.
The problem – for Los Angeles and its future NFL franchise(s) – is that the gathered fans at Mom’s are here to watch a team from Green Bay, Wis.
Since the Rams and Raiders left after the 1994 season, a generation of fans in Los Angeles has grown up without an NFL team. The result is a city of complex, mishmashed allegiances, where, a few miles away at Joxer Daly’s in Culver City, one could find a similar bar equally filled to the brim with fans of the other team in this playoff game, Washington.
Even for those who grew up with Rams or Raiders loyalties, time – 21 years of it – has weathered ties. Most are happy to welcome the NFL back. But with the Rams – and, possibly, the Chargers – returning to Los Angeles next season, it’s fair to wonder: In a city of transplants and scattered sports loyalties, how exactly would an NFL team capture the hearts of fans – new and old?
HARD TO SWITCH
Near the bar at Mom’s, Corey Goldstein and Ben Cohen are debating the most fundamental tenet of this question. Each has parents who grew up die-hard Packers fans. Both are wearing Aaron Rodgers jerseys. But as NFL fans who live nearby, they wonder aloud whether they could ever add the Rams or Chargers to their short list of allegiances.
“I don’t know, I think you can be a fan of two teams,” Cohen, 26, says, eliciting a glare from Goldstein.
“I won’t be rooting for any other team, even an L.A. one,” Goldstein, 25, responds. “Packers only.”
Dan Wann, a professor at Murray State University who has studied the psychology of sports fandom, suggests that having allegiances to more than one team is not uncommon. Pinning down reasons behind why – or how – fans choose those allegiances, though, is far less conclusive. A study he conducted years ago on why fans bonded with certain teams produced wildly inconsistent results.
“It’s not near as simple a question as most people would think,” Wann said. “But as a species, in terms of our social identity, we are naturally more inclined to be a part of a community. If L.A. embraces a team, then people will want to be a part of that.”
Among Packers fans at Mom’s, sentiments about rooting for a Los Angeles team are split, though no one seems eager to jump on the bandwagon from Day 1. Fans allude to a desire to be wooed – by the product on the field, by the buzz around it. Still, most are shocked it took this long to bring the NFL back. Even Goldstein says he would pay to see the NFL here, especially when the new, multibillion-dollar stadium opens in Inglewood in 2019.
“There’s just one thing standing in their way,” Goldstein says. “They have to be good. That’s it. People aren’t going to waste their time otherwise.”
In selling an NFL team to Los Angeles, this is obviously the crux of any long-term success. But succeeding, in that sense, will take time. The Rams have missed the playoffs for 11 consecutive seasons. The Chargers have one playoff appearance in their past six seasons. Combined, they finished last season 11-21.
‘TRENDY CITY’
“Neither figures to be in Super Bowl contention right away,” said Leigh Steinberg, a longtime sports agent and former head of “Save the Rams.” “So you can’t come here and just sell winning to the fans. You have to sell a unique experience. … There’s a misnomer in Southern California about fair-weather fans. It’s simply not true.
“This is just a trendy city. If they can create enough heat and excitement around the team, people will naturally gravitate towards it.”
Joe Baratelli is familiar with the challenges of marketing teams perceived as “second fiddles” in Los Angeles. As the chief marketing officer at Rubin Postaer and Associates, his company has worked on campaigns to rebrand both the Clippers and the Kings.
In both cases, Baratelli said, RPA sought first to identify core fans who stuck with each team “through the thick and the thin.”
“You build the campaign around that passion,” he says. “What is it about the Rams or the Chargers that draws people in?”
From the perspective of several sports business experts, that initial galvanizing of fans around the NFL’s return isn’t expected be a problem. Most point to the sheer size of the market, with almost 10 million people in Los Angeles County alone, as reasoning enough that people will fill seats early on. But long-term plans to establish a fan base, they agree, are far more tenuous.
That’s why Steinberg suggests a marketing approach that, on one hand, plays to the star power of Los Angeles, by trotting out celebrities and creating a flashy spectacle, and, on the other, “markets the team like it’s from Des Moines, Iowa,” by slowly building a young fan base and establishing a presence with community groups. The squandering of community credibility, he believes, is what ultimately pushed Rams fans away before.
Two decades later, however, the landscape of the NFL – and live sports – has evolved in a significant way. Technology made it possible for fans to follow any team, in any city, from pretty much any medium. The rise of fantasy sports also increased demand for such accessibility, leaving fans to question whether the live product is worth the price of admission.
That could especially be a problem in Los Angeles, where, according to USC Sports Business Institute executive director David Carter, some fans are certain to experience serious “sticker shock.” Inevitably, any team based at the proposed $2.66 billion Inglewood stadium will cater to a windfall of corporate revenue streams, which could lead to a “more upscale product” that ups the awe factor of the experience, but shuts out certain fans.
“Once the novelty of the NFL wears off, the teams here better be about providing that all-in-one game-day experience, one that’s worth fans’ time and money,” Carter said.
This would be a tall task for one team. But should the Chargers follow the Rams to Los Angeles, establishing a foothold for two NFL teams in a city that, for 21 years, had none will be a marketing challenge otherwise unprecedented in American sports.
With local fans forced to choose between the two, experts agree that one will inevitably emerge as a stronger brand. “Which means,” Carter said, “distinguishing your product right away from the other team is going to be critical.”
“The Rams have the historic fan base in Los Angeles,” Carter added. “But the Chargers might be able to more quickly convert their regional fans and convince them to just drive up the 405. It just boils down to how strong these marketing teams are.”
CONFIDENT MARKETERS
The marketing team at RPA, like the NFL itself, doesn’t seem all that concerned with the challenge of finding untapped markets for two teams.
“You’re dealing with a huge population that can overcome any of these obstacles pretty quickly,” Baratelli said. “People are so much more passionate about the NFL these days that you could probably support three teams with the numbers we’re talking about here.”
Viktor Nehring, 51, is not so sure. He grew up a Rams fan, but in the NFL’s long absence, took up rooting for the Packers. With the Rams now set to return, he’s undecided whether to renew his loyalties.
“I mean, I’ve lived 20 years without an NFL team,” Nehring says. “I don’t really need one here.”
It’s a tone that some in Los Angeles have taken – and many elsewhere have clung to – in criticizing the Rams’ move. But for Nehring, talking about the team is bringing back old memories. Now a day trader living in El Segundo, he longingly recalls being in the Coliseum stands in 1977 for the Rams’ legendary “Mud Bowl” loss. The memory has him feeling nostalgic for the NFL’s last stint in Los Angeles.
Ultimately, it’ll be up to high-priced marketing teams of one – or both – franchises to persuade Los Angeles’ massive population to get behind an NFL team, or two. But here, as an old Rams fan rethinks whether to return to his childhood team, there is proof of how quickly sentiment in a region of mismatched but passionate fans could turn.
“Maybe I’ve just gotten used to not having (the Rams) around,” Nehring wonders, as a beat passes.
“What the heck,” he exclaims. “I probably will go back.”
alm: How the hell did I miss THAT?
