Fans first in Falcons' game plan

By Jim Lovel

Atlanta – Arthur Blank isn't surprised by the excitement surrounding the Atlanta Falcons this year. He's been planning it since he bought the team in February.
It hasn't been difficult to figure out, Blank said. You listen to your customers and respond to them.
It's the same philosophy that carried The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) from a single store that he and his partner, Bernie Marcus, opened in Atlanta in 1979 to the nation's second-largest retailer with annual revenue of $53.5 billion last year.
It's not markedly different at all, Blank said. If you focus on the customer, you will succeed.
Marketing experts say Blank is being modest.
He's done something unique in the world of professional sports, said John Bevilaqua, president and CEO of Creative Marketing Strategies Inc. of Atlanta and a 25-year veteran of sports marketing. He has focused on the fans.
Traditionally, team owners and coaches have depended on winning games to attract fans, Bevilaqua said.
That's a limited view of marketing, he said. The fans have been ignored in professional sports.
Treating fans like customers by listening to them and giving them what they ask for in a game-day experience seems to be working. The Falcons have added 20,000 new season-ticket holders, almost double the number from last year, and sold out their first two preseason games.
The improvements also have attracted the attention of executives at NFL headquarters in New York. The league's marketing department helped Blank with market research and provided other resources he needed, said Greg Aiello, vice president of public relations for the NFL.
The increase in the number of season-ticket holders is the largest single-season increase in the 83-year history of the NFL, Aiello said.
It's been very striking, he said. Everyone in the league has taken notice of what Mr. Blank has done.
Blank's ability to energize the franchise has overshadowed other significant events within the NFL this year, including the addition of the Houston Texans to the league and new stadiums for the Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, Aiello said.
Two months after acquiring the team, Blank convinced Dick Sullivan, who had retired as senior vice president of marketing at Home Depot in January after 10 years with the company, to join the franchise as his chief marketing officer.
Instead of selling circular saws, we are selling seats, Sullivan said.
Sullivan immediately began doing research, which included focus groups and surveys of fans, to find out why more people weren't attending the games.
At Home Depot, we had a culture of listening to our associates and our customers, Sullivan said. They have the answers 99 percent of the time.
He got plenty of suggestions. The ticket prices were too high. Traffic was stifling and parking was almost impossible. The games weren't fun. The ads on the scoreboards were annoying.
Blank cut season-ticket prices on about 23,000 seats. Some now sell for as little as $100, down from the more than $300 fans once paid for those same seats. Sullivan won't release the exact numbers, but most of the tickets have been sold, he said. The team sold about 10,000 of the seats in the first 11 days, he said.
Blank leased parking space from several companies, increasing the number of spaces for season-ticket holders to 20,000 from the 2,000 spaces provided last year, and arranged to have the police patrol at least 22 more intersections on game days.
He scheduled pre-game concerts, encouraged tailgating and developed an area with interactive games and football-related activities. There won't be any more commercials on the scoreboards, either.
This isn't rocket science, Sullivan said. The fans told us how to run this club.
Despite all the changes and the excitement and anticipation they have created, the Falcons will have to win games to keep the momentum, said Bob Hope, a former vice president of marketing for the Atlanta Braves and president of Hope-Beckham Inc., an Atlanta firm that specializes in sports marketing.
They have done all the right things to this point, Hope said. But the players will determine the future.
Bevilaqua agrees but said he is optimistic that the Falcons will win games, eventually.
Arthur will eventually put a winner on the field, he said. He knows, in the end, that's how the team will be measured.
The Falcons haven't had back-to-back winning seasons since the club was formed in 1966. The Falcons made their only Super Bowl appearance in 1998, a 34-19 loss to the Denver Broncos.
This year, the Falcons will be part of new division, the NFC South, with the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Last year, the Falcons finished the season with a 7-9 record.
A winning team will benefit Atlanta, said Gary Stokan, president of the Atlanta Sports Council.
They've created a buzz in the city that is good for the fans, the players and the city, Stokan said. There's nothing like a city when its sports franchises are successful. It's special.
The success of the team will give Atlanta publicity that it can't afford to buy with advertising, he said. The sellouts give the team television coverage that expands its exposure from the 71,000 fans who fill the seats to millions of people who watch the broadcasts of the games.
Creating excitement in Atlanta for the team is just the first part of the plan Blank developed based on his market research, Sullivan said. The other elements include winning games and supporting charitable causes within the metro area.
We are building a brand, Sullivan said. Whatever the problems, whatever the barriers, we will fix them.