Last week, the White Sox marketing boss Rob Gallas quit. The team is now looking for a replacement — and new ideas for increasing its perennially low attendance. To help, Tempo surveyed some smart people for their suggestions.
-Marj Halperin, president and CEO, League of Chicago Theatres: “They could try some things that have been successful for us: Bring in a helicopter during the seventh-inning stretch. Erect a large chandelier and have it drop at a climactic moment. Paint the team blue. Stay away from Bleacher Bums, that’s probably not their territory. And if they’re looking for new team uniforms, they might check out Chicago Shakespeare — it might throw off the other team if the Sox were all dressed as King John.”
-Mike Veeck, minor-league baseball executive, son of one-time White Sox owner Bill Veeck and the promotional mind behind Circus Freak Night, Mullet Night, Lawyers Night (all attorneys had to pay double) and, of course, Disco Demolition: “I would declare war on the Cubs. I would schedule all night games. I would never have a day game, pointing out the fact that we have to work on the South Side. . . . I’d name a section of the park Wrigleyville, maybe fence it in. I’d have some fun with it. I’d promote heavily to families. I’d go after young kids too. Last year [when he was a consultant] in Detroit, after every home game we had two players at each end of the dugout signing autographs for 20 minutes. On their own time. It took a lot of guts [the Tigers had lost 119 games the year before], but every night they were signing. The Sox have a fun team and strike me as a friendly bunch. So go after the families. Make that connection with the kids. Tickets at Wrigley Field are so hard to come by, and you don’t see families out there. Why not go after the market they left open and go after the kids?”
-Andrew Greeley, best-selling novelist, sociologist and Roman Catholic priest: “You’ve got to understand, you’re talking to a lifelong Cubs fan. My recommendation for marketing is that they dust off their plan to move to St. Petersburg. Their fan base has all gone out to the suburbs. They’ve got to get a new fan base. So move to St. Petersburg. Too bad, goodbye! Then the Cubs won’t have to lose the city series every year. Or the Sox could play at Wrigley Field. That might work. I’m not sure it’s the team that attracts people to Wrigley Field. Or maybe Tribune Co. could buy the team. The Tribune owns everything anyway. They could have two baseball teams. I don’t think that’s against any law.”
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Barnaby Dinges, head of his own public-relations firm and former consultant on Soldier Field redevelopment: “They need to build a little Wrigleyville across from the ballpark. They need to create a `Cellville,’ and it needs to have a couple of restaurants and bars to give people a place to go before and after the game.”
Addison Mayor Larry Hartwig: “I’d move the team to Addison. We might joke about it since they almost did this once, but it makes more sense now than ever because we’ve got I-355 (a new interstate highway). They still have a big market here. They’ve got a nice stadium and plenty of parking where they are now — better than the Cubs in that respect.”
Bob Sirott, WTTW-TV Chicago Tonight host (and noted Cubs fan): “First, they don’t need all those parking lots. The Cubs don’t have much in the way of parking and they do all right. I would convert some of this land to set up a permanent `Taste of the South Side’ with food booths from some of the great restaurants of Greek Town, Chinatown, Taylor Street or Oakley Avenue. That way people would come early, stay late and hang out — just like they do in Wrigleyville. I also think they should produce an advertising campaign aimed at the largest potential audience of baseball fans in Chicago — Cubs fans. Get known, self-proclaimed Cubs fans like me to extoll the virtues of going to Sox games. I’d talk about what a great time our entire family has had at those Saturday night games where they do a tremendous fireworks display. So now I’m making myself available to do commercials for the Sox — just so they pay me enough money so I can afford to pay a broker and get Cubs tickets.”
Pepe Vargas, executive director, International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago: “The Sox could do more cross-promotions with our organization and with other Latino cultural and social groups — more like what [soccer’s] Chicago Fire does.”
Craig Andrews, professor of marketing, Marquette University: “They will really need to understand their target market and how it differs from the Cubs and other competitors. (Anaheim has focused more on central Los Angeles and the Hispanic market this year.) For example, pricing of tickets, food, parking, etc. (the fan cost index) may be more important for White Sox fans. . . . However, as a Yankees fan for almost 30 years, I know that nothing beats having a heated rivalry to generate attendance. The Yankee-Red Sox rivalry runs deep and is second to none in baseball. Certainly, the White Sox do have natural rivals in the Cubs and Brewers, although unfortunately they are in the National League and the Sox play the Cubs only three times this year. I’m sure fans would love to see these rivalries renewed, something that the current structure won’t permit other than a few games each year.”
Ken Sevara, Chicago comedian and die-hard Sox fan: He offers three slogans: “We haven’t won a World Series since 1917. Why change things now?” “We like low attendance. We can’t concentrate with all that noise.” “If our players show talent, we send them to New York.”
Sox fan Jim Zulevic, who currently is writing a film about Disco Demoliton Night: “Capitalize on the bitterness, that would bring a lot of people back. Get the point out that we have so many night games because some people have to work for a living. It’s also a way to stress a work ethic, you know, `Son, maybe one day you can afford to take off work and go see a day game but for now, it’s night games.'”
Kelly Leonard, producer, Second City: “The Sox have an uphill battle — in a city that has a legendary team with a legendary ballpark that is easily accessible and smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood with bars, theaters and restaurants, the White Sox will always come up short. So, the only solution is to be the anti-Cubs. They need to tap into that South Side pride and Cub hatred — it’s cool to be the bad boy, so be the bad boy. Lose the actual fighting, but keep the edge. Hook up with Suge Knight’s marketing people; play underground indie hip-hop at the games instead of organ music; advertise in The Source. I don’t think you go as far as to have Frank Thomas get his belly button pierced, but you redefine the White Sox experience as always being in sync with or ahead of the trend.”
Jim Williams, WBBM-TV anchor and reporter, former press secretary for Mayor Richard M. Daley and a former Andy Frain usher at the old Comiskey Park: “The White Sox need to get together with the city’s planning department. They need to create some night life around that park. It can’t go on as what one sportswriter called `an off-ramp experience.’ They need a few bars and restaurants, and create a perception that the neighborhood is friendly to all people.
“Look at United Center. There are terrific restaurants near the stadium. People are not afraid of the neighborhood. People are actually hanging out in parts of the West Loop before the Bulls and Blackhawks games.
“The changes they’ve made to the [U.S. Cellular] are an improvement. But they need to change the outfield. That’s what the fans at home see from the home plate camera. They need to make the outfield asymmetrical, give it some quirks. The fans should be right up on the warning track, just like at Wrigley Field.
“And they need to get rid of those blue seats, and put in green seats. Green is a warm color. It’s a baseball color. The blue seats are cold and sterile.
“I think their television broadcast team is great. I like their low-key approach. But perhaps it’s time to have somebody more outspoken and more boisterous, someone like Dan McNeil of ESPN radio. Your No. 1 salesperson for the team is your television broadcaster.”
Comedian Bob Odenkirk, who does those new Miller Beer for President commercials and played Garry Shandling’s agent on the Larry Sanders Show: “I’d consider hiring Courtney Love as the mascot. You could get her to do some `dancing’ on top of the dugouts between innings because, as P.T. Barnum once said, `Everybody loves a crazy old stripper!'”
Bonni Pear of Miller-Pear Public Relations, which handles publicity for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice and Chicago’s holiday parade: “A couple of thoughts: Do an Extreme Makeover on U.S. Cellular Field. Tape an episode of `Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ with Jerry Reinsdorf.”
Bette Cerf Hill, founder of the Near South Planning Board and the Printers Row Book Fair: “If they started some league for kids and allowed them to play in the stadium and made a big deal of it, that would be something. That might get a lot of attention. They could use their own neighborhood kids and give scholarships and put a big emphasis on the kids. You could embroider it like crazy. They could call them the Short-Sox.”
Longtime Chicago PR executive June Rosner of June Rosner Public Relations: “I’d round up any celebrity who was in town to do a play or shoot a movie and get them into the park for a game. They get on camera and give the impression that that’s the place to be. Then you do what restaurants do all the time; you call the papers and try to get a mention that so-and-so was seen yesterday enjoying the game.”
Steve Dahl, radio personality and Sox fan: Two words — “Ligue Night.”