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"We believe the level of participation will definitely increase next season," Carr says. "This is a new day for the Charlotte Sting."
Depending on the Hornets' sales staff to sell the Sting the last couple of years has been problematic, Carr says. The Hornets' sales staff, which was charged with marketing the Sting as well, had to work more on the Hornets as they became a harder sell, Carr says. Furthermore, the salespeople gravitated to the Hornets' more expensive packages because they received more compensation on them.
Charlotte businesswoman Maryann Gilmore, who tried repeatedly to coordinate with the sales staff on a Sting promotion with Senior Directions newspaper, only became frustrated. "We wanted to do a Senior Night," says Gilmore, "but they would come to us so late. It's going to take a broader marketing effort."
Not only was the Sting an afterthought, they were too often lumped with Hornets' promotions, not sold on their own merit.
"The Sting was a throw-in," Carr says. "We're not a throw-in. This is a legitimate business. We want to partner with companies to have an impact on their business."
Whether Sting officials can convince companies to back them long-term is up in the air. Not only is there prejudice against women's basketball, the stagnant economy has dramatically reduced corporate sponsorships across the country. While the Sting may have a brief window of opportunity to grab some of the dollars companies once spent on the Hornets, another NBA team could be playing here in 2004, adding more competition for the corporate dollar.
An official with one sponsor said that his/her company signed up for an entry-level sponsorship this year strictly because senior executives of the organization wanted to do it out of community pride, to help keep the team here.
"The Sting do a good job," the source says, "but we only put our foot in the sand for a few things and we (already) have (major) commitments."
Great Play, Small Crowds
Though marketing the Sting has been uneven, the team has hardly been kept under wraps. It was one of the league's original eight franchises, has reached the playoffs all but two seasons (1997, 2000) and won the Eastern Conference title last year in one of the greatest pro sports turnarounds in history. After a 1-10 start, the team won 17 of its next 21 games to make the playoffs. Then Charlotte upset both Cleveland and New York to reach the WNBA Championship Series against Los Angeles.
Such success, coupled with returning all their starters and coaching staff, should have set the Sting up for strong fan support this season. But it hasn't happened. Oddly, the team is about where it was last year at this time in attendance. According to the WNBA, the Sting has averaged 6,255 in attendance (based on tickets distributed per game) through July 27, ranking them third-from-last among 16 league teams and placing them more than 2,500 off the league average of 8,786.
The turnstile count at the Charlotte Coliseum shows an average of only 4,047 actually attended the Sting's first 14 home games (there are 16 total for the season).
The WNBA's Hanson thinks Charlotte lags in attendance and corporate support primarily because of the Hornets' troubles.
"The Sting did fairly well the first couple of years," she says, referring to when the Sting was in the upper half of the league in attendance. "The last couple of years with the Hornets are not typical. The Sting has gotten lost in the shuffle for a while."
But Max Muhleman, a national sports marketing expert based in Charlotte, doesn't believe the Hornets' woes were the main thing holding back the Sting.
"I think it's an assumption that women's basketball isn't as interesting as it is, or is not interesting at all -- that it's a second-grade product," Muhleman says. "That's not true, and they need more people to sample it. My company bought eight season tickets, and we use them ourselves and give them to clients. Generally, people are surprised at the fact the game is worth watching. One guy I took said he thought the Sting ran more plays in one game than the Hornets ran all last season."
Carr's passion for selling the Sting is attributable in part to enhancing the chances of his ownership group landing the expected NBA team in Charlotte. The NBA's David Stern carries the most weight in selecting new NBA owners for Charlotte, and he's made no secret that he views the WNBA as an important part of his legacy as commissioner. Given that, do you think Carr would say no to NBA officials who asked him to run the Sting, especially since he planned to come to Charlotte anyway to work on the NBA bid? Hardly.
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The Town That Banned Satan
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