New Pro-Basketball Team Need Your Help (Columbia, Greenville: lease, how much, home)

[scprobasketball]

Greetings! I am with the new PBL Basketball franchise headed to SC. I am trying to lay some ground work but I will not be there till October. As a result, there are some important questions I need answered before then. We want to be a vital part of this community, but we need your help. Any information you could assist me with would be appreciated.

1. Radio Stations- I have only been able to find one sports radio station in the Greenville-Spartanburg are. We are needing to get announcements out about our upcoming tryouts. As I have stated in every publication, I believe a strong SC imprint is needed on our team for us to be successful.

2. Good non-profit groups-- We will be giving away 100 tickets each game to non-profit groups in the Greenville-Spartanburg area. Do you know of any groups that would be good candidates. All groups are welcome, but as many that deal with youth as possible.

3. Billboards- I have had a difficult time finding any billboards for rent in Greenville area. If you know of any companies please send me an e-mail or post here.

4. Overall advice or ideas- This is your team! As a result, we need your help with anything we could do to be more beneficial to this community. Once again you can e-mail me or post here.

In closing, thank you for your help. You can reach my be e-mail (info@Scprobasketball.com). There are other methods that can be located on our site (scprobasketball.com)

[Skyliner]

Originally Posted by scprobasketball

Greetings! I am with the new PBL Basketball franchise headed to SC. I am trying to lay some ground work but I will not be there till October. As a result, there are some important questions I need answered before then. We want to be a vital part of this community, but we need your help. Any information you could assist me with would be appreciated.

1. Radio Stations- I have only been able to find one sports radio station in the Greenville-Spartanburg are. We are needing to get announcements out about our upcoming tryouts. As I have stated in every publication, I believe a strong SC imprint is needed on our team for us to be successful.

In the Upstate, 104.9fm is the best place to start. They have a full lineup of locally-based programs, filling the rest of the day and night with Sporting News Radio network programming. Other stations to consider include 107.3fm, 101.1fm and 98.9fm. There are lots more, but this is a start. In Columbia, 1230am would be a good place to get the word out.

Originally Posted by scprobasketball

2. Good non-profit groups-- We will be giving away 100 tickets each game to non-profit groups in the Greenville-Spartanburg area. Do you know of any groups that would be good candidates. All groups are welcome, but as many that deal with youth as possible.

Here is a small list of some good local nonprofit children's sports-related organizations to check out:

• Upstate Challenger Sports
• Potential Youth Foundation
• Fundamentals 4 Success
• Mauldin Miracle League
• YMCA
• Salvation Army

Originally Posted by scprobasketball

3. Billboards- I have had a difficult time finding any billboards for rent in Greenville area. If you know of any companies please send me an e-mail or post here.

The main billboard companies in the area are Fairway Outdoor Advertising and Lamar Advertising. Another interesting local advertising source is B2B Media.

Originally Posted by scprobasketball

4. Overall advice or ideas- This is your team! As a result, we need your help with anything we could do to be more beneficial to this community. Once again you can e-mail me or post here.

Since this franchise has been announced as a "pro basketball" organization, I would love to see nothing less than a professional image on the court and in the community. Look no further for advice than the local Greenville Drive pro baseball organization. They have done everything right so far, from clever and frequent advertising to penetrating community outreach and ultimately professional quality staff and facilities.

[scprobasketball]

You could not be more correct, in regards to the Greenville Drive. In fact, minor league baseball is the example for all sports, that are not the NBA, the MLB, or the NFL, should follow. With the drive, it is not about the players because the change from week-to-week. In some ways, its not even about baseball. In my opinion, it is both the atmosphere and their ability to reach out to non-baseball fans.

In the last few months, I have visited with three minor league baseball teams. Asking questions and taking notes. The only thing they have that we can’t offer is fireworks. We will use similar promotions and ways to gather fan-involvement, all the way to the hotdog launcher. We will add a lot of our own promos and ideas, but minor league baseball is a good place to start.

Thank you so much for the information, this will be very valuable. If you would send me your name and contact info to info@scprobasketball.com I would like to send you a couple of free tickets to one of our games. Thanks!

[Webster_MGT_student]

1. 106.3 WORD has some of the most profitable listener base because of their conservative base. Lots of small business owners listen.
2. Low pricing is key. We just had a childeren's museum open that is world class, but at $12 a head for any one over 1year old it is out of reach for many families to go more than once or twice a year. Greenville is a family city so gearing your market segmentation toward that base should be key in your marketing mix.

Product-high quality please, we just had an arena football league come through the Bi-Lo center which had a rep for being laughably bad and unorgainized.

Price-again, making the price low enough to allow for return visits would be great.

Promotion-you're off to a great start if you follow the drive model of interesting promotions and community service. Maybe you could co-sponser the trolly with the drive and help increase the route and amount of runs. Tapping into the Greenville Tech student base would be a good idea too.

Place-I like the Bi-Lo center as a venue. Hope you do well there because it needs the support.

[g-man430]

I work for the Drive scprobasketball. If you have any questions regarding operations, just let me know and i'll see what I can do. The way we do it is through intense community support and advertising. We also keep our prices low and affordable.

[mrsfoofyfoo]

Take a page out of the NJ Nets book. As you know the Knicks own the NY Tri State area when it comes to B-Ball and the Nets play 2nd fiddle. Even though the Knicks are just as bad on the court they still land all the big Corporate Wall Street accounts that the Nets don't, and play in MSG, "The Worlds Most Famous Arena". A Friday night date at the Garden for a Knicks game is cool, a Friday night in the Jersey Swamps to see the Nets...not so much. You get the jist. So how does a team from Jersey with no name or brand recognition compete with this?? The Nets have all kinds of promos to bring their fans in from an All You Can Eat Pay One Price Night (Dogs, popcorn, burgers, soda) to Meal Deals from McDonalds and even Buy One Beer get One Free nights sponsored by Bud Light. They also offer free concerts after the game, and depending on the artist are sometimes better than the game! However their most intriguing promotion was giving tickets to the unemployed! Check out this link.

Nets' new promotion for unemployed: Tickets to game and help with job search - New Jersey Nets Basketball - NJ.com

Say what you will...but the Nets are always thinking of new ways to bring the fans in! As a resident of Jersey and a soon to be resident of Greenville (in 2010 anyway) here's to rooting on our new team and hoping you can be just as creative to give the fans an offer they just can't refuse!

[mrsfoofyfoo]

I don't know if this is possible but one of the things I do love about a going to the Drive Games is that Trolley, it's great for the kids. We even took pictures on it last time! It's a blast.

A few other things that really seem to get kids into the game is some sort of Fun Zone. The Drive have that little playset area and the lawn to run around druing the game so they don't get bored. For basketball maybe you could set up some sort of Fun Zone with a 3pt. Competition, Skills (dribbling, passing) Set, and lower baskets for the kids to shoot at. Similar to things they do at the All Star Games.

And what about a wing dedicated to all the Great NBA Players from South Carolina?? I googled this...
Kevin Garnett is actually about a 90-minute drive from Charlotte in a small South Carolina town called Mauldin. South Carolina has produced numerous current and former NBA players, like ex-Celtic Xavier McDaniel, Hall of Famer Alex English, three-time All-Star Larry Nance, Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal, and Bobcats guard Raymond Felton. Celtics guard Ray Allen went to high school there, too. And when NBA teams come to Charlotte, it's not uncommon for some players to cross the state line to get a quick taste of South Carolina.
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketb..._a_small_town/

[Greenville]

Welcome to the forum, scprobasketball! We are glad to have you, as well as your PBL franchise in Greenville. I am excited about the idea of having a well-run basketball team here. I firmly believe it can work. Some of my thoughts:

1. Please call the team "Greenville." Not "Carolina" or "South Carolina." This city has a lot of pride, which is a great thing. Use that to your advantage. To get the people of the Greenville metro to rally around your team, it needs to feel like Greenville's team - NOT South Carolina's. Having the fans choose the team nickname is a great idea, and one that should go over quite well (provided it is well-publicized and people know when and how to vote).

2. Prices should be affordable. One huge problem with the Greenville Groove (NBDL team which was based in Greenville) was the high prices they charged. I believe it was something like $30-$40 per ticket to sit courtside, and no less than $10-$15 to be in the upper bowl. It was no wonder that only a few hundred people went to the games. Also, many of the games were at strange times, such as noon or 2 PM on a weekday. That won't work in any corporate-based city, including Greenville.

I don't know what your price point is, but if possible make tickets as cheap as possible and try to make money on concessions. Get the place packed - even if it takes a few games where you have free admission or greatly reduced tickets - and give people a great environment they enjoy. You'll get people talking, make people feel like it's their team, and you're on your way.

3. I like your approach to making the games fun for everyone, even for those who might not know much about (or even like) basketball. Make it a place where people can go get a drink after work to relax, talk business, etc. Perhaps it can become a trendy thing one night of the week (e.g., Tuesday night) for the after-work crowd to get happy hour drink prices, enjoy some basketball, and have fun. How difficult would it be to offer interesting food some or all of the time, in addition to the usual fare found at games?

The family-friendly approach is obviously important too, especially on weekends. As you know, the Drive have done a great job of this.

4. I think there will be limited appeal for people to attend solely based on a team with players from South Carolina. I don't think it will hurt, but I don't see it being a huge selling point either. Most fans don't keep up with basketball, and won't attend even if they know a player or two from their college team. Make the team competitive. This is, of course, secondary to making the game a fun experience for people.

5. I will do my best to support this team, because I love the game of basketball and want to see the metro area embrace such a great sport. Thanks so much for being so proactive about the team, and doing all you can to make the team a success. I hope you will continue to post here as you finalize plans for the team and start the season. We're a great group of Greenville lovers who want to help however we can!

[scprobasketball]

I never imagined when I first posted on this site that it would be as valuable as it has been. Let me share with you some of the things we are already doing and some of the things I will now attempt to do after reading this site.

Trolley- This is Awesome!! I did not even know that the Greenville Drive was doing this. I am going to contact them and see how much it would cost to make this a reality. The one negative we have going against us is we will play our home games the first season at Timmons Arena and the extra distance that is with that. This is 6 miles away from the Drive stadium and some fans might not want to make the extra drive. However, to keep cost down and to have a more crowded stadium for atmosphere Timmons was a better option. I will talk about this more on the webshow on Thursday at 7:00 PM (Untitled) However, after researching this trolley I know that Furman University has leased it before.

Fun Zone- I think this is a great idea. I believe that the best time to do this would be an hour before the game. What do you think? The reason that I believe this would be best is because we have free autograph sessions after the game. All player and coaches will be available. Maybe we could incorporate the two. I will be making a trip to Timmons for the first time next week……Is there a place we could have setup during the game for this?

NJ Nets- I had no idea they nets were so inventive. I love the idea of finding ways to get people that are hurting (unemployed) a chance to get their mind off of their circumstances for a few moments. We currently offer several promotions, but this needs to be added somehow.

Ticket prices- I hope this is the type prices you are talking about. Currently we have tickets set at the following prices for people 6 and over. (5 and under are free).

$5 General Admissions
$10 Lower level
$20 Courtside
$25 VIP which is courtside with a free meal (2 hotdogs or 1 hamburger with a fry and a medium drink)

These prices can become much lower when added with discounts. Season tickets will be around 20% off cover price. We offer discounts from 20%-50% from everything from students to military to people with church bulletins from current weeks service. Untitled (http://www.scprobasketball.com/promo.html - broken link). In my blog I have a post on “why the PBL not the NBDL will work in Greenville” In that post I show how a family of five could realistically attend a game for $20.

Name- I agree Greenville would be great, but it is up to the fans who vote. Please go on the site and vote. We have had more hits in the last two days than I thought possible.

Thanks for all your help, and anyone who post suggestions on here please e-mail me and I will set you up for a free ticket to a game.

[pgriss]

Daisy Outdoor (Gaffney) does billboards also.