4.The Orioles brand is (apparently) a very stale one. Despite the magic of winning since 2012, Buck, Manny, Adam, Crush and Wieters, the sport isn’t appealing to new people. It’s obviously having a hard time attracting folks to the ballpark or recapturing folks to come back on a regular basis. The No. 1 way to improve your brand is by making it cool. The MASN arm is particularly horrific at this aspect of selling baseball. It has the same music, graphics and Mickey Mouse production from 2005. The season begins in February and the Mister Angelos & Sons Network hides its two prime, anchor tenants and acts like showing spring training games is a nuisance instead of a marketing endeavor on a Wednesday afternoon to suck people into the soap opera before Opening Day. Marketing is its own category. They don’t do a very good job of marketing themselves. But I’ll get to that. Branding isn’t about putting orange jerseys on them and making them look good. (They do look great in those Saturday pajamas!) It’s about cool – and public perception. Kids in Baltimore aren’t growing up wanting to be baseball players. And, to Adam Jones’ point this week in USA Today, certainly the black youth of our city don’t dream of playing for the Orioles or pine away because they’re not going to baseball games. They’re too busy shooting hoops or dreaming of being Ray Lewis or Steve Smith.
5.They’ve made it very, very clear to me on many, many occasions that they really don’t give a shit whether I go to the game or not. And perhaps, you’ve caught on that they really don’t care if you come, either. A group this shameless – whether it’s the hideous circumstances of the Flanagan suicide, the Elrod Hendricks funeral, the Cuba game in 1999, the Jon Miller fiasco, running off GMs, managers, Davey Johnson, losing for 14 years, fighting with Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and any number of other “uninvited” businesses, people, media members or former employees – well, “public relations” isn’t something that is really even considered. Nor is customer service in most cases, especially with the season ticket renewal fiasco. Most of my friends who’ve had season tickets keep them despite how they’re treated by their sales rep or the team. They’ve long since chased away the Friday night rowdy students by limiting the number of tickets and jacking up the prices. I attend the Orioles Advocates Hall of Fame luncheon every year and it’s rather small and almost morose – like it’s another inconvenience. The FanFest and the long lines for autographs and having fans pay for it appeals only to the free swag crowd. In general, the fans are treated like an ATM and without regard and have been for two decades. “When we win, you’ll all come back!” That’s the way Greg Bader has always treated me. Well, they’re winning and people should be coming…but somehow they’re not. I’m part of the problem. I live two blocks away. I’ve been once this season. And I left in the fourth inning because I wanted to watch a US Soccer game at home.
6.People like free shit. A lot! For whatever reason, the “collectors” and “free swag” group is a massive part of the folks the team attracts and does so very consistently. They are NOT getting coveted big-ticket buyers or deep-pocketed fans who freely spend on club seats, entertaining clients, pricey concessions, etc. It’s not a “status” item to attend an Orioles game. At the very least, it used to be a place “to be seen” and made you part of the cool crowd. You’d brag to your friends that you were “there” when a big moment happened and it made you feel like you saw something special. Most nights, an Orioles game is not “special” and it’s priced like it’s ultra special. There a lot of things a family of four could do with $200 (or more) on a Saturday night to entertain mama, papa, brother and sister. But whenever they give away bobbleheads, the line forms four hours before the game and it becomes a secondary profit market online. And the bowl of the stadium fills up. I bought a ticket for the Jim Palmer jersey giveaway day and I’m still trying to find that beautiful No. 22 throwback from 1966. They were out of jerseys an hour before the game began. It was the one time this century that I’ve actually tried to get one of the trinkets. It’ll be the last.
7.The dreadful marketing. Marty Conway covered this at length with me on the radio this week but also in many quotes to Loverro. The last 23 years of how the place has been run has apparently caught up to them. The Angelos family has a soap opera called “Orioles baseball” to sell. It’s 81 events and anything else they can dream up from cruises to oldtimer’s days to bullpen parties. It’s their brand. It’s their product. It’s their business. And it’s their job to attract, recruit and retain customers – called “fans.” And they’ve done a very, very, very poor job of that. The empty seats point that out.
8.Then there’s the deterioration of the “family” vibe of the local ballclub, the dust of Orioles magic and the legend of Wild Bill Hagy. When the brand was built, there was a legitimate, affectionate connection with the community and the fans. Players were a part of that in 1979. I know because I was there. Many, many nights with my Pop. Now I’ve heard and read recently that the current players are being “cheated” by the empty stadium. “They deserve better” was often stated. Sure, it’s not “fair” to Adam Jones to be in centerfield and staring at an empty bowl in September during the middle of the third pennant race the team has been in since last century. But, then again, none of them who are making tens of millions of dollars seem to spend inordinate amounts of time helping the team shill tickets (nor should they, I suppose – or so would say their agents and the MLBPA) in 2016. But if they truly care about it being empty and would prefer to have more fans in the stadium then common sense says the employees (a.k.a. the players) also need to do more to sell tickets and create interest. Angelos doesn’t know the first thing about marketing baseball. His entire organization is enervated by an inertia that comes with lifer flunkies in various positions that in other organizations are held accountable to the growth of the brand. Of course, Angelos doesn’t even know what a brand is but he’d know how to sue one or offend one. This has been made very clear over the past 23 years. Being obstinate is a way of life with the team. So, if the old man is not gonna do it, who is? The local shill media? Do they think putting Machado on a few billboards on I-83 is gonna rally modern Orioles Magic? Do they think the community at large believes they really care about Baltimore? Or do they care about your wallet? There once was a time when Baltimore fans believed they owned the Orioles. Brady Anderson made it very clear to me while he insulted me that Mr. Angelos owns the team. And only Mr. Angelos. That “it’s my team” thing is a tad bit polyanna circa 2016 and many who still attend the games subscribe to this theory and then… MORE
