Sports Radio Service


		Let's face it - the Stealth need to diversify By Ralph A. Gora, Tim Collins, and Paul Malolot April 11, 2005

	SAN JOSE - The last game of the season looms as the San Jose Stealth finish their second year in Buffalo this Saturday. The Stealth, who dropped their 11th game last Friday night to the Rochester Knighthawks 8-7, will be making some roster moves in the offseason. The Stealth, who will not see post season action, also will need to make some improvements during the offseason in their front office after the club averaged 5,500 fans per home game. The fault for a poor turn out lies with marketing. There is no local radio play-by-play coverage, no local or regional television, and it doesn't look like they have plans to add any such electronic media coverage for the near future, either. If anyone who has a family and were coming to a venue like HP Pavilion, the Stealth, in order to beef up more awareness and attendance, should set the ticket pricing at $20.00 per seat rather than the current $50, $35, $30, and $15 price tag. Proof in the pudding is the team can't move tickets and many sections go unoccupied. The Stealth shouldn't leave ticket pricing the way it is now. They should try to push appeal of the game with the community and announce one ticket price for all seats. It simply won't sell the way the price structure is now. The prices in the lower bowl are a little bit too high and a general admission ticket would work to get more people interested in the Stealth. The Stealth also fail to attract the game to a wider audience. San Jose has a heavily populated Vietnamese and Hispanic community and those two communities should be represented on the radio for play-by-play of the Stealth. If the Stealth marketing department finds that a reach, then it's out of touch with what's going on in San Jose. It simply will not survive the way they have it right now with no English radio and not marketing to Spanish and Vietnamese. The San Jose Stealth game presentation and user-friendly approach does not welcome these groups in the way of getting the spoken word out to them. By turning their backs on these groups, the Stealth are cutting off their nose to spite their face. These two groups in San Jose represent a heavy income base and, despite no introduction to the game of lacrosse, they're no different at this point than most Californians who have never seen the game. With this being our second season covering lacrosse, we feel it's an outstanding game. With no hockey to ride the backs on, lacrosse may have to go the next season alone again if the NHL chooses to continue the lockout. That said, the NLL must revamp and explore all its avenues to bridge the team's community to get the most out of that dollar. Sports Radio has approached the Stealth marketing department about several measures to promote the team, but were rebuffed in attempts to meet with the team's marketing director after an appointment was previously agreed to. This is no way to conduct business at the top to get the team's promotions going. The Stealth have put billboards up on the side of San Francisco Muni busses after studying where their demographic is. The team is in San Jose and San Franciscans are not going to come to San Jose to watch lacrosse in droves. It's thousands of dollars thrown at a campaign where it should have went on radio rather than a bus billboard in San Francisco. After playing their second season as a franchise, you would think the team's promotions would be able to improve attendance somewhat, but averaging 5,000 per game and no outreach to the multi-cultural communities to build goodwill, profit, and look outside of the demographic, they only want to deal with the demographic they have now. Trying to introduce this sport to Northern Californians under this approach hasn't worked for the last two years, and another year of the same kind of marketing approach might prove to be financially fatal considering the South Bay's economic situation. The Stealth marketing department needs to open up its eyes to more diversity or there won't be a lacrosse team around. According to members of both the Vietnamese and Hispanic communities in San Jose, the Stealth have not attempted to introduce themselves to schools, associations, or political groups. If the Stealth marketing department tries the same marketing approach for next season, they may not make it in 2007, especially if the NHL loses another season to a lockout. It's all about the bottom line right now. Tim Collins and Paul Malolot covered the San Jose Stealth with Ralph Gora during the Stealth's last home game last Friday, had a chance to meet with some of the fans in attendance, and also spoke with Vietnamese and Hispanics in the San Jose community for this story. Hear their radio version of this story on 1430 KVVN San Jose 1:00PM on Sunday and on 1110 KLIB Sacramento this Saturday at 2:00AM.