Hawks for sale

[rocwell]

I'm no Seattle fan, but I really really really hope this team goes to Seattle. I doubt new owner want to struggle with game's demographics!

[white men can't jump]

Well Atlanta has been a poorly run franchise for a long time, and have also struggled with attendance and fan support. I don't know if they'll move the team, but it wouldn't surprise me. Atlanta is a major southern city, but would the NBA really miss having a presence in that city?

[stretch]

I'll take them. Just give me a little time to get my consortium together.

[blackjitsu]

Dude, self reported sending a racist email, and then offered to put the team up for sale (according to Yahoo). This was a stunner. I'm not sure why he didn't just go into some sort of counseling. This would have been his first offense. We're not talking years of racist behavior like Sterling.

That must of been one brutal email -- if that's all it was.

[Joey]

That must of been one brutal email -- if that's all it was.

Its pretty bad ...

"My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base,'' Levenson said in the email released Sunday by the Hawks.

"Please don't get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arena back then. I never felt uncomfortable, but I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority.''

Levenson said Hawks crowds are 70 percent black, the team's cheerleaders are black and hip-hop music was played.

"Then I start looking around at other arenas,'' Levenson said. "It is completely different.''

Levenson said he often heard fans say the area around Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta is dangerous.

"This was just racist garbage,'' Levenson said. "When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.''

Though he said he disagreed with the conclusion, he said he told team executives to add white cheerleaders and music "familiar to a 40-year-old white guy.''

Added Levenson in the email: "I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.''
Source

[Rapzilla]

From: Bruce Levenson
To: Ferry, Danny
CC: Foreman, Todd (ucg.com); Peskowitz, Ed (ucg.com)
Sent: 8/25/2012 11:47:02 PM
Subject: Re: Business/Game ops

1. from day one i have been impressed with the friendliness and professionalism of the arena staff — food vendors, ushers, ticket takers, etc. in our early years when i would bring folks from dc they were blown away by the contrast between abe pollin’s arena and philips. some of this is attributable to southern hospital and manners but bob and his staff do a good job of training. To this day, I can not get the ushers to call me Bruce yet they insist on me calling them by their first names.

2. the non-premium area food is better than most arenas, though that is not saying much. i think there is room for improvement and creativity. Levy is our food vendor so we don’t have much control but they have been good partners. i have wished we had some inconic offereing like boog’s barbeque at the baseball stadium in balt.

3. our new restaurant, red, just opened so too early for me to give you my thoughts.

4. Regarding game ops, i need to start with some background. for the first couple of years we owned the team, i didn’t much focus on game ops. then one day a light bulb went off. when digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can’t get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:
— it’s 70 pct black
— the cheerleaders are black
— the music is hip hop
— at the bars it’s 90 pct black
— there are few fathers and sons at the games
— we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.

Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba’s urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.

My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean back then. i never felt uncomfortable, but i think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.

I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don’t care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that’s our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.

Gradually things have changed. My unscientific guess is that our crowd is 40 pct black now, still four to five times all other teams. And my further guess is that 40 pct still feels like 70 pet to some whites at our games. Our bars are still overwhelmingly black.

This is obviously a sensitive topic, but sadly i think it is far and way the number one reason our season ticket base is so low.

And many of our black fans don’t have the spendable income which explains why our f&b and merchandise sales are so low. At all white thrasher games sales were nearly triple what they are at hawks games (the extra intermission explains some of that but not all).
Regardless of what time a game starts, we have the latest arriving crowd in the league. It often looks and sounds empty when the team takes the floor.

In the past two years, we have created a section of rowdy college students that has been a big plus. And we do a lot of very clever stuff during time outs to entertain the crowd. Our kiss cam is better done than any in the league.

We have all the same halftime acts that other arenas have but i question whether they make sense. people are on their cell phones during half time. i wonder if flashing on the scoreboard “$2 off on hot dogs during halftime tonight” just as the half ends would be a better use of our halftime dollars and make the fans happier.
We do all the usual giveways and the fans are usually their loudest when our spirit crew takes the floor to give away t-shirts. It pisses me off that they will yell louder for a t-shirt then for our players.

Our player intro is flat. We manufacture a lot of noise but because of the late arriving crowd and the fact that a lot of blacks dont seem to go as crazy cheering (another one of my theories) as whites, it is not great. Even when we have just returned from winnng four straight on the road, i am one of the few people in the arena standing and cheering when our team takes the floor. Bob has kicked around ideas like having the starters coming down aisles rather than off the bench during intros. Sounds cool but may highlight all the empty seats at the start of games.
Not enough of our fans wear hawks jerseys to games. i have just begun to push for ideas like discount food lines for folks wearing jerseys, special entrances, etc. I think we need a committed and perhaps incentivized fan club. We need to realize atl is simply different than every other city. Just adopting nba best practices is not enough. we have to create our own.

I am rambling and could probably go on forever. If you have any specific areas you would like my thoughts on, let me know.

Best,

Bruce

ps — I have cc’d todd and ed so they can chime in with additional or different thoughts.

[Joey]

Thanks Rapzilla. I change my stance on this actually, given context. He's not a racist at all. He's a businessman asking legitimate questions. Shame he's selling over this .. though with the sale of the Clippers for $2B, you have to imagine the Hawks will go for a pretty penny.

[stretch]

This stance that "I need to sell because I may be perceived to be a racist" is a good one, deflecting attention away from the Hawks losing money year and year out.

[Bendit]

Thanks Rapzilla. I change my stance on this actually, given context. He's not a racist at all. He's a businessman asking legitimate questions. Shame he's selling over this .. though with the sale of the Clippers for $2B, you have to imagine the Hawks will go for a pretty penny.

I am not entirely sure either. While he is a businessman (what of I wonder before investing in the Hawks) it is curious that he depends greatly on the "gut feel" and personal observations entirely for his assumptions and remedies. Not saying there may not be some validity to some of them but dont smart businessmen get other smart people to do a study of the issues and make recommendations? Tuuth be told I dont know if Atlanta is such a great sports town. They have lost their hockey team twice. The baseball team doesnt draw very well and would not sell out during preliminary playoff games in their hey day. Football & NASCAR baby! ...the southern sporting staples though seem to do quite well. It also has not helped that the Hawks havent done too well on the floor either. The southern white male seems like a red herring....what about other southern cities with teams who do well. Atlanta as well over the last 2 decades or so have had an influx of northerners moving to the area.

[MACK11]

This guy has wanted to sell the Hawks for years and now he gets what he wants

I hope they move the Hawks they're fan base is terrible

[Joey]

This guy has wanted to sell the Hawks for years and now he gets what he wants

I hope they move the Hawks they're fan base is terrible

You don't need to be a Racist in order to sell your team, despite recent happenings ... what was stopping him from selling it before?

I used to think the Sonics would never get moved, because of their history/tradition ... Hawks have less than the Sonics I'd say .. so who knows. Suppose anything is possible.

[stretch]

Seattle Hawks! Goes with Seahawks.

[.I Can Smell You.]

I hope this is an other opportunity to get a team to Seattle they better not block a team to Seattle again (they block the kings to Seattle for those who don`t remember http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-blo...8023--nba.html )

[mcHAPPY]

I hope this is an other opportunity to get a team to Seattle they better not block a team to Seattle again (they block the kings to Seattle for those who don`t remember http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-blo...8023--nba.html )

They blocked it because Sacramento was a very good market not very long ago before ownership ran the franchise into the ground.

[rocwell]

How about bringing the @ATLHawks to Seattle!!!!? #SuperSonics I vote Yes!

— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) September 8, 2014