Take The Lockout Leap

DC Sports Nexus ---- Friday, October 21, 2011

Every year during Wizards season, the Zards host something called Girls Night Out. They sell specially priced tickets for ladies which includes a free drink or something. This promotion also includes a pre-game happy hour where somebody will "teach" the ladies about the basics of basketball, or something along those lines.

Right now my Marketing MBA mind (available for hire) sees an opportunity. With the NBA lockout killing basketball fans every day, many of us are looking for new forms of entertainment. There are Washingtonian articles teaching Wizards fans about the Caps. There are NBC articles telling Wizards fans to go to the opera during cancelled Wizards games. There are prominent sports writers at Grantland that are looking towards hockey. There is even a pretty sweet Caps blog that was formed due to the lockout!

Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot. People and the sports press are looking everywhere for effects of the lockout. People are upset at the NBA. Have a lockout themed promotion and people will notice. GW's men's basketball team has "lockout ticket specials".

The Caps don't really need promotions to sell tickets, but this is an opportunity to generate new fans, which would be good for the Caps and for hockey. And fans of the Wizards & Caps seems like it would be good for Ted Leonsis who owns both teams (future opportunities). I propose the following, which if I was getting paid ;) would be much better.

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Take The Lockout Leap
While the NBA and the Wizards are continuously working hard to give the fans a season, take this opportunity to see the cooler side of Verizon. Come watch the Eastern Conference champion Washington Capitals in action. Just like the NBA we don't call travelling, but we do have penalties for flopping!
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This package could be whatever Guys or Gals night out usually is, with a special "NHL Lessons for the NBA fan" presentation during a pre-game happy hour where the organization can teach people like me about Trapezoids and Line Shifts. Maybe have it hosted by a former Washington Wizard or something. Get Gheorge Muresean in there!

It could even come with a free ticket to upcoming Wizards game or something...

Anyways, I think the Caps should do this, or other similar things to get some of the Wizards fans to get out to a Caps game. I am now a dual fan and many more could be.

3 comments:

Ned Keitt-Pride said...

Sounds like a really good idea, the only thing I'd change is that the Caps are Southeast Division champs, not Eastern Conference champs. That would be the Boston Bruins, current holders of the Stanley Cup. Love the blog, by the way, even one of my buddies who's a Blackhawks fan has it on his Google Reader.

LizzieD said...

Love this. I know the Caps have events geared to different groups...such as "hockey n heels" for the ladies and regular "chalk talks" for.season tix holders. I would even take it a step further and suggest a website for newly converted caps fans (or an area on the existing site). There is scarletcaps.com already for the ladies. There is a neat section on the site called."hockey 101" which goes over rules, etc. I have already directed a few of my friends to that...

TomLandry said...

You were more or less right...the caps did win the Eastern Conference last year in the regular season, so they are just as must eastern conference champs as southeast division champs.

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