Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
Here's where he implied that he believes African Americans don't have money:
"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)."
This statement is not based in fact or studies, just his impression that the reason they aren't selling more merchandise is because African Americans don't have any money. It says nothing about not wanting to spend money on the Hawks. It just assumes there's no money to be spent. But of course all the white people have tons of money to throw around.
All I'm trying to point out is that even if he had some valid points, they were all overshadowed by the language he used to express them.
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Got you - missed that part of spending on merchandise.
My experience of watching people at sports events, is that yes, they do have tons of money to throw around - I haven't spent any time looking at the skin-color of purchasers, so I have no insight into that. But if the fans at Hawks games don't spend money except to get in the door, regardless of their race, then yes, that should be a business concern. I guess his formula, like anyone's, would be 'get more fans with more money'. He apparently thinks affluent whites are the way to go and he wants to attract more of them. I agree that re-wording the email could help. Something like: "we need to sell more tickets to affluent people while continuing to attract our current fan-base, which apparently is dead-ass broke."
When I used to go to games at the Astrodome, I sat in the outfield cheap seats, and I did notice that there was a large percentage of Hispanic fans. Didn't matter, but it was a fact. Ticket prices were never a factor in my decision to go to games, as I could get in for practically nothing. Now that I am self-employed, I do have to consider ticket price, and as a result have only been to one Mariners game all year. If I still had a cheap-seat outfield option, I'd be at the game all the time. I wonder if the higher ticket prices at the new stadiums is driving other lower-income folks away from games? (I rhetorically wonder). Maybe the Hawks need to build a more expensive arena, driving away anyone with financial concerns, and turning the seats over to corporations, which seems to be the present trend.
Also, I would love to see your politically-correct re-write of his email. If I get really bored, maybe I'll come up with one
