Painting The Town Green!
Before last night, 22 years had passed since the Boston Celtics last won the NBA Championship. In a town that thrives on sports as much as it does water, that is enough to make any Bostonian anxious, wondering when the title would return to this once-famed franchise.
Today, the anxiety is gone; there is only anticipation of next season.
I was lucky enough to be at Game 6 last evening as the C’s put a hurting on the Los Angeles Lakers to close out the NBA Finals, 131-92. The dominating performance marked a thrilling end to a remarkable season, and it got me to thinking about what this year meant beyond ultimate fan and player satisfaction.
The Celtics averaged 18,624 fans at each of their home games this season - sellout crowds at the TD Banknorth Garden. This means a great deal to advertisers who may have doubted how sensible it was to sponsor a team who struggled as badly as the Celtics did in 2006-2007, both in their performance and fan attendance. But I can only imagine the delight on the execs’ faces when the Celtics acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, 2 perennial All-Stars, and brighter days appeared to be on the horizon. The entire league had their eyes focused on the “Big 3” and the Boston Celtics, and suddenly it became the hardest ticket to get in town.
A perfect example of businesses tapping into the wild success of the Celtics this year is Modell’s, a local sporting goods store, which distributed t-shirts that read “Gotta Beat LA” to every fan in attendance for Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The store, which is a huge sponsor of most Boston sports teams, brought their name directly to the backs of everyone at the game. And, over the past 2 or so weeks, you can barely walk down the street without running into someone wearing the t-shirt bearing Modell’s logo.
It is intriguing to see how sports marketing is so dependent on the success (or failure) of individual teams. The Celtics’ advertisers practically struck gold! To the contrary, the effectiveness of such marketing must be questioned when a team is not successful. Who would want to be associated with a “losing” franchise? Not me.
So now I pose the question: Does the cost of sponsoring and advertising double in value for next season? I guess only time will tell. But I can guarantee one thing - - I will be watching every step of the way.
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