Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Nov. 2--In its third year, the Macon Whoopee has its third president and second CEO, but the owners think they finally have the right formula.
The Macon Sports Group, which owns the hockey team, has dwindled from five members to two in less than two years. Three of the original members, former CEO Bill McLeod and former presidents Richard Ray and Pat Nugent, are no longer members of the management team. Philosophical differences and different approaches to the work led to a parting of the ways.
But the remaining members of the group, Bibb Distributing Co. owner Brother Stewart and Macon physician Jeffery Fried, think the future looks bright. They are excited about the direction new President Keith Burdette is taking marketing efforts. And Burdette, although tired from 80-hour work weeks since taking over in September, is also enthusiastic.
'I think we have an opportunity to really make the Whoopee part of the community,' Burdette said. 'But the key is putting an exciting package together for the fans and giving our marketing partners as much exposure to as many fans as possible.'
Through two home games, it's clear that going to a Whoopee game isn't the same as in the past. Under Burdette's leadership, the Whoopee may finally have more stability in the front office. Burdette has changed the way the team markets itself to advertisers and fans and could have the Whoopee on the verge of its most profitable season ever. Although the team was reluctant to release any specific financial information, MSG cited 4,300 as the number of fans needed at each home game for a profitable season.
To reach the magic number, a jump of almost 600 fans per game over last year, Burdette has brought several intermission games and diversions that he used during the past four seasons as assistant general manager of the Memphis Riverkings in the Central Hockey League.
While the trademark Whoopee loud music is still around, Burdette has added a dizzy hockey stick race, based on the same principal as the Macon Braves' dizzy bat race, and human ice bowling, which slingshots a fan from one end of the ice toward 10 large, inflatable Coke bottles at the other end.
Burdette also brought the Memphis traditions of coffin races and a chuck-a-puck contest, where fans win money for throwing foam pucks into the back of a flatbed truck. And he added four recliners in the corners of the arena for a 'best seat in the house' promotion idea, which is already being sponsored by Finlandia and Frito Lay. Four fans will be selected to sit in the seats each game.
'If we can tie in our promotions with our advertisers,' Burdette said, 'then they get more exposure. As long as we create a fun environment, we can create more customers for our marketing partners.'
To make the advertising work, there have to be fans to advertise to. The Whoopee, which drew an average of 3,767 spectators for each game last year after drawing 3,641 in its first year, finished seventh in attendance in the 10-team CHL last year. Oklahoma City led the league at 9,453, but second-place Wichita drew only 5,029.
'Oklahoma City is an aberration,' Burdette said. 'I don't really like to compare ourselves to anyone else in the league, anyway. Our competition is other entertainment in Macon. We need to make going to a Whoopee game more fun than dinner and a movie.'
Burdette needs an audience to sell to his advertisers, but he also needs people to buy tickets, hot dogs, popcorn and souvenirs. Although fans don't spend thousands of dollars each, a family of four spends about $100 at a game.
It's hard to predict attendance after only two home games, but the 4,987 fans at the game against Columbus on Oct. 23 was the largest opening-night crowd in team history. But that was followed last Tuesday by a crowd of only 1,946. The large crowd for opening night was surprising, because it came on a Friday night when the Whoopee had to compete with high school football and the Georgia State Fair, but Outback Steakhouse's snake-meat promotion, in honor of Columbus' Cottonmouths, helped draw some fans.
'We've gotten a great response from it,' Outback manager Tiffany McCausland said. 'Little kids were running from me when I told them it was snake meat, but it was really chicken. It went so well we'd like to do something like that again.'
Riverside Ford has earmarked a large portion of its advertising budget for the Whoopee. Ford has bought two dasherboards (boards below the glass that form a circle of advertisements around the ice), banners around the arena, sponsorship on the team's helmets and an ad on the back cover of the Whoopee game program. Riverside will sponsor giveaways throughout the season, also, including the chuck-a-puck promotion.
On opening night, Riverside Ford gave away the pucks that fans could toss into a flatbed to win $50. In the future, fans will pay $2 per puck or get five for $6. The winners of the contest will split the money from the sales of the foam pucks.
Although it's difficult to see tangible results from advertising for a company like Riverside, Burdette cited research that sports fans are 3.5 times as likely to be brand loyal than non-sports fans. He added that, when fans come to a Whoopee game, they're usually in a good mood, and studies show people in a good mood when they see advertising are more likely to associate good things with that company or product. Burdette also said many companies in Macon just want to support the Whoopee because they think it helps the community.
'We promote the Braves and the (Douglass) Theatre,' said Michael Davis, public relations director for Riverside Ford. 'We think it's good for everyone, but we also want our name out there. We want people to think about us when they need a car.'
Riverside Ford has bought its share of space in the arena, but other companies are also interested. Burdette has already sold eight of the nine spots on the ice, and almost all of the dasherboards. With a price tag of $3,500 per dasherboard and $6,000 to $15,000 for ice space, that's a large chunk of revenue for the team. Burdette is confident he'll have the center ice space, with a price tag of $15,000, sold soon, along with the extra dasherboards. He said the only reason they haven't been sold already is that he and his office have only had two months to work on it.
'We had a few contracts set when we took over,' Burdette said. 'But we've really worked hard to get all of these sold. We have sold so many banners, we have to look into hanging them higher so we can get another row.'
Next on the agenda is selling radio ads. The team bought time from U.S. Broadcasting, which runs WMAC-AM and WMKS-FM to broadcast all 35 road games. The Whoopee will sell its own ads for each broadcast. Each game has 50 30-second spots. At only $25 each per game, Burdette doesn't think selling the time will be a problem, but he hasn't had time to focus on it yet, so the team has sold only 12 commercials.
According to CEO and part-owner Fried, a Macon physician, the Whoopee has made money the past two seasons despite low attendance.
The ownership group has changed each year since MSG bought the team in January 1997, but Whoopee chief financial officer Steve Jukes thinks the group is settled now, and the dollar figures should be good at the end of this season. Former MSG members Ray and Nugent each retain 10 percent of the team, even though they're out of the management loop now.
Jukes said the team has made money each year, but the owners haven't seen much profit because the deal they made to buy the team midway through its first season had several liabilities attached. In addition to the price they paid for the team, they also pay about $150,000 per year in dues to the league.
Burdette, the third president the Whoopee has had, is a 30-year-old Florida State University graduate who got into the hockey business four years ago. The 6-foot-7 Tampa, Fla., native looks like he'd be more comfortable on a basketball court than on the ice, but he's loved hockey since he began playing roller hockey in college. When there was an opening for an assistant general manager in Memphis, he jumped at the chance.
When he was looking to move up after four years with Memphis, MSG jumped at the chance to snare him.
'We looked around throughout the CHL and some other leagues to find candidates,' Jukes said. 'Keith was head-and-shoulders above the others we interviewed. We just loved his enthusiasm and the excitement he brought. We think he'll really make a difference in advertising and attendance.'
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