While many would argue that the best way to win long-term fan support in professional sports is with on-field success, team operators know that providing off-field activities can help to boost game attendance.
This increase of off-field activities as part of a strategy to attract fan interest could not be more evident than the recent lineup of events that each Chinese Professional Baseball League club has set in place. Besides the usual autograph and photo sessions with the star players, fans are being treated to karaoke parties at popular local hangouts and dinners with their favorite sports figures at sports bars.
And a lucky few may even win a chance to go on an ocean cruise with their favorite sports stars.
In another recent promotional event, the First Securities Agan signed a deal with Coca Cola for handing out free cans of soda at weekend home games in Kaohsiung as part of a series of activities to lure more fans to the stands.
"It's getting tougher and tougher to get the public to even watch the games on television, let alone lure them to the ballpark to see us play," Agan team leader Yeh Nan-hui (葉南輝) said. "That's why we are putting on various activities to encourage them to become involved."
The Agan is also giving away free mobile telephones to 10 lucky winners during every home game through another promotional activity being carried out in cooperation with TransAsia Telecommunications.
Along with the increasingly competitive nature of sports marketing, the average age for fans that attend CPBL games is on the decline. This is crucial to the long-term viability of local professional baseball, because it means that interest will remain high for quite some time to come.
"Our grass-roots approach in attracting the younger fans over the years is paying off," said a senior Brother Elephants official who wished to remain anonymous. "The fans that you see at our ball games who are in their early 20s were all in high school or junior high when we first got them interested in following the Elephants."
Other teams also like the grass-roots approach, and baseball camps for youngsters sponsored by CPBL teams are now springing up.
"We are sending our boy to a baseball camp this summer instead of having him come on a trip with us to Japan, because he really wants to meet and learn from his favorite shortstop," a proud parent surnamed Lin said during a recent Agan game in Hualien.
Having younger fans may be good for the sport in terms of long-term viability, but it also means that teams must continuously come up with new gimmicks to keep youngsters watching.
"Getting young fans interested is one thing, but having them remain interested is a completely different task, because they are more impatient these days," Agan marketing and planning chief Lu Ming-tze (
"When you deal with this crowd, you are competing with online vendors for younsters' attention, as well as with the world's pop-music stars," Lu said.
The fans are the biggest winners of the league's efforts, because the experience of going to a CPBL game will never be the same. Instead of just chowing down on snacks and sipping beers, clubs are now continuously adding new twists to the experience of attending an old-fashioned ballgame.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to “beat” a world record on Sunday at the Enhanced Games, winning the men’s 50m freestyle at the divisive competition where athletes were free to take performance-enhancing substances. His time of 20.81 seconds — which is not considered official — came in the final event of the night in Las Vegas, sparing the blushes of organizers who made claims that multiple world records would be surpassed due to a sophisticated doping regime. Gkolomeev, who was wearing a synthetic “supersuit” long banned at events such as the Olympics, outpaced Australia’s Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88 set in
VICTORY ABROAD: The team took home a fistful of medals and secured spots for the autumn’s Asian Games, scheduled for September in Nagoya Taiwan’s women’s team captured the overall title at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Mongolia on Sunday, finishing with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal. The strong showing, led by gold medalists Wang Chieh-ling and Chang Jui-en secured the full quota of available spots for Taiwan at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, in September. Wang opened Taiwan’s medal run by winning gold in the women’s under-46kg class on Thursday, the first day of competition. Liu Yu-yun later earned a silver in the under-49kg class. On the final day on Sunday, Chang won Taiwan’s second gold medal in the under-62kg event, and
The manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, resigned yesterday after he was arrested for allegedly physically attacking his teenage daughter. Shinnosuke Abe allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old and forced her to the floor at their home in central Tokyo on Monday evening, reported national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, citing unnamed police sources. “Leaving like this really means I’m causing you a lot of trouble, and I feel truly sorry about that,” Abe told a hastily arranged news conference, his eyes red with tears. The former star catcher, who is among baseball-obsessed Japan’s most recognized sports figures,
Taiwanese tennis star Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles at the French Open, after she and German partner Mark Wallner defeated Slovenian Andreja Klepac and Briton Lloyd Glasspool in straight sets, despite temperatures exceeding 32°C in Paris, while Taiwan’s top men’s doubles player Ray Ho also reached the second round. Hsieh, who made it to the semi-finals in the mixed doubles at Roland Garros in 2024, and Wallner defeated Klepac and Glasspool 6-3, 7-5 in just more than an hour, converting three of five break points, while holding their opponents to just one conversion
RSS