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.
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