http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/grizzl...5545740,00.htmlHere's how it was for the Cleveland Cavaliers' ticket sales staff in those long, lonely days of losing, pre-LeBron James: "We sold hope," said then-sales rep Todd Fleming, "not necessarily the product on the court." Advertisement However smart the philosophy -- when you have a slight hand, try the old sleight of hand? -- the facts were the facts: the Cavs were in the midst of five straight losing seasons, each one worse than the last. They reached bottom in 2002-2003, with a 17-65 record (tied for the last in the NBA) and 11,496 average attendance (last, alone). Then one night four years ago, hope took human form -- the Cavs won the draft lottery, otherwise known as the LeBron James sweepstakes -- and everything changed. The phones rang. The city buzzed. Season tickets sold themselves. After some six hours of taking orders that first night, said Fleming, now director of ticket sales for the New Jersey Nets, "We actually had to turn the phone lines off, right around 2 o'clock in the morning. "Everybody went home, got a few hours sleep, and we were back in the office by 5:30, 6 o'clock in the morning. "We flipped the phone lines on, and we had about two-and-a-half days of just kind of a frenzy where you were picking up the phone and taking orders." For the NBA-worst Grizzlies, that's the dream scenario: To win the No. 1 or 2 pick in Tuesday's lottery. To land a potential franchise-making player, in this case Ohio State's Greg Oden or Texas' Kevin Durant. To make the phones ring. To make the city buzz. After the thud, a buzz? The Grizzlies of 2007 are the Cavaliers of 2003, pretty much. They had the NBA's worst record (22-60) and lowest average attendance (14,654). The phones aren't ringing. The sales reps sell hope -- but nobody much is buying, at the moment. They're waiting for Tuesday, when ping pong balls determine the order of the draft -- and the future of a franchise that's pretty low these days on what team president of business operations Andy Dolich dubs "the buzzometer." "There's no question that we haven't been registering at a high level in the last year," he said. And if the Grizzlies get the first or second pick? "I would expect the buzzometer to basically be super-heated," Dolich said. So it was in Cleveland. So it continues to be. Today, the Cavs are at valued at $380 million -- up some 70 percent in the James Era. That's according to the annual NBA team valuations by Forbes magazine, which rated Team LeBron as the 10th-most valuable in the league, and reported: "Owner Dan Gilbert continues to reap the benefits of superstar forward LeBron James. FSN Ohio agreed this summer to pay the Cavs an estimated $25 million in its new broadcast contract, double its prior deal. Last season ticket prices jumped 8 percent (more than double the NBA average)." This year's Cavs were third in the league in attendance, averaging 20,436 -- 99.7 percent capacity. That's a far cry from the pre-Jamesian days, when Cavs players were enlisted to call season-ticket holders, thanking them for their support and asking for their continued patience. Lessons to be learned So Memphis, with the No. 1 or 2 pick, becomes Cleveland South, a market transformed, just like that? Well, not necessarily. Cleveland is a larger market, with a metro population of about 2.1 million. And, it was LeBron Country long before his first NBA game -- James' hometown of Akron is just 40 miles to the south. Memphis' metro population is about 1.3 million -- tiny, by NBA standards. And, unlike the Cavs faithful with James, Grizzlies fans didn't watch their team's draft-pick-to-be grow up. "This market had been inundated with LeBron media exposure. And all of the talk -- especially the last two years (of his high school career) -- was, 'He's going to be the No. 1 pick,'" said Jim Kadlecek, chair of the department of human performance and sport management at Mount Union College, near Akron. "When the Cavs ended up getting the pick, it wasn't like there was a need to educate the market on LeBron James." Kadlecek has followed and analyzed the Cleveland sports market over his decade at Mount Union. In what could be timely advice to the Grizzlies, he said the Cavs' turnaround wasn't as simple as it may seem from this distance. "Even though the Cavs were awful on the floor, they had an excellent ticket sales staff, a great sales culture. And they were prepared for the deluge that they got," he said. "You can hit a home run -- or you can really end up looking bad if you're not ready for the impact that one person could have." He said the Cavs also anticipated that new season-ticket holders would need to be courted -- even after the sale -- because a new ticket holder typically renews at a lower rate than a veteran. "The Cavs set in place a very specific retention strategy," Kadlecek said. "Once a month, they had their sales reps making contact with the first-year season-ticket holders to be sure everything was going OK ... seat visits, special breakfasts, that sort of thing." In other words, this would be like winning any other lottery -- great fortunes can easily be squandered without a plan. -- David Williams: 529-2310 The superstar effect The 2002-2003 Cleveland Cavs (pre-LeBron James): Record: 17-65 Average attendance: 11,496 Franchise value: $222 million The 2006-2007 Cavs: Record: 50-32, and still alive in playoffs. Average attendance: 20,436 Franchise value: $380 million
Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Nobody likes our best player, Pau Gasol...so we need another who can be marketed batter.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (austingriz @ May 20 2007, 11:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Nobody likes our best player, Pau Gasol...so we need another who can be marketed batter.</div>I wouldnt say no one likes Gasol.Anyway, how can you compare the grizz to the Cavs? They made the playoffs the last 3 years. Got F*cked last year. This year they started the season with MVP of the world championships hurt.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (austingriz @ May 20 2007, 11:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Nobody likes our best player, Pau Gasol...so we need another who can be marketed batter.</div>If no one like Pau, send em down to Cleveland. Anyone can go besides James, and our best player Larry Hughes. :dribble:
