Originally Posted by
DichioTFC
wont work ensco..
1. TFC isn't a "drop in the ocean," by saying so you're undermining the quality of their investment, and since you later claim to be a partner, renders that argument baseless as well.
2. Brand loyalty often sees high rates of customer turnover. This can be overcome by acquiring new customers, or, in our case, replacing high-maintenance customers (us) in exchange for low-maintenance customers (soccer moms / nuclear families). They're already in the process of this.
3. We're not 'partners,' we're customers. Huge difference. The sole purpose we serve to the OTTP is to be a revenue stream. Partners implies we're providing some tangible value on top of that, and, by the looks of the 'problems' we cause the FO, it could be argued that we don't. I'm not sure if we offer much marketing value any more beyond stock footage of games gone by - and even that can be overcome with an effective TV ad campaign.
4. On-field performance is often not a goal for sports conglomerates. Providing entertainment value for a family of four where the parent parks the car; kids buy hot dogs, a shirt and cotton candy is often the main goals. The residual income from concessions and parking is more important than on-field success. And let's face facts, when's the last time a supporter purchased popcorn or a chip butty from the concessions, or parked anywhere other than Lamport?
5. I think its obvious to everyone that there are clear financial synergies to owning TFC and MLSE. ST waiting list suckers got the 'opportunity' to buy Marlies tickets. Corporate sponsors to TFC get Maple Leafs season ticket / luxury box opportunities. Charitable donations to the MLSE foundation give corporations an opportunity to raise some goodwill with many segments with high levels of disposable income (let's say, for example, the urban male 25-34 market). How can you not see the financial synergies? Plus this industry has the highest potential profits and is among the safest (Jays, Raptors, Leafs, TFC, Argos are not going anywhere; there is high demand for sports within the GTA).
6. Changing the operational structure would be of interest to them, but an aside about the 7-month tenure of a middle manager will not interest these millionaire board members. This would be delegated down to Anselmi to fix, since he's in charge of lower-middle management.
7. Why has there has never been accountability in the executive suite for our team’s on field failures. There is accountability - the TFC FO are accountable to Anselmi, who is, in turn, accountable to the Peddie and the board at large. From the viewpoint of board members, Anselmi recently made changes to address the issues of previous on-field failures. Board members have a lot more patience than consumers, and would probably expect patience from our end (remember - MoJo had a 5 year plan, Winter / Mariner have only had a couple months of soccer to play in).
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I wouldn't say a single thing to the OTTP. Instead, I would enlist the help of influential fans that have corporation and political clout to lobby the board. Mayor Miller is the obvious choice, but I've met *a lot* of rich and powerful people at BMO who have great connections in their 9-5 lines of work.
The board members are clearly not fans of the team. They are more concerned with revenue generation strategies and profit maximization than they are if we make the CCL. Showing them how on-field success translates to playoff revenue (tickets, concessions, parking, jerseys) and greater ad revenue (greater successes lead to broadcasts on ESPN, which mean greater visibility for TFC / BMO Field advertisers) would be better than whining about how we're not winning. Show the board how winning will benefit them. RPB is 500 members approx. We're 2.3% of the stadium attendance week in and week out. And since majority of RPBs are in the cheaper supporters sections (and we don't purchase concessions - ignoring beer for the moment), TFC generates less revenue from us than they do other segments, say the nuclear family example above. Also, I would venture a guess to say that the SGs collective cause 80-90% of the problems for the FO (imagine Anselmi trying to explain to the board why the supporter groups were boycotting an opportunity to watch Real Madrid in person).
TL;DR - Discussing the economics of winning, good. Asking OTTP to vaguely look at the product first hand themselves, bad.