Quote:Why is the target audience 40-something white guys?
If you feel the experience of going to the game is safe, with no reported incidents in the years he mentioned, why does he want to cater to a segment of the population that incorrectly believes it is unsafe to go to the games because of all the black people there?
Why does the color of the cheerleaders matter?
If the demographics of the audience is predominately African-American, why would he want to play music they may not favor? Does he really think the unfounded fears of unsafe conditions will be assuaged by "white" music, whatever that is?
Bingo!
I wonder with him targeting the "Southern Whites" because they have more money, is he indirectly telling me or other minorities who love the Hawks that their money is not as valuable?
Quote:No, this is an entirely different situation. I guess we should lump them in together though.
Its already lumped together.
The owner made those comments, who Ferry in turn made those same comments on a conference call.
Quote:Bingo!
I wonder with him targeting the "Southern Whites" because they have more money, is he indirectly telling me or other minorities who love the Hawks that their money is not as valuable?
Doesn't sound like that at all. Sound more like minorities don't have enough numbers in the upper income strata to be worth marketing towards. This isn't an attack on you, for all we know you may an extremely affluent minority. But you alone don't account for the statistics. This was just sound business, which unfortunately these days is considered politically incorrect.
I guess we better get Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton down there to sort it all out. Maybe we can get a riot or two out of it.
Quote:Doesn't sound like that at all. Sound more like minorities don't have enough numbers in the upper income strata to be worth marketing towards. This isn't an attack on you, for all we know you may an extremely affluent minority. But you alone don't account for the statistics. This was just sound business, which unfortunately these days is considered politically incorrect.
I guess we better get Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton down there to sort it all out. Maybe we can get a riot or two out of it.
How does he know for sure minorities dont have any disposable income to come to the game? It seemed like he made a lazy incorrect generalization.
It may sound like a good business practice approach, but him categorizing specific by race doesn't help his intentions to get his point across.
Quote:How does he know for sure minorities dont have any disposable income to come to the game? It seemed like he made a lazy incorrect generalization.
It may sound like a good business practice approach, but him categorizing specific by race doesn't help his intentions to get his point across.
They have empty seats in the stadium throughout the year. Him brain storming to try to bring a new demographic is not an earth shattering idea.
If hockey came up with the idea in reverse and wanted to try to attract minorities to games, would it be a problem?
Quote:They have empty seats in the stadium throughout the year. Him brain storming to try to bring a new demographic is not an earth shattering idea.
If hockey came up with the idea in reverse and wanted to try to attract minorities to games, would it be a problem?
They have empty seats because the product is sub-par. Dont single out a race as the reason why.
Put a quality product on the court, and fans will come, no matter if they are black, white, latino, etc.
If hockey came up with the same idea? yes it would be a problem as well, because you make other races feel like their are no longer welcome or their dollar isnt as valuable.
My PC take:
What is being missed here is that his target demo isn't watching the games on TV either.
The Hawks--- and really the rest of the NBA--- has catered it product to the "current" fanbase.
Quote:My PC take:
What is being missed here is that his target demo isn't watching the games on TV either.
The Hawks--- and really the rest of the NBA--- has catered it product to the "current" fanbase.
The Hawks problem is not an NBA problem.
Quote:They have empty seats because the product is sub-par. Dont single out a race as the reason why.
Put a quality product on the court, and fans will come, no matter if they are black, white, latino, etc.
If hockey came up with the same idea? yes it would be a problem as well, because you make other races feel like their are no longer welcome or their dollar isnt as valuable.
I disagree. There are lots of companies out there that cater to certain ethnic backgrounds, and I don't have a problem with any of it. If a company is looking to increase process and wants to branch out, it does not bother me one bit.
Could he have said something that I haven't heard or maybe glossed over? Maybe. Danny Ferry's comments and the scouting report on Deng were much much worse, imo. The NFL/NBA overanalyze some of these players to the point that they cross the line...and not even by a small margin.
Quote:Who predominantly buys luxury boxes? Primo seats? Who is more likely to buy concessions? The individuals with more disposable income. That is why the target audience is 40-something white guys. They are statistically more likely to have and spend more money. This isn't racism, it is statistics. He wants an audience that will spend more money, and that audience is NOT the african-american audience. Therefor he wants to do more to bring the in the audience that spends more money.
Now if you want to get into why the african-american audience isn't equal to the audience he seeks, that is an entirely different debate. I don't think he was being racist here, he was just speaking from reality. I guess speaking from reality is now 'racist'.
Quoted for being an absolutely perfect response.