I don't have to tell any of you that Dodger fans are the best in league. After all, we True Blue fans have known this for a long time.
Well, now we have empirical evidence that proves it, and I'm gonna gloat to my hearts content.
Emory University, a private research school whose motto is "the wise heart seeks knowledge", put together a study to asses the brand equity of every ball team; i.e. fan intensity and loyalty. Brand Equity is an idea is that a well known and well regarded brand provides value, and that value creates loyalty to the brand such that fans would be willing to pay a price premium.
According to the Emory University's Sports Marketing Analytics study the Dodgers have the "Best" home fans, and therefore one of the best brands in the business. See their story here.
Our analysis finds some expected, and some surprising results. We discover that the Red Sox and the Dodgers tie for having the “best” fan bases. These teams are followed by the Cardinals, Giants and Cubs. It is the next team on the list that first raises some eyebrows, as our model rates the struggling Houston Astros as having the 6th best fan base. At the bottom of the list we have the Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers and the Anaheim Angels. The bottom five are also likely to cause debate and angst among Angels and Tigers supporters.As you can see above, the Angels have the worst fans around. Ha!
Below is a graphic showing the complete list, and check out their brief story here.
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"For those who are unfamiliar, brand equity is a common concept in marketing. The basic idea is that well known and well regarded brands provide value to organizations. Examples of high brand equity brands include Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Apple. These brands have value because consumers may have significant loyalty to the brand, or may be willing to pay a price premium."
ReplyDeleteSo basically, no matter how crappy the team is, some people will still go out and support them. There's a main reason the Cubs rank so high - per the basis of this research model, they have no real drive to become better - people will just attend and give them money "because". When you have dropping attendance, you need to determine what puts people into the seats.
All this research shows is certain teams have no external motivation to become better, they will just always have high revenue because their fan base will continue to blindly give them cash.
Look at teams 5 thru 9. They have a total of 19 WS appearances and 4 titles, the last in 1948 - 65 years ago! But without the fans putting pressure to put a quality team on the field, all they really do is line the pockets of the owners.
And yes - I know this research all all fun, but fans need to know you don't get anything good on the field if you support a team that goes 72-90. The White Sox suck this year. Will I go to a game? Maybe, but only because I have vouchers for free seats. But I don't have the desire to see a crappy team on the field.
"All this research shows is certain teams have no external motivation to become better, they will just always have high revenue because their fan base will continue to blindly give them cash."
DeleteI don't think is necessarily true. Unfortunately, the method and metrics aren't provided, but I would venture to guess that if this was put together last year during the end of the McCourt ownership, I don't think the Dodgers would be ranked as high. Fans were in open rebellion against him and the team, so there is a point were fans will not take it anymore and that has the ability to harm the brand. Attendance was falling, and I bet revenues were way down.
I think it's fair to say that the new owners have done quite a bit to foster and nurture the Dodger brand and are seeing results. Attendance is way up this year, and I bet ancillary sales are up, as well.
It was put together with results from the last 5 years when McCourt owned the Dodgers 4 of those years. We are very strong around any ballpark!GO DODGERS!!!!
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