Vol 3_No 1 Guts.indd - Rubber Magazine

By Brian McDonough
Fresh off of its
second West
Division
championship
in the
last three en
route to playing
host to the National Lacrosse
League championship game, the
Arizona Sting is proud to stamp the
2007 season an unequivocal
success.
“Last season was
amazing,” said Dustin
Payne, the team’s
director of marketing.
But it can be even
better, and it’s Payne’s
plan to make it so.
“There’s one constant
in the Phoenix
market: Fans like
winning,” he said. “It’s
a tremendous lift to be
able to sell your team
as the defending West
Division champions.
I think the success
of the team last year
helped establish a
larger fan base and it’s
our job to ride the mo-
mentum into the 2008
season.”
And bolstering
attendance is one of Payne’s top
priorities. Arizona averaged just
over 6,000 fans per game in 2007,
ranked 11th in the 13-team NLL.
“I want to see the upper concourse
open at every game in 2008,”
he said. “We provide Valley sports
fans with one of the most exciting,
action-packed and affordable
options in entertainment and I
know the team will have success
on the fl oor, but it’s time that we
have similar success at the box
offi ce and I think that coming off a
memorable 2007 season, the sky’s
the limit.”
Lacrosse
Sting riding winning momentum
Connecting with the kids will
play a big role in the team’s ticket
push next season.
“We need to do a better job raising
the awareness of our product
on a grassroots level with youth
lacrosse,” said Payne. “There are
thousands of kids playing lacrosse
in Arizona and we need to capitalize
on that market.”
Payne was particularly happy
with the success of the team’s
Tyler Gormley gets behind his Sting during last season’s West Division
championship game.
Opening Night Tailgate Party and
plans to build on it next season. He
was also pleased with the Fan of
the Week presented by Your Travel
Center contest in which Kim Dennis
of Phoenix won a road trip with
the team to Minnesota. Payne was
also proud of the relationships the
Sting was able to establish with
its local neighbors in the business
community, namely Gordon Biersch
and Westgate, which helped push
the team’s awareness during the
postseason.
“I really believe that once a fan
experiences a Sting game, they
will want to come back. But in our
market, we need to offer just a little
bit more than what fans can get
elsewhere,” said Payne.
On the fl oor, the team saw the
emergence of Dan Dawson as
a true NLL superstar and MVP
candidate, while goaltender Rob
Blasdell established himself as
a go-to guy in the net. Off it, the
Sting maintained a strong presence
in the community which continues
throughout the summer
and fall months.
This summer, the
Sting staff attended the
Hubbard Sports Camps
and introduced thousands
of kids to the sport
of lacrosse with multiple
clinics. The team is also
exploring the option of
adding a mascot which
will help promote the
Sting during the off-season.
“Because our players
live out of state, the offseason
involves a heavy
amount of grassroots
programs and planning,”
said Payne. “The success
of this sport in Arizona is
dependent on kids adopting
the sport as a form of
recreation and competition.”
Leading up to the season, the
team also plans promotional nights,
sets ticket prices, tweaks and
initiates programs and lays out a
general game plan and goals for
the upcoming season. The Sting
is also in the process of creating a
new-and-improved Web site which
Payne says will serve as a more
effective resource for the team’s fan
base.
“I think the biggest obstacle is
getting the local news media to give
us recognition, but as the fan base
rises, so will the media coverage,”
said Payne. ❂
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Photo / Arizona Sting