Racism’s still alive, they just be concealin’ it

                                                  – Kanye West (Never Let Me Down)

This might not be that racist. If worded differently we could have avoided some of this.  Somehow between the e-mail scandal and a Paula Dean wedding we forgot the history of the south. In 2014, we live in a time where anything can be news. Anyone with a camera phone can transform into a reporter within seconds. Even worse a paparazzi. With sites like TMZ putting a price on sensational content, the motive to capture a one in a lifetime moment is up in multiples. Look at the power of TMZ. With in one year they got a NBA owner unseated from his team and a NFL player career cut short.

Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson apparently outed himself about a racist e-mail and is now selling his stake in the team. So did he wake up one day step up, and take his lick? Or did someone force his hand with all type of details busting out the seems?

Donald Sterling was outed as Clippers owner via an Instagram fit. We got a quotable from the Hawks owner on his peer earlier this year.

“Mayor Kevin Johnson was correct when he said that this is a defining moment for our league and that Sterling should be given the maximum penalty for his comments. I strongly believe that the league has to have a zero-tolerance policy against racism and discrimination in any form and I have faith that commissioner Adam Silver will act in what’s the best interest of the league. I have expressed these views to Adam and my fellow owners.”

                                                                                                  -Bruce Leverson April 28th, 2014 via Jeff Schultz Blog

The August 2012 e-mail  causing Levenson to get out before he was ran out, was part of an ongoing NBA investigation. Some how this was kept under raps for a while until the Luol Deng comments hit in post Sterling era of NBA it changed the possible narrative.

The Hawks scandal was sparked by GM Danny Ferry reading a “racist” remark from a scouting report on Luol Deng: http://t.co/TyBe2CQOfy

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) September 8, 2014

 

Bruce makes his personal feelings known in the e-mail about having majority Black audience, cheerleaders, entertainment attractions and makes a direct correlation that its the cause of lack of season tickets, corporate sales, not being appealing to older white men.

…When digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can’t get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:

— it’s 70 pct black

— the cheerleaders are black

— the music is hip hop

— at the bars it’s 90 pct black

— there are few fathers and sons at the games

— we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.

 

So lets stop there. He conveniently left out his team was 80% black. Maybe Atlanta is a place where it might support its own people? Not going to dig in there but we are about to go sideways and the problem is, the situation is looked at as a problem instead of a opportunity. Here where Leverson shows how socially progressive he has been.

My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean back then. i never felt uncomfortable, but i think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage.When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.

I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don’t care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that’s our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black..

This is obviously a sensitive topic, but sadly i think it is far and way the number one reason our season ticket base is so low.

 

So black people on kiss cam, no white cheerleaders, and different music is part of the number 1 reason for low season tickets? He also states there aren’t enough affluent blacks to source for season tickets. If you go to some parts of Atlanta, you will find a very large affluent African-American population. You can add to the fact ATL is the new Motown and Black Hollywood rolled into one.

Isiah looking tight next to Leverson

Some of what the Hawks owner is saying believe it or not is actually true. Atlanta is still in the south. Whites from an older demographic are still part of the majority when it comes to corporate dollars and reaches into to the political field too. There are still reminisce of racism and bigotry in everyday life in Georgia, He cites this is a sensitive subject and he chose the wrong median to display his feelings. The racist part of this is fact that he is complaining about blacks instead of embracing them. He continues to point out facts in a misguided fashion.

And many of our black fans don’t have the spendable income which explains why our f&b and merchandise sales are so low. At all white thrasher games sales were nearly triple what they are at hawks games (the extra intermission explains some of that but not all).

Regardless of what time a game starts, we have the latest arriving crowd in the league. It often looks and sounds empty when the team takes the floor.

We do all the usual giveways and the fans are usually their loudest when our spirit crew takes the floor to give away t-shirts. It pisses me off that they will yell louder for a t-shirt then for our players.

Our player intro is flat. We manufacture a lot of noise but because of the late arriving crowd and the fact that a lot of blacks dont seem to go as crazy cheering (another one of my theories) as whites, it is not great.

Not enough of our fans wear hawks jerseys to games. i have just begun to push for ideas like discount food lines for folks wearing jerseys, special entrances, etc. I think we need a committed and perhaps incentivized fan club.

We need to realize atl is simply different than every other city. Just adopting nba best practices is not enough. we have to create our own.

As you can see he has a total lack of perspective from Leverson. I’m sure there are plenty of smart people around him. They could have gotten him in contact with the right people but if you don’t value a group then whats the point?Bruce Leverson makes a point that there is a lack of enthusiasm among the Hawks fans. He has the right intentions when asking this question but what he didn’t ask was what was wrong with the team. Here’s a few things he could have looked into to help alleviate some of his “problems” :

1. Have a better basketball team

Somehow he can’t wrap his head around the concept that you have to win a lot to get some real loyal fans.

The lackluster performance of the squad can probably contribute to why no one is excited about the Hawks. The team is never being considered a championship contender and there finish is always predictably early. Atlanta has a history of being a fair weathered city when it comes to sports. Besides it’s still in the south where football is still king, especially in the capital of SEC Country.

Now think about the guy on the Hawks that every has to go see?  I can;t think of one fast enough. Highlight Factory? That’s more marketing, using the presence of Dominique Wilkins. Which for some still don’t forgive the Hawks for trading him in 1994.

Atlanta hasn’t had a true superstar since Nique. I think that is where the question should have started. I felt like the Hawks should have pushed harder for someone this summer, ideally Carmelo Anthony. Maybe a lil far fetched but it made perfect basketball sense. To me it would have been a new opportunity for Carmelo to be like the “King of the South” but he is from up north.

2. Change you Target Market

Leverson doesn’t consider changing his target. Instead of banking on affluent or southern whites, why not start recruiting the affluent black crowd and start getting more influencers in the building. If he didnt discredit the fact that more black people have more money then ever before. According to the Neilson African American Consumer 2013 Report, “Black buying power continues to increase, rising from its current $1
trillion level to a forecasted $1.3 trillion by 2017”.

3. Cheaper Merchandise

He blames the low income of most of his consumers on the reason why his merchandise is not selling. Maybe if you had more affordable merchandise for a large percentage of your consumers, they might could consider buying some. I know high quality cost money but I’m sure if Russel Simmons can get his clothes in Wal-Mart you could find some way to make good low cost licensed merchandise. I’m thinking about some of these tech infused t-shirt companies making custom tee’s for $13.

It’s not hard for me to make sense of what to do in this situation but I’m on the outside looking in. Like I said my background is in marketing, I’m the definition of a millennial, and last but not least African-American. I see opportunities here for the Hawks. The wrong people in power will shut them down every time.

At the end of the e-mail  he says “Just adopting nba best practices is not enough. we have to create our own.”

He shows that he is self aware when it comes to business but not when it comes to people. He admits they have to get creative to make money in this business.  I heard from Strategic Coach expert Dan Sullivan a quote that applies hear. “The problem is not the problem it’s how you think about the problem.” This is where he is suffering. The tone he takes sounds like a disgruntled business owner that wants out of this investment. He’s throwing his hands up sooner rather than later.