|
|
|
Home  Articles 99/00 Season NPSL needs to beef up publicity
|
|
NPSL needs to beef up publicity |
|
|
|
|
Written by John Short
|
|
Thursday, 23 March 2000 |
It's more than a little surprising that marketing guy Wojtek Wojcicki still has not figured out why his financially strapped Edmonton Drillers draw such feeble crowds at home.
The answer is as plain as the Band-Aid on his bankroll: It's because no team in any sport can survive without opposition, without natural rivalries, without someone for whom local fans can build up a good, old-fashioned competitive hatred -- which is exactly what the Drillers are trying to do.
Can you imagine the National Hockey League without Toronto against Montreal or Edmonton against Calgary?
With no realistic chance to develop antagonisms, due to scheduling problems and geographical inconsistencies that must hurt every team, a lot of National Professional Soccer League franchises are suffering.
Wojcicki's team has drawn about 5,000 fans on average this season at Skyreach Centre, not much below the league average.
Perhaps it's a stretch to say the desired -- required? -- average of about 8,000 for each Drillers home game would be achieved if fans knew a little about who they were playing.
For sure, the possibility exists.
Fans aren't the only people confused, or uninformed, about other teams in the NPSL.
Sad failure Coaches and managers have to scavenge for information, too, just as some reporters have long suspected.
Confirmation of the NPSL's sad failure to distribute even the most basic information came Wednesday in an after-practice conversation with Edmonton head coach Ross Ongaro, who went over the status of key injured Drillers such as Chris Handsor and Niki Vignjevic.
Most of the news was good:
Vignjevic, Edmonton's best player, is sure to be available against the St. Louis
Ambush on Friday night; the versatile Hansor is a possibility.
Their presence is essential in the Drillers' game struggle toward a probable playoff spot.
"We won three of our seven on that road trip and that was better than we expected to do," Ongaro said.
"We'd have been satisfied with two wins. Now it's almost certain that we'll get in."
Post-season competition is more important than usual this season; customers and cash are still needed if Wojcicki is to succed in his bid to keep the franchise alive.
But what of the team Edmonton is to play?
How can casual fans inform themselves as to whether Friday's game is a big attraction.
Why should we care about St. Louis?
"Sure it's an important game," Ongaro insists.
"We really want to win it. We need to win it.
"Other than that, there isn't much I can say.
PCL no great example
"When I need information on other players or teams in this league, I usually wind up looking on the Internet."
In case you haven't noticed, almost every sport that does not carry a major- league label exists in a similar cone of public- relations silence.
Edmonton Trappers general manager Mel Kowalchuk, for one, often has agreed that fans get short-changed
because information tends to be scarce on Pacific Coast League teams getting ready to visit Telus Field, even at the height of a playoff race.
To a lesser extent, the Eskimos take punishment at the gate because unsettled Canadian Football League franchises, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders prominent among them, keep shuffling rosters and introducing unknowns.
Fortunately, the Trappers and Eskimos are secure -- as secure as any minor-pro organizations can possibly be in these times of tight budgets and unstable loyalties.
Despite general and growing agreement that indoor soccer is an exciting game and despite the feeling that an NPSL franchise benefits this region at least slightly, the Drillers can't make the same claim.
League-wide communication failures deserve much of the blame.
|
|
|
|