Bridgeport Bluefish Learning Lesson About Complacency
The Bridgeport Bluefish were once the darlings of Southern Connecticut. The independent team knocked a nearby affiliated team right off the map, and set all sorts of minor league baseball attendance records along the way. But they enter their 12th season facing elimination, even with a new ownership group at bat.
So what happened? Somewhere along the line, Bluefish management got complacent and figured fans from all across Fairfield and New Haven counties would flock to The Ballpark at Harbor Yard no matter what. They took an only-game-in-town attitude and ran with it, and suddenly were suddenly playing in a half-empty stadium.
And nothing ownership or management groups did to get back into the limelight didn’t work. Bottom line is, the team didn’t market itself. It took the old-school approach that the local newspaper should write a zillion articles about them and that’s what’s going to make fans come out to the ballpark.
A new ownership group is in… again. Frank Boulton’s group owns the league and owns Bridgeport’s biggest rival, the successful (on and off the field) Long Island Ducks. The group is getting the word out about the team and trying to make the area feel like it’s 1997 all over again.
They made a big splash by announcing kids eat for free on Mondays and Tuesdays, they’ve lowered ticket prices. And as important, they are starting to drive across the point of value. That’s very important when a die hard Yankees or Mets fan can spend a ton more money by bringing a family of four to see a Major League Baseball game.
Now you’re not going to see any superstars when you go to a game in Bridgeport (the days of Ricky Henderson and Jose Canseco trying to revive their careers in the Atlantic League are far gone). But if you love the game and want to teach your sons and daughters about it, you can do it in Bridgeport for a fraction of the cost.
The lesson learned here: You can think you’re the only game in town, you can rest on past seasons, you can falsely assume fans will flock to your product through thick or thin. But if you’re not marketing your product, your audience can easily turn a deaf ear.
