New York Knicks Research Paper
If you have not heard of the New York Knicks, then you have not watched the NBA recently. The New York Knicks are one of the most historical teams in the NBA. They are located in New York City and play at the one of the best arenas in the world. The Madison Square Garden. Madison Square Garden has held many events including the NBA, NHL, NCAA Basketball and Music events as well. Currently they are on NHL because of the New York Rangers are in the NHL Playoffs. The Garden is one of the best places to play in the NBA, the Superstars today love playing in the Garden because of the history of the building. They always want to play their best. The Market of the New York Knicks is the biggest in the nation. The New York market size is 7.515M (Sports Media Watch, 1). This number is based on the number of TV in the homes. The Knicks also share their market with the New Jersey Nets, but next year they will have they only market because the Nets are moving to Brooklyn. Current the Knicks own the market because they are doing much better than the Nets. Current the Knicks are 33-40 and the Nets are 22-42 (ESPN, 1). Some of the strengths of the Knicks our their people, they have one of the strong fan based of all of professional sports, they are not afraid to voice their options our how they feel. Recently the Knicks the
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past four years the Knicks have not been the best team. They still have their support of the fans though. The Knicks have been on the rise as well because of their ‘product’ they have been putting out recently. After signing, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, two years ago they have been consistent playoff contender (Wikipedia, 1). Then this offseason they signed Tyson Chandler, which helped them in the defense department where they were slacking in. Jeremy Lin also helped bring the New York Knicks to the limelight again with “Linsanity”. Which made the Knicks one of the most talked about NBA teams of recent. The Knicks also have a different kind of ‘super-fan’ in Spike Lee. When you think of the Knicks most people talk about Spike Lee, and how he is at every home game.
The difference from their team and their competitors is the History behind the team. They have been to the finals eight times in the history of the team, winning in 1970 and 1973, those eight times is ranked four of all time behind the 76’s, Celtics and the Lakers (Wikipedia, 3). This is not a bad group of teams to be in. Another big thing that they are different is their building they play in Madison Square Garden is somewhere where the best stars come to play. James, Jordan, Wade, Bryant, always shows up, and play there best in the Garden.
New York has one of the best staffs in the Industry because they do not just focus on basketball, when it comes to Madison Square Garden; they are into the entertainment industry as well. The Garden has also hosted events like Britney Spears, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Micheal Jackson, The Beatles and Jay-Z, just to name a few (Wikipedia, 2). Which are all big names, which the staff has to plan these music events around the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers games. This means that the staff has to be on top and commutate with everyone to make sure they do not over book an event.
The Market Share is expanding due to the New Jersey Nets moving that means some of their fans with switch over to the New York Knicks. The one thing that is favoring the Knicks is the fact that they have the biggest market in the nation. They have even used their market to try and bring in some of the biggest superstars in the game. When LeBron James was becoming a free agent, they were using the sticking point of the biggest market in the nation. They were using this idea because LeBron James said, “He wanted to become the first billionaire athlete.” And coming to New York would help with reach that goal. They have been using the same tactics with the Magic’s Dwight Howard because he feels like he is no getting the publicity that he feels like he should be. When it comes to Social Media that is where the New York Knicks need to improve on, but I will touch on that more when we get to the weakness of the team. There are need aspects that they need to touch on a little bit more.
Some of the areas that the New York Knicks need to improve on are their Social Media side of marketing. When you compare the New York Knicks to The Boston Celtics and the Los Angles Lakers they are behind both of them on their twitter accounts. The Celtics have 460,287 followers, Los Angles Lakers have 2,463,337 followers and the Knicks have 300,217 followers (Twitter, 1). The Knicks need to upgrade their Social Media side of marketing because when you have the biggest market in the nation. The numbers should not be this low, which means they need to improve on. One marketing plan they could do to increase their followers is put their Twitter account name of the court, just like the Boston Celtics did.
The area that the competitors have an edge is the players and the coaching staff. At the moment the coach at the start of the season resigned before the end of the season. They were forced to go to a new coach. The other teams have been with their same coach during the whole season and the chemistry is not there yet. The way to fix this weakness is just let the players and the coaching staff come together and get on the same page. It may take some time about it is worth it because them on the same page means more wins and more wins creates bigger buzz. Injuries also become a weakness if they affect much of your core players.
At the moment they Knicks have two key players injured before the playoffs start. Which changes the overall flow of the team. New players that are not use to playing with each other are now stepping into the starting line-up. Amar’e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin are both injury at the moment and they playoffs begin this week. So New York Knicks have to play without these great players. Recently, Amar’e Stoudemire is back from a back injury, but is not at one hundred percent. If the New York Knicks win a playoff series with will increase ticket sales and the buzz of the
team.
An opportunity of the New York Knicks is that they have a great fan base and they are very loyal to their team. Knicks’ fan believe in their team no matter what the situation is, if they are in first place of last place they will still be at the Garden supporting their team. The Knicks also have room to work with when signing new players they have about ten million to work with to still be under the Boston Celtics. Which could mean that they could go out and sign Dwight Howard if they wanted too. Dwight was said multiple times that he wants out of Orlando. And New York is a huge market for Dwight Howard to be an even bigger star of the NBA. The fans of the New York Knicks would welcome Dwight Howard with open arms because they all know what he brings to the table. And with him their chances of winning an NBA title come within reach.
The list of threats for the New York Knicks is huge. Their biggest threat is the New Jersey Nets; since they are in the same market the Knicks have to fight against them for their market share. Since the Knicks are doing much better than the Nets they do not have to worry about them taking any market share. Another threat that the New York Knicks fight against is the city itself because there is so much to do within New York City, that they have to fight against everything to do in New York City. There is just so much to do within New York City that it may be hard to compete against because of the New York Knicks ticket prices, but I will get to that a little later in the analysis.
If their sports product does not do well it is okay because their fans are loyal to the New York Knicks no matter how well they do. The fans are one of the best fan groups in all of professional sports because they have been through the highs and lows with their team.
Another threat of the New York Knicks is not a threat all the time, but recently it was the NBA lockout was a threat of the team. With an NBA lockout that means no more basketball for that year. Which means no ticket sales or money for the New York Knicks front office.
Another threat that can affect the New York Knicks is the weather and if it hit New York hard. For example a power outages could affect the Knicks because they are in a huge city and outages happen a lot in cities like that. Since Madison Square Garden is right downtown in New York City, so it would be hard to fix it quickly if everyone is within the Arena.
The sport product is NBA basketball. The New York Knicks are apart of the National Basketball Association, in the East Conference. The extension of the New York Knicks is their best asset of their team. The Madison Square Garden is where the New York Knicks play at. The Arena where they play is just more than just a basketball arena. It is a venue where some of the hottest music artists come too preform at. The cost of Madison Square Garden was 1.10 billion dollars (Wikipedia, 1), which makes it one of the most expensive arenas of all time. The team needs to make up for this cost, and the way they do that is by putting on events by big time artists to make them money back as soon as possible.
The market segment the organization tries to reach is the wealth community of New York City. Madison Square Garden in located in the wealthiest part of New York City, Manhattan. The mean household income in Manhattan is $121.549 (Wikipedia, 1). It shows that the people that live close to Madison Square Garden have the money to spend on the higher priced tickets. What the Knicks can do is put a higher price on the tickets because they know that they can still get the ticket sales at their higher prices. New York City is a very expensive place to live and the Knicks understand that. Madison Square Garden is the Mecca of basketball. What I mean by that is the history of the place is just greater than any other place in the NBA. Some of the things that have happen in the Garden. Michael Jordan was quoted as saying; “The Garden is the Mecca of basketball,” (Kidzworld 1). What also makes it so great is that the fans at the Garden are considered to be the most knowledge basketball fans in the world. The fans also include many famous celebrities like Spike Lee, Denzel Washington and the Olsen Twins. It also had many other famous people in the Garden. When the Pope visited the Garden and the Knicks winning the 1970 NBA Championship made the top ten greatest events at Madison Square Garden (Kidzworld, 2). The pricing for the Knicks Basketball games is very pricey. The prices vary from ten dollars to three thousand (NBA, 1). These prices are just for one game and one ticket, to think that some people spend three thousand dollars on a ticket is just crazy to me. These do not include club seats. The Knicks have two club seating areas, “1879 Club presented by J.P. Morgan and the Delta Sky360 Club” (NBA, 1). “Some of the Knicks clubs seat cost under one hundred dollars for a normal weekday game against a poor opponent and more than one thousand dollars for a weekend game against a strong opponent” (Knicks, 1). As you can see on the Knicks ticket map, you do not get into the good seats until you pay about one hundred and ten dollars to three thousand dollars. And that is just for one game. The average ticket price is 117.47 dollars (Appendix 1). Compared to the Los Angeles Lakers whose average ticket price is 99.25 dollars (Appendix 1). The price for parking is thirty dollars on average (Appendix 1). Which is the highest compared to other teams in the league. The Fan Cost Index for the New York Knicks is $608.78 (Appendix 1). Which does not shock me because they are located in New York City and it was one of the wealthiest places in the country.
Madison Square Garden is not a cheap place to go and watch a basketball game. The cost of the concessions is above the National Basketball Association average. The Knicks are up there along with the Los Angeles Lakers as well as being the most expensive places to go and watch a basketball game. See Chart in (Appendix 1).
When you look at the chart in Appendix 1 some of the numbers are just really high compared to the next highest team. When I first looked at Appendix 1 the first number that caught my eye was the Fan Cost Index. The Fan Cost Index for the New York Knicks was $608.78 and the next team closest team to them is the Los Angeles Lakers, which their Fan Cost Index is $514.00. The cost of Beer at Madison Square Garden is also very high compared to the Los Angeles Lakers. Beer is and dollar-fifty higher than the Lakers (Appendix 1). To me this is where they make the most money from their concessions.
Sponsors are one of the biggest keys of any NBA or professional team. They are the ones that help support the team with money to purchase things that the team needs to perform well. The sponsors that support the New York Knicks are JPMorgan Chase, Boost Mobile, Coca-Cola, Kia Motors, Delta Airlines and American Express (Forbes, 1). Their biggest corporate sponsor is JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase brought Madison Square Garden in 2012 (Globenews, 1). JP Morgan Chase and Delta Airlines both have club seating named after them. Both of these Club Seats are very expensive and have very nice restaurants within them. These seats are the best seats in the arena to watch either the Knicks or the Rangers.
The sponsors realize that the New York Knicks are number one in producing revenue in the NBA, at 226 million dollars (Forbes, 1). When sponsors look at that number, they realize that the New York Knicks are one of the best teams to sponsor because you know that you will get your money’s worth by supporting them. The sponsors do not just throw their money into a team they know they will not be a profit from.
There 's never a dull moment when visiting the Garden. Each night there are many promotions to involve and energize the fans. Some of the fan favorite promotions include:
Tic Tac Toe
Be careful Knicks Fans, it 's not as easy as it looks! Two fans are selected to play the world 's most basic game. Each of the two players will start under a basket and attempt to make a lay-up, grab an X or O from a Knicks City Dancer and place it on the board in a race against each other. Three in a row wins!
HSBC Bank Shot
Can you hit a "three" from downtown? A contestant is selected to shoot three free throws, and if the contestant can make one, he gets the chance to take one three-point shot for $10,000. If the fan can bank the shot in, he wins $15,000!
Continental OnePass Lucky Fan
Keep your fingers crossed! If you are selected as our Continental OnePass Lucky Fan, you 're given 25,000 OnePass Miles courtesy of Continental Airlines. Use your free miles for great Knicks experiences such as a dinner for two with Knicks Alumni, a 2-on-2 game versus Knicks Alumni, a Knicks golf outing, and more!
Continental Lucky Fan Seat Upgrade
Get Upgraded! A lucky fan at select Knicks home games will get their seat upgraded and be escorted to a new, better seat.
Snapple CHEER STIX
Look for the Knicks game night crew dishin ' out Snapple Cheer Stix during halftime to select seats on the floor behind the basket. Blow 'em up, bang 'em together, and make noise as you cheer on the Knicks. (NBA, 1).
These in-game promotions are very popular within the Madison Square Garden when the Knicks are playing. The fans love when they can win free stuff, who doesn’t love free stuff. Especially when you pay about one hundred dollars for a ticket to a game. Most fans would love to win something free while attending a game. In-game promotions are one of the best things to do when you are a NBA team because you want to involve your fans during the game. And what better way then to give out free stuff for the fans to win free things from your sponsors.
The NBA and the New York Knicks reach out to the community in many ways. The NBA has a program called “NBA Cares” and it helps the communities of the NBA teams around the United States by giving things to the sick and homeless. Also helps the youth get involved with the community as well. The New York Knicks do a lot of things that reach out to the community.
The Garden of Dreams Foundation is a non-profit charity that closely partners with all areas of Madison Square Garden, including the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, MSG Entertainment, MSG Media and fuse, with a commitment to making dreams come true for kids in crisis.
Throughout the season, the New York Knicks and the Garden of Dreams Foundation work on a variety of community projects and events with the goal of making a difference in the lives of children and families facing difficult circumstances.
"Knicks Read to Achieve @ powertolearn.com" literacy program is a partnership between the New York Knicks and Cablevision 's Power to Learn initiative designed to promote reading and literacy in tri-state area schools. The program encourages reading and comprehension through the use of incentives to motivate students to reach reading goals and supports these efforts with interactive videos and the Internet, a natural partnership and extension of existing Knicks Cablevision 's Power to Learn initiatives. Classes that participated in the program received tickets to attend Knicks game throughout the season.
Knicks Poetry Slam was created in 2003 to reach today 's high school youth by using the popularity of hip-hop and poetry as a vehicle to motivate and inspire expression through the written and spoken word. With the growth of the program, the Knicks and program partner Urban Word NYC have provided greater opportunities for high school students to use their poetic skills and talents to pursue higher education. The program serves over 10,000 students annually through school site visits, a Poetry Open Audition, a College Fair, workshops and Poetry Slams.
These are just some of the programs that the New York Knicks do to reach out to the community. To see all of the programs that they do to reach out to the community go to http://www.nba.com/knicks/community/new_index.html. A lot of NBA teams try and reach out to the community as much as possible because they players know that they were blessed to have the chance of playing in the NBA. They want to be able to give back to the community and the less fortunate.
My overall evaluation of the New York Knicks’ marketing efforts is prefect there is not much you can change. They are the number one revenue making team in the NBA at 226 million dollars. They have the best staff that knows what they are doing because they are making the most money. Their team value is worth 655 million dollars (Forbes, 1). They are reaching out to the right people they need to. They are fighting against the New Jersey Nets for the market when they move to Brooklyn. Next year will be their real test to see if they keep the revenue that they are making at the moment. The Knicks are a very classy organization and lower teams are trying to get where they are at because of the money they are bring in. The one thing that I believe the Knicks need to improve on is the Social Media side of marketing, which I am currently doing a project on in another class. To sum up that project, the New York Knicks need to connect their Twitter and their blog together and promote their twitter account more than what they do. The idea that I had was to put their twitter account on the court to gain more followers. Other than that they are prefect in every aspect of marketing. Now all they had to do is win a NBA championship. If that were to happen three things would happen. 1) I would be the happiest Knicks team to see them win again. 2) The buzz of the team would just be huge and more money would come into your organization. And 3) New York would be back on top of the Basketball world again and that would be great for the NBA as a business. Go Knicks!
Works Cited
"Demographics of New York City." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
ESPN. "New York Knicks." Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"Food Court." New York Post. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"HoopsHype - NBA Salaries." HoopsHype. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"In-Game Entertainment." NBA.com. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"KNICKS: Knicks in the Community." NBA.com. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"KNICKS: Knicks Tickets Maps." NBA.com. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"Knicks." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"Madison Square Garden." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"NBA Market Size Numbers Game." Sports Media Watch. 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"New York Knicks Club Seats - KnicksSeatingChart.com." KnicksSeatingChart.com. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"Question: How Much Does It Cost to Go to a New York Knicks NBA Basketball Game?" Www.findthedata.org. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"Sports Venues - Madison Square Garden." Kidzworld. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
"Team Marketing Research." Team Marketing Research. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
Appendix 1 is at this link! http://fancostexperience.com/pages/fcx/blog_pdfs/entry0000016_pdf000.pdf
past four years the Knicks have not been the best team. They still have their support of the fans though. The Knicks have been on the rise as well because of their ‘product’ they have been putting out recently. After signing, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, two years ago they have been consistent playoff contender (Wikipedia, 1). Then this offseason they signed Tyson Chandler, which helped them in the defense department where they were slacking in. Jeremy Lin also helped bring the New York Knicks to the limelight again with “Linsanity”. Which made the Knicks one of the most talked about NBA teams of recent. The Knicks also have a different kind of ‘super-fan’ in Spike Lee. When you think of the Knicks most people talk about Spike Lee, and how he is at every home game.
The difference from their team and their competitors is the History behind the team. They have been to the finals eight times in the history of the team, winning in 1970 and 1973, those eight times is ranked four of all time behind the 76’s, Celtics and the Lakers (Wikipedia, 3). This is not a bad group of teams to be in. Another big thing that they are different is their building they play in Madison Square Garden is somewhere where the best stars come to play. James, Jordan, Wade, Bryant, always shows up, and play there best in the Garden.
New York has one of the best staffs in the Industry because they do not just focus on basketball, when it comes to Madison Square Garden; they are into the entertainment industry as well. The Garden has also hosted events like Britney Spears, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Micheal Jackson, The Beatles and Jay-Z, just to name a few (Wikipedia, 2). Which are all big names, which the staff has to plan these music events around the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers games. This means that the staff has to be on top and commutate with everyone to make sure they do not over book an event.
The Market Share is expanding due to the New Jersey Nets moving that means some of their fans with switch over to the New York Knicks. The one thing that is favoring the Knicks is the fact that they have the biggest market in the nation. They have even used their market to try and bring in some of the biggest superstars in the game. When LeBron James was becoming a free agent, they were using the sticking point of the biggest market in the nation. They were using this idea because LeBron James said, “He wanted to become the first billionaire athlete.” And coming to New York would help with reach that goal. They have been using the same tactics with the Magic’s Dwight Howard because he feels like he is no getting the publicity that he feels like he should be. When it comes to Social Media that is where the New York Knicks need to improve on, but I will touch on that more when we get to the weakness of the team. There are need aspects that they need to touch on a little bit more.
Some of the areas that the New York Knicks need to improve on are their Social Media side of marketing. When you compare the New York Knicks to The Boston Celtics and the Los Angles Lakers they are behind both of them on their twitter accounts. The Celtics have 460,287 followers, Los Angles Lakers have 2,463,337 followers and the Knicks have 300,217 followers (Twitter, 1). The Knicks need to upgrade their Social Media side of marketing because when you have the biggest market in the nation. The numbers should not be this low, which means they need to improve on. One marketing plan they could do to increase their followers is put their Twitter account name of the court, just like the Boston Celtics did.
The area that the competitors have an edge is the players and the coaching staff. At the moment the coach at the start of the season resigned before the end of the season. They were forced to go to a new coach. The other teams have been with their same coach during the whole season and the chemistry is not there yet. The way to fix this weakness is just let the players and the coaching staff come together and get on the same page. It may take some time about it is worth it because them on the same page means more wins and more wins creates bigger buzz. Injuries also become a weakness if they affect much of your core players.
At the moment they Knicks have two key players injured before the playoffs start. Which changes the overall flow of the team. New players that are not use to playing with each other are now stepping into the starting line-up. Amar’e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin are both injury at the moment and they playoffs begin this week. So New York Knicks have to play without these great players. Recently, Amar’e Stoudemire is back from a back injury, but is not at one hundred percent. If the New York Knicks win a playoff series with will increase ticket sales and the buzz of the
team.
An opportunity of the New York Knicks is that they have a great fan base and they are very loyal to their team. Knicks’ fan believe in their team no matter what the situation is, if they are in first place of last place they will still be at the Garden supporting their team. The Knicks also have room to work with when signing new players they have about ten million to work with to still be under the Boston Celtics. Which could mean that they could go out and sign Dwight Howard if they wanted too. Dwight was said multiple times that he wants out of Orlando. And New York is a huge market for Dwight Howard to be an even bigger star of the NBA. The fans of the New York Knicks would welcome Dwight Howard with open arms because they all know what he brings to the table. And with him their chances of winning an NBA title come within reach.
The list of threats for the New York Knicks is huge. Their biggest threat is the New Jersey Nets; since they are in the same market the Knicks have to fight against them for their market share. Since the Knicks are doing much better than the Nets they do not have to worry about them taking any market share. Another threat that the New York Knicks fight against is the city itself because there is so much to do within New York City, that they have to fight against everything to do in New York City. There is just so much to do within New York City that it may be hard to compete against because of the New York Knicks ticket prices, but I will get to that a little later in the analysis.
If their sports product does not do well it is okay because their fans are loyal to the New York Knicks no matter how well they do. The fans are one of the best fan groups in all of professional sports because they have been through the highs and lows with their team.
Another threat of the New York Knicks is not a threat all the time, but recently it was the NBA lockout was a threat of the team. With an NBA lockout that means no more basketball for that year. Which means no ticket sales or money for the New York Knicks front office.
Another threat that can affect the New York Knicks is the weather and if it hit New York hard. For example a power outages could affect the Knicks because they are in a huge city and outages happen a lot in cities like that. Since Madison Square Garden is right downtown in New York City, so it would be hard to fix it quickly if everyone is within the Arena.
The sport product is NBA basketball. The New York Knicks are apart of the National Basketball Association, in the East Conference. The extension of the New York Knicks is their best asset of their team. The Madison Square Garden is where the New York Knicks play at. The Arena where they play is just more than just a basketball arena. It is a venue where some of the hottest music artists come too preform at. The cost of Madison Square Garden was 1.10 billion dollars (Wikipedia, 1), which makes it one of the most expensive arenas of all time. The team needs to make up for this cost, and the way they do that is by putting on events by big time artists to make them money back as soon as possible.
The market segment the organization tries to reach is the wealth community of New York City. Madison Square Garden in located in the wealthiest part of New York City, Manhattan. The mean household income in Manhattan is $121.549 (Wikipedia, 1). It shows that the people that live close to Madison Square Garden have the money to spend on the higher priced tickets. What the Knicks can do is put a higher price on the tickets because they know that they can still get the ticket sales at their higher prices. New York City is a very expensive place to live and the Knicks understand that. Madison Square Garden is the Mecca of basketball. What I mean by that is the history of the place is just greater than any other place in the NBA. Some of the things that have happen in the Garden. Michael Jordan was quoted as saying; “The Garden is the Mecca of basketball,” (Kidzworld 1). What also makes it so great is that the fans at the Garden are considered to be the most knowledge basketball fans in the world. The fans also include many famous celebrities like Spike Lee, Denzel Washington and the Olsen Twins. It also had many other famous people in the Garden. When the Pope visited the Garden and the Knicks winning the 1970 NBA Championship made the top ten greatest events at Madison Square Garden (Kidzworld, 2). The pricing for the Knicks Basketball games is very pricey. The prices vary from ten dollars to three thousand (NBA, 1). These prices are just for one game and one ticket, to think that some people spend three thousand dollars on a ticket is just crazy to me. These do not include club seats. The Knicks have two club seating areas, “1879 Club presented by J.P. Morgan and the Delta Sky360 Club” (NBA, 1). “Some of the Knicks clubs seat cost under one hundred dollars for a normal weekday game against a poor opponent and more than one thousand dollars for a weekend game against a strong opponent” (Knicks, 1). As you can see on the Knicks ticket map, you do not get into the good seats until you pay about one hundred and ten dollars to three thousand dollars. And that is just for one game. The average ticket price is 117.47 dollars (Appendix 1). Compared to the Los Angeles Lakers whose average ticket price is 99.25 dollars (Appendix 1). The price for parking is thirty dollars on average (Appendix 1). Which is the highest compared to other teams in the league. The Fan Cost Index for the New York Knicks is $608.78 (Appendix 1). Which does not shock me because they are located in New York City and it was one of the wealthiest places in the country.
Madison Square Garden is not a cheap place to go and watch a basketball game. The cost of the concessions is above the National Basketball Association average. The Knicks are up there along with the Los Angeles Lakers as well as being the most expensive places to go and watch a basketball game. See Chart in (Appendix 1).
When you look at the chart in Appendix 1 some of the numbers are just really high compared to the next highest team. When I first looked at Appendix 1 the first number that caught my eye was the Fan Cost Index. The Fan Cost Index for the New York Knicks was $608.78 and the next team closest team to them is the Los Angeles Lakers, which their Fan Cost Index is $514.00. The cost of Beer at Madison Square Garden is also very high compared to the Los Angeles Lakers. Beer is and dollar-fifty higher than the Lakers (Appendix 1). To me this is where they make the most money from their concessions.
Sponsors are one of the biggest keys of any NBA or professional team. They are the ones that help support the team with money to purchase things that the team needs to perform well. The sponsors that support the New York Knicks are JPMorgan Chase, Boost Mobile, Coca-Cola, Kia Motors, Delta Airlines and American Express (Forbes, 1). Their biggest corporate sponsor is JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase brought Madison Square Garden in 2012 (Globenews, 1). JP Morgan Chase and Delta Airlines both have club seating named after them. Both of these Club Seats are very expensive and have very nice restaurants within them. These seats are the best seats in the arena to watch either the Knicks or the Rangers.
The sponsors realize that the New York Knicks are number one in producing revenue in the NBA, at 226 million dollars (Forbes, 1). When sponsors look at that number, they realize that the New York Knicks are one of the best teams to sponsor because you know that you will get your money’s worth by supporting them. The sponsors do not just throw their money into a team they know they will not be a profit from.
There 's never a dull moment when visiting the Garden. Each night there are many promotions to involve and energize the fans. Some of the fan favorite promotions include:
Tic Tac Toe
Be careful Knicks Fans, it 's not as easy as it looks! Two fans are selected to play the world 's most basic game. Each of the two players will start under a basket and attempt to make a lay-up, grab an X or O from a Knicks City Dancer and place it on the board in a race against each other. Three in a row wins!
HSBC Bank Shot
Can you hit a "three" from downtown? A contestant is selected to shoot three free throws, and if the contestant can make one, he gets the chance to take one three-point shot for $10,000. If the fan can bank the shot in, he wins $15,000!
Continental OnePass Lucky Fan
Keep your fingers crossed! If you are selected as our Continental OnePass Lucky Fan, you 're given 25,000 OnePass Miles courtesy of Continental Airlines. Use your free miles for great Knicks experiences such as a dinner for two with Knicks Alumni, a 2-on-2 game versus Knicks Alumni, a Knicks golf outing, and more!
Continental Lucky Fan Seat Upgrade
Get Upgraded! A lucky fan at select Knicks home games will get their seat upgraded and be escorted to a new, better seat.
Snapple CHEER STIX
Look for the Knicks game night crew dishin ' out Snapple Cheer Stix during halftime to select seats on the floor behind the basket. Blow 'em up, bang 'em together, and make noise as you cheer on the Knicks. (NBA, 1).
These in-game promotions are very popular within the Madison Square Garden when the Knicks are playing. The fans love when they can win free stuff, who doesn’t love free stuff. Especially when you pay about one hundred dollars for a ticket to a game. Most fans would love to win something free while attending a game. In-game promotions are one of the best things to do when you are a NBA team because you want to involve your fans during the game. And what better way then to give out free stuff for the fans to win free things from your sponsors.
The NBA and the New York Knicks reach out to the community in many ways. The NBA has a program called “NBA Cares” and it helps the communities of the NBA teams around the United States by giving things to the sick and homeless. Also helps the youth get involved with the community as well. The New York Knicks do a lot of things that reach out to the community.
The Garden of Dreams Foundation is a non-profit charity that closely partners with all areas of Madison Square Garden, including the Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, MSG Entertainment, MSG Media and fuse, with a commitment to making dreams come true for kids in crisis.
Throughout the season, the New York Knicks and the Garden of Dreams Foundation work on a variety of community projects and events with the goal of making a difference in the lives of children and families facing difficult circumstances.
"Knicks Read to Achieve @ powertolearn.com" literacy program is a partnership between the New York Knicks and Cablevision 's Power to Learn initiative designed to promote reading and literacy in tri-state area schools. The program encourages reading and comprehension through the use of incentives to motivate students to reach reading goals and supports these efforts with interactive videos and the Internet, a natural partnership and extension of existing Knicks Cablevision 's Power to Learn initiatives. Classes that participated in the program received tickets to attend Knicks game throughout the season.
Knicks Poetry Slam was created in 2003 to reach today 's high school youth by using the popularity of hip-hop and poetry as a vehicle to motivate and inspire expression through the written and spoken word. With the growth of the program, the Knicks and program partner Urban Word NYC have provided greater opportunities for high school students to use their poetic skills and talents to pursue higher education. The program serves over 10,000 students annually through school site visits, a Poetry Open Audition, a College Fair, workshops and Poetry Slams.
These are just some of the programs that the New York Knicks do to reach out to the community. To see all of the programs that they do to reach out to the community go to http://www.nba.com/knicks/community/new_index.html. A lot of NBA teams try and reach out to the community as much as possible because they players know that they were blessed to have the chance of playing in the NBA. They want to be able to give back to the community and the less fortunate.
My overall evaluation of the New York Knicks’ marketing efforts is prefect there is not much you can change. They are the number one revenue making team in the NBA at 226 million dollars. They have the best staff that knows what they are doing because they are making the most money. Their team value is worth 655 million dollars (Forbes, 1). They are reaching out to the right people they need to. They are fighting against the New Jersey Nets for the market when they move to Brooklyn. Next year will be their real test to see if they keep the revenue that they are making at the moment. The Knicks are a very classy organization and lower teams are trying to get where they are at because of the money they are bring in. The one thing that I believe the Knicks need to improve on is the Social Media side of marketing, which I am currently doing a project on in another class. To sum up that project, the New York Knicks need to connect their Twitter and their blog together and promote their twitter account more than what they do. The idea that I had was to put their twitter account on the court to gain more followers. Other than that they are prefect in every aspect of marketing. Now all they had to do is win a NBA championship. If that were to happen three things would happen. 1) I would be the happiest Knicks team to see them win again. 2) The buzz of the team would just be huge and more money would come into your organization. And 3) New York would be back on top of the Basketball world again and that would be great for the NBA as a business. Go Knicks!
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Appendix 1 is at this link! http://fancostexperience.com/pages/fcx/blog_pdfs/entry0000016_pdf000.pdf