Pacers Courtside

If the Indiana Pacers thought it was bad now, they might want to think twice. We all know the Pacers had a hard time the past couple of years, with the NBA’s lowest attendance average of 12,221 per game, but most of the teams in the NBA have struggled as well. With the current economic situation, NBA teams have recently turned to the same strategy the Pacers have used since shortly after the brawl.

Cheaper ticket prices, free hot dogs, and a few better ideas have been introduced by other NBA teams. In fact, the NBA ordered all teams to offer at least 500 $10 tickets in 1999. There is now an average of at least 1,000 tickets for only ten bucks. Your Indiana Pacers have 2,300 tickets priced at $10 or less, and 8,600 tickets priced at $25 or less. NBA ticket prices average $48.43, NFL are $72.20, NHL are $49.66 and MLB are $25.43. All leagues are looking at ways to reduce spending and increase attendance and revenue.

Taking the Pacers free hot dogs, chips and a drink idea and making it a lot cooler, the Cleveland Cavaliers have 15 “McFamily Nights” which include four tickets and coupons for four free McDonald’s meals - for as low as $72. The Philadelphia 76ers are offering a five game, all-you-can-eat impressive package for only $150. Sounds a lot better than a hot dog, and a good reminder that it’s not just the Pacers who are facing attendance woes. (In all fairness, I do remember eating a Hardees Thickburger for the price of the cheap ticket last season.) The Pacers did offer a better deal than most NBA mini packages, by giving fans 11 games for the price of eight, including the first home game against Boston. But the St. Louis Blues came up with one of the most original ideas, they put 500 tickets up for auction and let players name their own price (within reason.) They sold 400 of the tickets, not bad for mostly nosebleed seats that wouldn’t have sold anyways.

The Indiana Pacers have not only had a head start on cutting ticket prices, they have also cut spending in major ways. The Pacers have cut 60 front office positions in the last for years, including 15 positions just this year, as the Pacers try to reduce expenses and also afford an increase in advertising spending. Jim Morris thinks the Pacers can begin to break even in three years. “The franchise has lost considerable money the last several years,” Morris said. “Our objective is to get back to break even, and I think we can get there in the next three years. But we don’t want to increase ticket prices. We know we have to keep it affordable.”

Despite not increasing ticket prices, the Pacers have had the best advertising campaign I can remember. Besides spending money on radio, TV, print, billboards and their website, the Pacers actually convinced Fox Sports to ramp up its Pacers marketing campaign. Fox Sports Indiana has been airing more Pacers ads, including 60 second player profiles from Pacers.com, for a couple of months. Fox Sports also paid for billboards and other stuff to promote the Indiana Pacers broadcasts.

Even though we got rid of the questionable players and got some exciting new players, it may be another tough attendance season for the Pacers due to the economy. After all, this is a sesason where the common Pacers fan doesn’t know half of our team . . . we’ll talk about that later.