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Grrreenville Grrrowl

g-man430

By g-man430
in Greenville Coffee House

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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Nice comments in the Greenville News about the Grrrowl, from their owner to the team, last night:

"It bothers me that you play here before only 22 or 23 hundred fans most nights because you deserve much more than that, and in this off-season we are going to try to find ways to make those numbers improve," Covington said. "For my part, I hope you are all in the National Hockey League next year, but any of you that are back here will be welcome. I don't know how you do it; I don't know how you give so much every night, but I hope you know these fans love you for that effort."

http://www.greenvillenews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...327/1051/SPORTS

I hope that their can be cooperation between the Grrrowl and Drive owners as time goes by to build up the Greenville pro sports market. I hope that they can realise that they are not working with a small pie between themselves, but one that they can build together.

I hope off-season marketing can build the team's fan base and customers.

I still don't think the community, after 3 decades of "new auditorium" fights realises what a jewel we have in the Bil-Lo Center, a mostly privately built and run facility that some NBA sized-cities would love to have.

Lots of opportunity here for grrrowth.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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I hope that there can be cooperation between the Grrrowl and Drive owners as time goes by to build up the Greenville pro sports market. I hope that they can realize that they are not working with a small pie between themselves, but one that they can build together.

I agree with you 100%.

During the Rain Delay at West End Field on Thursday Evening, I was sitting at the 500 Club watching the video they were playing on the giant video screen to entertain fans during the delay. I was thinking to myself, "It sure would be nice if they were able to display a video feed of the Grrrowl game for the fans here to watch."

Granted, the two seasons (Hockey and Baseball) don't overlap for very long. They're mutually exclusive for the most part. However, this would have been a great opportunity had the relationship been in place for one franchise to showcase and help promote the other. There is some cross-franchise promotional stuff that can be done, I'm sure. Perhaps even some sort of Year-Round, Joint Season Ticket Package, too. Maybe a relatively inexpensive weekend plan that lets you attend all weekend games for both teams throughout the year.

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  • 5 weeks later...
RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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You can't tell me you hadn't anticipated this. I suppose the best part of this story is that these are contingency plans and nothing is definite; however, I admit it's not a good sign to be forced to make contingency plans.

I can tell you this much from my own observations: the owners/management of the Grrrowl aren't doing all they can to get more people in the seats. The primary beef I have (and I know I'm not alone) is with the price point for tickets. Something more in line with what the Drive are charging would entice me to go to more games, that's for sure. The way I see it, lower the prices overall, open the upper bowl as "general admission" as someone suggested in another thread, point out what a great entertainment value it is over and over and over in advertisements, and the seats will be filled, concessions will increase, etc.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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Just curious...have the Grrrowl ever offered things such as Dollar Beer Night, Dollar Dog (hot dog) Night, Dollar Parking (or Free Parking) Night, etc. ? These things seem to be fairly common for minor league baseball, but not so much for minor league hockey... :huh:

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gs3 Metropolitan Area

gs3

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I totally agree about the PR. From day one the Drive was active in the community, advertised, and presented itself as more than just baseball.....an entire evening of family entertainment. The Grrrowl could look into this kind of PR (along with reduced ticket prices) and increase ticket sales immediately.

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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Oh there have been plenty of times when I've thought about going to a Grrrowl game, but the price has kept me away, or when I've decided that an evening of Clemson basketball or a movie was cheaper than a Grrrowl game.

I want to like hockey, but yeah, the price has kept me away.

I remember in '98 when they came in there was a lot of curiosity, but it doesn't seem as if the powers that be have followed up on that.

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RestedTraveler Metropolis

RestedTraveler

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Indeed, looking at the attendance figures in the earlier years, it certainly seems that the Grrrowl had Greenville on the hook, but didn't keep them there...talk about the one that's almost getting away...

I'd definitely go more often if the tickets were $5, $6.50, and $8.00, and if parking were free or at least a ride from free parking to the Bi-Lo center were available.

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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Something else to consider...

While the Grrrowl only have about 35 home games a year, which is not that great of a burden on a fan to buy season tickets for a season that lasts from October to April, will casual fans looking for some sports entertainment now go to Drive games instead, considering the level of customer service the Drive provide over the Grrrowl?

I think I argued in another thread that the Drive and Grrrowl should start working together on customer service/community outreach.

It seems as if the Grrrowl might be thinking they are competing against other ECHL organizations, instead of trying to compete within the Greenville market.

Of course an advantage the Drive have is that the team is provided by the Red Sox and the Drive management have to just provide everything to support the team.

But some serious work needs to be done to preserve and grow the Grrrowl.

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whitehourseview Burg

whitehourseview

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I'm wondering what caused all this to come up today? Some sort of year-end review with the auditorium board?

Regardless, nothing I've read, nor have observed leads me to have much hope for the existence of the Grrrowl at the moment.

I imagine local businesses will fall over themselves to advertise for the Drive at the moment.

I don't see that happening for the Grrrowl. In fact, since the local ownership took over, I haven't seen much other than a few aesthtic things that tells me that much has changed. I imagined the local group was hamstrung by the Grrrowl's financial situation, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them wanted the team to go away as a way to just cut their losses and move on with promoting the Bi-Lo Center. But considering the Bi-Lo Center's finanicial situation, that may be hard.

I expect, unless someone steps up to the plate, lots of hard decisions will be made.

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distortedlogic Town

distortedlogic

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Yeah, I think this was in the back of our minds, but I would hate to lose the grrowl. At one time we had three teams in bilo center, now at one with danger of losing that one; that does not bode well for our arena or city. Just the reduction in entertainment options would hurt. I agree about lowering prices, perhaps the new mngmt decided to try the new marketing campaign for a year to see if they could do it w/o having to lower prices, and that will be their next move?

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breed Hamlet

breed

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Just curious...have the Grrrowl ever offered things such as Dollar Beer Night, Dollar Dog (hot dog) Night, Dollar Parking (or Free Parking) Night, etc. ? These things seem to be fairly common for minor league baseball, but not so much for minor league hockey... :huh:

I know they had something a few years back, as a couple co-workers used to go whenever they had cheap beer.

I think their struggles are attributable to marketing, or lack thereof. The only marketing I witnessed was a big purple banner on the BiLo Center on game days. I remember some radio commercials, but that was a couple years ago.

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