Struggling NBA teams are leveraging the ethnic heritage of the 86 foreign-born players in the league to boost ticket sales, reports The Wall Street Journal. Despite having one of the worst records, the Sacramento Kings are packing arenas across the country by appealing to Jewish fans who want to meet the team’s small forward, 6-foot-9 Israeli Omri Casspi. When the Kings played the Washington Wizards, attendees received Wizards yarmulkes. In Atlanta and Boston, kosher food was served in the concession stands. The Toronto Raptors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors are among the other teams that have featured special game nights catering to fans of various ethnicities including Serbian, Chinese, German and Iranian.
The NBA is acting on what multicultural marketing experts have known for quite some time. Minority communities represent oft-untapped consumer groups and effectively marketing to them can yield impressive results. Salih Eroglu, who coordinates the Clippers’ Turkish events, says he’s gone from selling around 50 tickets in 2003 to bringing in thousands of fans today. In fact, the team’s December Turkey Day was one of only two sold-out Clippers games of the season.
This article was featured in the January 26, 2011 issue of Diversity Best Practices’ email newsletter, Diversity in the News. To read additional stories from that issue, see the related content section below. To subscribe to Diversity in the News, register on the newsletter page of this website.
