Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark said he didn’t want to characterize the process of branding the Islanders for their move to Brooklyn as more challenging than that of the Nets in 2012, but it is certainly a different beast.
More so than the Nets, the success of the Islanders hinges on retaining a significant number of the team’s existing fans from Long Island and getting them to hop on trains to the games. As a result, Barclays Center is toeing the line between appealing to a new, diverse hockey market in Brooklyn and placating the team’s traditional suburban base.
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The Islanders scrimmaged at Barclays Center in July.
Photo by: Getty Images |
“You’ve got an existing fan base that’s pretty hardcore in Long Island, and then you’ve got this new fan base here in Brooklyn that you’ve got to get acclimated to hockey,” Yormark said. “The question is, ‘How do you bring the two together?’ So we’ve been very respectful of that.”
Evidence of that compromise can be found in everything from the team’s uniforms — the blue-and-orange home and away jerseys are the same, while the team unveiled a black-and-white third jersey that “speaks to Brooklyn” — to billboards plastered throughout Brooklyn, which feature wordmarks for Atlantic Avenue and Bushwick alongside the team’s retired numbers and the Nassau Coliseum’s “Fort Neverlose” nickname.
“I think that as the season progresses, you’re going to be seeing a little bit more of the Brooklyn coolness infused into the brand,” said Barclays Center CMO Elisa Padilla. “But again, we’re being very respectful and we want to pay homage to the Islanders’ history.”
Barclays Center took over the Islanders’ Brooklyn-centric marketing around the beginning of last season, and Yormark’s staff now controls every aspect of the organization other than hockey operations and some communications functions. About 10 Nassau-based Islanders employees, including sales people and communications staff, have moved to Brooklyn, and Barclays Center has added 35 Islanders-specific ticket sellers and three additional suite sellers.
The team has about 8,000 season-ticket holders signed up for the Islanders’ inaugural Brooklyn season, and Yormark expects that number to reach between 8,500 and 9,000 before the season starts. Barclays Center declined to disclose how those sales compare to last year’s total. The geographic breakdown of season-ticket buyers for the 2015-16 season — 33 percent from Brooklyn, 25 percent from Long Island and 21 percent from Manhattan — reflects the Barclays Center’s multifaceted marketing effort.
Twenty billboards, each of which features a particular Islanders player, went up around Brooklyn this month in an
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Twenty billboards, each featuring a particular Islanders player, went up around Brooklyn this month.
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effort to introduce them to the borough’s residents. In addition, 31 posters are deployed in subway stations in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as five digital dioramas. Islanders ads also can be found on 370 Long Island Rail Road cars and in malls both in Brooklyn and on Long Island.
Yormark revealed he has conferred with the NHL commissioner regarding a game presentation style that will jibe with existing fans’ expectations. “We can mix a little bit of the old with the new,” Yormark said. “But Gary Bettman was very clear to say to me, ‘Brett, we’re not the NBA.’ So we leaned on him and his staff to make sure they guide us the right way in what the fans’ expectations are.”
“The NBA is very much also about entertainment,” Yormark added. “The hockey fans are a little bit more of a traditional fan, and hockey is what they’re coming out to see every night. We just need to be mindful of the balance.
Obviously if that comes from the commissioner, I’m going to pay close attention to it.”
But Yormark said the league also shares his excitement for developing a new, diverse fan base that parallels the multicultural makeup of the borough. “Making sure that our fan base reflects the makeup of Brooklyn, no different than Nets games, is critical to our success.”
To that end, the team is partnering with the city’s parks department to hold fall and winter programs and clinics that expose urban youth to hockey and incorporate several prominent Islanders alumni.
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The team unveiled a black-and-white third jersey inspired by Brooklyn.
Photo by: Getty Images |
Longtime PR consultant and Brooklyn native Joe Favorito believes Brooklyn’s population, particularly the recent wave of young professionals moving into the borough, also could be a sweet spot for the team. “If this would’ve happened 10 years ago, you had an older, more blue-collar feel. Now people live in Brooklyn who are from all over the country, all over the world, who probably understand and are more interested in hockey.”
In terms of suite sales, customers who already had annual leases, which include Nets games and other events, had the option to add hockey to their suite package. Yormark said that many suite holders opted into the Islanders, and his staff went out and sold the suites that didn’t on an Islanders-only basis. “We didn’t want to be beholden to our current customers,” he said. “We wanted to be able to drive new revenue, which we’re doing.”
Barclays Center has sold 80 percent of its suite inventory for the Islanders and has set aside 10 percent for nightly rentals.
Barclays Center’s sponsorship sales team has used a similar approach, offering Nets and arena partners the opportunity to extend their rights to the Islanders for an additional fee. Companies like Geico, American Express, JetBlue, BlueRock Energy and PIX11 all opted in.
“A lot of our partners saw what happened with the Nets and are going to look to ride that same wave here with the Islanders,” said Mike Zavodsky, Barclays Center executive vice president of global partnerships. “People understand what the power of Brooklyn is and the market is and how to leverage that platform.”
Honda, another Nets and Barclays Center sponsor, extended its deal for another three years and added the Islanders.
Honda will now have a permanent, TV-visible vehicle display on the corner of the rink at all Islanders games. The team also brought several sponsors from Long Island, including New York Community Bank, the New York Lottery and P.C. Richard & Son.
In categories not scooped up by existing Islanders or Barclays Center partners, the sponsorship team looked to NHL partners like Coors Light and Las Vegas Tourism to invest in the Islanders brand. Zavodsky said that Coors will activate around the team both in the arena and at retail, while Las Vegas will brand the penalty box — also known in hockey as the sin bin — apt for the town referred to as Sin City.
The Islanders also attracted several brands without any previous connection to the team, sport or arena, including Xerox, which will have an interactive social media content wall in the building. That partnership also extends to the arena and the Nets.
Daily fantasy sports site Draft Ops, however, is a new Islanders-only sponsor — one Zavodsky said is among the team’s most significant — that directly competes with Nets sponsor FanDuel. A behind-the-goal Ice Club will bear the Draft Ops name, and the brand also will have a permanent activation area on the arena’s lower concourse.
Zavodsky said his staff is still seeking to sell more inventory, including a casino partnership.
Alex Silverman writes for sister publication SportsBusiness Daily.
