The Houston Texans have hired a regional marketing director, a first for the NFL since the league in March allowed clubs to market themselves to a wider geographic area.
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The new Texans executive, David Brady, is responsible for developing sponsor activities across most of the state of Texas as well as programming for media affiliates. The team is even considering selling Texans sponsorships for specific Texas cities and regions.
“We want to build our fan base in places like Austin, San Antonio, Beaumont and others,” said Jamey Rootes, the 3-year-old club’s chief sales and marketing officer. Previously, he said, it “wasn’t quite clear cut you could expand your geographic footprint. Now it’s clear.”
Prior to March, teams were restricted in marketing to a 75-mile radius around their home city. The radius did not restrict teams from signing regional TV and radio pacts, and some teams like the Washington Redskins opened retail stores. Others like the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers had traveling caravans that were broadly defined as branding excursions. Otherwise, clubs were limited.
As part of the overhaul of the league’s commercial business, known as the Master Agreement, the 75-mile rule was scrapped and teams can now market in their entire state. The only restriction is the 75-mile radius around an in-state competitor’s city. So, the Texans cannot push themselves on Dallas and its environs, home of the Cowboys.
However, few teams, if any, other than the Texans, have looked to take advantage of the expanded marketing area.
Many team executives said the change in league policy was too new and needed to be analyzed before clubs mimicked the Texans’ move. For the Texans, sources said it is a smart move because the Cowboys are the dominant pro football brand in the state. As a new franchise, the Texans need to be more aggressive in a state long known for another team, the sources said.
Some teams are looking at other ways of expanding their fan base.
The Philadelphia Eagles in July opened an outlet store in Lancaster, Pa., about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, and will host a player show on their Web site next week.
“That was a way of maximizing fan affinity everywhere the Internet reaches,” said Mark Donovan, the Eagles’ senior vice president of marketing.
Donovan views the Internet as a smarter move to capture new fans than aggressively taking on the cross-state Steelers all over Pennsylvania (and some areas of the state include Buffalo Bills boosters). While the team might reach out to some towns nearer to Philadelphia , Donovan said there is no reason to engage in a fierce battle with other clubs in areas where fans may already root for rivals.
The 75-mile radius rule was designed precisely to prevent teams from poaching other NFL clubs’ fans. As teams developed broader sponsorships, the rule conversely limited the opportunity that clubs could offer these companies. A sponsor that used a team logo in a marketing campaign could activate that effort only within the 75-mile radius.
Also, the 75-mile rule, created with the team-dense Northeastern corridor in mind, made little sense out West. The Denver Broncos are now allowed to market not just in all of Colorado, but in some areas of contiguous states, said Greg Carney, the Broncos’ vice president of marketing.
While every team has its own state, minus in-state rival regions, the NFL treats each club on a case-by-case basis when it comes to granting marketing territory in neighboring states with no NFL teams.
Unlike the Texans, the Broncos will not add a regional marketing official to tackle the new opportunity but may add to their staff, Carney said.
The Texans’ Brady was most recently the assistant general manager of the Camden (N.J.) Riversharks. He also has worked for the Houston Astros and Rockets.
