It’s easy to market a team like the Utah Jazz was as recently as three years ago. From 1984 through 2003, the Jazz rattled off consecutive playoff appearances playing in front of sold-out Delta Center crowds.
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Randy Rigby ensures that Miller Sports’ other
properties are marketed with the Jazz. |
A truer test of talent comes when in one summer, 2003, one of the team’s stars, John Stockton, retires and another, Karl Malone, leaves via free agency, sending the franchise into a rebuilding phase.
The task of marketing the Jazz in this post-Stockton/Malone era falls to Randy Rigby. Last May, Rigby was named senior vice president of sales and chief marketing officer to go along with his title of senior vice president of broadcasting for Larry Miller Sports & Entertainment Group.
Miller Sports owns the Jazz as well as the Delta Center, KJZZ-TV, the Class AAA Salt Lake Bees and Miller Motorsports.
As CMO, Rigby is responsible for the marketing of each asset.
“The challenge is the diversity of each,” Rigby said recently, adding that at least 75 percent of the marketing efforts are spent on the Jazz, which he calls “the crown jewel.”
Rigby, 51, is a graduate of Brigham Young University. He joined the Miller organization in 1986 after working for CFS Financial Corp. as a senior vice president. He was named CMO after Miller decided to integrate the marketing elements of all his sports properties.
“We felt it was best to ensure that all of the products we are selling come under one person,” said Dennis Haslam, president of Miller Sports. “Selling Jazz tickets and minor league baseball tickets is the same process, and the same is true with advertising and sponsorships. Randy understands the way it all works and puts it in a neat package for marketing.”
Under Rigby, the group now sells combined ticket packages for all the properties, and there is heavy cross-promotion, including putting race cars from Miller Motorsports on display at the Delta Center and the Bees’ ballpark.
Of all the properties, though, the spotlight shines brightest on the Jazz. The team is fighting to return to the playoffs this year, entering this final month of the NBA season chasing Sacramento for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. Attendance entering the month was down about 3 percent from last year but still ninth in the 30-team league, 18,314 per game. Sponsorship revenue is up about 10 percent, though the team would not disclose specific dollar figures.
In addition to Rigby leading a cross-marketing effort of all Miller Sports properties, he’s overseeing a marketing strategy for the Jazz specifically that’s different than what was in place during the Stockton/Malone years.
Under Rigby, the Jazz before the season struck a deal that put 40 Jazz games on FSN Utah. Combined with the remaining games aired on Miller-owned KJZZ, the team for the first time is airing all regular-season games this season. Financial terms of the cable deal weren’t disclosed, but the Jazz produces the games on FSN and sells the advertising. The partnership also calls for the Jazz and Fox to co-produce other sports programming.
In addition, Rigby is leading a $1.8 million face-lift of the 15-year-old Delta Center, with the addition of new LED ribbon boards and a television studio on the arena’s concourse. Rigby also is revamping the team’s ticket pricing structure, a process that when completed will increase the price of tickets in the Delta Center’s lower bowl while dropping the price of seats in the upper bowl.
To further drive interest in a team that is no longer a lock to reach the playoffs each year, Rigby and his staff have instituted a different, major promotion each month during the season. In March, a contest winner was flown on the team plane to Denver for a game and dinner with the coaches. In April, each of 15 fans will get the equipment from the players’ lockers upon the end of the season, one fan per player. Season-ticket holders this year were given the chance to bring in business clients for a meet-and-greet with the players as well as private autograph sessions with their favorite players. Rigby and Haslam also have held regularly scheduled “town hall” meetings with fans to update them about the team’s rebuilding efforts.
“It’s all about giving more touches to our fans,” Rigby said. “It has been an adjustment for our market. We’ve been spoiled with consecutive playoff appearances, so it’s important to let people know of the progress, and the market has been receptive.”
