We'll answer Matt's questions

Is it just us or does Matt Michael seem like the kid on Christmas morning who didn't get the one present he was really hoping for?

Matt wrote:

"No committee member asked the Chiefs to discuss their attendance numbers.

No one asked how much the team spends on marketing, how many staff members work on marketing, or why they thought their marketing plans will work.

And no committee member asked the Chiefs to explain why, if their 2007 marketing plan was so successful, the team lost money in 2007 for the second consecutive year."

The Chiefs drew an average of 5,759 fans per game last  year, which represented a nearly 8% increase over the per game average from the 2006 season.  That increase represented the fourth largest increase in Triple-A baseball.

The committee likely didn't ask how much money is spent on marketing because the committee members probably realize that the dollar amount spent on marketing is completely irrelevant.  Matt seems to be under the impression that marketing is all about spending money on advertising.  Furthermore, the Chiefs provide the County with these figures as part of the team's annual financial report in November. 

Ron Gersbacher did mention during his part of the presentation that the Chiefs front office staff is constantly working on marketing.  Every member of the staff works on an element of marketing and every action taken by the Chiefs relates to marketing.  Here's a quick lesson for Matt - Marketing is the coordination of products, promotion, place, and price.  From selling tickets and advertising to planning giveaways to bringing in guests to sign autograph to buying advertising to making donations to offering coupons and special offers to designing brochures and publications and so on, these are all elements of marketing and they all relate to bringing people to the stadium.

With regard to the team losing money the last two years - when the Chiefs took out a $4 million loan to give to the County up front cash for the construction of the stadium, the Board of Directors made the decision to sacrifice short-term profits in order to ensure the long-term existence of the franchise in Syracuse.  This is not an excuse - this is a fact.

There were also two other points Matt made in his article that are not completely accurate.  First, he states that the new grass playing surface cost taxpayers one million dollars.  The actual cost of the project was $800,000 and the Chiefs contributed $550,000 (plus interest) to the project by paying into two funds for the last 11 years.

Second, Matt wrote (again) that the Chiefs have not met with the stadium committee for 11 years.  What he has never pointed out, but was mentioned at the meeting, is that the Chiefs did meet with the stadium committee every year that the team was responsible for management of the stadium.  Once the County took over management of the stadium, the committee stopped calling meetings.

Since Matt's article didn't outline many of the new items for 2008, here are a few highlights that fans can look forward to:

• Time Warner Cable will carry 30 Chiefs games this season, both home and away on Channel 26, which reaches 625,000 households in upstate New York
• Chiefs games will be on Clear Channel stations SportsRadio 620 WHEN and Nova 105.1 this year
• The Chiefs will bring in more players to sign autographs, continuing the success of last season when Denny McLain and Cecil Fielder attracted long lines
• There are five fireworks shows and seven giveaways on the promotional schedule for 2008
• The Principal Financial Group Family Fun Fest will return and discussions are taking place to bring back other popular tours including the Nextel Cup racing trailer and the got Milk? tour
• A state-of-the-art hitting cage and picthing cage will be set up at every game for kids and adults
• The Chiefs' web site, part of the MLB Advanced Media network, will undergo several updates during the course of the season
• The Chiefs will expand their current fundraising and awareness programs with local charities
• The team will continue to reach out to new markets in the Watertown, Utica, and Cortland area
• The Chiefs are part of the new Major League Baseball 2K8 video game (read Brent Axe's blog about the game here)

By the way, wouldn't it be nice to see an article or two in the newspaper about Spring Training?