Crew General Manager Mark McCullers (right) talks about new jersey sponsorship with shaving brand giants Barbasol, as injured Crew rookie Ben Speas (far left) gets his biggest workout of the offseason- holding a shaving cream can for seven minutes.
2/16/2012: SHIRT SPONSOR- Crew Gain Barbasol Partnership, Crew Fans Adjust Shaving Brand, Crew Front Office Shows Up Mentally To Work This Year
By Ryan Kozlowski
CREWTURE.COM
The Columbus Crew are looking to be more profitable this season, as General Manager Mark McCullers admitted last season that the franchise lost a couple million.
2011 was probably the lowpoint for the Crew financially. The team were without their star- Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who put some butts in the seats. The key acquisitions to make up for that loss were a USL journeyman in Tommy Heinemann and a on his last legs Jeff Cunningham. Both didn't exactly generate the excitement of Guillermo in the Columbus colors.
The Columbus Crew also had their $1 million a year shirt sponsor, Glidden, bail on them last season and were also without a major, local television contract.
So, if a Hudson Street Hooligan could build a time machine and rewind back to this time last year, there wasn't a whole lot to get in a warm, cuddley tizzy about if you were bleeding black and yellow.
That grew worse as preseason discontent transformed into a sort of malcontent after the Crew made a major announcement on their 2011 designated player; As Andres Mendoza who was already a part of the club and showed much of nothing in his 10 or so games in 2010 was given a raise and named to the coveted, designated player role.
That announcement was like Bliss and McCullers saying "we can't find a real DP, so screw it will give Mendoza a raise, say we saw something in his run of the mill performances in 2010, and try to make it a major, positive announcement." Really, I would give them credit if that was the quote last year and the entire announcement for The Columbus Dispatch.
It didn't help that Mendoza was a player that was rather disliked by Crew fans for his laziness. A sort of odd relationship when one factors that Mendoza did score in double digits during the 2011 season, although with more heart he could of scored and done more.
With all these factors, non-surprisingly attendance was at an all-time low as a result of all of this. But, surprisingly the Crew were not all that bad, holding down the top spot in the East for most of the Summer and making their fourth straight playoff appearance.
The only problem with a boring lineup that gets results, but does not score a lot of goals, is that not as many people come to the stadium no matter if it's a playoff team. Further, without a shirt sponsor or stadium naming rights sponsor or a local television contract; the Crew can't make up for the yellow seats.
Well, the Crew front office and scouting has decided this year not to stare at their screensaver or play football manager in the final two hours before work gets out on a Friday. Thankfully.
The Crew scouting is back to unearthing gem-like deals, picking up Chilean national team player Milovan Milosevic, Costa Rican Olman Vargas, and securing the rights to homegrown player and college national champion Ben Speas. That's enough to put some more butts in seats and get Crew fans interested again at least, but the Crew brass isn't stopping there and is stating there still after a designated player (and better yet one that doesn't already play for the team, whattt?! Check the Crew front office for steroids).
Away from the pitch and at the desks, General Manager McCullers has put together an ambitious three-part offseason plan to make the Crew more profitable (hoping to gain millions instead of lose millions). That plan included a jersey sponsorship, a lofty goal for 10,000 season ticket holders, and a stadium naming rights sponsorship.
Yesterday, the Crew announced that there 1/3rd of the way to that goal; As the Crew gained a 5-year jersey sponsorship deal with top shaving cream outfit Barbasol. Better yet, Barbasol is locally headquarted in the Columbus suburb of Dublin, Ohio. Even better yet, the deal is apparently the biggest sponsorship deal in Crew history that means, unless I'm stupid, the ammount of money Barbasol gives to the Crew by the year will be more than the million that Glidden gave.
Well, unless it's a measley half a million for five years which would equate to $2.5 million which is I guess more overall than the $2 million Glidden gave in it's two years as jersey sponsor.
Or it's $1.25 million a year which is nice but not that much bigger than the Glidden deal; either way, who the hell knows since terms weren't disclosed. If it was substantially more than Glidden I'm guessing it would have been disclosed, which makes me wonder if it's less for more years?
But, either way, more than Glidden a year or a bit less, it's better than no jersey sponsorship money coming in.
Here's the fancy press conference, complete with an intro to die for (a little sarcasm, but nice touch on a picture frame of a bearded Gaven looking terrified):
In other avenues, General McCullers (yeah will just call him that from now on) stated to The Columbus Dispatch that the Crew front office is still a ways off from their 10,000 season tickets a year goal but has made substantial progress.
“We’ve got traction but we’ve got a long way to go. It’s going to be a process. But I can say at this point in time, we will be beyond 2011’s total season ticket numbers with about 40 days to go before our home opener. That’s good progress. That’s a milestone. We’re glad to hit it, but we still have a lot of work to do on that front.”
So, does that mean there already beyond the 6,500 or so mark of season tickets they sold last year with 40 days to go. That's impressive. Or does this statement mean there around 5,000 season tickets and will at least sell 6,700 or so total when the 40 days are up. Not as impressive and nowhere close to 10,000.
That's like me saying I'm going to write soccer articles for ESPN (nice goal), even though I barely wrote one all last year on this Crew website (therefore highly unlikely). Which makes a better goal to actually be able to write an article a day on here (an attainable goal), just like McCullers might have been better off saying, "will sell more season tickets than last year," which would still be good and is an attainable goal.
But, I admire his hutzpah. If he believes in the goal, maybe his staff will, and they'll get it done.
Finally, if the Crew can get the third deal done- A major stadium rights deal on their erector set of a Crew Stadium, then there in the clear on a profit. I will build McCullers a statue myself if he gets that done, because I can't imagine a big company saying man, we want to be associated with that "beautiful" stadium. It's like most men wanting to be associated and driving a toyota prius.
But, could happen if Crew Stadium is guarenteed to get more USA vs. Mexico matchups, because (for example) coming to you live from Barbasol Stadium can help the shaving company get it's name out to Latin America.
However, I'm not sure if "MAJOR CHANGES" to the stadium mentioned in The Columbus Dispatch will make a bit of difference:
Regarding that third goal, I know the Crew is looking at trying to enhance the game-day experience at Crew Stadium and has been exploring a number of ways to do so from changing the music being played in the concourse to upgrading the food options for fans. The hope is that will make the naming rights a more desirable purchase.
WTF? How about building a new stadium, haha. Worked for Kansas City with Livestrong Park. Because I can't imagine some big corporate company saying "you know what if you play Barry White on the concourse and sell pierogies, you got a deal Mr. McCullers."
Change the music on the concourse. Innovative. Brillant!
The only way I see this working is if we hook up with a stadium sponsorship deal with Johnsonville Brauts, since they do Johnsonville Brauts on buck-a-braut nights. Then, it will be coming to you live from Johnsonville Braut Stadium, where we only sell Johnsonville Brauts... And maybe the concourse music will be a continuous repeat from some band that plays at Ruby Tuesday's called "Hey Crew Fan Buy A Braut."
Hey Crew Fan, Buy A Braut,
It's Buck-A-Braut Night,
Don't Get Caught,
Without A Braut,
Why Watch The Game Boo,
Sit In Line For A Hour Wahoo,
And Buy A Nice Cold Brautttttttttttttt!!!
All joking aside, nice start by the front office off-the-field and the coaching staff with offseason transactions. But, still a lot of work to do, hope they keep to it and try to fulfill the other two goals (well three, hopefully with an exciting designated player signing that might help boost 10,000 season tickets).
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