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When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

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Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

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If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

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The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

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Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

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We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

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Rule #10

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Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

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  • #1

    Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

    http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframe...5362&NoFrame=1

    The Indiana Pacers recently rolled out a marketing initiative that was in sharp contrast to last year’s campaign, which prominently featured players and proclaimed, “It’s up to us.”

    This year’s new television, radio and print advertisements appear with not a whisper from or mention of anyone actually wearing the blue and gold.

    The campaign marks a fundamental—some would say radical—marketing shift that underscores the challenges the NBA franchise faces in rebuilding fan support and improving its finances.

    New coach Jim O’Brien takes center stage in this year’s ad campaign telling fans how committed he is to hard-nosed defense and the will to win. He even extols the virtues of Conseco Fieldhouse.

    In one ad, O’Brien stands alongside the team’s chief of basketball operations, Hoosier hoops icon Larry Bird.

    The campaign is an important first step in the Pacers’ winning back fans who abandoned the team in recent years, said Larry DeGaris, director of academic sports marketing programs at the University of Indianapolis.

    “It’s a shift to things they can control, with a focus on the organization and less on the players,” DeGaris said. “That’s a very positive step in gaining the trust of the public.”

    What has brought the Pacers to this point?

    A string of highly public player indiscretions over the last year, decreasing attendance since the brawl in Detroit three seasons ago, and a financial loss that industry sources estimated at more than $10 million each of the last two years.

    Even as the curtain rose on this year’s campaign, the Pacers were enduring another off-court incident by a player. The Pacers last month suspended forward Shawne Williams for three games after police found marijuana in his car, which he was driving without a license.

    DeGaris said the Pacers learned an important lesson after last year’s player dust-ups.

    “The front office’s actions were immediate and decisive with Williams,” DeGaris said. “Last year, they let things drag out too long and the stories built momentum.”

    Last year, several players were implicated in two separate brawls at area nightclubs—one during training camp and the other later in the season.

    After last year’s troubled season, the Pacers brought in ad agency Publicis Indianapolis, and crafted a plan to increase season and single-game ticket sales.

    Pacers and Publicis officials declined to specify what will be spent on this year’s campaign. However, they said it will be similar in scope to years past, when Indianapolis-based Pearson Partners, formerly Pearson McMahon Fletcher England, headed Pacers marketing. The new campaign will likely have a high-six-figure or low-seven-figure price tag, industry experts said.

    Publicis Indianapolis is not known for sports marketing, but has been the longtime agency for Simon Property Group Inc. Simon Property co-chairmen Mel and Herb Simon own the Pacers.

    Central to the new plan, said Tom Hirschauer, president of Publicis’ local operation, is “a shift from sales marketing to brand marketing.”

    “We’re not simply selling tickets,” Hirschauer said.

    Instead, he said, his firm was hired to conduct far more in-depth research of current and potential season and single-game ticket buyers than had been done in the past. The research, he said, was used to align what Pacers’ fans wanted with what the team and management represented.

    O’Brien was chosen as the primary spokesman for the early part of the campaign, Hirschauer said, because research showed the older, corporate audience that buys season tickets finds him credible.

    Part of the shift, Hirschauer said, is because many Pacers fans in this “conservative market” don’t identify with the “hip-hop” culture some in the NBA have cultivated in recent years.

    Pacers fans are more interested in things like hustle, teamwork and fundamentally sound basketball than individual stars, he said.

    The early part of the campaign started with direct-mail before shifting to television, print and radio ads.

    The second phase will kick into overdrive after the Oct. 31 season opener. Even though Hirschauer said the focus will shift to action inside Conseco Fieldhouse, he still doesn’t anticipate players’ being a central part.

    “Our goal was to relate to customer experience rather than just the play on the court,” Hirschauer said. “The experience is more than watching Jermaine O’Neal as an individual player. Much more.”

    The second part of the campaign will focus on special promotions, including family night, guys’ night out, college night and other in-arena promotions.

    “The play of basketball and winning is central, but the experience is much broader than that,” Hirschauer said.

    Sports marketers are skeptical the campaign will have much impact unless the Pacers can field a winning team this season. That might be a long shot. Most prognosticators have them in the bottom half of the Eastern Division coming off a losing season with no key player acquisitions during the off-season.

    O’Brien, who replaced Rick Carlisle after last season, might be the team’s best hope for turning things around. But if he’s the franchise’s most marketable asset, local sports marketer David Morton thinks the Pacers are in trouble.

    “Fans don’t generally come to the arena to watch coaches coach,” said Morton, principal of Sunrise Sports Group, a locally based sports marketing consultancy. “They come to watch players play. There has to be a connection between the fans and players.”

    But Hirschauer said season-ticket sales already are up this year. He’s confident that if the Pacers are competitive, they’ll see a solid increase in attendance.

    Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh did not return calls seeking comment.

    Pacers spokesman Jeff McCoy said O’Brien was chosen to headline the campaign because “he fit the values of what we think Indiana basketball is all about: hard work, determination, the will to win, preparation and teamwork. What better person to put out front?”

    An attendance boost is badly needed. Last year, per-game attendance dropped to 15,359, down from 16,180 during the 2005-2006 season.

    Attendance has dropped five of the seven seasons since the 1999-2000 season, the team’s first in Conseco Fieldhouse. That year, the Pacers averaged a capacity 18,345 per game.

    Under optimal conditions, the Pacers aren’t exactly a cash cow in this small NBA market. But the team has proven it can muster an annual profit ranging from $1 million to $10 million, according to Forbes magazine figures.

    With the National Football League and NASCAR garnering the lion’s share of professional sports fans’ attention, and with the proliferation of other entertainment outlets, the NBA’s business model for NBA teams has changed greatly over the last decade, University of Indianapolis’ DeGaris said.

    “Sports is an unpredictable and perishable commodity, and the NBA has hit a valley,” DeGaris said. “Naming rights and premium seating aren’t bringing in the kind of dollars they used to, so it’s sending a lot of teams back to the drawing board. The key for the Pacers will be staying aggressive and being creative.”

    But those things will have to be done inside the confines of the team’s current lease deal at Conseco Fieldhouse. City officials, including Mayor Bart Peterson and Fred Glass, head of the Capital Improvement Board, which owns the Fieldhouse, said they aren’t likely to consider an overhaul of the Pacers’ 20-year lease.

    “[Pacers officials] have not suggested they need to renegotiate the lease, but they have said they are facing some challenges they weren’t five or six years ago,” Peterson said.

    Glass is confident the Pacers can be viable under the terms of the Fieldhouse lease.

    “This arena is a model, and we’ve crafted a deal where the Pacers can prosper,” Glass said. “I think they will be here for generations to come.” •
    I don't think these guys really have a good idea. I would much rather see Jermaine/Danny on the cover then O'Brien.
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  • #2
    Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

    Originally posted by GrangerRanger View Post
    http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframe...5362&NoFrame=1



    I don't think these guys really have a good idea. I would much rather see Jermaine/Danny on the cover then O'Brien.

    They shouldn't hide from what they are. Just put Jamal, Daniels, Williams, in a shadow of Artest and Jackson..........

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

      Originally posted by GrangerRanger View Post
      http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframe...5362&NoFrame=1



      I don't think these guys really have a good idea. I would much rather see Jermaine/Danny on the cover then O'Brien.
      As the article states, you're not the target. Older, more conservative, corporate types are more likely to get season tickets. The bottom line is to sell tickets, that's why they talk about improving the "brand", not the "image". They want to make money.
      Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

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      • #4
        Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

        Originally posted by GrangerRanger View Post
        http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframe...5362&NoFrame=1



        I don't think these guys really have a good idea. I would much rather see Jermaine/Danny on the cover then O'Brien.

        The ad is clearly a vote of NO CONFIDENCE in the players from a professional responsibility standpoint. They know they cannot sell a product that continues to blow up in their faces. It's the right business decision to keep the clowns behind the curtain.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

          Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
          As the article states, you're not the target. Older, more conservative, corporate types are more likely to get season tickets. The bottom line is to sell tickets, that's why they talk about improving the "brand", not the "image". They want to make money.
          This could not be more true. They have given up on image and have moved to another form of marketing the team.

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          • #6
            Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

            I think it makes perfect sense to use O'Brien in the marketing campaign. he and the coaching staff is the primary reason why I'm excited about watching the team play this season.

            The yahoo in the article who was quoted as saying that "Fans don’t generally come to the arena to watch coaches coach" Well of course fans don't come to games and look at the coach the whole time (only an idiot would do that) - but the coach has a huge impact on the way the team plays, so yes fans do come to a game to see how a team plays.
            Last edited by Unclebuck; 10-06-2007, 05:01 PM.

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            • #7
              Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

              I can't turn on NBA TV without seeing Obie in one Pacer ticket ad or another.

              Not that I disagree with their decision, but their approach could use some work. Those ads were a tad boring.

              It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

              Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
              Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
              NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

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              • #8
                Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
                As the article states, you're not the target. Older, more conservative, corporate types are more likely to get season tickets. The bottom line is to sell tickets, that's why they talk about improving the "brand", not the "image". They want to make money.
                I'm a season ticket holder. If they at least made one ad showing Jermaine slamming it down on a replica Shaq and big worlds in the background proclaiming Eastern Conference Champions, I think you could sell a few tickets not from the non older, more conservative, corporate types. Like common people like me.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                  Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
                  The ad is clearly a vote of NO CONFIDENCE in the players from a professional responsibility standpoint. They know they cannot sell a product that continues to blow up in their faces. It's the right business decision to keep the clowns behind the curtain.
                  It also makes no business sense to brand your team around players that won't be here in March. I doubt there's one player on the entire roster (aside from maybe Danny, but you can't build your brand around him yet) that they know for sure they won't move.

                  Sure that's true for a few other teams in one way or another, but when you're trying to win back fans like TPTB are, it makes no sense to make anyone the "face" of the team. So, the only logical move -- especially when there's no one you can trust to stay out of the police blotter -- is to brand the Indiana Pacers as "pure basketball," "Conseco fieldhouse," "tough-nosed Hoosiers" and "Indiana."

                  There's really no other choice from a marketing/branding perspective.
                  Read my Pacers blog:
                  8points9seconds.com

                  Follow my twitter:
                  @8pts9secs

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                    Originally posted by GrangerRanger View Post
                    I'm a season ticket holder. If they at least made one ad showing Jermaine slamming it down on a replica Shaq and big worlds in the background proclaiming Eastern Conference Champions, I think you could sell a few tickets not from the non older, more conservative, corporate types. Like common people like me.
                    Sure, some people in your age group do indeed have season tickets, but that demographic doesn't have the buying power to make much of a difference. And it's the luxury boxes that really matter, not 1 seat out of 20,000.
                    Read my Pacers blog:
                    8points9seconds.com

                    Follow my twitter:
                    @8pts9secs

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                    • #11
                      Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                      Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                      Well of course fans don't come to games and look at the coach the whole time (only an idiot would do that) - but the coach has a huge impact on the way the team lays, so yes fans do come to a game to see how a team plays.
                      Weren't you the one who at one game counted to see how many times Rick looked at his card?

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                        Originally posted by JayRedd View Post
                        Sure, some people in your age group do indeed have season tickets, but that demographic doesn't have the buying power to make much of a difference. And it's the luxury boxes that really matter, not 1 seat out of 20,000.
                        Along with the luxury boxes is a related issue. Many people buying tickets do this for business/networking purposes. Some are easily turned off by off court incidents particularly since it would be embarrassing for them to give Pacer tickets to their clients.

                        Now, winning does solve a lot of problems there, but a decent team, which is all the Pacers will be for now, requires a clean off court reputation to pull in the business/networking type of revenue. There is still a lot to lose here for an average to slightly above average NBA club.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                          Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                          Well of course fans don't come to games and look at the coach the whole time (only an idiot would do that)
                          Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                            Originally posted by intridcold View Post
                            Weren't you the one who at one game counted to see how many times Rick looked at his card?
                            No, I counted how often Rick called the offensive play.

                            I was making a joke in my prior post

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Re: Players Benched for Pacer's Ads

                              Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
                              I was making a joke. Just a little self-deprecating humor

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