Craig Hyatt, associate professor of Sport Management, was quoted in the Globe and Mail article “Where did all the fans go?” on April 26. In the article, Hyatt discusses the Blue Jays’ disappointing attendance numbers.
Excerpt:
Still, the Blue Jays have adopted what appears to be a benign marketing strategy. Chris Hyatt, a sports marketing and business professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., agrees with Beeston aversion to discounting, but he worries about the relative lack of giveaways – such as bobbleheads.
“Once you’ve discounted prices, it’s hard to bring them back up to full price,” Hyatt said. “Promotions and giveaways are value-added – and you need to do that to get fans to sit through nine innings to watch a mediocre product in a substandard stadium. If you pooh-pooh marketing, you have no choice but to put a winning team on the field.”
