The following data was provided by Robert Passikoff, Founder and President of Brand Keys, Inc. It is of interest to the Sports Fans Coalition what information teams and leagues are using to court our fan dollars. Furthermore, we want to know how they are doing.

“After years in the #2 spot, Major League Baseball is now tied with the National Football League with the “most loyal fans,” according to the 15th annual 2010 Brand Keys Sports Loyalty Index,® a survey which helps professional sports teams increase broadcast, ticket and merchandise revenues by providing loyalty rankings and fan diagnostics in their home and national markets.

2010 League Rankings

1. NFL/MLB
2. NBA
3. NHL

“The Sports Loyalty Engagement Index gives an apples-to-apples comparison of the intensity with which fans support professional sport leagues and their home team vs. the corresponding values for the fans of other teams in the market,” said Robert Passikoff, president of New York-based Brand Keys, Inc. a leading brand and customer loyalty consultancy.

“These insights allow leagues and teams to identify areas that need strategic reinforcement. Done correctly, an increase in broadcast viewership, merchandise purchase, and ticket revenue will follow, and happier fans. Everybody loves a winner, but it’s important to note that win/loss ratios do not entirely govern fan loyalty,” noted Brand Keys’ Passikoff.

Fan loyalty is driven in four ways:

• Pure Entertainment – How well a team does, but more importantly, how exciting is their play?
• Authenticity – How well they play as a team. New stadia can help on this driver. Oftentimes, so can a new Manager.
• Fan Bonding – Are players respected and admired?
• History and Tradition – Is the game and the team part of a fan’s and a community’s rituals, institutions and beliefs?

The top-5 teams in each league in terms of fan loyalty for 2010:

Top Gainers: Teams with the largest growth in fan loyalty include the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA (both up five positions), the New Orleans Saints (+6) and the Minnesota Vikings (+5) in the NFL, and the Colorado Rockies and Minnesota Twins in MLB, both up 4 positions. In the National Hockey League no team moved up more than one position, although many moved down as many as 4 rankings. A list of the bottom-5 teams with lowest fan loyalty in each league can be found at www.brandkeys.com/awards/sports.cfm

Methodology:  The Brand Keys Sports Fan Loyalty Index is an outgrowth of Brand Keys’ specialization in measuring customer loyalty that began with work for the National Football League in the mid-90’s. Interviews are conducted by telephone and in-person (to account for cell phone-only fans) includes 150+ local fans for each professional sports team in the four major leagues. Participants self- select a preference for a particular league and then indicate an allegiance to the local team being evaluated. The methodology identifies the four drivers of fan loyalty and rates each team on each of the drivers. The respondents are also asked to rate the sports leagues that they’re interested in on an overall basis.

“Since overall league and team rankings correlate very highly with TV viewership and sales of licensed merchandise, rankings can be influenced depending upon how loyalty drivers are addressed and managed,” said Passikoff. “It’s critical that marketers do accurate scouting regarding the strategic game they intend to play with their fans because today, when it comes to loyalty, there are no free-agent fans!”

This final statement is rather telling in its analysis that no free agent fans exist. The point being that a fan will switch to another sport rather than holding a strike and demanding a sport do more to earn sports fans’ patronage.

The SFC’s existence is predicated on our ability to do just that. We’ve already experienced some success in this department, and we’ll continue to fight for sports fans rights when it comes to teams housed in publicly funded stadiums charging too much for tickets, college football determining their champion without a playoff, and broadcast feeds of games provided to some fans but not all hindering choice and competition in the marketplace.

All of our goals as an organization relate to seeking a more economical and entertaining sports fan experience while the Leagues, teams, and media companies fight us every step of the way trying to take your hard-earned cash. We won’t stand for it. Join us in the battle for sports fans rights.

While Houston is only 230 miles from Arlington, Texas, and the recently approved $80 million stadium plans for the Dynamo’s (Houston’s MLS club) new home are dwarfed by the Dallas Cowboy’s $1.6 billion stadium, it should not go unnoticed that $20 million, roughly 25%, will fall on the backs of Harris County and City of Houston tax payers.

It’s true that Major League Soccer garners little attention compared with the NFL and its modern-day coliseums.  Just because the numbers pale in comparison to football’s in the state that eats, sleeps, and drinks the game, should we ignore that sports fans are forced to pay for this new soccer stadium?

The approved stadium was put in motion 20 months ago by former Mayor Bill White who sought a “tax-increment reinvestment zone” to be set aside next to the Astros’ Minute Maid Park. Much like politicians in cities across America sell their constituents on using tax dollars for stadiums, this deal might be small in scale, but will certainly raise deficits while providing very little R.O.I. Typically, these decisions are made in conjunction with cutting funding for schools. And it will continue until you fight back. Join the SFC, and do something about it.

The NFL owners voted 28 to 4 to change the overtime rule so that sudden death would not mean that the toss of a coin had more power than it deserves in the playoffs. The rule states that special teams, and more specifically place kickers, may not be used to split the uprights to win a game during the first drive in post-season games tied at the end of regulation. Coin toss, meet your foe.

Among those 4 owners who voted nay, Minnesota Vikings Chairman Zygi Wilf claims that it is inconsistent with the game’s rules for the first 16 games of the seasonand withdrew his support joining the minority. Yes, the same Wilf who’s team suffered a loss in this year’s NFC Championship Game as a result of future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre’s interception at the end of regulation and the subsequent successful 53-yard field goal attempt by New Orleans Saints kicker Garrett Hartley.

It’s a powerful statement made by the Wilf Family on an interesting rule which will provide a dose of fodder to the upcoming uncapped season of professional football. It’s too bad this family and team haven’t shown more gumption when it comes to taking care of the fans in Minnesota. The family has threatened to boltfor LA or any other city willing to accommodate their tax-funding needs for a refurbished or brand new stadium.

If the NFL is so concerned about the game being fair in this nuance of overtime competition on the field, why do the fans get used and abused when it comes to off the field issues such as public funding for stadiums, teams threatening to leave town, blackouts, and ticket, parking, and concession prices?

Sports fans need to join together to speak up and speak out about these abuses where the costs of being an active fan keep rising. Whether it’s the in-stadium game experience one wants to treat his or her family to, buying an official jersey, or trying and failing to watch a Jacksonville Jaguars home game on TV within the city limits only to be blacked out. The costs keep rising while the fan experience suffers.

Amidst all the issues discussed at the owners meetings in Florida this week, one would hope that the focus would sway from the trivial coin toss to one that actually affects the fans who’ve supported their teams through thick and thin. The NFL continues to bully fans grabbing tax-dollars with one hand while the other remains outstretched demanding more of our cash.

It’s no different than the threats which emerge from NFL, NHL, or NBA franchises. Whether it’s a mammoth billion dollar-stadium in Dallas, the big apple, or the relatively small spring training facility in Mesa, Arizona that the Cubs populate in March, when teams leverage our tax dollars for their stadiums it is simply unfair to sports fans.

In the case of the $84 million Cactus League stadium build for the Chicago Cubs faithful (set to open in 2013), the ‘threat’ by the team to bolt for Florida was enough to convince local lawmakers to hike up the ticket taxes to pay for them to stay. Despite avoiding the citrus of the Grapefruit League, Cubs fans have a sour taste in their mouths over this increase as spring training is supposed to provide an affordable outlet for die-hards to preview the current and future stars of their baseball club in action.

They’re not the only ones upset by the lawmakers’ decision.

The Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers, Oakland A’s, and Texas Rangers have all expressed their discontent over the proposed Cactus League ticket tax that would be shared across the board. Rightfully so. If the goal was to keep the Cubs in Arizona each spring, why should all clubs, and all baseball fans be required to absorb one team’s ransom?

In the lawmakers’ decision, the Cubs preferred method of public payment for the new stadium, a car rental tax, was dropped. Now, their cross-town rivals, the White Sox, will have to live with the fact that every time they set foot in Camelback Ranch (their shared facility with the Dodgers), they’ll be supporting the dreaded Cubs’ shiny new stadium in Mesa.

Here are some more stats of stadium financing in AZ from the Phoenix Biz Journal:

Stadium: Proposed Cubs stadium

• Site: Mesa
• Opened: 2013*
• Tenants: Chicago Cubs
• Cost: $84 M

• Major financing: Proposed ticket fees on all Cactus League games, proposed rental car tax increases, Mesa bonds

Stadium: Camelback Ranch

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2009
• Tenants: Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers
• Cost: $100 M
• Major financing: $60 M from Arizona Sports & Tourism Authority, Glendale bonds

Stadium: Goodyear Stadium

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2009
• Tenants: Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds
• Cost: $108 M
• Major financing: $55 M from AZSTA, Goodyear bonds

Stadium: Planned Arizona Diamondbacks/Colorado Rockies stadium

• Site: Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
• Opened: 2011*
• Tenants: Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies
• Cost: $100 M
• $23 M stimulus-backed loan, Tribal money

Stadium: Chase Field

• Site: Phoenix
• Opened: 1998
• Tenants: Diamondbacks
• Cost: $364 M
• Major financing: Quarter-cent Maricopa County sales tax increase, Diamondbacks paid extra construction expenses

Stadium: University of Phoenix Stadium

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2006
• Tenants: Arizona Cardinals
• Cost: $471 M
• Major financing: $311 M from AZSTA, Prop. 302 increases to rental car and hotel taxes, $145 M from Cardinals, $5 M from Fiesta Bowl, $10 M from city of Glendale

Stadium: Jobing.com Arena

• Site: Glendale
• Opened: 2003
• Tenants: Phoenix Coyotes
• Cost: $180 M
• Major financing: Glendale bonds and financing

Stadium: US Airways Center

• Site: Phoenix
• Opened: 1992
• Tenants: Phoenix Suns
• Cost: $90 M
• Major financing: Phoenix bonds and loans

A tournament. What a novel concept. 

No matter how many people complain about how easy Duke’s road is to the Final Four this year – which has generated enough conspiracy theories to fill a book - Jon Scheyer and the gang still have to play the games. Getting there is no cake walk in NCAA basketball like it is in other sports.  Coach K will tell you it’s true.

What frustrates college football fans so much this time of year is reflecting on what could have been and what could be. The sport would not merely be improved by a playoff, but rather brought up to the standards of every other sport in NCAA competition.

Doesn’t it strike you as odd that this one sport continues to buck the trend, playing by its own off-the-field rules using backroom deals and million dollar-payoffs to continue this sadness for 90% of its fans. All of this amidst the NCAA Tournament in basketball which happens to be one of the greatest weekends if not the greatest month in sports.

NCAA Basketball has found a way to generate close to 90% of its revenue from 3 weeks of games. The buzz is unbelievable. So much so that the NCAA may end up backing out of its deal with CBS just to renegotiate the inclusion of another 32 teams. 

That’s right. Expansion is a real possibility. Whether that would be good or bad for the sport is another story centered on supply-and-demand arguments.

What’s shocking about that idea is that while the good ol’ boys in college football stonewall and stagnate on any change that might help their sport, improve their image among fans, and actually give up the sham of the current BCS system – which makes fans wait a month for a consistently uninteresting lineup of blowouts all for the sake of the University Presidents, Conference Commissioners, and NCAA honchos receiving their yearly bonuses – NCAA Basketball is looking to improve.

Long-time CBS broadcaster Billy Packer commented that the “decision is not a basketball decision.  It has everything to do with finances.” While many share his view that expansion is about the money first and foremost, the ultimate product would provide more opportunity for sports fans’ fringe teams typically relegated to the NIT. It also provides more games to watch. Less excitement? Perhaps. But consider the Cinderella story of a 9 game winning streak to reach the trophy. That story would be available to any school to claim as their own.

It’s about opportunity, the product for the fan, and as alway, the money.

Let today be a lesson to all those in favor of the BCS. Your inferior product makes you feel a little dirty every time you cash their checks and argue it’s better for the sport, doesn’t it? (This last sentence is based on the premise that the only people who are pro-BCS receive money from the organization, the NCAA, or a media-affiliate.)

For the rest of us sports fans today, you can lean back in your office chair, size up your brackets, and enjoy the next 3 weeks knowing anything can happen. Upsets are the rule rather than the exception. It’s an exciting time to be a sports fan. If only our winters could be this entertaining; fairly determining a champion of the sport we love.