From Showtime to Sell Time : As the Lakers’ Glory Fades, Public Relations Becomes Key Play

Unusual times call for unusual measures, so there was Jerry West, the man in charge of basketball operations, looking to rally the Lakers’ sales and marketing staff with a brief speech a few weeks back.

That’s the same staff that plans to visit every season ticket-holder’s home or office, and the same Jerry West who once a month will sit down with Steve Chase, the director of sales, and 40 season ticket-holders for lunch and a state-of-the-team address and then listen to their opinions.

And you thought the new Lakers referred to Nick Van Exel and Sam Bowie. Beyond the sidelines, beyond the doors of the front office, the changes have been as significant as those on the roster in the competition to keep customers happy--and to keep very good customers very happy. Off-court courting.

This has all come about, basically, because:

--The Southern California economy parallels the Lakers’ place in the standings.

--The Lakers’ place in the standings is not what it used to be.

“It’s like, if we’re not going to win 60 games for them, then what can we do for them?” says Bob Steiner, the spokesman for owner Jerry Buss and part of the new push for customer relations. “We try to do more because we need to do more.”

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So season ticket-holders will lunch with West, the general manager, and at other times get double- or triple-teamed on visits from customer-service representatives, to make sure everything is OK from the moment they turn into the parking lot until they leave. The distinction is even being made that these visits will not be made by a salesperson, so the matter of continuing to buy the block of seats will not be brought up.

“Those are two examples of what we are doing new now,” Chase said. “And we probably should have been doing it before.”

They are doing other things new now, too. There is a newsletter, put out by Raymond Ridder, an assistant public relations director. There is a fan service center for all Forum events, maintained by someone to note comments on all facets of the operations. Soon, most season ticket-holders will receive small cards that can be given to an employee worth rewarding, an incentive plan that could earn staffers who get the most cards a trip on the team charter for a road game or front-row concert tickets.

It’s easy for the Lakers to say now they should have been doing all this before attendance, the team and the economy declined. Easy for them to say they would be doing all this now, even if the team were still a contender. Easy for the cynics to doubt that.

“We would,” Chase said. “Absolutely, 100%, yes. The only thing we might be doing less is the billboards and some of the advertising. But this customer-service push is something that works for any situation.”

So why wasn’t it around before?

“I can’t answer that,” he said. “I don’t know why. It should have been.”

Before, the concern was comments fans made and taking care of the complaints. Today, they are actively searching for those same comments.

The difference goes beyond semantics, which is why the starting time of Sunday home games was changed this season from 7:30 p.m. to 7. Fans voted for it in a questionnaire sent out in August. Mailings soliciting votes on other topics will follow.

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The Lakers are on the sides of buses, on billboards, on promos on Prime Ticket and Channel 9, their cable and over-the-air television outlets, more often. They are in newspapers, even paying for a special season-preview section for the first time in years.

“We didn’t do much advertising in the past,” said Chase, the director of sales since 1982. “So anything we do now is more than we’ve done in the past.”

No one can say for sure how much additional money has been allocated in this area. “I don’t think there is a budget,” Steiner said. “If it’s a good idea, it’s done.”

The Lakers have changed their marketing approach because times have changed. Attendance in the 17,505-seat building has gone from the 17,000s in the late 1980s and early ‘90s to 12,620 the first nine home games of 1993-94, ranking them ahead of only the Atlanta Hawks at 11,368, and the Clippers at 11,168 through Thursday’s games. Season-ticket sales have dropped from 14,000 in 1989 to about 11,200 at this stage of 1992 to a little more than 10,000 this season. “We’re off a few percent,” Buss said during training camp. “But I don’t think we’re off any further than the recession would tell you we were going to be off.”

Indeed. The Clippers report a 12% decline in season tickets from last season, to about 7,000. League-wide attendance is all but keeping pace with the record average of 16,060 last season, down only 0.5% to 15,976 through Thursday.

But the Lakers have more season ticket-holders than in 1985-86, the season they won the Pacific Division title and the heart of their decade of dominance, a time when fans often would not buy until late in the campaign, then only to guarantee playoff seats.

And the 10,319 who watched last Wednesday’s victory over Dallas was their smallest home crowd in a little more than 13 years, but the Clippers have already failed to break 9,100 four times in nine Sports Arena appearances.

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“Right now is a time everyone (on the staff) should be in an upbeat mood,” West says. “It is almost like watching a young kid learn to walk. It’s awkward at first, but when he gets going, it’s a great sight.”

That is the Lakers’ real sales pitch. They can invite you to lunch with the general manager, they can swing by your office for a chat, they can ask for your opinions on parking and popcorn. But they know as well as anyone that fans aren’t paying up to $4,300 annually--excluding the $500-a-night floor seats that never go on general sale--for the newsletter.

“Our average ticket price is not any different than most of the teams in the NBA,” Buss said. “The really high-priced tickets that have become so famous, there’s really very few of those. I think the price is for position. And if you want to hold that position for when the good times come, then obviously you’ll have to do that.”

And until then, until the Laker future meets up with the Laker past?

There’s always the newsletter.