Victory often leads to financial success for professional sports in the Inland Northwest.

"Leeeeeet’s get it started in heeeeaaeere…" Fergie’s voice courses through the Spokane Arena as fans get settled in their seats and little kids chase each other with Thunderstix, inflatable tubes that make deafening sounds when banged together.

It’s 30 minutes till kickoff and four weeks since the Spokane Shock have played a home game. They have a perfect 6-0 record in the Arena Football League 2 play and face a tough opponent in the Boise Burn. It’s mid-May. It’s cold and wet outside, and it’s been a long winter.

There’s pent-up demand in the Inland Northwest to watch somebody get hit.

Everybody. Everybody. Let’s get into it. Get stupid. Get it started. Get it started. Get it started. Let’s get it started in here.

The arena lights go dim. Spokane Shock CEO Brady Nelson excuses himself from a conversation with club General Manager Adam Nebeker and walks across the field to the players’ tunnel.

The Spokane Shock dance team lines the tunnel, waiting to be announced, as football players filter in. Beyond the tunnel, two women with horn-rimmed glasses and business-like clothes stand by, ready for the Geek of the Week computer-toss competition, sponsored by Spokane Computer Geeks. The Spokane Tribe of Indians’ Sasquatch, the Arby’s Oven Mitt and the Avista Energy Dog wait for their turns to race, and little kids in martial arts uniforms practice their moves.

“Man, we have everything tonight,” Nelson says.

And everything—the winning, the promotions, the packed arena—contribute to the business success of the sports team.

Wins and Benjamins

The Shock beat the Burn 62-42. As of press time, the Spokane club remained undefeated and regarded by league coaches as the second-best team in the AF2. A few days before the arena football game, the Spokane Chiefs hockey team became champions after sweeping the Lethbridge (Alberta) Hurricanes in the Western Hockey League Championship series.

Iconic Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi once said that winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. For Inland Northwest professional-sports teams, winning is the main thing needed to boost income and profitability.

Success during the regular season in theory can lead to larger crowds and increased merchandise sales, but the main way teams generate more revenue is to host playoff games.

Nelson says that for the Shock, the organization’s costs are fixed, and the team has operated at a profit since its first season, in 2006. If the teams wins, it can host up to three home playoff games, which leads to a larger net income. If the team finishes with the league’s best record and wins all three of its playoff games, it can also host the ArenaCup and make money with that game.

The Shock’s total annual revenue, not including potential playoff-game income, is expected to be about $2 million this year. About 60 percent of that comes from ticket sales, and 30 percent is derived from advertising and sponsorship sales—sponsorships include the mascot race and Geek of the Week contest. The remaining 10 percent stems from merchandise sales and camps and leagues the organization sponsors.
“Growth will come in more sponsorship opportunities and extending the brand further,” Nelson says.

Bobby Brett, co-owner of Brett Sports & Entertainment Inc., which operates the Spokane Chiefs Hockey Club and the Spokane Indians Baseball Club, says both clubs are consistently profitable. Brett declines to disclose revenue figures, but he says one organization isn’t more profitable than the other on a consistent basis. Some years, the Indians perform better financially than the Chiefs, but this year, because of the playoff run, the Chiefs likely will out-perform the baseball club.

In their pursuit to become WHL champions, the Chiefs hosted 10 playoff games, which are 10 additional revenue opportunities.
That’s why Brett says, “Hockey is about winning.”

Because of the focus on winning, competition for the best players is intense. To get an edge in that competitive market, the Shock developed an indoor practice facility in an abandoned indoor ice rink in Spokane Valley, something few other AF2 teams have. Also, they hired a director of player personnel this year to recruit and retain talent.

Minor league baseball is different from hockey and arena football in that the team has no control over the players who appear on its roster. A minors baseball club is affiliated with a major league baseball team—the Indians are affiliated with the Texas Rangers—and that organization assigns players to the minors club. While the minor league team has no control over the quality of its roster, it also isn’t responsible for the players’ salaries. The major league club picks up that tab.

In hockey and arena football, each organization recruits the desired players and is responsible for player salaries, thereby controlling their respective on-the-field destinies, to a degree.

Minor league baseball places more of an emphasis on player development, and the financial success of a club is not tied as directly to winning.

“The lifeblood of all minor league teams are sales and promotions,” Brett says, adding that popular promotions like Fireworks Night and Family Feast Night routinely draw large crowds regardless of whether the team is winning.

Many seasons, however, the Indians have been competitive on the field. Twice in the past five years, the team has taken home the Northwest League crown.

Attendance

While local professional teams have been successful in recent months between the lines, the Inland Northwest teams also are successful in the box offices.

Spokane is an average-sized market for the AF2, but it has topped the league in attendance the past three years. The team routinely sells out its games, drawing about 10,600 fans per game. Of those, about 8,000 are season-ticket holders.

Put another way, the average attendance at a Shock regular-season game is about twice the attendance at last year’s ArenaCup championship game, played in Bossier City, La.

The Spokane Indians also have a top-attendance streak intact. The team has boasted the best attendance in the Northwest League in each of the past eight years. In 2007, the team drew more than 5,000 fans per home game, a Northwest League record.

Both Nelson and Brett say the lack of sports-entertainment competition in the Inland Northwest is a big factor in the attendance pace that the clubs set.

“For a minor league team to be relevant,” Nelson says, “it helps to be the big fish.”

Gonzaga University and Washington State University men’s basketball teams arguably have been the most popular sports draws in the region in recent years—and each is a tough ticket to get in its own right. The college-basketball season, however, doesn’t overlap with the seasons for either the Shock or the Indians.

Consequently, the teams get more media coverage than a team would in say, Everett, Wash., which is overshadowed more severely by Seattle’s professional teams.

“We’re on an island over here, which helps us,” Brett says. “We have a wonderful facility, a good market size and a quality staff. That’s a recipe for success.”

For more information on the Spokane Shock Arena Football 2 team, visit www.spokaneshock.com

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