Befriending Generation Facebook
Pro Teams Venture Online to Attract Younger Fans to Their Games

By Mark Viera
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Paul Wilson wakes most mornings by 5 o'clock, just in time to reply to about a dozen Facebook messages, update a MySpace account and thumb through up to 200 text messages. The routine has become something of a necessity for Wilson, owner of the Washington Glory fastpitch softball team, which wages a daily battle to win fans.

Wilson sees progress every time a young girl arrives asking for discounted admission because she received a coupon offer via text message, or when other fans come up to players -- almost all of whom have MySpace and Facebook accounts -- to thank them for personally answering an online message.

The Glory is one of many professional teams engaging younger constituents through online social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Teams in the less prominent realms of pro sports have harnessed these sites to promote themselves to younger demographics not easily targeted in traditional advertisements. And some teams in major sports leagues such as the NFL, NBA and NHL have used sites as portals to expand their connection with their fans. Major League Baseball expects to launch a Facebook application later this year.

Teams don't pay for such advertising -- creating a profile is free on both sites -- and they can ensure their message reaches thousands, instead of hoping a print or TV ad receives notice.

"Now, they communicate so much though online or text" messages, Wilson said of younger fans. "So instead of getting them to come to us, I wanted to go to them."

At the suggestion of a marketing consultant last summer, the Glory signed up for MySpace. The team now links its MySpace site on the official team home page.

The Washington Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse, in their second year in the District, have built support among recent college graduates through online avenues. They have largely relied on LateNightShots.com, a members-only -- and at times racy -- locally founded social network.

The Bayhawks and the site have turned home games into something akin to a college fraternity party. Fans use the site to organize gatherings, before and after games, at bars in Georgetown. For $40 per person, the Bayhawks shuttle the group to and from the games at George Mason -- and provide beer at the stadium.

"There are thousands of people who come to the site daily to interact with one another through messages, photos, whatever," said Reed Landry, the founder of LateNightShots.com. "And people have really taken to becoming Bayhawks fans. It's attracted the interest of other people. It's a natural target audience for them to go after."

Without major exposure, and lacking an established presence in the community, many of these professional teams are still aimed at niche audiences. Outreach though online media often is their most successful method of advertising. The Glory sometimes seats about 100 additional fans because of coupons only offered via text message. Bayhawks games typically draw 3,000 fans, about 250 of whom arrive through online party planning.

When marketing on MySpace started a few years ago, it usually was in the form of musical acts posting songs in search of wider exposure, according to author Nick Jag, who has written about online marketing. But more recently the approach has spread to sports teams.

"I think there's a lot of special opportunities that can be done that sports teams haven't really tapped . . . there are a lot of things they can do to connect with their users and fans directly," said Jag, whose books include "MySpace Marketing" and "Facebook Marketing."

For some franchises, however, there is a downside to the Internet's relative lawlessness. Sometimes, in comment sections, fans post vulgar or inappropriate messages.

"To me, [MySpace] wasn't professional enough for the image we want to present," said Heidi Faith, media relations coordinator for the San Francisco Dragons of Major League Lacrosse. "You definitely want to be out there in a community and be in that particular age group. My concern is that they're a good presence, but they have to be chosen wisely to maintain what you're doing."

The Redskins and Nationals do not advertise through social networks, and it is uncertain how many other major professional sports teams have created Facebook or MySpace profiles because anyone can create his own, unofficial page for those teams.

However, within the past few years, the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals have started using such sites.

Because the Wizards have an established fan base, growing from the grassroots is not the primary focus. They instead try to heighten their exposure, saturating fans with even more multimedia or interactive features. They also try to keep up with the Web's wide-ranging marketing capabilities.

The Capitals have been one of the forerunners of this type of sports marketing. They frequently update their Facebook page with videos or articles but, like smaller pro teams, sometimes focus on drawing fans by offering discounted tickets through their profile.

The Capitals have more than 3,000 Facebook friends. On their Facebook wall, where friends can write messages, fans have weighed in on the team's recent bounty of postseason awards: "CONGRATS ovechkin and boudreau!! and backstrom!!!!"

"People who use Facebook to message each other . . . and their phones and who have tendinitis in their thumbs because they're texting so much, you're gonna have to reach out to meet those people there because they're not necessarily going to come to you," said Sean Parker, the Capitals' director of new media. "This is just one small step in that direction."