Phoenix Suns marketing works to overcome won-loss record

February 08, 2013

The Phoenix Suns continue to have one of the worst records in the NBA’s Western Conference, but the organization is trying to find other ways to attract fans to games.STEVE GOLDSTEIN: The Suns’ average attendance this season is under fifteen-thousand per home game at U.S. Airways Center, twenty-fourth out of the thirty NBA teams. And that includes the organization’s ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ night in December that drew seventeen-thousand five hundred fans. Part of the explanation for the lower attendance is the team’s terrible won-loss record. But Suns’ President Jason Rowley says winning is no longer a guarantee of popularity.

JASON ROWLEY: If your team is winning but someone comes into your building or your stadium and they feel like they’re not treated well and feel like they don’t have a good experience, for all the other things that they expect they don’t feel like the concessions were handled the way they should be handled. They don’t feel like the gameday staff are treating you the way you should be treated, you’re still not going to come back.

GOLDSTEIN: Rowley says one of the biggest challenges has been the team’s marketing campaign, since the Suns don’t have an identifiable star player since Steve Nash’s departure to the Los Angeles Lakers in the offseason. Steve Goldstein, KJZZ News, Phoenix.