Looking to boost the team’s fortunes at the gate, SF Deltas CEO Brian Andrés Helmick is turning to the fans to help reverse a trend of low attendance.
The Deltas are playing their first season in the NASL, and have been greeted with relatively low attendance figures thus far at Kezar Stadium. At the end of the league’s spring season, the club was averaging 2,419 fans per-game, well below the NASL’s season average of 4,502 and a sharp downturn from the 4,133 fans the Deltas drew for their home opener in March.
Helmick published a blog post to fans on Thursday, asking for their help and support in increasing attendance. The post was clear about the franchise’s concerns–Helmick wrote that Deltas “can’t survive if we don’t increase attendance”–but also laid out possible solutions.
Within his post, Helmick presented three possible ways that he believed could help increase the club’s visibility and boost attendance. Those solutions included the potential of attracting a high-profile local investor or investors, a relationship (via partnership or investment) with another bay area sports franchise, or getting fans to assist in raising awareness for the team. Helmick explained those options in detail:
High Profile Local Investor
That’s right Marc Benioff, we’re talking to you. You too Brian Chesky. And there are others. The alignment is there. We all care deeply about the SF Community. We believe it’s possible to do well and do good simultaneously. If every fan who came to a game at Kezar, tweeted Marc Benioff and Brian Chesky, I have to believe it would get their attention.
Local Pro Sports Team
The Oakland A’s share ownership with the Earthquakes. The 49ers share ownership with Sacramento Republic. What do you say Joe Lacob and Rick Welts at the Warriors? Larry Baer, our own Todd Dunivant played in 2006 at AT&T park against Japan. If you know anyone in either of these organization, introduce us.
Fans Capture the Hearts of Friends and Families
When people listen to our story, they fall in love with what we’re trying to build. The challenge is that people don’t know about us or what we’re trying to do. They don’t know that we’ve partnered with JUMA to give jobs to low-income youth on game days. They don’t know that our fans get together every Wednesday to feed the hungry on the streets of SF.
Fans, this is up to you. There are a lot of you. There are 15,000 of you who have come to a game. If you want this to work, help us with some heavy lifting. Hit the streets, invite friends, rally a group to come out to a game, share a message about the team in your Facebook Groups in your Slack Channels with your HR department.
The Deltas next match at Kezar Stadium is scheduled for August 5. Starting with that game, the Deltas will clearly be looking to see an uptick in attendance to ensure future seasons. You can keep track of 2017 NASL attendance figures here.
Image courtesy SF Deltas.