Steamers Still Hottest Ticket

by Arnold Irish (1/14/1985) St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Quickie quiz: What pro sports team is St. Louis' hottest winter entertainment ticket for the sixth straight season? Helpful hint: Its players don't get around on ice skates or carry sticks. The answer, of course, is the Steamers of the Major Indoor Soccer League. They have outdrawn the Blues (National Hockey League)each of the last five years and are ahead again this season, averaging 13,866 spectators per home game to the Blues' 12,977. Like Rodney Dangerfield, though, the Steamers "don't get no respect." Historically, some people haven't known they exist. This may be changing. The Steamers are gradually acquiring a high profile, and their future appears secure because soccer interest here is deeply rooted. About three times as many high schools play soccer as play hockey, and the latter is a club sport unsanctioned by state athletic associations. The Blues, who staked out this territory first via a nationally known league and became a "happening" at The Arena, have the elite in their hip pocket. The Blues scale their house about twice as high as the Steamers, who came on the scene only six years ago via an unknown league. Tickets to the Steamers' games cost $4, $6, $7, $8 and $9, while the Blues' fans pay $9, $11, $13, $15 and $17 for their tickets. "They can have half the crowd we do and make as much money," Steamers President Tom Bowers said. But as Bob Dylan sang, "The times, they are a-changin'." Fans at the Steamers' games are older than in the club's formative years. Noticeably older. "Ben Kerner (former Steamers chief operating officer) called me not long ago and said, 'Who are these people?'" Bowers said, smiling. The Steamers always have concentrated on the youth market. So successfully that the club used to get complaints that if people sat in seats high up, kids were running around in front of them and they couldn't see. "We still appeal to the 12-14 age group with the highest concentration in the 18-25 group," Bowers said. In theory, the Steamers are battling the Blues for the sports entertainment dollar. But Bowers isn't convinced the two teams' crowds overlap. "We have a tougher sell on weeknights. You see a lot of coats and ties at their games," the Steamers' president said. "I think they're men who go there right from work. We're kind of soft drinks and beer fans, and the Blues are champagne fans." Demographically, the Steamers are looking to attract a new fan group. "We're talking about those people 25-40 with a higher disposable income, the ones who are spending the largest part of the Gross National Product," Bowers said. Yuppies, in other words. "We'll concentrate hard on families and yuppies, but we won't turn our backs on young people, our basic crowd," Bowers said. Attendance-wise, the Steamers peaked in 1982 when they packed in 17,107 spectators per game. They were outdrawn that season only by Wayne Gretzky and his friends, the Edmonton Oilers. "One of the biggest file folders in my desk says 'Attendance Analysis,'" Bowers said. "Last summer we had been uncomfortable about the club's decline from 17,000 to 14,000 in 1983 to 13,000 last season." He was aware that the Steamers in 1982 were playing a different ballgame, so to speak. "Ticket prices were cheaper," Bowers said. "There were fewer games -that many less to sell for. "More important the league and the Steamers were still a novelty. I remembered an old adage from marketing class.
* "First Year: When you're introducing a product, there's no way to go but up.
* Second Year: When sales take off you have to spend a lot on advertising and marketing.
* Third Year: The product usually peaks.
* Fourth Year: You have to do a tougher selling job.
* Fifth Year: Regenerate - the product. Spend more money than earlier."
The previous management, on its way out in the Steamers' fifth year, probably did neither to a sufficient degree. "Maybe there wasn't as much interest by the previous owners in regenerating the product," said Bowers, who was determined to reintroduce the Steamers to the masses. "Our main goal this year was to maintain last year's totals and start going back up. The club's average since its beginning has been about 15,000, so that's a barometer for us to strive for." Toward those goals, Bowers introduced an advertising campaign ("You'll Like What You See") that put the Steamers in the print and electronic media. Believing in the Importance of player-fan contact, Bowers asked his athletes to make themselves available for appearances twice a month in the offseason. They did. Players such as Tony Glavin and Ricky Davis and Redmond Lane, to cite several of the more cooperative, gave many more hours of their own volition. The Steamers were born to win friends in St. Louis, one of the few American cities with a rich soccer history. "We're envied around the league as one of the few franchises with a built- in base of support," Bowers said. "There are tough sells - the Tacoma Stars and, surprisingly, the Los Angeles Lazers - but, then, a game with New York Cosmos is selling like crazy. I'm wondering, 'Do they think Pele still plays for these guys?"' The Steamers, tenants in a building controlled by the Blues, have problems getting the kind of dates at The Arena that they need. "Last season we got 'weekend' dates - Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon - for 16 of our 24 games," Bowers said. "This season we got those kind of dates for only 14 games. The holidays killed us. No Thanksgiving dates. At Christmas, we got bumped by Prince from Saturday night to Sunday night - a 'weeknight' for us because it's a night before school." But Bowers knows that history's flow is with his product. "A lot of these indoor soccer buildings around town," said the Steamers' president, "used to be hockey rinks." Average Home Attendance

Steamers	Season	Blues





	*1984-85
	Totals
	*through Jan. 9