Over a Cup of Coffee

by Jerry Hewitt
March 22, 2010 - American Indoor Football Association (AIFA)

Leading up to last season and during the season I noticed on OSC that af2, even with fewer teams than the big 4 indoor leagues, dominated the press release and main stream media sections. I thought it might be interesting to look at how the different leagues and their teams specifically handle the media.

I am a firm believer in marketing teams for success, but I am also a believer that marketing doesn't always have to be expensive. I am a believer that press releases turn into local news articles in the newspaper, on TV and on those outlets' websites. I believe that press releases are the cheapest form of advertising and in some respects one of the most effective. A team can not survive if it doesn't get local press.

Today I start a five-part series, league by league, on press releases and the media coverage which follows. I am using one source, OurSports Central, as it is the leader in minor league news and the only national source for all minor leagues. To be fair to all leagues, I used Friday, March 19th as my cut off day. Realizing that the leagues all start at different times I am separating the releases by before season and after season's start. I am also only going back as far as January of this year.

Using the criteria I've laid out, I believe for this to be a very fair and unbiased report. If my opinion that press releases turn into mainstream media coverage, then the number will prove my opinion right. As I said, this will be league by league in alphabetical order beginning today with the AIFA and ending on this coming Saturday with a recap on what the results show overall. I'll take Wednesday off for my usual mid week report, but other than that, this week is all about the media. I will mention that already the new AFL is starting to have more than their fair share of air time considering they are but 15 teams as opposed to 49 teams in the big four indoor leagues. Maybe the AFL knows something about being in the press that indoor teams need to pay attention to.

So let's take a look at the AIFA and if numbers of press releases translate into more media coverage. Below is a team by team chart:

My conclusions on AIFA teams

My conclusion should be that for every press release a main stream news article followed. I can make a case for little fish in big ponds in Baltimore and San Jose's cases as they have to work harder in those big markets to get any press. The Arctic Predators seem to be the winner in that no releases still meant getting local coverage, but one might look at that market and find what competition the Arctic team has in the sports area. Also one might take note that an area might have more than one newspaper, maybe a couple in the area along with local television, so one release might generate two or more stories. I didn't have the time to break the numbers down to that extent. The rest of the numbers pretty much prove my point that press releases end up as stories in the local media.

For the most part I am going to save most of my comments until I finish up Friday. Tomorrow the CIFL is up.

Over the weekend

An interesting quote from the Silicon Valley Mercury News "Owner Ryan Petersen, who owns Bay Area Company OCZ Technology, said he has sunk $1 million into startup costs. He hopes to move the team into the AFL". "I'm pretty sure that we'll join the AFL shortly," he said. Ryan Peterson is the owner of the AIFA San Jose Wolves.

In the Richmond vs. Richmond battle for fans, AIFA Richmond: 1200; IFL Richmond: over 3000. Both at home again this past weekend, going head to head for fans. Have the Richmond fans decided?

Saw some banter over no information on the Fayetteville Guard going into this weekend. Their website was even going in reverse to show their 2007 NIFL schedule. Losing 59-0 to the Baltimore Mariners yesterday I guess they had a reason to be silent, nothing to mention if you can't even score one TD or field goal, right? But that aside congratulations to the Mariners on their third win against no losses and recording the first shutout in AIFA history.

This article and more archived at The Indoor Football Report located at www.IndoorFootballNetwork.com Comments about this article or suggestions can be made to indoorbowl@yahoo.com

American Indoor Football Association Stories from March 22, 2010

• Wolves Dominate Predators in Season Opener - Stockton Wolves
• Predators Drop Opener - Arctic Predators
• Over a Cup of Coffee - OSC Original by Jerry Hewitt

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.