Steeldogs Enjoying Worldwide Press
Published on May 11, 2006 under arenafootball2 (af2)
Alabama Steeldogs News Release
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - It's a safe bet that at some point last week, people were discussing Birmingham Steeldogs football on their way to work...in London, England.
And in Johannesburg, South Africa.
And in Melbourne, Australia.
The May 5th "Barber's Dairy Faith Night," during which the Steeldogs wore Biblical-themed jerseys during pre-game warm-ups and auctioned them following their win over the Louisville Fire, generated press in each of these international locations, as well as in many other cities across the United States and Canada.
The Steeldogs, along with Third Coast Sports, can document published reports regarding the May 5th Faith Night in at least 28 different national and international print and online news outlets. Still pending is the release of a story compiled by The Associated Press and the Christian Science Monitor.
Nineteen newspapers across the U.S. and abroad published the Faith Night story. The combined circulation of those papers, according to recent published circulation data, is 4,243,114.
Four of those papers were in Canada: Edmonton Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Toronto Star and Chronicle-Herald (Halifax, Nova Scotia). The Steeldogs have been informed that Peacearch News in British Columbia will also run a story within the next few days.
Three other international papers ran with the story: The Guardian (London), The Age (Melbourne) and the Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg).
Aside from multiple stories in the Birmingham News, another in-state paper, the Huntsville Times, ran a column on the story. In addition, the Las Vegas Sun, Louisville Courier-Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, The (Greensboro, N.C.) News-Record, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, The (Nashville) Tennessean, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Washington Post each published stories on the Steeldogs.
ESPN.com featured not one, but two Steeldogs shout-outs. After the story broke on Darren Rovell's "Insider" blog on April 11, a follow-up was posted on April 13 by Paul Lukas in his popular "Uni-Watch" column which appears on the site's "Page 2." According to the Mike Davidson, the site's associate art director, ESPN.com receives an average of 500 to 950 million page hits per month. That's at least 16 million hits daily.
Televised reports on the story have been documented across the country as well. Every television news station in Birmingham covered the event in some form or fashion. Cameras from ESPN's "Outside the Lines" were also present on the sidelines during the May 5th game. The Faith Night story will be a segment on a future episode of the popular half-hour program.
In addition to the Faith Night story, the relationship between Steeldogs quarterback Ryan Hawk and his brother A.J. (the newly-drafted Green Bay Packer) has brought the team even more national press. Steve Irvine of The Birmingham News penned the first article on the brothers on April 13 and was soon followed by the AP's John Zenor. Zenor's article was published in several different publications, from Las Cruces, N.M. to Columbus, Ohio. The story even made an appearance on the online version of America's most revered sports publication, Sports Illustrated.
You might also remember the Steeldogs making local headlines in the weeks leading up to the season opener with the Banfigureskating.com April Fools Day prank.
The team played coy in the wake of a rogue figure skating hater, Larry Pamper, who called for a ban on the sport and suggested the Steeldogs as alternative entertainment. Pamper placed billboards throughout the city and purchased Web space, banfigureskating.com, to pitch his idea.
The story received significant air play on local television news stations until the Steeldogs admitted that Pamper and the figure skating ban were all a part of the team's marketing plan and an elaborate April Fools Day prank.
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