On 2:01 PM PST, Monday, November 7th the new Las Vegas franchise made big news… or at least they tried to.
While you were completely wrapped up in the biggest Presidential election ever, the team was trying to get your attention. Last week, the son-to-be Knights confirmed the logo/name reveal celebration for November 22nd. News we’ve known, but have been waiting to be made official. However, odds are you might not have noticed.
The strategy and timing of the press release seemed delayed, but in a way rushed too. No matter which it was, the fact remains, there’s no logical reason for that release to have come out at that time. I hate being picky, but I’m questioning the strategy of whoever decided to release reveal date last Monday at exactly 2:01 PM PST and here’s why.
Let’s start with the day, Monday. When a sports team releases news on a Monday, it’s competing with other non-sports stories that gathered over the weekend. Plus they’re competing with NFL Sunday news half the year. Monday’s and Friday’s are days to release bad news or boring news. Friday is normally the day organizations fire their coach. Monday’s are the day to release news that won’t trend (or so you hope) on social media. So Monday was bad enough, and I haven’t even started on last Monday.
Secondly, the time of day wasn’t ideal for maximum exposure. 2:01 PM PST, is 5:01 PM EST, in other words, one minute after the business day closes back east. Let’s face it, the media is run by the East Coast. As of Monday, 11/07 11:59P PST, the unveil date hadn’t been mentioned on ESPN, Sports Illustrated, or Puck Daddy. Only Pro Hockey Talk posted an article the day of the date release. I’d argue late afternoon is bad timing for West Coast exposure, but even worse, it got almost no coverage around the country. By 2 PM, the news was doomed for little attention until the next day’s news cycle. Which was a Tuesday, a perfect day to release news. Just not last Tuesday.
The second Tuesday in November every four years is Election Day, it’s been that way since the election of 1848 (#TaylorFillmore1848). The NHL and the Las Vegas organization knew that, and it didn’t sneak up on them. Election Day is a day Americans completely ignore other news. News released Monday before Election Day gets gobbled up. Same with the following Wednesday, and especially after this election. In releasing the reveal date on pre-election Monday at 2:01 PM PST it almost came across as though the team was trying to not make the news. With little exposure, the date could easily be forgotten. A busy professional, distracted parent, or caught up student have other things on their mind. The election of course being the largest one of all.
The problem, and the fear we’ve been having here at SinBin.vegas, is that release could negatively effect the crowd size on November 22nd. Let’s face it, if there is a light crowd on Tuesday it will look terrible on TV, the pictures in the newspapers will be embarrassing, and Vegas will instantly become the laughingstock of the league, at least for now.
The press release lacked the buzz it could’ve created. Releasing the news a week or so earlier, and at 9:00ish AM PST (see the timing on this post) it could’ve been more impactful. Especially, for fans who plan on attending. Also, a morning release would’ve given the East Coast a chance to process the news. The event would’ve been trending on Twitter and other social media sites. It didn’t, and that’s a shame.
They also could’ve coordinated the release with sites like ESPN, PuckDaddy and even a certain local website we know. Not every fan in town reads the RJ, or watches the local news. (Actually, does anyone still do either of those things?) But most sports fans do read ESPN, ProHockeyTalk, Yahoo, and Barstool.
If fans missed the date last Monday, there’s a good chance they still don’t know it. I’ve had close to 20 conversations over the past ten days, and maybe 5 of them knew the date. The birth of an expansion team is huge sports news. Sports fans across the continent are looking forward to learning the Knights adjective and seeing the logo for the first time. Fans are drooling to get their hands on a Knights shirt, hat, or hoodie. Unfortunately they still may not know when exactly they can do just that, and it’s a shame.
In the end though it comes down to us. The most important part is our support. Its up to the fans of Las Vegas to get down to the Toshiba Plaza and support the organization on the 22nd. So tell your buddy, cause due to a poorly timed announcement, he probably doesn’t know the news.
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SinBin.vegas is gathering for a pre-unveil get together at Beerhaus in The Park out in from of Toshiba Plaza/T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday. We’ll be there starting at 3 PM. Come hang out with us as we “prepare” for what will go down as one of the most historic days in Las Vegas sports history.
James
I think Mr. Foley missed a golden opportunity to make a big splash by not having his house in order by Frozen Fury. 17,500 Ice hockey fans were in attendance.
The marketing side of things comes across as amateurish, but I think that’s a league wide problem. It would be generous to call ice hockey the fourth most popular sport in the United States. You are in the minority, most sports fans in the United States don’t give a bleep about hockey. It’s like Marmite. You either love it or hate it. The timing of a press release isn’t going to make a difference!
Thomas
The Tuesday, Nov. 22 announcement event is going up against a UNLV basketball home game at Thomas & Mack. As a long-time Runnin’ Rebels season-ticket holder and future Las Vegas Silver Knights (hopefully that is name) season-ticket holder, it is disappointing that NHL team didn’t have more respect for tradition of Rebel basketball.