I'm shocked Boston hasn't caught on as well.
That hotel rate, and getting to hang in Beantown SHOULD be a great draw.
First step in my opinion for next year would be to dump Buffalo. Right now there are 3 cities (Boston, Buffalo, and NY) which are in a 6-7 hour drive "triangle".
Personally I would rather go to Boston than NY. Problem is it seems like having both is like "robbing Peter to pay Paul". You're right Billy, we've given the East Coast some options and you know folks have asked us to go to Boston for years. So we did. But we've also had 130+ drafters in New York in the past and right now we're less than halfway there among the three cities. So there are more reasons for this drop in participation and it's obvious that right now we're not robbing enough from Peter to pay Paul, right?
Again, I hope folks don't think it's not from a lack of trying. We were very aggressive in trying to grow the live events business. Everyone thought that Fanball would just buy the NFFC and turn it into an online business. Instead, they put a lot of money up and tried to grow the multi-city live-event format. I give everyone credit for stepping up with us on that. We can handle the Boston contract if we don't hit a home run there. Again, I just want my customers to be happy and know what the situation is on Draft Day. And if they want the big draft experience, New York and Citi Field is still there for them as an option. Everyone can switch there if they want to.
We've learned a lesson. Our contest and another contest still get a lot of their main event participants to draft online. The costs of hosting these live events has increased every year and it's tough to justify these days. This will shape my opinions on this part of the business in the future for sure. But again, it wasn't from a lack of trying or contact with customers because we have been emailing and calling our lists for months. The economy and other factors are preventing us from reaching those goals, but we'll keep pushing. These last two weeks always bring results.
I'll do whatever the Boston folks say and we'll hook up with another city if we have to in order to mix up the competition for the Classic and the Primetime. New York is open for business with Mets' tickets available if you switch there. Just tell me soon so that I can work with every other customer in Boston ASAP. We are not running away from this problem, we will address it with each and every owner today.
