The Usage of Sports Management Principles on The Example of The Boston Celtics

This paper will explore a sports-related organization or team as well as its background history and functionusing managing principles to analyze functions that the organization executes as well as functions where the organization can make improvements in. The example that will be used to demonstrate this will be an NBA team, the Boston Celtics. An in-depth analysis of the organizations marketing tactics and strategies will be discussed as well as theirmarket segmentation andfan identification of the Boston Celtics. The purpose is not only to provide knowledge of the Boston Celtics and its affairs, but also to demonstrate the usage of sports management principles in relation to the findings in this class as well as outside sources to incorporate them into a sports industry. The principles used throughout this dissertation is to provide an analysis of the sports team, the Boston Celtics and demonstrate steps the organization can do to improve.

The Boston Celtics is an American professional basketball team based in the area Boston, Massachusetts and is associated with the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team currently competes in the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. The Celtics are known to be one of the most successful franchises. In total, from 1957 to 2017, the Celtics have won over 17 NBA titles. The franchise was founded by Walter Brown in 1946. At that time, the Celtics were a part of the Basketball Association of America, which preceded the NBA. During the team’s run, they had posted a losing record in the first four seasons. As a result, the franchise hired Arnold “Red” Auerbach in 1950. During the reign of Auerbach, the Celtics won its first title during the 1956-57 season against the St. Louis Hawks. The Celtics had also won eight consecutive titles during 1958-59, 1965-66, 1967-68, and 1968-69 seasons. Many Hall of Famers including Ed Macauley, Bob Cousy, Frank Ramsey, Bill Sharman, and many others were a part of the Celtics team during this time.

Around 1978, Irv Levin, the team’s owner at that time, wanted to move the franchise to California, but this transaction was blocked by the NBA. During the same year, the Celtics had acquired a new player, Larry Bird, who would make a great impact on the team as well as NBA history. The rivalry between Magic Johnson of the Lakers and Larry Bird of the Celtics, had drawn new attention and popularity to the NBA. This rivalry continued on to the NBA finals five times in the 1980s and within these consecutive years, the Celtics had won the NBA championships in the 1980-81, 1983-84, and 1985-86 seasons.

During the 1990s, the Celtics had come to a halt and began experiencing a play-off drought. For straight six years the franchise had begun to lose in early rounds, but as the 2007-08 season approached, they were able to make the greatest turnaround in NBA history. With the addition of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, the Celtics finished with the league’s best record and a 42-win improvement. The Celtics went to the NBA finals and went toe to toe with the Los Angeles Lakers and won its 17th championship title. The following season, both teams won their conference and competed again, but this time the Lakers had the upper hand. “As the Celtics’ veteran roster grew older, the team had reduced on-court success. Allen left in free agency in 2012, and the team traded away Garnett and Pierce after the 2012–13 campaign in an effort to spur a rebuilding process centred around younger players. That effort bore fruit much faster than many observers expected, as the Celtics returned to the play-offs in 2014–15. The team added point guard Isaiah Thomas during that season, and he proceeded to blossom into an All-Star, leading the team to the best record in the Eastern Conference in 2016–17” (“The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica”, 2017). Unfortunately, the team was stopped in their tracks by the Cleveland Cavaliers to a four to one game loss in the conference finals. The franchise is currently owned by the Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C.

The products that the franchise offers are sports entertainment through its games as well as merchandise such as clothing, hats, jerseys, and other collectibles. Prices for tickets to these games can range from 30 dollars up to thousands of dollars. Clothes can range from 10 dollars up to 150 dollars, Team jerseys can range from 20 dollars up to 300, and collectibles can range from anywhere between 10 dollars to thousands of dollars as well. The Celtics have little promotion as they tend to not spend much money on marketing. Social media platforms and outlets and television are the main source of promotion as well as their own website associated with the NBA. These same tactics for promotion is also used to distribute and reach out to fans through online content, social media, television, and radio.

While analyzing the SWOT analysis for the Boston Celtics, marketing would be the managing principle of choice. As mentioned earlier, the Celtics tend to not spend much money on marketing. “While you might think that one of the most popular sports teams in basketball would call for more social media effort, Springer quipped that while the brand is a large global brand, the company is actually quite small. He added, "We spend millions of dollars on athletes, but not on marketing” (Dragon, 2013). One of the strengths is that the Celtics have a huge and loyal fan base. The franchise is also the most successful team in NBA history, they have world class players, it has a healthy rivalry with the Lakers, and they have great broadcasting and merchandising. The weaknesses of the Celtics have been that they haven’t been as successful within the last 10 to 15 years anditsfanbase isn’t a global. The franchise has been able to recognize fan identification, but they haven’t been able to incorporate segmentation within its fan base.

“Fan identification is defined as the sense of oneness with or belongingness to an organization” (Masteralexis, 2015). If a fan identifies more with the team, then the fan will be more obligated to create a long-term relationship with the team, which seems to be instilled with the older generation, but not the younger generation “As opposed to mass marketing, where an organization markets its products to every possible consumer in the marketplace, segmentation entails identifying subgroups of the overall marketplace based on a variety of factors, including age, income level, ethnicity, geography, and lifestyle tendencies” (Masteralexis, 2015). Their target group consists of males ranging in age from 10 to 60 that reside in New England and their segmentation is based on all basketball fans.

Its fan identification is spot on as males traditionallyand primarily dominate the sports entertainment industry. It is also important to establish fan identification so that the organization can acquire sponsors for sporting events. “Ideally, a sponsor will be able to tap into some of the strong emotional connection between a fan and his or her sport team through a sponsorship” (Masteralexis, 2015). The Celtics have been able to obtain sponsors such as JetBlue, New Balance, General Electric, and many other sponsorships. The Celtics are being pressured to try new market strategies in order to boost the attendance and draw more fans to the games. One tactic used in 2003 was the hiring of a gymnast to be the mascot and perform stunts and acrobatic dunks during breaks.

Three years later they had also added a dance team as well as revealing an alternate gray uniform, which was criticized by sports writers, but loved by its younger fans. They have also taken initiative to run promotional deals such as discounted tickets through Groupon. “New fans include Alessandra Piotti, 22, of Boston, who was looking for a Kelly Olynyk T-shirt at the TD Garden pro shop Tuesday. She said she appreciates Celtics history but also applauds efforts to increase the entertainment factor. “I don’t get offended by stuff like that,” she said” (Borchers, 2015).As the older generation of fans begin to die out, the franchise needs to focus more on the younger and upcoming generation of fans.

Although the franchise has recognized fan identification, segmentation could use some improvement. The Celtics usually have their home games in the TD Garden Arena in Boston and Boston is also known to be a college town. Due to the location, the franchise can capitalize on the college student population and encourage them to attend the sporting events in town. The target market would consist of young adults ranging from 18 to 25 who attend college within the city limits. The segmentation is done by age, geographically, and pyschographically. There is definitely a demand within the college student community to be able to see their favorite players and attend sports events.

For instance, when the Boston Celtics had traveled to Newport, Rhode Island to practice at the Rodgers Recreation Center on the campus of Salve Regina University, many fans that lived on campus and off and even further came just to get a glimpse of the team. Many of the fans took pictures and videos of the players as they were to enter the recreation center as well as wearing the colors green and white. “I’m a huge Celtics fan, always been raised as a Celtics fan and I felt I needed to see them,” said Matt Kelly, a freshman from Thompson, Connecticut, who was wearing a No. 7 Jaylen Brown jersey. “I think it’s so cool. This isn’t a big school, maybe like Boston University, a place where you would expect them to go. This is a little, tiny school, and I think it’s cool to get that opportunity to see them” (Barrett, 2017).

Not only did local fans that lived on or near campus came to see, but fans traveling from afar such as from Milford, New Hampshire came to see the team. Some of these fans also believe that Boston will benefit from the trade for Kyrie Irving. Instead of always practicing in their own facility, from time to time they could practice at a college facility in Boston. By making an initiative to practice at colleges and universities in the Boston area could help draw the attention of the students that attendto these schools to get a glimpse of the players as well as making them feel more obligated to attend the games and in turn boosting ticket sales.

Another initiative to attract college students to attend Celtics sporting events is to incorporate their promotional discounted offers toward students. With the use of their student I.D. they can purchase tickets at the door at a discounted rate. If ordering their tickets online, they can put in their school email address to verify that they are a student and can proceed to get tickets at a discounted rate. Even if some of these students only attend the games a few times a year, the number can be increased using product use segmentation. “Teams naturally have information about all the people who purchased single-game tickets during a given season. Using these data, the sales force for a given team will call someone after that person has attended a game and inquire about the experience. If the fan had an enjoyable time at the game, then the salesperson will attempt to sell the fan additional games or a partial season ticket package of five or eight games” (Masteralexis, 2015). Not only will college students be aware of the next home game, it will remind them that it is coming up and that they might want to buy tickets to see their beloved Boston Celtics.

In conclusion, The Celtics franchise marketing strategies and tactics have come a long way since they refused to follow suit of the other teams in the league to incorporate entertainment factors during their sporting events. Although the older generation doesn’t care for it, it is important that the Celtics focus more on the younger generation as their target group andmore particularly its untapped college population. The Celtics can no longer rely on selling fans marquee names and championship dreams. As the Celtics are going through their rebuilding phase to become a championship team once again, implementing fan identification and segmentation can help boost their ticket sales and encourage fans to attend as well as give their beloved fans hope to see them in future contests such as the conference championships and the NBA playoffs.