Arthur Blank Case Study

When Arthur Blank took over the Atlanta Falcons franchise in 2002 there were many issues that had to be corrected in order to create a successful franchise. The biggest issue was the fan base for the Falcons. They were ranked near the bottom of the league in attendance with no signs of progression before Mr. Blank took over. Another issue was the lack of success the Falcons had on the field. Mr. Blank decided to focus on these two major issues in order to turn the Atlanta Falcons franchise into a success.

To tackle the fan base issue he used some of his own marketing and management ideas that brought success to his Home Depot franchise. From a marketing standpoint his team would create surveys and use group collaboration to see what the fans truly wanted out of the Falcons organization to create a positive relationship between the team and its fans. Some requests were minor or insignificant but others were large such as not being exposed to commercial messages during games. One would consider that to be an irrational request because advertising during games makes the franchise a lot of money. Mr. Blank stayed consistent with his plans to obtain a better fan base and the team decided to no longer sell in-game advertising spots. From a management standpoint Mr. Blank made a couple very risky decisions. Mr. Blank decided to lower the prices of 25,000 seats in the Georgia Dome, and also bought additional land that could be used for parking for the fans that were in attendance. These were considered very bold moves because if he couldn’t fill those seats and get a rise in attendance he would be costing himself a lot of money. These huge changes to the Atlanta Falcons franchise leads to their first sold-out season in more than twenty years.

Sports management and marketing is definitely changing in “The Experience Era” that we are part of today. Being a die-hard sports fan I’m constantly looking up information, reading articles, and doing

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whatever else I can to obtain all the knowledge I can about sports. In this “Experience Era” I’m able to have constant access to all the information I desire through numerous sources. One major influence in the evolution of sports is social media. Almost all brands and athletes now have Facebook and Twitter pages that are open for the public to view. Five years ago I could never dream of knowing what my favorite football player does on a day-to-day basis let alone exchange messages with them, but now thanks to Twitter and other social media sites that’s all in the past.

I’ve been a die-hard Miami Dolphins fan since before I could walk. I grew up watching one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, Dan Marino, and considered him my favorite player. Throughout my years following the Miami Dolphins I feel they haven’t done such a great job addressing the issues of positioning, and platform but have