The Los Angeles Sparks recently hosted ‘The Purple Print: A Courtside View’ to tell their fans about their vision for the franchise in the 2020 season. The event come in lieu of the Sparks winning big at the WNBA Team Business Awards.
Los Angeles won Franchise of the Year, Ticket Sales Performance of the Year, and Marketing Performance of the Year in the WNBA.
The league analyzes all 12 franchises for the awards for their ticket sales, partnership, and community engagement.
The Sparks front office wants to build on their victory; Sparks president and COO Danita Johnson noted how the franchise wants to focus on growth, innovation and community.
“We developed a campaign this year called ‘Lead The Charge’ and we’re gonna take that to 2020 with us as well,” Johnson said. “’Lead the Charge’ is more about not just winning on the court, but what we do off the court.”
Fans were invited to take a tour of the Staples Center to learn about the prices and perks of the 24/7 Membership. The franchise also explained their various group experience packages, allowing fans to stand with the Sparks players during the national anthem, hi-five the players as they enter the court or rent out the court to conduct activities prior to the game.
A major emphasis during the Purple Print was expanding their fan base. Movie star and L.A. Sparks Ambassador Vivica A. Fox spoke and administrated a Q&A session with head coach Derek Fisher.
Fox noted how the Purple Print is a good way for fans to understand the franchise beyond what they see during games.
“After the game, when it’s been a tough fight and they’re program to get more stats and things like that, you really don’t get to see their sense of humor, how they are and what things makes them tick,” she said.
The “Set It Off” star brought awareness of how women’s sports gets four percent of media coverage and one percent of sports sponsorship dollars. She asked Fisher a myriad of questions so fans could get a guage of him and his views on the WNBA as well as the Sparks.
Fisher told the crowd that during his first season as head coach, he learned the importance of listening and being openminded. He sees the importance of gaining input from players, the front office and fans.
“As I’m moving from year one to year two, what I want to take from year one is a lot of the information I’ve learned a lot of the things that I’ve gained,” Fisher said. “But also to continue to build and connect to my basketball instincts and the things that I know to be true in terms of playing.”
The Sparks has a diverse group of partners which includes Subway, Cedars-Sinai, Model Atelier, the Vivica Fox Hair Collection, and Metro. In October the Sparks renewed their partnership with Nike.
Earlier this year, the Sparks launched the initiative “Spark the True You” a campaign to help homeless female veterans.
“The Sparks get 11,000 fans to the Staples Center, so we just have to imagine what it would be like if we can get these numbers to grow,” Fox said. “I believe going into the 2020 season, we all can be successful together and we can cheer on our Sparks to a 2020 Championship.”
