By Mike Thompson
The finest line any professional sports franchise will ever walk is the line between the concept of fans believing the entity to be only a sport and the reality of most owners who realize it to be a business venue as well. It’s a delicate balance, with owners, hopefully, doing all they can to keep the cost of tickets at an attractive price for the fans, and yet relying on a profit margin to not only meet payrolls, cover travel costs, pay taxes, and all of the other plus and minus day-to-day ledger activities that keep the team afloat from one season to the next. It’s a sport. Fans come to River City Rage football to see exciting indoor football action, games played under intense conditions by top-notch athletes in their prime. Sure, the pre-game activities, the fun, the cheerleaders, the motorcycles on the field all add to the family entertainment aura the team has strived to provide, but first and foremost, sports fans, FOOTBALL fans, are there to enjoy their favorite sport. It’s 3 hours of rooting for The Rage to slam into the dasherboards any opposing team foolish enough to believe it can take victory away from us at ‘Our House’. And, this past season, of course, no one could. Our Atlantic East Division Champions were a perfect 8 and 0 at home!
But here is another side to it all, the second 25 yards of the field, so to speak. It’s also a business. And the lessons of that business were sometimes a harsh reality for Rage Majority Owners Tye Elliott and Scott Wilson in their first trip through the league in 2005. Both put their heart and soul and certainly, their time, into making the River City Rage a successful franchise both on and off the field, but it was tough at times, no doubt about it! They raised the bar with media coverage and community participation, hired the people needed to make that happen, worked with Coach Wyatt and Operations Manager Morris Groves to put in place positive themes for all eight home games, structured the ticket prices to keep the emphasis on family entertainment, and all the while, sometimes even unbeknown to myself and others in the organization, labored behind the scenes with corporate sponsors and community leaders to ensure success for the team now and in the future. Successful team; successful business; a positive first mark for the team, the fans, the community and the NIFL. With your help, we made our mark, but now the bar is raised again, and again, The Rage rise to the challenge.
Introducing Matt Jones, the new Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the River City Rage, thus named by the Rage ownership on August 22nd, 2005. The coming season will be Matt’s 16th working in professional sports. A graduate of Northern Iowa University (great football school!!) with a degree in Business Administration, Matt came to the area in 1998 to work for the River City Rascals, first as Stadium Operations Manager, then as Assistant General Manager for two years, before being promoted to General Manager of the Rascals in January of 2002, a position he held for three years before leaving to become the General Manager of a minor league team in Arizona. While with the Rascals, Matt oversaw the Group Sales Department, managed all aspects of the concessions operations, and was instrumental in the team’s off-season sales and marketing efforts. During his tenure as G.M. of the Frontier League franchise, Jones was named the 2002 Executive of the Year and added greatly to the attendance figures and the overall success of the team.
Now, citing The Rage as “one of the most overall successful team the NIFL has to offer” Matt Jones says he’s happy to be returning to the St. Louis area and looks forward to working with corporate sponsors and smaller businesses alike and showcasing The Rage as an venue for “exciting, fast-paced football and a fun place for families to enjoy sports and entertainment at an affordable price, a really enjoyable time on weekend nights, and a team and organization that will make the community proud to call it their own.”
So, there is and has to be room for both. It’s a sport....it’s a business, and now thanks to all the combined efforts of everyone in the River City Rage organization, and with the addition of Matt Jones, it’s a new outlook for fans and the Rage in 2006!! It’s gonna be fun!
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