An In Depth Look Inside the Carolina RailHawks
Neil Morris of IndyWeek.com and who posts RailHawks articles on the Triangle Offense blog has written a very nicely crafted piece giving you an exclusive inside look at the RailHawks. The piece is entitled, An inside look at the rise and fall of the Carolina RailHawks – From Game Day to eBay.
Morris looks at the RailHawks from their beginning years until the dissolution of the Wellman’s corporation in the last month. This is a really excellent article and a fine read. I can also confirm that I have heard many similar stories from former employees of the RailHawks as well as those who have had association with the team. IMS was contacted by numerous former employees after it was clear that the original RailHawks organization was shutting down. Those stories ran parallel to Morris’ account.
From the Article:
Like many of the ideas within the Carolina RailHawks organization, fan “theme nights” were usually last-minute whims spawned during spitballing sessions held a day or two in advance of home matches.
One recurring go-to gimmick was “Hawaiian Night,” which usually consisted of playing Beach Boys tunes over the loudspeaker and inviting ticket buyers to wear Aloha shirts. But there would usually be no marketing tie-in or giveaways for fans at the gate. No theme décor. Not even a lei. The mantra “overpromised and underdelivered” was a familiar refrain throughout the offices of the RailHawks during their four-year history.
Left in its wake are an estimated 50 front-office personnel who rotated in and out of the RailHawks organization. Today only four staffers remain as another owner—Traffic Sports USA—attempts to nurture the RailHawks back to health in a nascent league that boasts a 2011 playing schedule but still awaits official imprimatur by the USSF.
We spoke to a dozen current and former RailHawk executives, employees and players—many on the record, some on the condition of confidentiality—to dissect the so-called rise and fall of the RailHawks. We approached some; many reached out to us on their own. Virtually all share a similar story of hope, enthusiasm, frustration and regret.
You can read the article in its entirety here.
Comments are closed.
Dang that was an excellent read. Gotta say this, “hope, enthusiasm, frustration and regret” could be the motto for lower division soccer in the US & Canada.
This is also a testament on how not to run a soccer team. Ironic that this family and their ineptness could create this much havoc in D2.
But I agree, very well written.
Everything I have read over the past couple of weeks about Carolina says that the entire failure was due to the lack of marketing. Does anybody out there believe that spending 100′s of thousand dollars more will make people come out in large numbers to lower level soccer. MLS can’t even get people to come out in large numbers. And what about all of the other lower level soccer teams who also can’t draw? Is poor marketing to blame also?
I also know that when an issue like this is made out to be the fault of just one thing and one person there must be two sides to the story. Has anybody ever tried to interview the senior Wellman to get his side? He spent 4 years and millions of dollars trying to make the team successful so surely he knows something about the problems.
Well, he did talk to Brian. I thought it was done very fairly and he closed the article very respectfully. I really don’t feel like Morris was vindictive or anything. Just interviewing people and telling their stories. That’s what reporters are supposed to do and I thought he did it well.
I think it goes without saying there are inherent problems with minor league soccer and particularly minor league soccer in the U.S. But these complaints about the inside situation with the RailHawks are some of the same things I’ve been hearing for a couple of years.
“Does anybody out there believe that spending 100′s of thousand dollars more will make people come out in large numbers to lower level soccer.”
I don’t think they were talking about hundreds of thousands of more dollars.
What I DO know is that spending hundreds of thousands of more dollars on players won’t make people come out in large numbers. That player budget…that was a lot.
“MLS can’t even get people to come out in large numbers.”
Often-stated canard, but I guess you haven’t looked at their numbers lately. They seem to be doing pretty well.
“And what about all of the other lower level soccer teams who also can’t draw? Is poor marketing to blame also?”
We’re not talking about “all the other lower level soccer teams.” This story is specifically about the Carolina RailHawks, but, trust me, you could very well have substituted names and places and been talking about any one of a number of other teams. You seem to have a personal thing in this regard, which I guess is fine, just own up to it.
And, yes, poor marketing is partially to blame for the poor attendance of many lower-level soccer teams in this country, but it’s far from the only problem. It’s a myriad of things in a complex matrix. But some people always like to boil it down to a bumper sticker-sized aphorism that they can easily make their mantra.
It’s not so. It’s simply not so. While St. Louis, Miami, Tampa Bay, Charleston, Rochester, Richmond, Baltimore and Pittsburgh all face some similar challenges, there are a multitude of reasons why some succeed and others fail.
This story talks about Carolina. It’s well-researched and well-reported. If the truth hurts, well, that’s probably partially because a lot of people don’t get to hear this story, or ones like it. But anyone who’s worked in soccer in this country for any length of time can identify with all the things that went on behind the scenes in Carolina. Because they’re repeated all over the country and have been for years.
BQ, from all that I have heard the senior Wellman was the one writing the big checks each month and making the key decisions. Would have been a more compelling read if he were interviewed. And wasn’t he also one of the key leaders in the breakaway from the USL?
It also sounds like the Guy named Dean Linke in the article didn’t place too much blame on the Wellman’s. I also find it hard to believe that the staff people who were quoted were not part of the problem as it was obvious they wanted to blame the owners for everything.
@Jane, I know a couple of guys who played for the club. Their comments echo some of what Neil wrote.
I would love to hear more from the Wellmans. They did some really exciting things down there. They several things that really impressed me (like the studio facility and the quality of the people that they hired always impressed me).
I gotta give Neil Morris his props. I really enjoy that guy’s work and his enthusiasm for the club. W. Jarrett Campbell’s as well.
Maybe the Wellmans will feel like discussing things more in the future someday (but I very much doubt it–I seems like they want to move on with their lives).
I would also love to here more from Chris Economides since he helped found that club (but I seriously that is going to ever happen since he made a break for the USL HQ). I would love to read more about that parting of the ways.
“It also sounds like the Guy named Dean Linke in the article didn’t place too much blame on the Wellman’s.”
To Dean’s credit, and I know him, Dean rarely – if ever – has a bad word to say about anybody. That’s who Dean is. He’s the anti-me.
There may be some inaccuracies in the story that Mr. Morris wrote (as there always are in a he said – she said piece) but it is an excellent read.. if anything what I come away with is that the Wellmans have erred on the side of naivete and maybe being too sure of certain things without really knowing that all business rules go out the window when it comes to pro sports .. as someone who has been to a good number of games in my life I can say this …. that I only recall one Hawaian night but I also recall that promotions would come out last minute and felt almost rushed through … I can also say that as a spectator of the sport I never really saw any mistakes or issues on gameday from FO or any other staff whether there were 5,000 or 500 people at a game… also in year one the area was flooded with free tickets .. they were to be found everywhere.. any radio promotional event in the triangle I could get my free RH tix.. and then year two and three freebies were more scarce …Surely the wellmans may have made mistakes along the way but they built a good website (where I got most if not all of my RailHawks news) and structure with some good people, who cared, working it (I’m talking about regular staff which I interacted with more so than upper management) and the Wellmans’ passion both father’s and son’s showed every time you heard them speak through the media or on the site and I think that their legacy will be trying very hard to keep pro soccer alive in an area where mothers want to go to the beach, and everyone is more interested in college and hockey.. if I had lost the amount of money the Wellmans did I would’ve pulled the plug a lot sooner… let’s hope that Don Vito Davidson keeps pumping money into my beloved team and that this new guy knows what he’s getting into but dagnabbit support your local pro soccer team!
I shuddered when I read this quote:
“We can’t all be purists of the game,” Myers continues. “I love soccer, but that’s not why we go. I don’t go to Hurricanes games necessarily for the hockey. I go to drink beers with my friends up in the club level and spend time with my family, and they have an incredible product. That’s what I was trying to replicate at the RailHawks.”
The above is a recipe for disaster. Soccer needs to be marketed in a different way than minor league baseball. In order for soccer to really take hold it needs to be marketed to the supporters groups. Teams need to nurture the hard-core supporters and give them some sense of input and control. When the supporters get on board, then the rest of the casual fans will jump on the band wagon.
In Toronto it happened with management reaching out to the newly forming supporters and gave them some sense of ownership in their team. Once the supporters created the atmosphere, everyone else got into it. The same has happened in Seattle and Portland.
Grow your hard core supporters and the soccer moms and dads will follow. Heck, why not pay a few guys under the table to generate a true supporters section started!
I don’t know why, exactly, my comments always take two days to show up on the site, but I’ll say this and then be done with this:
The notion that you ONLY need to market to one segment and everybody else falls in lockstep is ridiculous. Toronto has an exceptionally large number of people already predisposed to like the game – whether they’re hard-core supporters or not.
You can’t simply say “All we’re going to do is be hardcore, scarf-waving supporters first and foremost and that’ll drag everybody else in,” because that simply doesn’t happen in this country. Not at the minor league level it doesn’t. Seattle has a huge number of fans, and a huge number who are what you’d call the hard-core type. But they also have a huge number of people – and sold a huge number of season tickets to people – who bought before they attended the first match and saw any atmosphere whatsoever.
“Grow your hard core supporters and the soccer moms and dads will follow” is simply not true, and I would defy you to run a minor-league team and try to do it that way. Because there’s a reason “soccer moms and dads” aren’t hard core supporters. They are different. Not EVERYBODY thinks the really loud people behind the goals are the coolest thing they’ve ever seen and heard.
@ George inToronto – AMEN, Brother!
If any Railhawks fans are reading, there’s gonna be a Supporters Cocktail Party next Wednesday:
* All fans are welcome!
* Kid-friendly sports pub event
* Buy or renew your season ticket package or mini-plan
* 2 Free drink coupons for all RailHawks fans (beer, wine, soda)
* Exclusive food & drink specials for RailHawks fans (e.g., $2.99 BrickHouse Burger)
* Hear the latest developments on the team
* Q&A session with Coach Martin Rennie and new President Curt Johnson (6:30PM)
* Special meeting with TSF and JailHawks Supporters Groups (7:30PM)
* Meet RailHawks players (including new team captain, Brad Rusin)
Date: Wednesday, February 16
Time: 5:30PM – 9PM
Location: BrickHouse Sports Pub (3801 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh – directly
across from the main entrance to Meredith College)
No RSVP required – Simply check-in at the RailHawks table just
inside the main entrance to BrickHouse.
I agree with marketing towards supporters, but there needs to be some effort to educate casual fans on how to truly experience a soccer match. One that requires the individual attention of the crowd focusing on all the moments of the game. I for one believe that soccer is not about entertainment, it is about collective suffering. But that’s just the purist in me =)
What is the world coming to. Yesterday I was forced to agree with some of Bart’s comments, and today it’s Kenn…….. Ok, moment of crisis passed. LOL While I agree with Jane that marketing is a BIG problem in soccer, really at every level, even MLS, it’s far from the only problem. Look, a lot of people do happen to be sheep. If someone comes on the radio and says, yeah, the Black-eyed peas really sounded great at the Super Bowl, a lot ofdoeps are going to say, umm, yeah, I guess they did, didn’t they? Even though anyone who has functioning ears can easily recognize that it was by far the worst halftime show EVER.
But my larger point is, while there are some people that will be affected by just being told, hey soccer is lots of fun, it’s the new IT sport everyone is flocking to, just look at Seattle; it’s not a quick and easy solution to a problem that has existed, and to a good degree will always exist in this country, and that’s getting butts in seats at soccer games. And when you throw in the fact that this is lower division soccer on top of it, well, you’re facing a pretty huge obstacle that hardly anyone has managed to figure out. I’m sure there are places where you could drop tons of money in marketing and still get little return from it. Miami is probably a good case in point. Those of us who have lived in South Florida and seen the state of pro soccer in the area over time can easily relate to this point. Hopefully the return of the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers (announcement coming next week!) can make a difference, but who knows.
@KT: Strong post. Very strong. Market to as many prospective customers as possible until the demand exceeds the supply and then maybe you can start talking about management “just needs forget about the families and soccer moms”.
I still wouldn’t advise it, even then.
As a male soccer mom I agree with you.
It’s a big tent, surely there is room for all of the hardcore types and us softcore types…
This thread of e-mails began with the article on how the Railhawks failed with the main thrust being that the owners did not properly fund marketing and that was the prime reason for failure. This thesis is totally incorrect and therefore very poor reporting. I am a Railhawk fan and I have never met the Wellman’s but I have witnessed tons of marketing by the FO….numerous TV spots, radio spots with coach and player interviews, my home is filled with giveaways, players active throughout the community, etc. Of course the Wellman’s have made mistakes. Anyone who spends millions trying to make soccer relevant in America faces a daunting task, especially in minor league soccer, and therefore will by definition make mistakes. But let’s look at one set of facts. The Railhawks had one of the very best teams in 2010. I attended all of the playoff games that were preceded by numerous TV and radio spots, etc. and the attendance was still extremely poor. They made the Championship game and for two weeks prior the ads on TV appeared numerous times everyday. The FO staff had an all out push for group ticket sales and I was told that Mr. Wellman outsold everyone (???). And then gametime came and it was an absolutely perfect NC evening and no other sports competition that weekend. So what was the result? The stadium was only 1/2 full (around 3500 paid I am told) which included several hundred fans from Puerto Rico. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words so re-visit the article and look at the picture and the number of fans in the background at a typical Railhawk game. This better than any emotional comment from anyone defines the problem…..soccer in America is a long way off from being relevant in America and it appears to me that is what the NASL owners group is trying to fix. So why don’t we all get behind Traffic and all of the teams to help them?
There’s room in D2 stadiums for both the hardcore fans and the families. Obviously, they probably should be kept separate, due to the inherent differences, but there’s two sides of the field to put people on, with the casual fans in the middle enjoying the 50 Yard Line mentality of getting a good seat at midfield.
The problem becomes…there’s no money to market to both.
We’re doing our level best to promote our own supporters group to the soccer nuts here in Tampa as much as possible, leaving the team to market to the families and businesses. It may not be the right idea, but it worked for us so far (typhoons hitting day of game notwithstanding).