FanFest Ballyhoo Bigger Than the Game Itself : Sports: Self-promoting extravaganzas such as the All-Star FanFest cater to the faithful who just can't get enough of a big event.

By GREG JOHNSON

July 14, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

If you can’t get tickets to your favorite all-star game, the Super Bowl or the Final Four, don’t fret.

Major League Baseball has the All-Star FanFest, the National Football League has the NFL Experience and the National Basketball Assn. has the All-Star Stay In School Jam.

Even members of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. (NCAA), which traditionally has shown disdain for professional sports’ endless self-promotion, are now staging events that cater to the thousands of fans for whom big games simply aren’t enough.

The fan events that are staged in conjunction with major sporting events are increasing in popularity because “there’s a great demand for tickets (to important games) . . . but only so many can get in,” said Max Muhleman, president of Muhleman Marketing, a Charlotte, N.C.-based sports marketing firm. “People really want to immerse themselves (in professional sports) so they go to these extravaganzas.”

The proliferation of special sporting events is prompted by the sports marketing industry’s recognition that “these (games) transcend the actual day of the event,” said Gary Stokan, a partner with The Championship Group, an Atlanta-based sports marketing group.

Extravaganza accurately describes the baseball FanFest that fills 225,000 square feet at San Diego’s bayfront Convention Center. Major League Baseball has spent $2 million to turn the Convention Center into a combination museum, amusement park and souvenir stand that is expected to draw 100,000 paying customers before its five-day stand ends tonight.

Last year’s inaugural FanFest in Toronto drew 70,000 paid attendees, and Major League Baseball reportedly broke even on the event. Baseball spokesmen have declined to comment on whether the San Diego event will generate a profit.

But given FanFest’s success as a marketing tool--and the positive fan reaction it can generate--the event is worthwhile even if it fails to turn a profit, according to several sports marketing experts.

AdWeek’s Marketing Week magazine, for example, labeled the initial FanFest in Toronto that broke even as “the (marketing) mega-event of 1991.”

“It’s a win-win-win situation for the local city, for the fans of the city and for the (sports league) putting it on,” Stokan said.

Relatively speaking, only a handful of fans in a game’s host city can afford to buy tickets to the actual events, and ticket sales are always limited by available stadium seating, Stokan said.

But interest in the game generally creates a demand among fans who are willing to pay to take part in the festivities--if only from the sidelines. And professional sports leagues are now doing their best to satisfy that pent-up fan demand.

FanFest and the NFL Experience mean fun for fans, but they are strictly business for professional sports leagues and their marketing partners.

Major sponsors can advertise in game-day programs, in the stadium itself and on television, but events such as FanFest and the NFL Experience give corporate sponsors “what the packaged-goods (manufacturers) might call brand extensions . . . additional ways to participate,” Muhleman said.

So, while FanFest is owned and operated by Major League Baseball’s business arm, it is marketed as the Upper Deck FanFest, a bow to Upper Deck, the San Diego-based baseball card company that is a major sponsor.

The batting cages are sponsored by Gatorade, the pitching booths are sponsored by Rolaids, Chevrolet is the official vehicle and United is the official airline. The Los Angeles Times, which is distributing an All-Star Game newspaper, is also a FanFest sponsor.

While FanFest and the NFL Experience offer entertainment, they also offer fans an opportunity to purchase hats, uniforms, sporting goods and other items from each team’s always-expanding line of officially licensed sports paraphernalia.

Where else but FanFest could the discerning fan find an officially licensed San Francisco Giants Christmas tree ornament or a baseball cap for the minor league Carolina Mudcats? FanFest has also become an important stop for the growing sports card trading business.

Other sports leagues have taken notice of baseball’s marketing success.

Professional football’s NFL Experience made its debut this past winter during the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, giving fans a chance to run, pass and kick against simulated NFL competition.

Players were available for autographs, wide-screen televisions replayed big games in the NFL’s history and card booths were everywhere. Fans could buy hundreds of officially licensed products offered by the nation’s major league football franchises.

The National Basketball Assn. added a Legend’s Game and the popular slam-dunk contest to its mid-season All-Star Game in 1984. The league subsequently added the popular All-Star Stay In School Jam, a gala replete with rap and basketball stars that is open to high school students who maintain perfect attendance records.

The NBA is also considering a FanFest-type event to round out its All-Star weekend, according to NBA spokeswoman Paula Hansom.

Fan-oriented gathering spots were also in evidence last winter in Minneapolis, site of the NCAA’s Final Four basketball championship games.

A Minneapolis civic booster group sponsored Fan Fest, while the Coca Cola Co. sponsored Hoop City. Both attractions, which were housed in heated tents, featured entertainment, arcade games, wide-screen televisions and other family-type attractions.

“Our purpose was similar to baseball’s . . . to let everybody have a chance to take part” in the NCAA Final Four, said Todd Klingel, spokesman for the Minneapolis Downtown Council, a civic booster organization.

Some college athletic conferences, particularly those in the South and Southwest, are starting to stage events for fans who can’t get tickets for big conference games--or who simply can’t get their fill of athletic events.

“It used to be that the collegiate world would never copy anything that the professionals did,” Muhleman said. “But now that revenue sports (at colleges) are struggling . . . I think you’ll see much more of this.”