Twelve minutes into the Tuesday 10 p.m. newscast on KSWB Fox 5, during a report about the potential for volcanic eruptions in San Diego, a countdown graphic appeared on the bottom right of the television screen.
The box bore the purple and gold logo of the San Diego Seals of the National Lacrosse League. The countdown read: 3 days, 20 hours, 48 minutes.
Fox 5 was promoting its first-ever broadcast of an expansion indoor lacrosse team that is playing its fourth-ever home game Saturday night at Pechanga Arena.
A corny bit of over-the-top promotion? Sure.
The savvy way in which Fox 5 President and General Manager Scott Heath has carved his station’s niche in the San Diego sports scene?
Absolutely, Heath will gladly tell you.
“The playbook works really well,” Heath said this week.
The Seals are the latest team to find a television home with a partner willing to do more than simply block off a couple hours for their games.
The team and the station announced last week that Fox 5 will televise Saturday’s game (and possibly one more this season) while also showing 11 half-hour packaged highlight shows called “Seals in 30.”
Additionally, the station is creating exposure for the team through the on-air countdown, ticket giveaways and interviews produced through its various news shows.
It is a formula Heath already has used with NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League. This year, Fox 5 added the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football and the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby.
While some fans cry that, with the defection of the Chargers, America’s eighth-largest city has become a minor-league sports dumping ground, Heath is making money and earning points with his bosses at Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting for unabashedly loving the local teams and being “hyperlocal.”
Fox 5 has the airtime to do it, allotting 15 minutes, seven days a week, following its 10 p.m. newscast for the “Sports Final.”
“We’ve embraced that. We’ve owned it,” Heath said. “From day one, I told my people that the ship may take on a little water, so get a bucket. But if we stick it out for the long term, there was a value proposition in San Diego’s appetite for local sports.
“I have this machine that’s kind of different,” Heath added. “I’ve got good-looking talent. They’re kind of fun; they’re kind of hokey. But we make news fun and make it consumable. I said, ‘Why don’t we take our DNA and push it on sports?’ ”
Heath landed arguably his biggest deal when he scored a contract with the Rams to televise their exhibition games. He said the Rams and owner Stan Kroenke embraced the opportunities Fox 5 could give the team in San Diego.
“With the Rams, it’s been the best partnership you could have,” he said.
It was slow at the beginning. Anecdotally, Heath recalled in 2017 trying to auction off a Rams gift basket at a San Diego charity event. The basket had $1,200 worth of goodies. It fetched $750 and he said the Rams were extremely disappointed.
Fast forward a year, after which Fox 5 continued to work with the Rams on their San Diego exposure. Heath said the same basket went for $1,800. Further, Heath said the Rams began to see significant increases in single-game tickets sales from San Diego County and south of the Mexican border.
“There’s been a groundswell of community for (the Rams) in San Diego,” said Heath, a San Diego State alum who has worked for KSWB for 33 years.
The Rams’ preseason household rating on Fox 5 in 2018 was up 27 percent from ’17, from 2.2 to 2.8, while the Adults 25-54 category rose 63 percent.
Fox 5 can point to the Gulls, the top minor-league team of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, as the model for what can be accomplished with a minor-league local team.
Last season, when the Gulls led the AHL with an average attendance of 9,305, Fox 5 televised six games and the average household rating was 0.5. (A 1.0 rating in San Diego equates to 9,878 households.)
This season, as the Gulls continue to lead the league in attendance, the household rating for the first six games of eight on Fox 5 is up to 0.7, while the ratings in various demographic categories has risen by more than 100 percent. The biggest segment boost: Women 25-54 is up 200 percent (0.3 to 0.9).
Those are still small numbers compared to what the Los Angeles Chargers draw in the market (they averaged a 15.2 for the 2018 season), but they’re good enough to attract local rs who want to be associated with live sports broadcasts of a home team.
In a victory that had Fox 5 and the Gulls crowing with pride, the San Diego team notched better ratings in every demographic for its Feb. 2 game than two NHL games shown that weekend on NBC KNSD Channel 7.
“That was a huge deal,” Heath said. “The Ducks know it. They told me 100 times how important it was.”
Calling it a “holistic partnership” with Fox 5, Steve Brown, the Gulls’ director of communications and broadcasting, said the team was always community-minded, but that awareness increased significantly because of the exposure provided by the station.
Brown cited the example this week when Fox 5 did a feature on its sportscast about the Gulls going bowling.
“We’re still in a growth stage of exposing our sport to all of San Diego,” Brown said. “We’re still growing viewership game by game and exposing hockey to casual fans. Having the platform on Fox 5 presents us with great exposure.”
MLR’s Legion and the AAF’s Fleet are newcomers to the Fox 5 process, but have been encouraged by early results.
The Fleet’s home game on Feb. 17 against Atlanta drew a 4.8 rating (nearly 50,000 households) and was the top-rated televised sports event in San Diego that weekend.
The Legion shocked even its own executives when it scored a 1.2 rating for its rainy Saturday home victory over Seattle on Feb. 2. It was No. 1 in the time slot in some key demographics. There are plans to televise four more Legion games this season.
“We were beyond happy when they shared (the ratings),” said the Legion’s executive general manager, Ashley Otte.
“I am in lock step with Scott’s formula. He has the playbook to establish a strong following and increase awareness at the grassroots level.”
In all of the local arrangements except for the Gulls, the teams are responsible for the cost of producing games, while Fox 5 keeps all of the advertising revenue. The Gulls also produce their games, but share in revenue.
While saying he was unable to reveal specific financial numbers, Brown said, “We’ve seen a surplus on our investment.”
While thanking his viewers for their of the local sports teams, Heath said he plans to expand to 10 telecasts for the Gulls next season, three or four for the Seals and as many as seven for the Legion. He sees no reason why the good times can’t continue, though he does have one onition for all of the executives to whom he speaks:
“You guys need to win games. You’ve got to do your part and give it back to me.”
[email protected]; Twitter: @sdutleonard
