Sports Arena Referendum

The situation

A professional basketball organization, posting financial losses because its current venue couldn't provide adequate revenue streams for the franchise, needed help persuading voters to support the construction of a partially publicly financed arena.At the beginning of the campaign, opposition to the arena was an overwhelming 70 percent. Public Strategies was called to manage all aspects of the voter referenda campaign.

Public Strategies' solution

• Public Strategies advised the organization to begin by proving its value to the city and voters by investing in the community through volunteerism and forging a strategic alliance with other wellestablished community organizations.

• Once these efforts were underway, Public Strategies put together an extremely aggressive campaign leading up to a voter referendum. Based upon our research,we crafted messaging to convince voters they would be the real owners of the new arena, even though the funding for it would come mainly from tourist-based taxes.

• Public Strategies identified several target audiences — sports fans, minority groups and local businesses — and tailored key messages to their interests.

• Public Strategies distributed an e-mail newsletter every day about the project and its progress. The e-newsletter complemented the campaign headquarters Web site, and contained a transmissible element so that the number of recipients grew daily.

• Public Strategies used traditional mail extensively — first to register voters within the county, then to educate them about how the new arena would directly benefit them, and finally, to activate them through a series of get-out-the-vote mailings.

• Public Strategies reinforced all these efforts by working with the press, and advertising on radio and television.

Client benefits

On election day, voters approved the arena referendum 61 percent to 39 percent, a margin well above all predictions.The city and the basketball team now have a state-of-the-art facility, regarded as among the best in the country. Fast-paced, integrated campaign persuades voters to approve new, publicly funded sports arena