Philadelphia Wings Public Relations

Everyone knows that the Wells Fargo Center is home to the Philadelphia Flyers and the Philadelphia, but did you also know that it is also home to the Philadelphia Wings, Philly’s professional lacrosse team? Maybe you already did, maybe you didn’t, but I know when I first started my internship I had no clue Philly even had a lacrosse team. Throughout the internship we were required to attend every Wings game to help with in-game promotions. I also help with in-game promotions for the Flyers and they are worlds apart.
Obviously the Wings are a much smaller team in comparison to the Flyers or Sixers so the way they interact with their fans is also drastically different. Each team stresses the importance of season ticket holders- no matter what sports team season ticket renewal is one their biggest forms of revenue. For the Flyers we would have a promotion hit called Renewal of the Game where a season ticket holder won a prize and got the chance to be on a jumbo tron. The Philadelphia Wings had a totally different approach. The season ticket holders for the Wings were known as Red Status. At certain games of the year groups of 50 or more would be taken out onto the field for pre-game introductions. Because the Wings are a much smaller team their interaction with fans can be much more personal.
After the Wings season ended in the beginning of April I was assigned the tasks of helping put a PR schedule together for the Wings. What I have been doing for the past month is scheduling events- mostly lacrosse tournaments, camps, or school appearances- for Mad Dog, their mascot, the Wings Angels dance team, or the players to attend. The local exposure all goes back to being a smaller market. We must advertise more personally to increase our reputation as much as we can. Typically the process of booking an event starts with contacting the director of a camp or tournament, and asking if it would be possible for us to have a presence at their event. Most tournaments are receptive, and waive vendor fees for us. Then comes the tricky part of making sure everyone’s schedules fit together. Often I will book more than one event for each day so their must be a constant communication between employees and directors of events.
At a tournament we provide our own table and tent. We bring ticket information, prize packs, and other Wings paraphernalia. Often the mascot comes for an hour to bring attention to our table, sometimes a Wings dancer comes to sign autographs, and often on special occasions especially on request players will attend camps. Everyone is really great about staffing the events.
The only really tricky part is keeping up with everyone’s schedules and making sure people are available- especially because I am only at the office three days a week. We try to book events months in advance so sometimes it gets confusing keeping up with everything. I think I’m really lucky because so far they have pretty much let me handle booking the events and getting everything organized on my own. It is a lot of good experience. As a matter of fact this weekend we will be in Radnor for a lacrosse tournament called the Katie Samson Festival, if you’re around you should come check it out.