Giving the Jam some props

OK, a few days ago, I pretty much slammed the Bakersfield Jam for what I thought were some goofy decisions in asking its season-ticket holders and the media to help it select a new head coach.

Still a bad idea.

But, Jam owner Stan Ellis also has unveiled a very innovative plan to make the NBA D League team profitable out of the gate this upcoming season, its first in a privately funded two-story basketball center out in north Bakersfield.

Ellis' idea, in short, is this:

He couldn't draw fans to Rabobank Arena, where league-required security seemed to be on a first-name basis with the few hundred fans that might show up.So, he builds a two-story facility on Norris Road that features a practice court on the second floor and a small arena on the first. That small arena is large enough to seat 550 people.

Here's where it gets interesting.

Ellis has opted to restrict access to his team's 21-game home schedule to mostly season-ticket holders paying $3-$4,000 a seat. Luxury boxes will go for $40,000. All 550 will get dinner with every game, as well as access to an open bar and a cigar room.

The public? There might be some game tickets available, particularly if a few games are played at Rabobank, but, um, don't expect any favors. As Ellis told The Bakersfield Californian, the average fan didn't exactly support the team for the past three seasons.

"You get tired of it, frankly," Ellis told The Californian's Zach Ewing. "... You get tired of going out there to the community and killing yourself ... and at the end of the day, you've got nothing. So if anybody wants to give us any (trouble) for just being a private business, I'll say, 'Well, where were you supporting us when I was spending a million bucks a year?' "

Ellis' concept is crazy to a certain degree, because I wonder whether there are 550 basketball fans in Bakersfield with that kind of scratch to toss his way. But I give him props for 1) trying to save what clearly is a passion, and 2) pushing the envelope in chasing a financial model that actually might work.

Ellis is in effect creating scarcity for his product. It's the exact opposite of the earlier model, where he couldn't give tickets away. This time, he'll be selling exclusivity and a special experience in trying to make the Jam THE ticket in town. The Condors currently own this town, but it's a blue-collar crowd that comes for an experience that's as much well-crafted entertainment off the ice as the game on it. You don't see the country club set in their seats each week. With the Jam touting a completely different ballgame -- more a seat at a high-stakes poker game -- there's enough of a market opening that Ellis might pull it off. I certainly hope he does.

Update on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 9:18 AM by Logan Molen

The Californian's John Cox provides some fresh insight into the Bakersfield Jam's innovative business model well into this season.

As John reports, it's still too early to tell whether the model will work long-term, but based on the business owners quoted in his story, those attending games certainly see the benefits of a large season-ticket investment.