Silly me. I thought the problem for the Hawks was that they’ve never done enough to attract fans of all races. It turns out one of their co-owners, Bruce Levenson, believes the issue is they have too many black fans at their games.
What an odd, out-of-touch missive by Levenson. He manages to offend blacks and the "southern (sic) whites" he assumes don't like them rather than just don't like his team. And it turns out we (probably) only know about that email because GM Danny Ferry made an "offensive and racist" remark while discussing a background report on free agent Luol Deng and some Hawks owners objected.
Levenson has enough sense to know that people who say the area around Philips Arena is dangerous are speaking racial code and denounces such attitudes as “racist garbage.” Yet he lacks the self-awareness to know that people of all races and backgrounds don’t embrace the Hawks because they just don’t like the product--and then lists all of the ways in which he’s tried to make Philips less black so white people who don’t like them will feel more comfortable.
Levenson should know there is nothing he can do to attract the racist demographic to Hawks games. Sure, there is a political party that has found success for 40-plus years and counting leveraging that crowd's imagined racial grievances and sense of victimhood. Yes, there is a closed-loop media feedback system that's made a lot of money doing the same.
But the low-information reactionaries who respond to those racial appeals don’t want to associate with black people (at least not those who don’t share their worldview). They don’t want to watch a “black” league like the NBA; they have no interest in watching "thugs" play basketball.
Levenson could make all of the cheerleaders white, ban black people from the arena and sign 10 more Kyle Korvers to the roster and those people still won’t buy Hawks season tickets.
It would seem to make more business sense, then, for Levenson to expand his customer base by appealing to more black people and those people--Southern whites and otherwise--who aren't afraid of them. This is Atlanta, after all. Instead, Levenson worried about appealing to 40-year old white guys who don't like black people or hip-hop.
First, Levenson should know there are lots of 40-year old white dudes who love hip-hop (and like black people). Plus, younger white guys with enlightened views on race make up a sizable chunk of hip-hop/basketball fans and younger customers eventually become older, loyal fans with more money.
Levenson says it’s fruitless to do anything to attract black people because they don’t have “spendable income.” I wasn’t here during the Michael Vick or Deion Sanders Falcons eras, but people who were there tell me there were mostly black folks in premium seats for those games. I’m assuming they spent money at the Dome in addition to the cost for those expensive seats. There still are lots of black people at Falcons games.
Those black fans support the Falcons for the same reason fans of all races and backgrounds support a team: because they are successful, exciting, and fun. They have marquee players who all people want to see play. Those other NBA franchises Levenson cites with envy for having more white season-ticket holders also play hip-hop in their arenas, employ black cheerleaders and show black people on the kiss cam. (The kiss cam? Seriously?!) If those teams have more white fans, or fans period, it's because they have a better product.
Under Levenson’s ownership, the Hawks have managed to be modestly successful for only a relatively short period of time. I covered a lot of games as the Hawks beat writer for the AJC and I can tell you the exciting and fun parts happened only intermittently even as the Hawks were winning. I can also report that black and white Hawks fans seemed to get along fine. However, I never visited the Philips Arena bars to get a sense of the racial makeup of the patrons, a subject that weirdly preoccupied Levenson in his email.
Levenson is selling his stake in the Hawks but the damage is done. The revelation of his email will make it more difficult for the Hawks to attract black customers and those fair-minded white people who are not afraid of them. The revelation about Ferry's background report with racist language could make selling the Hawks to premier NBA free agents, already a difficult task, even harder.
But what do I know. I’m just a black guy who likes hip-hop so my opinion isn't worth the Hawks' consideration. I've taken visitors to Hawks games in the past but I guess my and their "spendable income" will go elsewhere now. It seems as if that's the way the Hawks want it as long as they can find more white customers to take our place.
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