The magic number is 3,000.

If the Syracuse Silver Knights can get that many paying customers to each of their 13 home games at the Oncenter War Memorial Arena, the team becomes profitable. The future then becomes more certain and more promising for professional soccer in the city of Syracuse.

“If every soccer person just went to one game, any person that had anything to do with soccer,” Silver Knights President and head coach Tommy Tanner said, “you know, a kid playing soccer or played in the men’s league or played in the coed league, went to one game, we’d sell out all 13 home games.”

But with an operating budget between $500,000 and $600,000, getting “more butts in the seats” is an exercise in indirect marketing. Billboards and TV commercials are out of the question for the Silver Knights. They’re too expensive. If the Silver Knights don’t reach that magic number of 3,000, though, they run the risk of joining their outdoor predecessors, the Syracuse Salty Dogs, and hundreds of other now-defunct teams in the graveyard of American soccer clubs.

The Silver Knights front office aimed to sell about 750 season tickets for this season. Current sales are at about 460, said Nick Michalkow, director of group sales and fan services. The team originally planned to raise $500,000 through shares in the Syracuse Pro Sports Group, LLC. Shares are still available, but Vice President of Sales and Marketing Allen Laventure said he could not comment on the number sold.

So the four-man, full-time front office staff has no choice but to get creative, save costs and hope fans show up.

“For us it’s not about the 13 home games, it’s about being active and in the community 365 days a year,” Laventure said.

On Black Friday, that meant sending the team to ring bells and work the donation kettle at Destiny USA. Other nights it means the team’s jersey color changes for a cause. And in an attempt to reach out to children and families, the Silver Knights carry out a three-part school assembly program known as the Knights’ Code, in which players speak to students about health and wellness, diversity and the dangers of bullying.

“It’s being involved in the community where people are saying, ‘Wow, these guys are doing a lot, we see them everywhere,’” Laventure said. “And that’s one of the things that we’ve been fortunate of when I talk to sponsors they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh I was at this run’ or ‘My son came home with a worksheet from you guys.’”

The Silver Knights are not bogged down by the same financial troubles that doomed the Salty Dogs, which were also part-owned by Pete Ramin, who is now a Silver Knights co-owner and vice president of operations.

The Salty Dogs performed well at the gate, drawing the third-highest attendance in the 16-team USL First Division (USL-1) in 2004 despite splitting home games between P&C Stadium — now Alliance Bank Stadium — and Liverpool High School.

But mere entry into the league cost $500,000, with $300,000 going toward a territory fee to the Rochester Raging Rhinos and $200,000 paid directly as a league fee. The high startup costs, in addition to a pricey lease agreement with P&C Stadium, caused the team to bleed money and cease operations in October 2004 after just two seasons.

By contrast, in late 2009, USL-1 Senior Director Chris Economides reached out to Tanner about bringing a franchise  to Syracuse. There was no territory fee despite the eventual presence of another Rochester club, the Lancers. Instead of the $200,000 league fee that the Syracuse Pro Sports Group paid for the Salty Dogs, Syracuse Pro Sports, LLC, only paid a $50,000 fee for the Silver Knights franchise.

Tanner and Michalkow estimated the Salty Dogs’ operating costs are $1.2 million. And while the Silver Knights’ are about half that, the second-year franchise must expand its fan base to thrive.

“We definitely missed a couple markets last year,” said Michalkow, who is in his first year with the franchise.

He and Laventure pointed to the Latino — 8.3 percent of the city’s population — and young adult demographics as areas of weakness for the club. So this year, the Silver Knights are writing game stories for CNY Latino.

The Silver Knights also continue to push for Syracuse University students to attend games as Laventure reaches out to students in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

“I think that college students, if they came and saw a game, would actually enjoy themselves,” he said. “Getting them off the Hill has been our biggest challenge.”

Ultimately the Silver Knights target families as the foundation of their fan base. Laventure worked for the Syracuse Crunch, now the Tampa Bay Lightning’s AHL affiliate, from 1994 to 2000 as an account executive and director of youth hockey programs. Game days for the Crunch in those days mirror what the Silver Knights are attempting to create now: loud music, families and an overall party atmosphere.

In 2004, when Tanner was still playing for the financially spiraling Salty Dogs, he attended his first Crunch game. He immediately thought “this would be a perfect place for indoor soccer.”

The Silver Knights front office still sees hope in the Crunch model.

“Our thought process was, ‘Let’s get people hooked on the event and they’ll come back,’” Laventure said. “And now you look 18 years later and the Crunch is — people who were kids then, well now those kids are now taking their kids.

“So essentially they’ve instantaneously doubled their audience and their appeal because they have three generations going to their games instead of just two.”

The front office is banking on keeping costs low, filling seats and getting the franchise off the ground and into year three, a milestone the Salty Dogs never reached.

“I’ve never heard of one person not enjoying one of our games,” Tanner said. “You know, go to the game and go ‘That sucks, that’s not what I expected.’ Usually they say ‘That’s not what I expected, it was a lot better.’”

Published on November 28, 2012 at 3:00 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_