Denver Nuggets hire local workers to unify Denver fans through playoff giveaways
Thanks to the success of the Denver Nuggets, 19,714 fans will walk home with a piece of franchise history every night during the team's push for their first championship. Before each home playoff game a team of local workers gather late at night to place either shirts or rally towels throughout the arena.
"When it comes to the playoffs it is all hands-on deck," said Kerry Anne Keogh, in-game host for the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena.
Keogh, who has worked around the franchise for nearly a decade, said the late nights spent preparing Ball Arena for a contentious playoff game are worth the long hours.
"(During the playoffs) the excitement here at the arena has been crazy," Keogh told CBS News Colorado's Dillon Thomas.
Keogh is one of dozens of employees who are tasked with making sure every fan that attends a playoff game walks home with either a branded t-shirt or a rally towel. The souvenirs are locally printed, assuring the funds spent on marketing stay here in Denver.
To assure each fan receives a take home item, Keogh and others walk row-by-row and seat-by-seat, covering all 19,714 seats available during the Western Conference Finals to ticket buyers.
"Getting to their seats, seeing the t-shirts and wristbands, just that excitement is really exciting to look forward to as we work through the night here to set out t-shirts," Keogh said.
While placing the shirts and towels on the seats may sound like a simplistic task, it is actually more tiring and tedious of a process than many may realize. Keogh invited Thomas to help place out the shirts ahead of game one of the NBA Western Conference Finals.
"This isn't as easy as it seems" Thomas said.
"I think you will get the hang of it," Keogh said.
The items are not just thrown onto each seat, but rather placed neatly so the entire arena looks uniformly covered in the color of the round. The first round was white shirts, the second round was blue shirts, the conference finals were burgundy and if the Nuggets make the finals those will be gold.
"This team has caught the imagination and energy of the state," said Declan Bolger, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Denver Nuggets.
Bolger said it was important to give fans something they can physically take home with them alongside their memories during the historic push for the team's first championship.
"There's a piece of magic of looking back at it later saying, 'I was at that game,'" Bolger said.
During the later rounds of the playoffs fans were also handed electronic wristbands that are synced together to light up the arena different colors during exciting moments in the game or during the national anthem, for example.
Those who are unable to make the games are still able to take home a piece of pride from the playoffs. While the t-shirts are exclusive takeaways from the first game of each round, the rally towels are available for a $10 donation to Kroenke Sports Charities, which spends its money locally on improving the community. KSC will ship the towels to any address in the United States or Canada.
"It might seem like late nights putting out t-shirts and wristbands. But for our fans it is worth it for us to do it," Keogh said. "When you see everyone with their shirt on cheering and together for this team, it is just a special moment."
