Trapper's tries Boeheim, basketball to boost brand

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Jan 14, 2005 by Rombel, Adam

EAST SYRACUSE - Trapper's Pizza Pub, a popular East Syracuse sports bar, is hoping Jim Boeheim will help it build its brand name and bring in more sportscrazed patrons to try its trademark pizza, wings, and beer.

Every Thursday night (between early December and late March) at 8 p.m., Boeheim - the national-champion winning, 29-year coach of the Syracuse University men's basketball team - conducts his one-hour radio show at Trapper's at 5950 Butternut Drive in East Syracuse. He talks about the team's most recent game, previews the next contest, and fields questions from radio listeners as well as those assembled at the four-year-old sports bar.

"Our hope was bringing him aboard would boost Thursdays [crowd]," says Gregory Rinaldi, owner of Trapper's Pizza Pub.

Rinaldi declines to specify how much the marketing deal costs, but says it's more than $10,000. "It's expensive," he adds.

The deal gets Rinaldi 16 shows hosted at Ins pub and broadcast on WAQX-FM 95.7 and 15 other stations (across New York and in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Vermont) that participate the Syracuse University Radio Network. Trapper's Pizza Pub receives numerous on-air mentions during the week promoting the show, and during the show itself as it goes in and out of commercial, says Joseph Baldini, general manager of Syracuse ISP Sports, the multi-media rights holder for SU athletics.

The show, with the Trapper's name, is also promoted at SU home basketball games on the Carrier Dome's video boards, in the program, and on signs scattered around the arena.

"It's a great branding opportunity that other bars don't get. it's out-of-the box as far as marketing goes," says Baldini. "The pitch is branding, plus hopefully it gets some people into your restaurant that maybe never heard of Trapper's," he adds.

Rinaldi says his restaurant has attracted large crowds for the first few radio shows, but says that it's too early to tell whether that is due to the show or just the regular boost in business that Trapper's receives around the holidays.

"We're busy during the holidays anyway, so we'll get a better idea of what [the show] can do in the next few weeks," Rinaldi says.

The Jim Boeheim weekly radio show had been hosted at Bennigan's Grill and Tavern on Erie Boulevard East in Syracuse for three years. Baldini declines to specify why Syracuse ISP Sports decided to move the show from Bennigan's, saying only, "We decided to go in a different direction."

After learning the show would no longer be at Bennigan's after last basketball season, Joseph Manhertz, fr., associate director of development in SU's athletic department in charge of managing fundraising, suggested to Rinaldi that he consider hosting the show at Trapper's. Rinaldi, who has financially supported SU athletics in the past, showed immediate interest. And Manhertz introduced him to Baldini.

Rinaldi's marketing agreement with Syracuse ISP Sports is for one season, and then both sides will consider whether to renew it for next basketball season.