The Atlanta Falcons have a new minority owner, and its a face Falcons fans should recognize well.

It was announced that former Falcons running back Warrick Dunn will become a minority owner in the Atlanta Falcons franchise.  The deal, which has already been approved by NFL owners, is expected to be finalized in March of 2010.

“During his tenure with the Falcons and throughout his NFL career, Warrick represented the highest of NFL standards on and off the field,” Falcons majority owner Arthur Blank said. “Warrick has a special affinity for the Falcons, as we do for him, and we are very happy he will be back in the Falcons family representing our club as a limited partner.” (via ESPN)

Dunn spoke on the deal, himself,

“This opportunity fulfills one of my professional goals to expand my knowledge and experience in the area of NFL team management, branding and operations,” Dunn said. “I am excited to be back as part of the Falcons team and, in particular, to work with Mr. Blank.”

Dunn will join six other minority owners to comprise 10% ownership of the team, while longtime owner Arthur Blank will still control the other 90%.

What can you say about Dunn?  He’s was a class act on the field, he’s involved in numerous charitable works off the field, and now he’s a minority owner of the Falcons. And all-round good guy.

As I assume most people know, the NFL approved a deal to allow its teams to participate in state lotteries a few months ago.  The newest team to take them up on the offer?  The Atlanta Falcons.  From the AJC,

The Atlanta Falcons have decided to close their Falcons365 stores in the Lennox Mall and Perimeter Mall areas.  More information from AtlantaFalcons.com,

“While the economy is certainly affecting all retailers, we are making this decision mainly based on our desire to focus our efforts on our online and Georgia Dome sales,” said Falcons President Rich McKay.  “Theses venues allow us to serve the broadest number of Falcons fans, as evidenced by the results of our recent enhancements to falcons365.com, and our sales experience in the Dome this season.”

Okay, I certainly am not the smartest person in the world, but did Rich McKay really just say that the Falcons closed two physical stores not because of the recession, but because they needed to focus more people on the Georgia dome and online sales because they serve more fans that way? Is that about right?  In the recession?  Did some recent internal Altanta Falcons meeting end with this statement?

“Online sales are just too overwhelming. All of you physical store employees need to quit working at these physical stores so you can help fill these online orders!  Um…yes, I know that the online sites basically run themselves, and that you physical store workers won’t be any help but…These online sales are too overwhelming!”

–Rich McKay, Atlanta Falcons President

Seriously, that’s really the excuse they’re gonna use?  Are they really going to insult the fans intelligence?  Apparently, yes.

The decision to close the retail stores was also because the Falcons organization has seen sales increase at the Georgia Dome and at its online store, said Kim Shreckengost, executive vice preisdent [sic] and chief of staff for the Falcons.

“Given our season, it made more sense for us to focus on online sales from our Web site, which has recently been enhanced, and to make sure we were focusing on sales on game days,” Shreckengost said.

Even with the logic posited by Falcons upper management, this still seems like a move predicated on the recession, moreso than a need to focus on an over abundance of online and Georgia Dome sales.  Most football merchandise is sold during the football season, which is inexplicably (or due to the recession, maybe not so much so) the same time that the Falcons chose to close their physical locations…while their team was in the playoffs.  That sounds like a recession issue to me, especially when the Falcons new website has significantly reduced order processing time and the necessity for human labor.

Of course, there has already been a push by professional sports teams to drive fans to their websites for merchandise sales and exclusive content (hence the site re-design of the Falcons, and recent site redesigns by the NHL, NFL, and MLB).  But this move, seems like its little more than the recession claiming yet another victim.

AtlantaFalcons.com:  Falcons 365 stores to close

Your team finished with a “crap-tastic” 4-12 season last year, your former star QB is currently trying his best not to “drop the soap”, your head coach of last year jumped ship to the college ranks during the regular season, and the most reliable offensive weapon you had left (Alge Crumpler)? you released him in February.

So…who wants some season tickets!

Needless to say, the Falcons advertising campaign will be “slightly altered” for the 2008 regular season. Taking a page from the “Lesson Learned” playbook, the advertising campaign will not be focused on one player, as it had been in the past, meaning that newly drafted QB Matt Ryan will not be the face of the 2008 Atlanta Falcons. From the AJC,

Newly drafted quarterback Matt Ryan will not be a prime player in an advertising campaign planned by the Atlanta Falcons to try to rebuild the team’s sagging season-ticket base.

“I don’t think we’re going to sit there and try to harp on one player,” said Falcons president Rich McKay, who oversees the team’s business operations. “It doesn’t mean [Ryan] won’t have some appearances or that you won’t see him in the community, but I don’t think he’ll be the focus of our campaign.”

So, what exactly will be featured in the advertising campaign, if none of the players are going to be the draw? Well, dear reader, it is the aforementioned “great seats” of course!

…we will focus on the fact there is a unique opportunity for fans to buy pretty good seats in the Dome at a low price, and if they don’t take advantage of it the opportunity won’t be there in the future. We don’t plan to make this about one player. — Falcons President Rich McKay

Lets review. Atlanta can’t sell tickets because their franchise QB is in jail and the team isn’t good. How do they decide to go about selling tickets? By letting people know there are plenty of seats available to watch a bad team that no longer has a franchise QB cause he’s in jail. Sounds strange, right? Uh, did I mention the tickets are cheap? Yeah, don’t everybody form a line all at once. How bad are things in Atlanta right now? Fans haven’t even been buying season tickets (ticket for individual games aren’t available until the summer) after some drastic price cuts by the Falcons, some of which made season tickets available for $250 per seat.

The Falcons strategy isn’t really a new one. Bad teams always approach fans with a “team first”, hard- working, we love the fans, media blitz”. Sometimes its effective, sometimes its not. I really would have liked to have seen the Falcons do something different though because of the significant effect the loss of Michael Vick has had on the franchise. When Vick played people used to always joke about “Vick being the whole team.”, and apparently truer words have never been spoken. Last season’s record, Coach Bobby Petrino’s exit, the price cuts made to tickets, and the lack of ticket sales can all be traced, directly or indirectly back to Vick’s incarceration. Vick’s departure probably has cost the Falcons franchise and the city of Atlanta $100 hundreds of millions of dollars in terms of merchandising, transportation, concessions, football tickets, etc (I would love to see some economist’s estimate on this). Is there any other situation in the league like this? Will the city of Indianapolis refuse to go to any more Colts games if Peyton Manning is gone? I doubt it. Manning is a phenomenal player and sales would drop, but without him the Colts still have other stars to attract fans (Harrison, Wayne, Freeney, Sanders etc.). Who else do the Falcons have? Even a team of hard-working no-names will only convince so many people to buy season tickets. So…who else do they have? Go ahead, think about it. I’ll wait.

…Michael Boley? No, not so much.

While you’re pondering, I would like to remind you that Atlanta Falcons tickets are on sale and great seats are available. If you don’t believe me, look out for that new advertising campaign featuring…uh, one of those guys in a Falcon’s uniform.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Falcons alter marketing strategy after Vick debacle

“We, The National Football League Players Association … Pay homage to our predecessors for their courage, sacrifice, and vision; … Pledge to preserve and enhance the democratic involvement of our members; … Confirm our willingness to do whatever is necessary for the betterment of our membership – To preserve our gains and achieve those goals not yet attained.”

Pretty impressive right? If you’re a football player its good to know that you have this wonderful union looking out for your better interests (wow, they do whatever is necessary for the betterment of their membership…that’s me!). That’s probably what Michael Vick was thinking when the Falcons went after him to try and recoup $20 million dollars worth of bonus money (man…this whole dog fighting thing escalated pretty quickly…Fortunately, I know I have the NFLPA looking out for me on this one…I can at least count on them). Then, he probably remembered this statement,

“We believe the criminal conduct to which Mr. Vick has pled guilty today cannot be condoned under any circumstances. Speaking personally, as I have previously stated, the practice of dog fighting is offensive and completely unacceptable. I can only hope that Mr. Vick, who is a young man, will learn from this awful experience.”

– Gene Upshaw, head of the NFLPA

That was the vote of confidence Michael Vick was looking for, I’m sure. It almost seems as if the NFLPA was going to completely disregard their duties because of the heinous nature of Vick’s act. Apparently since then though, cooler heads have prevailed, because lawyers for the NFLPA defended Vick in court on Thursday, arguing that the Falcons cannot recover the money based on provisions in the collective bargaining agreement. A decision on the matter is expected on October 12th.

I certainly don’t condone dog fighting, but I do condone doing your job even when its an ugly job. Obviously Upshaw (and, I assume many others) didn’t condone Vick’s actions, I just wonder how close they came to turning a blind eye? Guess we’ll never know.

ESPN: Falcons seek $20M from Vick

Yahoo! Sports: Union attorney: Falcons don’t have right to recoup bonus money paid to Falcons QB Vick

Related –

Sports Business Digest: Mike Vick…well at least he’s fast right?

Sports Business Digest: Reconstructing Michael Vick

Honestly, what more could Michael Vick do wrong? The only way he could make this situation worse is if he hi-jacked a plane or something. If you are already in trouble for arguably the biggest sports story in the last 10 years, and then you get a small reprieve with Bill Belichick and the Patriots spygate incident, and then what do you do? bring yourself right back into the spotlight with your failed urine test.

What’s the old adage? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. The bad part for Michael Vick? I think Judge Hudson knows the adage as well.

ESPN: Vick supporters turn out for town meeting

Yahoo! Sports: Falcons QB Michael Vick tests positive for marijuana

NOTE: the picture is from Kissing Suzy Kolber.  It is a hilarious sports site, the particular post about Mike Vick can be found here