Papa John’s Pizza and the Philadelphia 76ers started a promotion for the new NBA season in October, called “Sixers win, you win.” The deal was going to be that, every day after a Sixers win, fans would get 50 percent off an online order for a Papa John’s pizza. But Papa John’s and the team ran into a slight problem.
After a 101-90 loss to the Boston Celtics on November 19, the Sixers are 0-11 to start the season. So Papa John’s decided that they needed to change the promotion. According to the Los Angeles Times , Papa John’s is now offering to reward Sixers fans with 50 percent off pizzas any time the team scores at least 90 points.
While the new bar sounds pretty easy to hit for an NBA team, Papa John’s may not be selling too many discounted pizzas with this promotion, either. The Sixers have only reached the 90-point plateau four times so far this season. Yes, they are apparently just that bad. The New York Daily News reports that the Sixers have an average of 88.6 points per game so far this season. That is dead last in the league.
It is embarrassing enough for Papa John’s to offer this discount for a team that doesn’t have to win, and only needs to score 90 points, which is fairly low for the NBA, for fans to earn it. But, it gets even worse. According to Bleacher Report , Sixers fans received an email announcing the new deal from Papa John’s with the subject line “50 Percent OFF Today — Sixers Won!” Except, they didn’t.
Papa John’s seems to love to give away pizzas: they have offered pizzas to members of their loyalty program during NFL season for the past few years. But if the company wanted to run a promotion that appeared to be destined to save them money, this one could be it.
It has been a while since there was much in the way of good news for the Sixers. The Inquisitr reported a year ago about the team’s plan to retire the jersey of former superstar Allen Iverson. There hasn’t been much good news since then for the club, and the Papa John’s promotion change is almost like rubbing salt into the wound.
Papa John’s has also worked with Philly’s NHL team, the Flyers, with similar promotions. The deal the company offered for Flyers games was typically awarded when the team scored a certain number of goals and also won the game. Flyers fans have been much luckier at getting their discounted Papa John’s pizzas, although that team seems to have hit a scoring, and winning, drought as well.
The Sixers have long been the least popular of Philadelphia’s sports teams, and unfortunately for them, the notoriety that they are getting due to the new Papa John’s promotion is not likely to win them many new fans.
