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The US Women’s World Cup Win

On Sunday the US Women’s National Soccer Team won it’s third FIFA World Cup emphatically over Japan by a score of 5-2. The game broke television records as it was the highest metered market rating ever for a soccer game in the United States on a single network (FOX). Sunday’s game averaged 26.7 million viewers, with 25.4 million watching the English telecast on Fox and another 1.3 million viewing the Spanish telecast airing on Telemundo. In fact, the audience was larger than that of every NBA Finals basketball game since 2010 as well as every World Series baseball game since 2004.

Morgan Brian #14, Carli Lloyd #13, and Alex Morgan #10 celebrate an early goal in the US' victory over Japan on Sunday. — Morgan Brian #14, Carli Lloyd #13, and Alex Morgan #10 celebrate an early goal in the US’ victory over Japan on Sunday.

The previous soccer television viewing high in the US was 18.2 million on ESPN last year for the United States-Portugal group stage Men’s World Cup contest. While, the previous high for women’s soccer in the States was 18 million set in 1999 for the World Cup final on ESPN between the US and China. Moreover, Sunday was a 77 percent jump from the 2011 final that also featured the US and Japan on ESPN. I’m not sure anyone truly expected the numbers to be as high as they were. However, given the holiday weekend, and without any major competing sporting events, the US Women did exactly that, and they delivered.

And while the US women receive an additional $2 million for winning the World Cup (a mere fraction of the $35 million the men are awarded), the players will receive supplemental earnings in endorsements. Players like Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan and Hope Solo will certainly capitalize on their sponsorship and endorsements deals with companies like Nike. Team apparel sales went up 3,000 percent on Sunday.

Jul 7, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; United States forward Alex Morgan at 2015 Womens World Cup champions celebration at Microsoft Square at L.A. Live.

The US demographic tends to be a “big event” audience, as Americans tend to support their National teams in big international competitions. So the question remains will these shockingly high rating numbers transfer over to the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). All but one of the women on the US World Cup team currently play in the NWSL which gives the league great exposure.

In the last 20 years, there have been four professional women’s soccer leagues: the W-League, the WUSA, the WPS, and now the NWSL. The first three folded after no more than three seasons due to poor league management and a general lack of interest. However, it seems like the NWSL is going to be here to stay this time around due to the significant investment US Soccer has made into the league. The timing of the 1994 Men’s World Cup being hosted in the States prior to the launch of the 1996 Major League Soccer on the men’s side is very reminiscent to the timing here with the NWSL. In aligning the sports largest event around the launching of the league helps build momentum for fan interest and ticket sales.

Carli Lloyd became an international hero overnight after scoring a hat-trick in the US' World Cup win. — Carli Lloyd became an international hero overnight after scoring a hat-trick in the US’ World Cup win.

There has already been a significant uptick in ticket sales, as the Houston Dash expect a record attendance of 15,000, as they only average 4,500. The Portland Thorn expect their first ever sell-out crowd of 21,000 next Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Seattle Reign host Western New York this weekend and expect to double their average attendance of 3,000 to 6,000. The question remains though, will the league be able to maintain these ticket sales through until the final week of the season in September.

Sunday proves that the United States is becoming more and more of a legitimate soccer nation. We will see if the Women’s luck on Sunday carries over to the Men’s side as they continue their Gold Cup run tonight against Haiti in Foxboro, MA. Meanwhile, the US Women will be celebrating in a parade four hours south in New York City.

July 10, 2015 0

Major League Soccer’s Model Organization in the Pacific Northwest

While many Unite States soccer fans point towards the growth of Major League Soccer, most soccer fanatics around the world continue to view the MLS as the place where good footballers go to earn their final paycheck. And while that may be partially correct in looking at guys like David Beckham and Thierry Henry, and most recently Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, there is one organization that stands out above the rest within the league, the Seattle Sounders.

The Seattle Sounders’ average attendance last season was 43,734 which would have put them sixth in the English Premier League (behind Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Manchester City and Liverpool) and the 27^th most supported in the world. In fact, the Sounders double the attendance figures of the next best MLS team. And yet many soccer fans around the globe don’t realize that because the organization is relatively brand new. So how have the Seattle Sounders been so successful so quickly in putting butts in seats and filling an NFL stadium every single home game?

Let’s first look at the top. The executive team is a crossbreed between the Seahawks and the Sounders. The vast majority of the organization’s employees, from ticket sales to corporate sponsorship sales to the business development team, work for both organizations simultaneously. This co-existing business relationship is rare for MLS teams that share a stadium with an NFL team. All business decisions are made with both organizations in mind. It is not until the actual technical aspects (scouting, player development, etc) where the Seahawks and Sounders organizations divide.

Eddie Johnson (left), formerly of the Seattle Sounders, Russell Wilson (middle) QB of the Seattle Seahawks, and Clint Demsey (right), current captain of the Sounders all pictured together. — Eddie Johnson (left), formerly of the Seattle Sounders, Russell Wilson (middle) QB of the Seattle Seahawks, and Clint Dempsey (right), current captain of the Sounders all pictured together.

Secondly, the organization is run very democratically. There are 41 “alliance” season ticket members that sit on a council (voted on by all season ticket members) who meet with ownership on a quarterly basis to talk about strategy. The key, according to senior management, is keeping the fans engaged and excited because that ultimately drives everything. The decision to acquire Clint Dempsey was heavily weighed in on by the fans who wanted to see it happen. Moreover, every four years, the General Manager’s job is voted on by the fans, a practice implemented by Barcelona and Real Madrid in the Spanish Primera League.

Garth Lagerway, the Seattle Sounders newest General Manager and President of Soccer.

When the franchise was bought in 2007, there were so many smart owners investing large amounts of money. Nonetheless, the Sounders seemed to pick up on some vital details involving fan engagement that helped elevate the club considerably higher than all others. For instance, the Sounders organization utilized their biggest supporter club “Emerald City” to lead a “March to the Match” an hour prior to every game to generate a true home field advantage, generally attracting three to eight thousand fans.

This group gets particularly rowdy when the Portland Timbers come into town. The Seattle-Portland “derby” is considered the best rivalry within United States soccer as it has spanned across several leagues including the USL, A-League, the NASL and now the MLS. The MLS has seemingly keened in on this notion of rivalries growing the game with the addition of New York FC this year (with the NY Red Bulls right next door) and Los Angles FC coming on in 2016 (with the LA Galaxy being right next door).

The Portland Timber's largest supporter group, the Timber's Army, in Providence Park during the Great Northwest Derby against the Sounders. — The Portland Timber’s largest supporter group, the Timber’s Army, in Providence Park during the Great Northwest Derby against the Sounders.

Joe Roth, the majority owner of the Sounders, explains his research on developing the Seattle Sounders organization from a minor league team to a major league team practically overnight, “I didn’t pay much attention to the past. I did my homework on Seattle. What I found out was that Seattle has the highest per capita youth soccer participation in the United States, an adult league that had 60,000 people, a minor league team that was drawing five to eight thousand fans while other minor league teams were drawing a thousand fans and that AC Milan came over here on two weeks notice and completely sold out the stadium.”

Clint Dempsey, left, captain of the U.S. National Soccer Team, is introduced as the newest member of the Seattle Sounders FC MLS soccer team by majority owner Joe Roth, right, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, prior to a match between the Sounders and FC Dallas in Seattle.

At the end of the day, the way any businessman measures a business is the bottom line; that is the profitability. The team is worth five times the value it was when they started, where now the organization is estimated to be worth roughly around $150 million. Roth points to their fan base as an advertiser’s dream with their focus demographics being 18-49 year olds, 60% male/40% female, and an average income of over $100,000. Roth says, “Soccer is generational. Twenty years from now, this will be like the Washington Redskins where the only way you can get a ticket is inherited.”

Roth is perhaps the most passionate owner in the league today. When the Sounders lost 4-0 to the Galaxy in their first year, he was so disgusted he gave every fan their money back on their tickets, costing the organization $1 million. He says “If you’re not willing to stand out here and be part of everything, than you’re missing something.” Over the years, the Sounders ticket pricing has stayed relatively stagnant, ranking 7^th in the league. According to Roth, “professional soccer in this country is very price sensitive, as it has gotten to the point of something like Notre Dame football.”

While most sports businesses look at their organizations through pie charts, spreadsheets and diagrams, the Sounders are unique in that they measure their organization’s value in their stadium. They measure their success in their fans; fans that are buying food and merchandise, who are promoting the brand organically. The team set up shop in a city rich with soccer enthusiasm and they partnered with an NFL organization that already had strong connections in the sports world and then they let the brand loose … they gave it to their fans.

June 26, 2015 0

The Growing Trend of Digital Sports Applications

In today’s culture, everything is done via smart phones, iPads, laptops, and tablet devices. Specifically, the emergence of smart phone applications over the course of the last 10 years has been rampant. Information and products have become increasingly more accessible because of this and consequentially we have seen the demise of such things like newspapers, taxis, and cd’s. We’ve seen innovative new services in industries from transportation, to social media to banking with such apps like Uber, SnapChat, and Venmo.

This trend is very quickly transferring over to the sports world. There are thousands of different types of sports apps ranging from the $30 billion fantasy sports industry to sporting news delivery to video coaching applications. Content and information is as accessible as ever in today’s world. People live with their cell phones by their sides, and if they want something, there is no reason they have to reach any further than their pocket.

The NFL may have the best league sports app with NFL Mobile, enabling users to get live score updates, fantasy alerts, and other news. While Verizon subscribers get access to live video on the app as well.

Professional teams, leagues and even events are all adapting applications so fans can access news, follow scores, buy tickets and interact more readily. Teams have learned how to effective leverage their fans social media networks via in-games promotions and giveaways that, which in turn, exponentially increase a team’s viewership. On the amateur side, youth sport clubs are using apps to disseminate information to parents as quickly as possible. Tournament coordinators are using apps to inform teams of the latest draws and what field they need to be at and when.

Youth and high school team administrators are using applications like TeamSnap that organizes schedules, scores, field directions, and photos for players and parents to quickly get updated news rather than relying on an email or individual phone calls.

TeamSnap enables coaches and administrators to disseminate information on a live basis to players and parents to inform them of practice, game and field changes.

SportsBoard is a relatively new application that enables sports camps to give video, audio and text feedback on a camper’s performance with corresponding grades. Moreover, it enables college coaches to organize their recruiting camp pipelines with video content, tracking systems, and systematic communication.

The WatchESPN app is the most popular sports app for Android users.

In looking at the 2015 list of top sports apps for the Android, the major sports media outlets dominate the top 10. The WatchESPN app ranked #1, as this is a must-have app if you’re a cable subscriber. The WatchESPN app allows you to login via your cable provider and access exclusive ESPN content as well as watch ESPN Live. TheScore came in ranked #2 as it is essentially an app that provides all kinds of news, analysis, stats and scores for every sport you can think of, and you can create your own feed where it brings you stories only from your favorite teams and sports. The rest of the top 10 includes ESPN, CBS Sports, NCAA, Fox Sports Go, NFL Mobile and Yahoo Sports.

The common denominator in all of these digital sports trends is the need for real time, live information. Twitter has become the fastest media outlet of live information where users can type a quick tweet as soon as they learn something, and then that is retweeted and all of a sudden news begins trending. A good example of this is the RII Sport Technology’s GameDay Scout app, where high school and college football coaches are using this mobile application to capture detailed, real time data and then are using the app to understand the tendencies of their opponent in order to make in-game adjustments.

While the demand is certainly there, the supply is quickly getting there with apps being made daily. Smart phone apps can be produced for as low as $10,000 or as much as $2 million depending on the sophistication and interface design quality. While the major revenue streams for apps come from advertising and corporate sponsors, partnership incentives are quickly adding additional revenue dollars for app designers. In 2015, more and more sports businesses are learning how to capitalize on this ever-growing market.

June 24, 2015 0

The Power of the Pre-Draft Pick

One “arena” of the sports business world that is often overlooked is the athletic training facility for professional athletes, specifically for the sports of football and basketball. Many of the high profile collegiate or amateur athletes who declare themselves eligible for the NFL or NBA drafts chose to do their training at a world-class sports training facility. With the NFL draft less than 2 months past, and the NBA draft only 5 days away, this seems to be a highly relevant topic.

I think it might be important to understand the dynamics of this business before diving into the details of it. While these training facilities exist for athletes across all sports, the training facilities that focus on athletes preparing for the NFL and NBA drafts are easily the biggest. That is because those two drafts are the biggest in magnitude. The MLB draft has 40 rounds and thus loses its luster. Moreover, many of those prospects spend several seasons in the minors or play college ball before seeing a major league roster. Similarly, the NHL draft does not give fans the immediate satisfaction of seeing players that are “NHL ready.” It takes most top picks in the NHL draft 3-4 years before they are actually playing in an NHL game. Conversely, the NFL and NBA drafts generate lots of buzz, interest, and excitement from fans because nearly all first round picks are just about guaranteed to make their teams the following year giving fans a reason to watch the event on TV.

The NHL Draft attracts very low attendance figures compared to the NFL and NBA Drafts.

Many of the top agencies will sign athletes right when they declare themselves eligible for the NFL and NBA drafts. Both the NFL and NBA have formal pre-draft combines that are essentially showcases for NFL and NBA management to examine players. They both happen 1-2 months before the draft and allow NFL and NBA GM’s, coaches, and scouts to see all of the athletes’ performance measurements (bench press, vertical jump, etc). Because so much weight is put into these athletic measurements, agents will pay top-dollar for their signed athletes to do their pre-draft training at the very best facilities in the world. With GM’s making million dollar-drafting decisions sometimes based upon a tenth of a second in a wide receiver’s 40-yard sprint, the return on investment for agents on sending their clients to the very best facilities is ever important.

This opens up a market space for facilities that specialize in training professional athletes. To begin with, it’s a very saturated marketplace with hundreds and hundreds of trainers and facilities doing various versions of the same thing. One of the biggest training facilities is EXOS, formerly known as Athletes Performance. EXOS was founded in 1999 by Mark Verstegen and has exponentially grown to where now they have facilities in Tempe (AZ), Phoenix (AZ), Carson (CA), San Diego (CA), Gulf Breeze (FL), Raleigh (NC), and Frisco (TX). They boast 523 players drafted, seven #1 overall picks and 105 first-rounders. Jadeveon Clowney, Greg Robinson and Blake Bortles all attended EXOS and obviously their hard work at these facilities paid off with big pay-days as the #1 overall pick in the NFL drafts.

Another top facility for NFL pre-draft combine training is IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. The Academy started as a tennis academy with the one of the best tennis coaches of all time, Nick Bollettieri, who was responsible for training about half of the draw in the 1986 US Open. From there, the deep pockets of IMG (International Management Group) were able to take it from purely a tennis academy to a world class training facility for many more sports, football and basketball being two of them. Within the last 10 years or so, IMG has landed 86 first round picks, five #1 overall picks, including names like Cam Newton, LaDainian Tomlinson, Luke Joeckel, Luke Kuechly, Ryan Tannehill as well as Super Bowl MVP’s like Drew Brees and Eli Manning.

The #1 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, Jadeveon Clowney, trained at EXOS with Mark Verstegen.

On the basketball side, there are a few workout facilities that stand out: Impact Basketball (Las Vegas, NV), Project Basketball (Oakland, CA), and Evolution Athletics (Chicago, IL). Impact Basketball began in 1997 when former Division 1 coach, Joe Abunassar, applied his unique approach to basketball development to guide the careers of several of the best NBA players. Today, Impact Basketball has three locations as well as programs running in over a dozen countries … they have laid claim to over 100 NBA draft picks in the last 7 years. Joe’s early group of clients was Kevin Garnett, Chauncey Billups, Tyronn Lue, Al Harrington, Tayshaun Prince and Dahntay Jones. From there, Joe was able to start the IMG Basketball Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He then added facilities in Las Vegas and Los Angeles that train over 200 professionals, men’s and women’s national teams, McDonalds and NCAA All-Americans, foreign professionals and young talented amateurs who train at his summer camps and his Impact Academy.

Joe Abunassar has done an incredible job growing his Impact Basketball Academy.

Jeff Pagliocca, with Evolution Athletics in Illinois, is a little newer to the game of combine training, although is quickly building an impressive list of alumni. Everyone from Luol Deng, to Will Bynum to most recently Frank Kaminsky as well as Aaron and Andrew Harrison have used Pagliocca and his staff to prepare for the NBA draft combine.

Virtually all of these training facilities feature cross-training components including mental conditioning, speed training, nutrition, and other components of how to be the consummate professional. In virtually all of these examples of world-class training facilities, the business model has started from a well-known coach or trainer being able to attract a few big name athletes. From there it becomes a snow-ball effect in large sense, where other young up-and-coming athletes want to train where the other best athletes are training. It is here where managing the relationships with the large agencies becomes crucial, as they are ultimately the ones spending the dollars. At this point it becomes a marketing exercise, where the coaches rely on a marketing and business development staff to generate the buzz of who is coming to train at their facility and to permeate that news to the youth athletes, the high school athletes, the college athletes and even the professional athletes.

IMG Academy does a tremendous job in leveraging their NFL Draft combine athletes to market some of their other training products.

The business is now off and running and new revenue streams open up for these facilities. With the ability to market these big names, the facilities generally then create youth summer camps, individualized private training sessions, team training, events, consulting and sometimes will even look to get into player representation and player endorsements. If executed properly, the pre-draft combine training niche marketplace can have a rippling effect over a potential very large business.

It is a very saturated market with lots of facilities trying to do similar things … and like anything else; the cream generally rises to the top.

June 21, 2015 0

Nike’s Latest Win

It was just announced on Wednesday that Nike and the NBA have agreed to an 8 year, $1 billion jersey deal that will begin in the 2017-18 season.

This deal will represent approximately a 245 percent annual increase from the previous deal that the NBA had held with Adidas. In 2006, the NBA announced an 11-year, $400 million deal with Adidas, who at the time had taken over for Reebok (a brand which it now owns). It was reported that Adam Silver and the NBA had become unhappy with Adidas after they fell to third in the United States in shoe and apparel sales, behind Nike and Under Armour. This past March, Adidas announced that they would not seek to extend its jersey deal with the league.

Nike has produced replica NBA jerseys through their Swingman brand line and produced official NBA jerseys in the 1990s.

You might wonder why the NBA announced this so early in advance, as their current deal with Adidas is good through the 2016-17 season. The simple answer is that both sides have already mutually agreed to part ways at the end of the deal. Adidas still wants a return on their investment, so don’t expect to see any letdown from them in the coming years. They have done some new things, such as jerseys with sleeves and their special Christmas Day branded jerseys. With Adidas and the NBA coming to this decision to split early, there was no reason for the NBA to not go ahead and search for their next official jersey supplier.

Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, is extremely excited about the new jersey deal with the NBA.

A major win in this jersey deal for Nike is that the Nike Swoosh will appear on all NBA jerseys, a first for the league. Nike President and CEO, Mark Parker, is extremely excited about the deal, “In Nike, Jordan and Converse, we have three of the most connected brands in the world, and look forward to making the global growth of the game a successful strategy for both the NBA and Nike.” Since 1992, Nike has been a marketing partner of the NBA. At retail, they have been able to successfully produce replica NBA jerseys under their Swingman line. Furthermore, Nike and its affiliated brands, control more than 90% of the U.S. basketball shoe market at retail. The company holds endorsement deals with many of the league’s top stars: Lebron James, Kevin Duran, Kobe Bryant, Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook to name just a few.

Lebron James is one of several big stars that Nike has large brand endorsement deals with.

In 2012, Nike was able to win the bidding war for the official uniform deal of the NFL, and they have extended those rights until the end of the 2019 season. Most industry experts would agree that Nike has been relatively conservative with their NFL jersey designs, excluding a few franchises like the Jaguars, Buccaneers and the Seahawks. NFL owners tend to be more conservative businessman compared to those owners of NBA franchises. It is expected that Nike may have a little more creative freedom with these NBA jerseys. Having said that, with the limitation of space on the NBA jersey canvas (no sleeves, shorts and not pants, no high socks, required number on the front of the jersey), Nike’s design team will have to be resourceful to create a groundbreaking design.

One issue of debate with the new Nike NBA jerseys is whether or not there will be advertising on the jerseys. That question may largely be tied to the television deal with Turner Sports. ESPN Sports Business Reporter, Darren Rovell, says, “With such a large and lucrative ESPN/Turner deal getting done, it brought into question the worry that there might be some companies who might try to cannibalize the business of TV and not buy television advertisements. I think that’s enough of a concern to keep advertisements off jerseys until the end of the TV deal and maybe forever.”

Adam Silver (left), the NBA's current commissioner, and David Stern (right), the NBA's former commissioner, have two different views on the league's jerseys. — Adam Silver (left), the NBA’s current commissioner, and David Stern (right), the NBA’s former commissioner, have two different views on the league’s jerseys.

Now, Adam Silver shares a much different opinion on the NBA’s jerseys than former commissioner David Stern maintained. Stern felt strongly that there should be no other competing brands on the NBA jerseys besides the team brands, which is what negated Adidas putting their trademark logo on the jerseys. Silver, however, not only feels strongly about putting the supplier’s brand on the jerseys, but is also pushing for corporate advertising on the jerseys.

This new deal will have no impact on a few teams who have new uniform designs coming out. The Philadelphia 76ers will be unveiling new uniforms next week; while the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks will be announcing new uniform designs later this summer as well.

Regardless, this is a huge win for Nike. Nike will now have the official jersey deals for the two US professional sports leagues with the widest global marketing reach.

June 11, 2015 1

US vs. Netherlands Points to a Bright Future for the Stars & Stripes

Sure it was just a friendly. Sure, the US roster had plenty of new names on it. Sure, the Netherlands held 62% possession and outshot the US 27-19. And yet Jurgen Klinsmann and the United States were able to overcome a 3-1 deficit to beat the Netherlands 4-3 for the very first time in history.

Not only had the US never won in the Netherlands before, but the US had never scored more than a single goal when playing in the Netherlands. Klinsmann put together a group of 22 players for this pair of friendlies against the Netherlands and Wednesday against Germany, that has a mixture of some older veterans and a healthy dose of younger up and coming players. It is a roster that lacks the regular names like Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, Tim Howard, Jozy Altidore, Alejandro Bedoya or Graham Zussi and was replaced by names like Bobby Wood, Gyasi Zardes, Danny Williams and Jordan Morris. The lack of National Team regulars further contributed to the improbability of the result this past Friday.

Jurgen Klinsmann has been under enormous pressure as the US Men's National Team Head Coach, and for the most part he has delivered. — Jurgen Klinsmann has been under enormous pressure as the US Men’s National Team Head Coach … for the most part he has delivered.

Since Klinsmann has taken over the reigns as the US Men’s National Team Head Coach in July of 2011, the team has gone 3-3-2 against teams in the world’s top-10, including wins at Italy, at Mexico and now the Netherlands. With the win, the team improves to 2-0-1 in their last three games, going into Wednesday’s matchup against Germany. Furthermore, this win against the Netherlands speaks to the progress in player development amongst some of the rising young stars in the US. With guys like Clint Dempsey and Jermaine Jones getting well into their 30’s, the performances from such emerging stars like Bobby Wood (22 years old), Gyasi Zardes (23 years old) and Jordan Morris (20 years old) all speak highly towards the future of US Soccer.

Zardes (left), hugs Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann (right), scored his first international goal against the Netherlands, as did Bobby Wood and Danny Williams. — Gyasi Zardes (left) hugs Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann (right) after scoring his first international goal against the Netherlands. Bobby Wood and Danny Williams also capitalized on their first international goals in the game.

The win over the Netherlands comes in the midst of a successful U20 FIFA World Cup for the Yanks. The US U20 squad has found themselves in the Round of 16, where they’ll take on Columbia on Wednesday after going 2-1 in the group stage. Moreover, the US Women’s National Team will begin play in the Women’s World Cup tonight against Australia. The US Women are among the favorites to win the whole thing. And lastly, the US Men’s National Team will close out an eventful summer for US Soccer with the Gold Cup, as they open up against Honduras on July 7^th.

Paul Arriola has helped lead the US U20's to the Round of 16 in the U20 FIFA World Cup. — Paul Arriola has helped lead the US U20’s to the Round of 16 in the U20 FIFA World Cup.

While this US win over the Netherlands should not be blown out of proportion, as it was merely a friendly; it certainly does speak to the potential of the future given the personnel they used to get the result they did. This result further demonstrates US Soccer’s improvement towards achieving their goal of becoming one of game’s leading nations. With the Women’s World Cup, the U20 World Cup and the Gold Cup upon us, US Soccer has an incredible opportunity towards significantly chipping away at that goal.

June 8, 2015 0

James vs. Curry: Magical Marketing Matchup

The NBA Finals this year features perhaps the most entertaining matchup since Larry Bird and Magic Johnson in the 1980’s. LeBron James, the 4-time NBA MVP and the 2-time NBA Finals MVP is considered the best basketball player on the planet and certainly has the personality to back up his game. His polarizing presence has made him hated by many and a villain looking to dethrone MJ as the best ever. On the other side of the court is Stephen Curry. The humble, soft-spoken kid who got passed over by all the top college programs, to later prove everyone wrong and become the best shooter of the game’s generation, and perhaps of all-time.

While Cleveland and Golden State are not exactly big market basketball cities, the matchup of James vs. Curry is making this Final one of the more hyped matchups in recent years. It is good versus evil. Two kids both born in Akron, Ohio; one of whom exploded as a youth, was a can’t miss athletic specimen, went from the preps to the pros, and was taken #1 in the NBA draft, while the other was a skinny lanky kid who struggled to make his High School basketball team, was overlooked by almost all big college basketball programs, surprised everyone in the NCAA tourney at Davidson, and then exploded to win the 2014-15 NBA MVP.

Lebron James (left) at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and Steph Curry (right) at Charlotte Christian High School.

The story of these two could not be any more different. One is a pure athlete, the other is a pure shooter. Many dislike one, while the other seems to be loved by all. One is supposed to win everything, whereas the other wasn’t supposed to win anything. And yet both were born in the very same town of Akron, Ohio and they meet for the first time in the NBA Finals.

The NBA, as a whole, does an extremely good job at marketing. Their International Global Marketing division has greatly contributed to the league expanding to Latin America, Europe and Asia through various exhibition events, leveraging marquee foreign players, and developing key strategic global partners.

Moreover, the League tends to be opportunistic with moments like this one. Golden State and Cleveland are not exactly huge markets, and yet they have already strategically branded this Final as “James versus Curry.” James and Curry are 1-2 in jersey sales this season, while Curry edged James for the most All-Star votes. Between the two of them, they have been mentioned 28.8 million times since October on Twitter.

Steph Curry has endorsement deals with Under Armour, Degree and Muscle Milk to only name a few.

Both are marketing machines, as James has deals with Nike, Kia, Samsung, among several others, and has his own TV production company. Meanwhile Curry has become one of the most sought-after endorsers in the game today, as he has deals with Under Armour, Muscle Milk and Degree. The baby-faced 25-year-old has about a dozen endorsements that he didn’t have when he was left off last year’s All-Star team and is pulling in about $3.5 million a year off the court.

Simply put, LeBron James and Stephen Curry are the two best in the game today. For that reason alone, the NBA Finals matchup this year is special. On the surface, they are polar opposites: personality, playing style, their paths to this point. And yet here they are, pitted against each other on the game’s largest stage.

The NBA Finals Game 1 is on tonight … and you better believe, people will be watching.

June 4, 2015 0

Tampa Tilting the Trend in Home-Ice Advantage

Chicago Blackhawks fans caused a major stir this week because of the ticket policy the Tampa Bay Lightning has incorporated during their 2015 playoff run. The following disclaimer comes from the Tampa Bay Lightning Ticketmaster site:

Amalie Arena is located in Tampa, FL. Sales to this event will be restricted to

residents of Florida. Residency will be based on credit card billing address.

Orders by residents outside the selected area will be canceled without notice

and refunds given.

Furthermore, for the entirety of the 2015 NHL Playoffs, the Lightning fans sitting in the Chase Club and Lexus Lounge as well as the adjoining sections, are only permitted to wear Tampa Bay Lightning apparel (or neutral). Fans wearing opposing team apparels will be asked to remove them while in these seats.

The Chase Club within Amalie Arena offers a luxury seating experience that will ban all opposing team apparel during 2015 NHL Playoffs. — The Chase Club within Amalie Arena offers a luxury seating experience that will ban all opposing team apparel during the 2015 Playoffs.

While these policies have seemed to disturb some Chicago fans, the Lightning organization is technically doing wrong, as ticket and seating policies (like this one) are left up to the individual teams rather than the National Hockey League. In fact, the Nashville Predators adopted this same strategy earlier in the playoffs in order to boost their “home-ice” advantage. This ticket policy is very quickly becoming a growing trend amongst small market NHL teams.

Time and time again we’ve seen professional teams get in trouble for enhanced crowd noise. The latest case we saw was the NFL fining the Atlanta Falcons 350k and a draft pick for playing “artificial” crowd noise throughout the 2013 season and into the 2014 season. There have been a number of other small market teams who have been investigated for enhanced crowd noise, including the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions.

So the Tampa Bay Lightning are bending their rules on ticket sales, in order to “legally” get to this concept of “increasing home field advantage”. In hockey the concept of “home-ice advantage” has traditionally been less of a true advantage comparatively to other sports like football, baseball and basketball … where crowd noise can be more easily heard and thus used as an advantage. Yet as is the case in all sports in today’s day in age, any advantage whatsoever that can be achieved will be aggressively sought.

In larger sport market cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angles, where the issue of visiting team fans’ outnumbering home team fans is never in question such policies don’t come up in discussion. However, in markets like Tampa Bay, a ticket policy like this one not only brings short term success with the crowd noise advantage, but it also incentives the surrounding Greater Tampa area to potentially become life-tie fans.

Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, is often very empty for most Rays home games.

While the narcissist may argue that it’s times like these where the “bandwagoners” come out of the closest. In reality, the organization is reaching out to the local fan base and capitalizing on an opportunity to expand their fan base. Tampa Bay is the city whose baseball team’s (Tampa Bay Rays) attendance figures are traditionally 5,000 less than the next lowest MLB team’s. The football team (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) finished with the league’s worst record last year and has gone through trouble with TV blackouts. The Lightning organization saw an opportunity to capitalize on the team’s success, and the open market space, and has successfully implemented a ticket policy to encourage locals to come to the arena and potentially becomes lifetime fans. This Stanley Cup will be the first since the Lightning lifted the Cup in 2004.

It would not surprise to see this trend become more popularly implemented ticket policy, specifically during the playoff season across all major sports.

June 2, 2015 0

Following the FIFA Fraud

On May 27^th nine FIFA officials and four sports management company executives were arrested at the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich where they were preparing to attend the 65^th FIFA Congress. The investigation, conducted by the US FBI, linked the senior officials to wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The searched linked officials of continental soccer bodies CONMEBOL (South America) and CONCACAF (Caribbean, Central and North America) and sports marketing executives. The nine FIFA officials were extradited to the United States on suspicion of receiving $150 million in bribes, stretching back 24 years.

A big centerpiece around this whole scandal has been FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who was not among the accused, and in fact was re-elected to his 5^th term as FIFA president. Blatter has spent more than half of his 79-year life with FIFA, as he started as the Director of Development Programs, then General Secretary, and since 1998, he has been the President (standing unopposed in 2007 and 2011). Over that time FIFA has made a fortune through marketing partnerships, sponsorship deals, and television contracts. FIFA boasted revenues of $5.7 billion and $1.5 billion in cash reserves between 2011-2014.

Although Blatter did win the reelection last week, there is more bad news expected to come his way from the American Justice System. And fallout from his election could bring pressure from football’s European Confederation, UEFA, which has the power to splinter the world’s governing body. Blatter isn’t any stranger to adversity though. In 2004, Blatter was severely criticized for his comments on Women’s Football saying, “Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts.” Responding to Qatar laws on homosexuality, he said, “I’d say the [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities.” Blatter later apologized for both comments.

Despite that, and the allegations of the fraud within his own organization, Blatter remains. For now, he has survived another crisis, but he will need all of his political tenacity to stay atop the organization for the remainder of his upcoming 5^th term.

The suspicion and conspiracy against the FIFA officials started back in 2012 with the Garcia Report. The report was produced by Michael Garcia, a US attorney, who was appointed by Blatter to be the chairman of the investigative branch of the Ethics Committee. The report breaks down the bidding process and decision to award the right to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup to Russia and Qatar. Specifically, in May 2011, while before a British parliamentary inquiry, the former chairman of England’s failed 2018 bid, David Triesmann, accused FIFA executive committee members Jack Warner, Worawi Makudi, Nicolas Leoz and Ricardo Teixeira of requesting bribes from the English team in exchange for support. The inquiry also received evidence that FIFA executive committee members Issa Hayatou and Jacques Anouma were reportedly bribed with $1.5 million by the Qatar team.

The FIFA officials that were indicted last week included:

Jeffrey Webb – President of the Confederation of North, Central America and

Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)

Jack Warner – The Former President of CONCACAF

Eduardo Li – current FIFA executive committee president and president of

the Costa Rican soccer federation

Julio Rocha – current FIFA development officer and former head of the

Central American Football Union

Costas Takkas – an attache and former general secretary of the Cayman

Islands Football Association

Eugenio Figueredo – current FIFA vice president and executive Committee Members

Rafael Esquivel – president of the Venezuelan soccer federation

Jose Maria Marin – member of the FIFA organizing committee for the Olympic football tournament

Nicolas Leoz – former FIFA executive committee member

Alejandro Burzaco – a sports marketing executive based in Argentina

Aaron Davidson – president of Traffic Sports USA

Hugo and Mariano Jinkis – principals of Full Play Group, a sports marketing business based in Argentina

These indictments were the result and culmination of a three-year investigation of FIFA. So what does this mean for the future of FIFA? What about the future of the world’s most popular sport?

These are questions that will ultimately play themselves out over time. This scandal is obviously not good press for the sport, as it brings to light many things that the sport’s governing body has tried to hide for decades and decades. Soccer has operated for several years under an ugly cloud of allegations related to match-fixing in professional leagues and bribery in connection with the hosting of the sport’s premier competition, the World Cup.

Having said that, the Garcia Report along with these pending arrests and indictments does, in a way, bring some closure to a long talked about culture of bribery and corruption. The Ethics Committee ultimately did their job in bringing to light the fraud that was occurring and these arrests were a consequence of that. Time will tell, what else will come to light through the judicial process; however Blatter and the remaining top management at FIFA have both a challenge and opportunity to rebrand the world’s most popular sport’s governing body.

With such big soccer events coming up in the next two months like the FIFA U20 World Cup (happening now in New Zealand), the UEFA Champions League Final between Barcelona and Juventus (June 6), the Women’s World Cup in Canada (June 6-July 5), and the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the US (July 6-26), the sport will certainly maintain outlets to shift the focus from the FIFA scandal.

It will undoubtedly be interesting to see how FIFA is able to maintain it’s power and brand through this crisis.

June 1, 2015 0

Ben_Slingerland

The Business of Sports

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