Baseball Is America

In many ways, baseball, much more so than basketball and football, is a sport whose character most closely resembles the American spirit and the Anglo-Saxon Protestant myth of our nation’s beginnings. It is a thinking man’s game, cerebral in every way imaginable. Moreover, out of the Enlightenment came our respect for reason and the idea that the proof of things rests in our ability to observe, measure, count and quantify them. In this regard, baseball satisfies this passion one-hundred times over—all sports pale in comparison to baseball when it comes to statistics. There are runs to count, hitting percentages to compute, steals to total and hits to tally. The game is exceedingly orderly and when combined with its cerebral undertones it satisfies the American appreciation for enlightened reason.

Baseball, like America, has a high regard for the individual and his achievements. Baseball puts each player in the spotlight at a single time. Standing alone in the chalked box, the batter has only himself and all of his instinct and experience in making the decision to swing or not. If he strikes out he is chastised. It he belts one over the fence he is revered. Indeed, the story is the same on defense. Tradition puts fielders where they play and each man has his distinct position or territory. When the ball is hit between second and third base it is the shortstop—not the second basemen or the outfielder—that must play the ball. Each player’s position has its traditional sovereignty. Just like countries, when defenders invade one another’s space trouble is bound to ensue.

Unlike baseball, football requires a supremely close interaction of players. The linemen need to block in order for the quarterback to throw or for the running-back to run. In this sense, basketball and football is corporate—it depends on the fluid and unitary movement of several athletes. Baseball is associational. As Michael Novak asserts, “baseball is a Lockean game, a kind of contract theory in ritual for a set of atomic individuals who assent to patterns of limited cooperation in their mutual interest.” Yes, there is a team baseball. But it is the amalgamation of distinctly individual efforts that achieve the team goal.

Nevertheless, while baseball elevates and accentuates individual achievement, there are elements of justness and equality that likewise show American values of the same elements. Though baseball teams have managers and captains and players are compensated at different levels, the importance of ‘team’ remains high.

The viability of communal strength rests in baseball’s intrinsic balances of power. Here too, we see the innate undercurrents of Americanism running and weaving through the sport of baseball. Baseball is to games what “the Federalist Papers are to books: reasoned, judiciously balanced, incorporating segments of violence and collision in a larger plan of rationality, absolutely dependent on an interiorization of public rules.” Like the balance between a judge and the accused, there is a similar balance of power between a pitcher and a hitter, and between a runner and an umpire. Even the field itself is balanced: the distance between the pitchers slab and home plate, the height of fences, the length and weight of the bat. Slight changes to any of these things could fundamentally shift the balance and outcome of events.

Finally, baseball can be said to resemble a form of checks and balances—much like the design of our federal government. It requires a bit of poetic license but, in a sense, batters step up to the plate one by one and are like unitary executive; the defense, acting together like the legislature, forms a check on the batters, their executive counterparts; the umpires lay down their judgments like the judiciary checking both the batters and the defense. The analogies are far from exact. But they do work to show that the principles of balance at work in our system of government, of which we are so fond, exist in baseball as well.

Quote of the Week: Dicky V

If you could choose another sport for Dick Vitale to call, what would it be? Football? Eh, probably not. Baseball? Definitely not! Though I can't imagine the guy not doing college basketball, perhaps he'd be most suited to call a boxing match. I could see, no wait, hear that in my head.

But it turns out Vitale wants none of that. In another life, he said he'd want to announce tennis. Tennis?

"Tennis. I would change the complexion of tennis broadcasting. It'd be a hoot. They wouldn't know what hit him," Dick said with the requisite enthusiasm that could only emanate from his vocal chords.

Tennis? Haha, are you kidding me?

Fantasy (Reality) Sports-- Test Case in UK Soccer

Branching out, researching and learning about other sports is one of my favorite aspects of writing this blog. Soccer has been particularly interesting to learn about—from league structures, to marketing strategies and from player transactions to fan culture.

This is a great idea out of the UK’s Ebbsfleet United fans. First, imagine a team that needs to raise capital. Now imagine a group of fans frustrated with management and the team’s direction. Seizing these sentiments, Will Brooks, a former advertising executive, set up the website MyFootballClub.co.uk. He created a trust to raise money to buy a team that would allow investors to take part in all of the team’s decisions, from player acquisitions to jersey design.

Successful? Brooks’ fund raised $400,000 dollars on the first day and now has approximately 31,000 members/owners. This past February the members voted to purchase Ebbsflleet for just over $1,000,000. What was once fantasy is now a fabled story as the team that once struggled just won the equivalent of a minor league championship.

The team has a one investor, one vote principle. So as long as you pay the sixty dollar annual fee you too can have a say in the club’s operations. In fact, the members voted on the team’s website to sell striker John Akinde for a quarter million.

Sure there are potential hiccups. Should the coach or the fans/owners/non-experts be making the day to day decisions? But while there are weekly votes, most fans are acquiescing and are ceding most authority to the coach. Nevertheless, this experiment in fan ownership is fascinating. In an age of mass consumerism many fans feel like just another face in the crowd, another guy to be pitched to. But this creates the closest relationship one can have with his team. Fans/owners of Ebbsfleet have expressed a true family feeling. The team has gained serious recognition and is attracting marketers and advertisers enthralled with the concept.

It remains to be seen, however, if this concept could ever be replicated in other sports—let alone work with teams in larger more lucrative leagues. The answer is probably not but I could see this concept making its way to minor league baseball or the Canadian Football League.

Some Good News from Sports Retailers

During down times it’s always nice to get some good news. Before this Black Friday, most signs pointed to weak retail performance which would have left stores in the red. Well, they’re not quite black yet but retail sales experienced a 3% gain over last year continuing the upward trend. Moreover, it turns out that sports retailers performed particularly well.

The online stores for both the NFL and the NBA posted record increases as compared to last year. The NBAStore.com and its New York City outpost had a combined sales increase of 38%. Their best selling item? Chris Paul jersey. Record sales for NFLShop.com made Black Friday their third highest grossing day ever. Jets sales, aided by Brett Favre, had sales up almost 400% and Giants sales were just about half that. Even the out of season MLB brought in 25% more in sales this season.

What contributed to these gains? For one, shoppers who have been sitting on their wallets and cash-stuffed mattresses finally opened them up and came out looking bargains. Secondly, the latter part of the previous sentence probably accounts for most of the gains. Clever and strategic bargain packaging yielded high volume sales. Discounts, two-for-ones, and other bundling were all at work on Friday.

Bottom Line: It’s a simple but important to remember sales strategy—even if your price is lower, so long as you sell a lot of it you can still post robust sales.

Identity First, Then Branding

The obvious goal in the marketing of an athlete is to ultimately create a brand. Michael Jordan is the most obvious example and Tiger Woods is close on his heals. But despite this relatively universal objective, very few athletes actually achieve it. I think the problem is that sometimes we are overly focused on the end result and, as a result, we overlook the necessary but smaller steps that lead to eventual success. In this case, before we can get to the point of brand creation we need to discover and foster a robust identity for the athlete.

An athlete’s marketing and PR plan should look to create a universally recognizable identity that favors maximizing reach and awareness. A clear and well crafted message helps to define the athlete’s identity. His/her identity could be grounded in personality, demographics, life story/background, or the social causes the athlete stands behind.

Once the message has been established it should be disseminated through all forms of media and marketing tactics. This means partnering with sponsors, charities and businesses that go beyond the playing arena. It also entails maximizing outreach beyond the traditional media platforms. Go after TV and print media for sure, but also make sure to use the internet and blogs in an attempt to reach new audiences. Then use these opportunities to highlight the athlete’s messages and identity. Make sure to emphasize the athlete’s goals and beliefs that go past sports while still mentioning the athlete’s impact on the game in which he/she participates. The more an athlete goes beyond sports, the more likely it is that he/she will become a household name.

Thus, don’t start out and get caught up in strictly branding issues. Build up to it. A strong identity that reaches the far and wide will make the creation of a brand that much easier.

The Future of Sports Viewing Technology

I love High-Def. When I watch a game that’s not in HD I have this urge to phone a FCC specialist lawyer to right the injustice. But when I watch in HD and see the individual blades of grass on the baseball field, the area codes on the eye-black of football players or the spraying of divots on a golf course, I wonder: How can this get any better!? In 50 years, will HD look like what broadcasts of the 1950’s look like today? At what point will we reach the point of diminishing returns as it relates to sports viewing technology.

According to the industry’s scientists and engineers, we’re not there yet. The NFL is spearheading efforts to yield the next level of innovation—games in 3-D. Next week, select audiences in Los Angles, New York and Boston will be shown the matchup between the Chargers and Raiders in 3-D theaters. According to today’s WSJ, 3ality Digital LLC will shoot the game and will feed their footage to satellites. The satellite technology is being handled by Thomson SA’s Technicolor Digital Cinema and they will downlink 3ality’s footage to the three theatres. Real D 3D will carry the football across the goal-line by powering the theaters’ 3D displays.

The NFL and the three partnered companies are excited to see the improvements made to their technology over the past few years. In 2004, 3ality filmed the Super Bowl and the results of that filming has led to continued research and development—the biggest of which is the ability to perform live broadcasting.

It is important to note that this technology is a ways off in terms of making it into living rooms across the country. This is still just a “proof of concept,” said Howard Katz, the NFL’s Senior VP of broadcasting and media operations. The purpose of next week’s event “let people get excited about [the concept].” Either way, it’s still fun to peer into what the future may have in store.

Ticket Pricing Strategies

With the current economic conditions hurting everyone under the sun, sports teams are scrambling to figure out the best ways to keep butts in seats.

The New York Knicks have decided to start selling discounted tickets at COSCO. Select seats will be sold at a 40% discount. So, while you’re out picking up a 1364 oz. jar of mayonnaise and a package of 672 rolls of toilet paper you can pick just a pair of seats in the 300 level at a pretty good bargain.

Is this a good strategy? In my opinion, it’s not. Sure, the team gets exposure to potential customers in an unlikely place and the spread of the message is wide. Nevertheless, I don’t think offering a flat discount is the best way to stop the hemoraghing of fans from a team’s stadium. First of all, people will begin to interpret what was once a value product for something that is discounted. The inherent perception will be that since the cost is discounted, the product must be too. Furthermore, people may become used to the discount and will be less than pleased when the team tries to raise prices. Cutting consumer costs by 40% sounds great but an increase of the same size is less than palatable all fans. Thus, it’s a short-term strategy that in the long-run may turn sour—especially if the Knicks can’t turn around their franchise.

A better idea might be to just put a freeze on ticket prices. This is exactly what the Boston Red Sox have done and other teams across all sports, including NCAA, are following suit.

But an even better idea would be to attach “value added” item to the current price of a ticket. For instance, the Knicks could freeze ticket prices but offer certain “All You Can Eat” sections. Or create a package deal such as a “Family Knight Out” where the team sells four tickets plus drinks and hot dogs for a certain deal. Minor league baseball teams survive on these sorts of gimmicks and strategies.

The bottom line is that you don’t want to do anything that might degrade the value of your team’s product. Discounting tickets might work today, but in a few months it’ll be hard to raise prices. Teams would be better off think of ways to implement “value added” strategies that at least give the perception to fans that their getting their money’s worth in these tough economic times.

Cause Related Marketing Works

Businesses and brands constantly search for the most effective means by which to market their products. What messaging should be employed? How can you leverage the position of an influential messenger, such as an athlete, into something even more powerful and effectual? One way is cause-related marketing—the best example of which in the sports world has to be Lance Armstrong. As a recent study carried out jointly by Cone and the Duke University Fuqua School of Business verified, cause-related marketing has the power to increase sales significantly.

The study involved 182 participants and evaluated their experiences reading a regional magazine in which they were exposed to either a generic or cause-related corporate advertisement for several focus brands. The participants were then taken to a simulated convenience store which “sold” various products, including the four focus brands. With real money in hand, the study’s authors tracked the purchasing behavior of the participants.

The results revealed:

· 74% increase in actual purchase for a shampoo brand when associated with a cause (47% of participants who saw the cause-related message chose the brand while only 27% of those who saw the generic corporate advertisement chose the brand)
· 28% increase in actual purchase for a toothpaste brand when associated with a cause (64% of participants who saw the cause message chose the target brand vs. 50% who viewed the generic corporate advertisement)

The study found, through the participants’ qualitative responses, that the type of issue, the type of non-profit backing the issue, as well as the type of product affected the decisions of the participants. Results of the study also found that 84% want to select their own cause, 83% say personal relevance is critical, 80% think the specific nonprofit associated with the campaign matters, and 77% say practical incentives for involvement, such as saving money or time, are important.

Though this study dealt with the marketing of consumer staples, there no reason why this would not apply to sports marketing. The best and most persuadable campaigns should focus on causes that are generally universally relevant, such as illnesses like cancer or issues of education. They should also have a legitimate and trustworthy non-profit backing them and should give incentives to the customer.

More Hurt From the Economic Environment

This from the NY Times:

“The L.P.G.A. will be down two to three tournaments next year and $4 million to $5 million in prize money. Its major concern now is sponsorship renewal and negotiating expanded television contracts for 2010. The Sports Business Daily reported this week that only 5 of the 24 events scheduled in the United States and Canada had contracts with title sponsors beyond next year.”

The PGA is a bit better off, but not by much. They did, after all, have a falling out with GM last week and the car-maker will be eliminating a sizeable chunk of their backing.

The NFL's Expansion Abroad

I’ve seen several reports recently hinting at the possibility of the NFL expanding to England. Wouldn’t that be something? What would they call it? Soccer?

With the recent success of the revised NFL International Series, the prospect of an expansion team playing in London is not outside the realm of possibility. Commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as saying, “it would be a great thing for the league. If the response keeps continuing this way, that's a realistic possibility.”

And so far, the response has been great. More than 83,000 fans turned out at Wembley Stadium to watch the 37-32 victory by the New Orleans Saints over the San Diego Chargers. Furthermore, the first batch of 45,000 tickets released in May sold out in 90 minutes, and a second batch of 15,000 went off the market in 30 minutes when they were put on sale in June. Interest in American Football has increased, particularly in England, and the Guardian Newspaper has even begun to cover the NFL season regularly. Should such fan interest remain strong over the next two years—the NFL has committed to two more games at this point—then an expansion team will be even more likely.

Such a decision would necessitate scheduling changes but NFL owners have begun discussing the option of cutting the number of pre-season games from five to three. This would free up plans to expand the length of the regular season and would allow for the logistics of playing on the other side of the Atlantic.

But the larger point here is the nascent success of the NFL’s expansion. The league launched the “NFL International Series” in 2005 as a way to expand and introduce the NFL brand to new markets around the world. The International Series basically works to raise the profile of the league by showcasing competitive regular season games—in the past, the NFL hosted “friendly matches” abroad that were about as competitive as the Pro Bowl.

The first game of the International Series occurred in 2005 at the Estadio Aztecs in Mexico City and pitted the 49ers against the Cardinals. The record crowd of 103,000 signaled the potential of an expanded NFL. In 2006, the Series moved to London and will continue to host a game per year through 2010. 2008 will also witness the first regular season game played in Canada when the Bills take on the Dolphins on December 7th.

Addendum— More NFL in London would mean more access to the kind of honest commentary and writing that only the Brits can provide. This from the Guardian: “When the NFL wants to advertise its parity, it should present the Chicago Bears centre stage. On the verge of becoming a top, top team when they reached the 2007 Super Bowl, now they are distinctly average on offense, average on defense, average on special teams and, yep, average on coaching. Just how the socialist NFL likes it.” HA! I’ll take this over John Clayton any day.