Why We Have Come To Love Sport & Why That Is A Good Thing

...a continuation of the previous post...

But these lines of thinking fall short of reality and reveal a serious misperception. One refutation has its roots in historical change. The other lies in the nature of the human and American spirit. In terms of the first refutation, simply put, it is no longer 1836 nor is it 1890. We are a vastly different country now due to natural societal changes that have put Puritan and Victorian modes of living on the back burner. Though baseball has its nascent roots in the latter quarter of the nineteenth-century, the sport really did not flourish until the first quarter of the twentieth. By this time, America was more tolerant of sport and had even become an advocate for its benefits.[i] And though baseball is American, the influx of immigrants from Europe in the early 1900s made the country more Catholic and more Jewish and more diverse. These groups brought with them new notions of play that have given the concept various intellectual traditions. They themselves did not create an environment accepting of play—indeed it was a mixture with shifting American trends—but the two blended together and acted together to create a space for sport in the minds of many former unbelievers.

Ultimately, to discount play and sport is to deny a fundamental part of the human condition. After all, the fundamental essence of the human spirit is play. As Michael Novak so appropriately explains:

The basic reality of all human life is play, games, sport; these are the
realities from which the basic metaphors for all that is important in the rest
of life are drawn. Work, politics, and history are the illusionary,
misleading, false world. Being, beauty, truth, excellence, transcendence—these
words, grown in the soil of play, wither in the sand of work…Play belongs to the
Kingdom of Ends, work to the Kingdom of Means. Barbarians play in order to
work; the civilized work in order to play.[ii]

To be sure, work has its utility. The individual learns strong lessons and society reaps the benefits of the individual's work. But in some sense, work is a fabrication; a necessary function that works to impel society forward. The same goes for politics. But play and sport is different. It is hard to defend intellectually and even harder to put in words, but we know that play is in the "Kingdom of Ends" because in all of us burns the desire to play. If given the choice, most (it should be all) would choose play over work. Sport is not a distraction from work; work is a distraction from play.

In separating myth and reality, we find that work goes with the former and play with the latter. Work comes to us out of necessity. We must do work to provide food, to discover better health treatments, and to write laws that create peaceful society. Indeed, work is supported by the age old myth of that the fundamental purpose of humans is too improve the world. But is that all that we are about? Is our sole function to discover new medicines, invent new technology, create complex financial instruments, and improve our ability to build cities and all of its institutions? This is not to say that progress is a bad thing—to be sure, far from it. Of course it should be noted that we have made great strides in becoming more egalitarian as a society, and our work to make the world safer and more just are surely noble pursuits. But despite all of our work, the never-ending toils of life abide. Death persists, murder and crime continues, and the Earth maintains its orbit around the sun.

Thus play deserves greater attention and respect. We engage in too much of it for it to be overlooked and discredited. It necessitates our study because in sport and play we find the values “grown in its soil”: being, beauty, truth, excellence, transcendence. Work, friends, society and history will eventually pass us by. But the aforementioned qualities will never cease. They will forever maintain their value and utility. These qualities are reality. The study of and the participation in sport is imperative because sport works to better ourselves and reveals to us the important qualities of a good and rigorous life. Again, this is not to say that we should abandon work and progress. Instead, we can look to sport for the qualities that aid and inform our work and relationships—but we should not deny that these qualities are illuminated most brightly in sport.

[i] Nemec et al., 87.
[ii]Michael Novak, The Joy of Sports: End Zones, Bases, Baskets, Balls and the Consecration of the American Spirit, (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1976), xxi.

The Roots of American Disdain of Sport

Many people firmly believe that sport does not deserve a moments thought nor any form of dedicated study. Indeed, many share a passionate disdain for sport—and baseball in particular—as a distraction from the important things in life. Surely three hours in the library, plowing the fields, or engaging in civic activism is time better spent than watching a ball game. Surely conversation should be more concerned with politics and fine art than the World Series or the designated hitter. Surely conversation centered on Plato, or Joyce is more rewarding and builds more character than a debate over who will win the NL West or who should be MVP. As a journalist once said, “to love sports is to love the lowest common denominator, to be lower-class, adolescent, patriotic in a corny way.” I dissent, respectfully.

Nevertheless, if we are to assert that baseball does indeed breed national character and that it is inherently American, then we must do our due diligence in exploring why so many pass over sport as being a side-car, a distraction. After all, America's roots in the Puritan work ethic in some ways necessitate an opposition to sports. For the most part, as America was being built and was growing, her citizens did not play—they worked. When Alexis de Tocqueville traveled to America he was somewhat intrigued by American values of work. He noted that Americans did not play, had no real sports, teams or leagues. He found that Americans centered their lives on work not leisure.

Play for play's sake was frowned upon during de Tocqueville's visit and continued throughout the 19th century. The Puritan and Victorian values that were en mode at the time were particularly antithetical to sports and play. These ethics and principles have led us to seriously undervalue sports. Back then sports were not only a distraction from work but led to individual and societal moral degradation.

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.