Lacrosse

The Latest Niche Sport Goes Down…RIP AVP

August 15, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Late Friday afternoon, after most of the business world was done for the August week, came the release that the AVP had closed its doors.  Despite the success of the Olympics, the marketability of its mature stars, the work of former head Leonard Armato and current head Jason Hodell to build interest and following as a lifestyle sport, the end came in mid-season.  It was not for a lack of committment by those running the business, or by its players or its fans.  The AVP had even scored a big victory in January by keeping beach volleyball as an NCAA sport, and a flood of new sponsors…KFC, Nivea…had come on in recent months.  So why did the AVP join the ranks of the AFL, the IFL, the MISL, the USL,  the AAFL and so many other niche leagues?  It is more a reflection of the continued issues in the economic climate which still has yet to recover.  If major sports that have massive audiences, long term media partners, and major brands behind them are struggling to find ROI, then the smaller guys are still the first and the easiest to go.  For all the spending that is done at the highest levels of sport…World Cup, NASCAR, the four major sports in the North America, and even now in MLS…the decision makers can still point to millions, not thousands, who will see the product and the brands that are associated with them. While it is true that there are smaller brands looking to activate against a core audience, you still need major exposure to generate the kind of revenue needed to support and sustain an organization for the long run.  The AVP was also burdened with the problem of facility…each week a new stadium had to be built and configured in a new site to make the sport run well.  It would be like moving a golf course or tennis courts from one place to the next each week.  very, very expensive and very cost prohibitive.

Can Lacrosse Finally Make The Jump As A Worthwhile Branding Opportunity?

May 10, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

It has happened consistently for the past three or four springs.  There is a whirlwind of activity around lacrosse, especially at the college level.  Lacrosse opened the new Meadowlands Stadium with over 25,000 fans…lacrosse at the collegiate level is making its way west, with a thriving program now at the University of Denver, a state (Colorado) which has seen immense grassroots growth for the game. The Ivy League chose lacrosse to be its first sport to have a post-season tournament. The NCAA’s are almost here, which will lead to massive- crowds in Baltimore for the Final Four at the end of the month. It has tremendous grassroots interest, especially among girls and its World Cup event does well.  Yet the professional game remains fractured, with the indoor and outdoor games being run by different groups with no continuity, and the indoor professional team in the hotbed area of New York was again a failure and is long gone.  There is no consistent television partner and the brands that have chosen to activate in the space appeal more to its core audience than to the mainstream.  So eventhough there is talk of growth, immense growth at the grassroots level, can lacrosse ever become a viable sport for brands to activate with and against?

Fragmentation In Niche Sports Proves To Be A Killer…

July 3, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Speaking with one voice, whether it is to a business partner, the media, or to fans is always important, especially in the alphabet soup of niche or second tier sports. With the limited dollars and eyeballs available for the casual fan, splitting the marketplace with alphabet soup of organizations usually leads to confusion and can ultimately drive partners on to a platform which is much more simple to understand. The latest example of split markets being a killer is in indoor soccer, which despite the huge success the outdoor game is seeing in the US, just fell further off the roadmap this week. Last year the Indoor game split into two “leagues,” both of which struggled for any kind of existence in far-off marketplaces, and despite the local success of teams like the Milwaukee Wave and the New Jersey Ironmen (who were in two different leagues by the way) the sport is on the verge of extinction. Another sport teetering but doing better with some unity is lacrosse, where the National Lacrosse League extended commissioner George Daniel this week, sending a positive message to all involved. Still, lacrosse, indoor and outdoor, needs to be presented as one platform to be an effective tool, but at least in their case the sport has a platform of success to build on. Indoor soccer has hurt itself with divergent forces for the indoor game, forces which told the sports world they were too fragmented to present a unified front, and in the end, all suffered. Would having one unified league have worked? Perhaps. But with the alphabet soup presented last winter to fans, media partners and business partners there was no chance of survival in an already tight marketplace. Hopefully the indoor game can be resurrected and lifted by the continued success of the outdoor product, but with too many cooks it will be next to impossible to deliver.

College Athletic Branding…Crisis or Opportunity?

June 1, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Recently there has been a great deal written on issues with regard to college athletics…a recent USA Today piece pointed to the cutbacks athletic departments, especially mid-major schools, have to make to try and get things in line, while this past week the New York Times had an extensive piece on how college graduates looking for job opportunities face very dire odds and another on how students are now balking at fees for athletics as part of actvities, and Friday the Wall Street Journal had a piece on how the Ivies could, and maybe should, retool their athletics and give rewards along the lines of what they do for successful applicants in academia or the arts. All of this seems to be adding up to a crisis in an area…academia…where many times the mainstream looks for answers and innovation in any area of business. Even more troubling is the fact that athletics could and should be generating income and potential new media revenue streams for schools at every level, if the investment is made in finding those streams. After all, aren’t many of today’s growth areas…green technology, new media, social networking…platforms created by those in or just out of school who are able to seize opportunity? So is it a case of college athletics being too unwieldy, or is it the old adage of “the cobblers feed are the worst shod” coming true? It is probably a little of both, but there remains a great untapped opportunity in college athletics for brand building and grassroots growth. Two recent examples of untapped growth are the NCAA lacrosse championships and the ongoing NCAA baseball and softball championships. In the case of lacrosse, Memorial Day weekend saw huge crowds and excitement generated by Syracuse’s overtime win over Cornell, and similar excitement at the women’s and lower level championships. Yet as the season ends, so do the stories, and any brands looking to attach themselves year round to the sport through on-campus and fan activation. Similar, this past weekend saw the longest game in NCAA baseball history between Boston College and Texas, and will lead to more excitement as the College World Series moves on to Omaha, with the next level of stars of the sport coming out. Yet college baseball remains undermarketed as a spring brand, along with softball. Is it because schools only see the money train in football and hoops? Or is it because schools fail to make the investment in athletic sales and marketing due to a rift between the academic and athletic sides of most institutions? It was interesting that some of the best college branding consultants, including award-winning IMG, were singled out at this week’s Sports Business Journal awards for their work. IMG’s biggest growth opportunity this year is creating and implementing their college consulting division, which shows the biggest schools where the branding value…and cash…is. So what are the next steps toward opportunity? First, colleges of all sizes must learn from the best practices of minor league sports, which are able to translate every opportunity into year-round community branding and brand building. Second, colleges should invest wisely in staff, especially in the communications and marketing areas. Effectively spending money on staff to make money back will go a long way, as opposed to the usual turnover that occurs in many places with inexperienced and underpaid staff. Third, having a university’s athletic group in lock step with the overall school communications and maketing group is important. In many places the two groups have no contact, and the lack of open communication makes it an us vs. them workplace which makes small problems huge. Fourth, encourage networking within the industry. Many times colleges do not consult with local professional brands or teams on best practices and resources, and by staying a part of a professional network both sides may learn and benefit from the other. Five, prove and merchandise value to the school. The cyclical nature of college athletics leads little time for effective communication and marketing reports that show true value and return on ROI. take the time to compile and show value added, and most importantly, make sure that those academic decision-makers are aware of the efforts invested in growing the school image. The individual college as a brand to be marketed remains valuable. Schools have loyal followings, a young, core audience looking for diverse interests, a deep data base of successful alumni, brands that have value, deep history and tremendous stories of current past and future success to be told. Mining all that and putting together effective packages, if not to make money then to defer some costs as opposed to cutting, can make college athletics the trend-setters in the future like many of their academic counterparts are trend-setters in the present.

Panthers Dentist Takes A Title Sponsorship For Kids Day…

January 9, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Last year the St. Paul Saints sold their stadium naming rights for a game to some enterprising fans, and as teams, especially those in challenging markets, look for unique and noteworthy revenue and exposure, the idea of titleing a day for your sons Bar Mitzvah or your daughter’s Sweet Sixteen may become more run of the mill.  Especially for those in entertainment looking to build some brand recognition, maybe a niche could be spun off of not just an individual sponsor when it is a company, but an individual sponsor that is really one person.  Now you would have to find people in a challenged economy looking to throw that money at a team, but why couldn’t it be tied to a charity…Joe Smith Day, presented for (as opposed to by) Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia?  These thoughts are spurred by Sarah Talalay’s piece in the Sun Sentinel today, which talks about the Florida Panthers committment to family and hosting another kids day this weekend.  Unusal? No.  What is different is the sponsor is a dentist.  Not a medical group, but one enterprising dentist,  Dr. Larry Kawa, team dentist. Now in all probability Dr. Larry didnt lay out what cost title sponsors would normally for such an event, since he is associated with the team, but how many teeth can Dr. Larry straighten in exchange for the title sponsorship?  Still, for distressed inventory, it makes for some interesting possibilities, and in second tier sports with low costs for some sponsorships, it makes for more buzz than an outfield wall or a dasher board, or a unique way to enhance the overall package.  Good job by the Panthers, good luck Dr. Larry.

The NBA Continues to Brand “Basketball” Worldwide And At Home…

November 25, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Many times sports get caught up in their own branding opportunities, often at the expense of the greater good of the sport they represent.  There have been countless stories of MLB chasing down rights fees for Little League or the Cape Cod League, or Major League Lacrosse and the National Lacrosse League fighting against themselves for marketing space and fan dollars.  While in many cases the ideal is valid, the execution may not be, and the brand becomes more important than the essence of the sport.  One league which has seen the growth of the sport as the next evolution in its brand success is the NBA, and the continued recent developments with worldwide and grassroots partnerships show that David Stern’s vision, now more global and more towards all things basketball, is a smart way to marry all aspects of the game and aggregate worldwide eyes and content, which will again be best for the game.  This week’s  Sports Business Journal shows two of the most recent manifestations of that vision.  The first is with the NBA’s new partnership with the Harlem Globetrotters, one of the sports biggest ambassadors worldwide but until today a brand outside of the NBA scope of assets.  The second was the announcement of  Kevin Weiberg to oversee the NBA’s new partnership with the NCAA.  Both relationships may not be 100% favorable to dollars and NBA brand today, but they show to the world an investment in the sport amongst its partners that many other sports are not willing to make, usually for the sake of a dollar today.  That investment, along with the good will and partnership opportunities to be potentially created, will bear fruit as the investment plays out, and makes the NBA as a brand, and then the sport as a whole, more valuable for the future. 

Blazing A Startup Sports Brand Trail Correctly…

September 6, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The passion and enthusiasm and the dollars involved in getting a new brand off the ground, or re-establishing a staid one, are so important in phase one of a launch.  However in sports, like in an entertainment or a restauraunt or any other start up launch, tempering enthusiasm, living within budget, connecting to the community around you and growing in effective stages (especially in today’s economy) are also key elements that often get lost in the shuffle.  The UFL, the IFL, the WUSA, the ABL, the New Jersey Gladiators, the AAFL are just some examples of recent startup ventures that had the best of intentions and a lot of the money but missed on some of the key elements in order to complete long term success and vision.  Now into the fold comes the NLL Boston Blazers.   Already the Blazers appear to have hit on many key elements needed for success…unique, well funded promotions, an understanding of the market, an arena that has interest in them as a tenant, a sport that is “perceived” to be hot, and owners who are both passionate and fiscally responsible about the product.  There is no doubt that Boston is a lacrosse town, and the Blazers have made the right first steps in the community to build market awareness.  Whether that can translate into financial success in a region that has had more than its share of onfield success lately, or whether that success at first is even needed, remains to be seen.  But at first glance the Blazers have pushed the right buttons and could follow the successful stories of franchises in the NLL like Philly and Denver who have done well both in fan perception and at the box office.  So long as the path they blaze remains slow, steady and responsible.

Making A Raquet With A Branding Campaign…Tennis, NHRA and Lacrosse

June 20, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With The Championships, Wimbledon, the third leg of tennis’ Grand Slam almost upon us, the WTA Tour made not just a loud branding statement, but a loud financial branding statement with their announcement of a $15 Million multi-year international branding campaign designed to re-introduce the casual sports fand to the stars of women’s tennis. It is the latest in a series of very bold moves by the WTA to find ways to set themselves apart and bring in the casual fan, and the sponsor dollar, that is very necessary in returning the sport to even its heyday of the late 1990’s. The move by CEO Larry Scott makes a great deal of sense…it shows the players, their title sponsor (Sony Ericsson) and other second tier sports that the WTA is putting serious dollars into brand building. Now are the dollars serious enough to make a dent? Some of that will have to be proven by the PR commitment and effort the Tour makes to put its top stars in highly visible and aggressive and unique PR campaigns, and in individual sports (the Tour learned this with a very public tiff with Maria Sharapova in Rome earlier this year) the player schedule and outside comittments can sometimes make that difficult. The biggest way for this to succeed, much in the way NASCAR has its success, is to make sure that all parties…athletes, agents, tournaments, staff…are ALL pulling in the same direction and with a level of cooperation. The game is good, now the stories have to be told better.

No Lax of Support, But Can It Transfer Into Consistent Business And Branding?

May 28, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Once again this weekend, and really for the last few weeks, the great game of lacrosse grabbed its share of headlines, with Syracuse winning the Division I men’s title in Foxboro, Mass, Northwestern taking the women’s title in Towson, Maryland, and even the NLL Buffalo Bandits taking the indoor title with a last second 14-13 win over Portland earlier this month. On top of that, the ESPN-backed outdoor Major League Lacrosse season just kicked off, with all the intensity of coverage that “The Worldwide Leader In Sports” can help with.  This past weekend produced great pieces in the Providence Journal and the Boston Globe about the growth of the sport on the grassroots side and the hope of lucrative professional efforts for indoor and outdoor lacrosse in New England, while a host of media outlets took the time to cover both championships, highlighted by a great SI.com piece by Nina Mandell on brain cancer survivor Jaclyn Murphy and the way the Wildcats have helped her.  From St. Catherines Ontario to Roanoke, Virginia, solid support for lacrosse as a sport came forth, all signaling a potential bright future.  However as we have all seen in many sports on the edge, confusion in the marketplace and a lack of consistent branding, pricing and promotion can hurt even the best of efforts.  In order for lacrosse to succeed in the mainstream, the sport should look at the recent merger in open wheel racing and figure out how the outdoor MLL (with its ESPN piece) and the indoor  NLL can work together to jointly market and promote the sport, especially in the same markets.  Now do the NFL and the AFL, and MLS and MISL need to work together?  Probably not, as the NFL and MLS are more established.  But they do work together on certain iniatives, and when you have such alphabet soup in certain sports, finding ways to use economies of scale to reach the masses is important.  Without that joint effort, it will be very hard, even with a strong grassroots following, for the sport of lacrosse to really break through.  Regardless, it was a good few weeks for all involved.