NLL

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?

The Mascot Fills A Bigger Branding Role…

February 17, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

So it’s the middle of winter and you have no idea who your players are…or you are having a terrible season and the trade deadline looms and you need to keep your brand fresh and identifiable.  What to do?  The mascot. Now more than ever, with brands looking for more ROI, fans looking for personal engagement and athletes time limited, the value of having a fun, interesting and marketable mascot is higher than ever.  Ben Hill’s blog on milb.com points out dozens of minor league teams that trotted out nascot’s for Valentine’s Promotions or other teams that have unveiled new or updated mascots during the last few weeks to keep their brand top of mind with consumers.  The New Jersey Nets worked not a player, but their mascot, into a Super Bowl commercial, while NHL teams are trotting out mascots while their players are away or off during the Olympic break.  Now that it is so important to engage the entire family, older alumni may not always work as a compelling interraction, and the ability to have mascots in multiple places works as a fund rasier and a brand awareness tool.  It is true that many major market or more established brands (the Knicks, the Rangers, the Cowboys, the Dodgers) have never embraced the mascot theme, instead relying on the power of their brand and all the pieces around it to drive interest.  However for those really needing relevance, the investment in picking the right looking mascot and then marketing him, her or it appropriately, has become as valuable as any other brand campaign and one that is not taken lightly.

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.

An Open Opportunity For US Air To Capitalize On The Course Of Events With Their Sports Partners?

January 20, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The “Miracle of the Hudson” involving US Air last week immediately created more goodwill and media opportunities for the airline than they could have ever come up with during any type of branding campaign.  Invites, web traffic and interview requests flooded in (no pun intended) for the survivors and crew, and Marketing Daily had a good piece on the huge spike the airlines social index received coming out of the crash.  The New Jersey Nets were first on the scene, inviting pilot Chesley Sullenberger and crew to their Saturday afternoon game with the Celtics (they couldn’t attend, but it won’t be the last opportunity) while the survivors tales will be told over and over again, and rightly so. One of the more interesting aspects is seeing if US Air would have the ability to capitalize on the great turn of events in their existing sports sponsorships. Since the money spend against sponsorships gives them both a platform and built-in audience, would the teams that are partners get the chance to work with the brand to expand or create opportunities for crew and passengers? As luck would have it, US Air’s two NFL sponsored teams met in Glendale on Sunday (the Eagles and the Cardinals) and with the Cardinals win came a natural opportunty to link the airline and the Super Bowl to potentially get some nice  pop.  Alas, as Darren Rovell reported in his blog on Monday, the US Air relationship with the Cardinals appears now to be more of a media buy than actual partnership,  but the opportunity does exist for some great media and pr between the two fortunate brands in the two week lead-up to the Super Bowl.  The same exists for the Suns playing in US Airways Arena, and for the Diamondbacks going into their regular season and even in spring training...good chances to work with a partner to garner all kinds of exposure and good will. Now is US Airways exploiting the incident or tempting fate by rolling out the PR machine for the brand with their sports partners?  Absolutely not. It is actually exposure well deserved and the stories of those passengers and crew, as well as the rescuers, deserve to be told and and have their moment in the spotlight, so US Air should reap the ancillary benefit as well.  We are not saying that the events of the crash should be exploited through merchandise or paid appearances by US Air.  What we are saying is US Air now has the opportunity to use a very unique asset to build their brand, and use their sports partnerships to do it. All will benefit from the good fortune, and in a challenged economy the push for exposure is a smart one for all.

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.

Misty May Treanor Injury A Long Term Help For The AVP Crocs Tour?

October 8, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Monday’s Dancing with the Stars saw AVP crocs legend and Olympic Gold medlaist Misty May Treanor suffer an achilles tendon injury that forced her out of the competition and may end her long and highly successful beach volleyball career.  The interesting thing, as David Schwab points out in the First Call blog, is that the injury may be a help to her long term marketability as she transitions out of the sport and into retirement, which now may be speeded up.  Treanor, married to the Florida Marlins Matt Treanor, and partner Kerri Walsh had done it all in beach volleyball, and had little else left to challenge as another season ended…they won titles, an unprecedented 100-plus consecutive matches, Olympic gold and huge TV drawing power.  Although it won’t help the highly successful AVP with tour drawing power as they go into their Hot Winter Nights Tour and then into next season, it may speed up Treanor endorsement ability  if she takes on motherhhod and other life challenges and goes the way of successful gymnasts and skaters into the endorsement world.  It may also help the AVP develop other rising stars faster, as the reliability of Misty and Kerri to sell tickets may go away faster than expected.  Interesting point by Schwab, interesting time for the sport as they look to continue to build off a great summer of success.

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.

Bitter Reminders That Sports Is First And Foremost A Business

July 2, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Coming off an exciting NBA Draft and Finals, a well viewed NHL Finals, and with the promise of a memorable MLB All-Star game on the horizon, many on the outside looking into the sports world would view the economic impact and excitement that the business brings to fans as quite a bonanza.  Yet a glance at today’s stories for those in the business have the cold reminder that this is indeed a business, one that is more visible than most in both the best and worst times, and the results for lack of ROI or shortcomings on performance can be not just devastating but very public.  First there is the ESPN.com report today that popular NASCAR driver Dario Franchitti’s race team is being shut down for lack of sponsorship.   Follow that with Darren Rovell’s piece today that former NBA All-Star and US Olympian Vin Baker is the latest in a series of athletes to have their houses foreclosed on.  Then there is the report today that the NLL’s Arizona Sting has released its players and staff and is up for sale.  All three are painful reminders that real world problems…money, foreclosure, unemployment, underperformance and slowing economy…can impact even the most “glamorous” of industries and the resulting fall can be more public than most in the business world.

When and How To Make “Lesser” Sports More…Timing, Pitching…and Winning

April 27, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

A look around the American sports landscape the last few days showed some good examples of how and when some “second tier” sports are able to find ways to break through the clutter.  Let’s take a look at a few examples.   

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