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.

Baseball Playing The Global Card, But Do Most Know?

August 12, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

There is perhaps no more global sport on the professional level than baseball. At some level of the professional game, over 35 countries on five continents are represented, and the number grows each year.  Major league Baseball International spends millions developing players around the globe, and the results can be seen in recent weeks, when Chinese Taipei edged Australia for the World Junior title, Cuba won the World University championship, and this week the Women’s World Cup is being played in Venezuela. The coming Little League World Series will also have its global look and later in the fall millions will tune in to watch the World Series.  Yet for all its domestic success, it is basketball (this week announcing regular season games in London between New Jersey and Toronto) and soccer (with Chinese investor Kenny Huang looking to add to his work in hoops) continues to grab headlines that baseball should also have.  Why is that?

New real estate in sports brands expands…

June 5, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

As the scramble to get the best value for sponsorship dollars, as well as added eyeballs for products and services, continues on in a challenged economy, two brands took a leap step forward in the New York sports marketing scene this week.

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?

Pro Guides Getting More On The Stick For Media…

April 29, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 3 Comments 

The legendary journalist Jimmy Breslin once said the beauty of holding and reading a newspaper is that you never know what surprises are in store when you turn the page.  That of course was well before the Kindle and IPad infused world we are now in, where data and all forms of media can literally change in the blink of an eye, with no worry of turning the page.  Newspapers and information sources become outdated in many cases as soon as they are printed, or the next news cycle begins, and technology is giving us the ability to continue to streamline our information process.

Hall of Fame Voting: A New Brand Through The Power of the People?

January 5, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

This month two of the strongest, if not the strongest, Halls of Fame will reveal their 2010 selections, the Baseball and Football Halls.  The annual selection issue always operates under stealth and the very tight control over the voters, and usually has more than enough intrigue, suspicion, and debate.  However with an ever shrinking number of potential voters on the baseball side, and the need for more overall recognition on the football side, could changes in selection be in the offing? The baseball side, which includes only votes by those in the Baseball Writers Association of America, is suffering from the loss of so many fulltime newspaper  jobs recently and may have to add other segments, especially broadcasters, in order to keep the legitimacy of those who actually cover the sport on a fulltime basis intact.  That of course does not also reflect the ever-growing and more influential bloggers choices, or for that matter, the input on some level of the fan.  One interesting move this year was a vote by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, a group of the top bloggers in the space,  to announce their Hall of Fame choices and the reasoning, in advance of the actual Hall vote.  It wasn’t in any way disrespectful, and it showed professionalism and great forethought, and could be a foreshadowing of a group that could be influential in coming years.  The opening up of fan debate and blogger interraction also gives rise to the notion that the voting system could be tied to a partner, with a full digital integration platform.  With the right safeguards put into place, and by providing all the right information, such a system could bring added revenue, more interest, more innovation and even greater visibility to the Hall, at a time when all institutions are looking to grow fan base and visitors year-round.

Will Soccer In New York Ever Hit The Goal?

August 30, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With the first hint of fall you start to hear the bounce in thousands of parks and recreational centers across the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It is the thwack of kids from four to their mid-teens dribbling and passing soccer balls. Like baseball and softball in the spring, fall soccer is a rite of passage more now than ever before amongst young kids. Still even with the grassroots success, the connection to the pro game still lags behind, perhaps in the New York area more than anywhere else in the United States, and it is that disconnect which has continued to slow the growth of MLS in the biggest media market in the world. While MLS has had great success in Washington, great buzz in LA, solid plans built out in Dallas and Columbus and Chicago and New England, the New York market remains a frustrating afterthought.

Why Being A Fan Helps The President…

July 17, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

There are many cynics that may say President Obama can spend his time, and the countries’ dollars…doing better things than glad handing the MLS champion Columbus Crew at the White House before heading off to throw the first pitch and hang out in the FOX booth at the All-Star game. However, the man who the Washington Times called this week the “Sports Fan Chief” , was astute enough with his team to recognize early on in his run to the White House that sports is a common bond for those on the fence about anything political, and gave him, more than any other candidate, another link to a demo that may or may not have voted or listened to him at all. Starting with his one on one with Scott Price of SI, his pickup games, his throwing out of the first pitch at a White Sox game, his NCAA tournament brackets, played a little golf and pickup games with the North Carolina hoops team, the President took the time to show that human side of him through sports, and it resonated with the casual fan who in tough times may give his administration pause and a bit of a second chance that they may not have if they had no connection to him at all. The ceremonial aspects of the Presidency, whether it is meeting a championship team or saluting the Girl Scouts, are part of the job and rarely if ever detract from the duties that need to be performed. If those ties for President Obama to sport are more public, especially in a time where America is looking for heroes and is working to get the 2016 Olympics, then so be it. There is a need for heroes and good messaging through sport to address needs like childhood obesity, girls participation in an active lifestyle, and even the growth of brands attaching to sports and entertainment, and if the President can use the cause celebre’ through sport to raise the profile of those issues, it makes great sense. Sport is also a great tie to diplomacy and as a way to connect back to those in the military who are defending the nation, and in these times of transition for the nation on a global scale those ties no matter how subtle can also be beneficial to the overall health of the country. Yes sports is a multibillion dollar industry. No it is not insurance or health care or education, but it does touch all, and if sport provides a bridge to the everyday business of the country as well as feel good opportunities for the people, it makes great business sense to be involved.

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.

Can Soccer Take Advantage Of Its Big Kick?

June 26, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Within a 24 hour period this week, the brand value sport of professional soccer in the United States took a huge jump. First came the coups of ESPN scooping up the Premier League from virtually bankrupt Setanta Sports, followed by the US’ stunning 2-0 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup, followed closely by Steve Nash’s second annual grassroots soccer fundraiser in a New York park, along with the Sports Business Journal piece that WPS is doing better than expected. From the grassroots to the professional, all seems to be going well. Now is there a way for some brand, or a series of brands, to take the good news, tie it in a package and use it as the latest, and strongest, all-encompassing boost for a sport that was already well positioned going into the recession (because of their structure and cost cutting measures) but now has a variety of platforms that are highly visible to attach to? We shall see. Of course Confederations Cup final against Brazil still remains, but the continued interest of Nash (who will be part of the ownership group for MLS Vancouver) as an ambassador with both the world class pros he brought to New York and with his NBA friends, plus a steady women’s product gives the sport another boost while others are struggling. However for brands who have held back on investment waiting for the economy to turn or the right opportunity to invest in, maybe this weeks series of events for soccer will get them a well placed kick for new activation and partnerships.

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