This past Sunday a capacity crowd of over 35, 000 watched Cricket…on Long Island, while over 55K, the largest crowd for an MLB game this season, cheered until a ninth inning bases loaded double play ended a game between the Mets and the Phillies…in London.
The two games almost on opposite sides of the world where you would have expected such things just a few years ago shows how more interconnected sport is becoming around the world for a number of reasons…the biggest perhaps of which is that device we hold in our hand every day…but it gave us a window into a future where the best f the best will travel around the world to draw fans, engage with brands and create activities for the development of sport for years to come, and that’s a good thing.
Now of course ‘exhibition’ or training matches are not new. Baseball took barnstorming tours to Asia and elsewhere almost 100 years ago, and the elite soccer clubs of the world have spent summer prepping for their seasons playing before large crowds who got to see clubs…usually without their best players or only for a few minutes…as they readied for regular season play. The NBA under David Stern was really the first league to start pushing a sport globally and continued to expand its reach from exhibitions into regular season games, fully seeing how brands would support and rights fees for broadcast could grow when the best of basketball showed up to play. Others…the NHL, and then the NFL took a toe dip into first preseason and then regular season games in places where the sport was familiar and have seen great success and support without the logistical and financial complications of actually putting down clubs for full seasons. What we can do over here…in North America…we can do over there…has been proven with little risk to injury r loss f revenue, and the trends will continue to grow, as we will see when the NFL goes to Brazil in September and the NHL will look to continue their global reach.
But what about the reverse, where the best of the best in sports for what used to be ‘the new immigrant’…rugby, elite soccer of both men and now women, cricket, even Australian Rules Football and possibly hurling…can bring their best for one off’s and all that comes with it, like North American leagues have done? Well, it has begun, as we have seen with AFL playing regular season matches in Las Vegas, the Cricket World Cup partially in the States, rugby, which first played a regular season Premiership match in March of 2017 at Red Bull Arena between London Irish and Harlequins…which ended up drawing close to 15k, the largest crowd for Premiership ANYWHERE that season…continuing to find key places to bring their best, not the exhibition o friendlies we have seen in the past. The next big step will be soccer, and it was indicated last week that FIFA will start to allow certain regular season matches exported to places like New York and Washington and the like, to start realizing the revenue and the brand growth that can come with the most elite of competitions. It is certainly a change in philosophy from just a few years ag, when LaLiga tried to bring Real Madrid and FC Barcelona to The States and were stopped amidst tremendous pushback. Now, that may all be changing, and the timing could not be better for a number of reasons.
The first is the mimicking of success that North American leagues have had in exporting regular season games with growing success. No one bats an eye or pushes back now if a team from any of at least the four major leagues takes a few games abroad. Local fans enjoy the trips to places they may not think about, travel is easier, and most importantly, the marketing teams can now put into place outside of their traditional geographic territories has created new revenue streams. Anther stream…no pun intended…is the growing interest in rights fees that the NBA or the NHL or the NFL and now MLB more and more, can get outside the US and Canada, and in the search for new veins of income, these continue to fill. Again, what is good here, is now good over there for all. So now that the model works, why would the best of other sports take advantage of the opportunities in North America?
The second reason is broadcast itself. NBC’s partnership with the Premier League, a great experiment to see if savvy soccer fans would watch live matches on broadcast TV on Sunday mornings, was the chance to open the door, and the rest of the world followed with their own deals on weekdays and weekends. Fans of all ages now can see the best, wear the kits of their favorite clubs, and engage in all kinds of dialogue every day, is NOT bringing the best and coming just for training matches, is OK, but clearly not the same anymore. Fandom is more global than ever before, and fans will pay money to see the elite stars in matches that count…while their supporter groups will probably travel as well. All that is missing is the approval in the case of soccer, and like the North American leagues going abroad for regular season games, it is much easier to cherry pick and promote a handful of the best than trying to start a league which may or may not always have the best players. Startups are hard and expensive, picking partners, promoting, and then building momentum for a few games is much, much more efficient, and the precedent now exists.
So, what about the startup leagues for emerging sports? Is there enough to actually sustain rugby in a place where it is down on the casual list, or cricket, as is being tried now? Well, we saw what happened with the NFL’s experiment with Europe, and what the NFL is doing now to great success. Grassroots play, second tier with an affordable system? Maybe. Take cricket for example. Wouldn’t it be a more effective push to say bring the Mumbai Indians or Rajasthan Royals to the US and capitalize with two regular season matches than forcing a full-fledged professional league with no established markets? The savviest cricket fans in North America, like the savvy soccer fans here, or NFL fans in England or NBA fans in Beijing or Lagos know what the best is, and they can watch it on any device they choose. They cannot be a subpar product, unless it can be done in an affordable way, like we have seen with a property like NBA Africa. Cost efficient, locally supported, developing of talent with a long tail done by the league itself. Otherwise, the risk can be too high.
Now would it be great if Major League Cricket or Major League Rugby become long-term businesses in North America? Sure. However, the model for success seems to be what the US leagues are ding elsewhere…a combo of the best players, the local deep pocketed global brands, the cultivation at the grassroots and the right media partners who can effectively build around the stand-alone events. The risk is lower, the reward higher, the fan experience is pristine, and everyone wins.
Chelsea and Manchester City coming to a stadium near you in November? The FA Cup heading for a title match in Washington? What once seemed literally far ff is now literally in our grasp. The best of the best is what fans deserve and will support, just look at this past weekend. The sports world is smaller than ever, and that’s a good thing for all.
Complex World, Simple Acts and Actions…Play Ball Weekend Arrives