There is nothing like Spring Training in baseball. Fans flock to two central locales, Florida and Arizona, to escape the winter blues, look ahead to warmer weather and watch baseball games that don’t count in the standings. If you time things right, you can see a dozen teams in just a few days, all part of fun distinctly American sports ritual. This week the NFL started training camps, and while some may plan trips to see their guys sweat in the July and August heat, teams are where they are all year round…at home, building brand value and fandom without hitting the road for the most part.
There was a time when the road to NFL success started in outposts far and wide. Now its good to be home for the summer, with ever-increasing opportunities for expanding the brand tied to those at home.
While The Dallas Cowboys are still leaving Jerryworld for their usual stop in Oxnard, California. Buffalo, Carolina, Pittsburgh and the Chiefs will continue their college-based road shows, but keeping disruption down by staying in market, vs. the past when going out of town meant less distractions, is now the norm as teams look for competitive advantage and new streams of revenue. And for the fourth straight year the NFL has built “Back Together Weekend” with clubs around the country as a further way to extend and celebrate the start of training camp for fans.
In 2000, only five NFL teams stayed in their own practice facility for the rigors of preseason training camp, but the investments in training facilities and selling the naming rights, the cost associated with travel, and the ability to showcase their players and their brand in front of hometown fans who don’t need to travel hundreds, if not thousands of miles, to see their favorite players early on, the idea of staying home seems like one that is smarter and smarter for both the on and off field growth of an NFL team.
It makes great business sense. Teams are all about year-round routine, and keeping players and staff together in a first class environment that the team has invested millions in helps strengthen ties to the community and to each other. Even with the best of college facilities and the ability to physically transport thousands of pounds of equipment, the experience is still not 100 percent the same. The idea of “getting away” to focus on training camp in an era where social media rules, and players are not used to such isolation is quickly passing by…no one can really hide any more, and the creature comforts the teams take to make their facilities best in show make staying home more of a natural these days than ever before.
Then there’s the off-field question of ROI. Teams are doing everything possible to hold on to and cultivate brand and fan relationships in times that are still somewhat challenging for the discretionary dollar. Moving a team hundreds of miles away, which limits access and in some ways keeps the team a bit out of mind of the consumer and the team’s core brands, can slow growth and affinity with the team at a time when access is probably greater than at any other time of the year. Granted most major media will travel wherever a team trains, but keeping the team closer to home does ensure even more consistent coverage, which re-building teams like the New York Jets covet. On the brand side, a company like Atlantic Health Care has spent a good amount of money associating itself with the Jets brand, and to have a far off college facility in the press vs. their name during the preseason is a bit of a disconnect. There are now 21 teams that have sold naming rights that will come into the new flow during Training Camp now, which further extends the life, and the value, of a unique team sponsorship. Other brands also love more activation with the team and its thousands of fans who go to training camp so staying local gives them a much better opportunity to grow the partnership in a time when access is so key to a relationship.
Yes there is some perceived value to getting away for the three weeks. It may help grow the team brand away from its core and it certainly puts dollars back into the small town where the teams go. However for the long run, from a business and player development standpoint, the trend of not travelling for training camp is a growing one, and one which more teams are going to consider and use.
There is no place like home, especially with the billion dollar investment of an NFL team.
