Marketing and Branding in the NBA

Marketing and Branding in the NBA

            David Stern has turned the NBA into a moneymaking machine since he took it over thirty years ago. In 1983, NBA playoff games were televised on a tape delay, but now they are broadcast live in 215 countries worldwide (Badenhausen). The global interest in basketball has skyrocketed in part to Stern’s new idea of individual player marketing. The iconic players in the league are what generate cash and a greater fan base. Players like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Rajon Rondo are treated like celebrities in the league ( Badenhausen). Star players generate revenue in basketball because there are only five starting players on the team and a handful of bench players. With such a smaller team, the impact that one player has on a team is enormous. When LeBron James played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, he brought the team to new heights by himself. When he went to Miami, with the help of two other star players, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the team is close to impossible to stop. The point to be made is that a star player in another sport such as football where you can have up to 22 starting players or baseball with nine men out in the field, will not make the impact of a star celebrity basketball player. Why do you think star players in the NBA generate so much interest in the sport rather than the teams as a whole?

            Other factors play into the success that the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers have seen in the NBA. The New York Knicks have been the NBA’s most valuable team for the second year in a row and worth over a billion dollars ($1.4 billion).  TV Ratings and renovations to Madison Square Garden have brought the Knicks to great revenues, even without the team performing too great on the court. If you think about a team’s fan base and how many viewers they have for each game, it is easy to fathom the reasons why Los Angeles and New York do so well in the sports industry. New York as a city has two football teams (the Giants and the Jets), two baseball teams (the Yankees and the Mets), and two hockey teams (the Islanders and the Rangers). When it comes to basketball, however, if you live in New York, you are most likely a Knicks fan. The population in New York City is tremendous and with basketball being the only sport where there is only one New York team, can you picture how many people are interested in the Knicks’ games? With the additions of Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, its easy to see why a team that already generates revenues by itself can boost revenues 27% with two star players (Badenhausen). Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics have such a profound history of championship titles that they will always be in the conversation and the playoff picture discussion. Teams that host playoff games make money. Teams with star players sell jerseys, and those jerseys generate revenues. Walk down the streets of L.A. and you should always be able to see a Kobe Bryant “8” on somebody’s back within a hundred feet.

            Another factor to keep in mind when analyzing a sports franchise’s success is their ownership. In the video from ESPN (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10632191/coast-coast-future-new-york-knicks-los-angeles-lakers), Israel Gutierrez speaks about the future of four teams, the Knicks, Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, and Indiana Pacers. The biggest points Israel made were that with Kobe Bryant leaving the Lakers within three years and the Spurs losing Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili within three years, you’re losing almost half of your offensive production just like that. Israel Gutierrez pointed out that the Knicks will most likely have a brighter future than the Lakers because Phil Jackson has a way of turning things around for a team. He brought the Bulls to success, he brought the Lakers to great heights, and managing what players you keep as franchise players and when you start looking for prospects is essential to growing a successful team. How important do you think ownership is in the NBA, compared to celebrity appeal of individual athletes?

           

 Work Cited

1.    Badenhausen, Kurt. "As Stern Says Goodbye, Knicks, Lakers Set Records As NBA's Most Valuable Teams." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 20

2.    J.A. Adande and Israel Gutierrez |. "Brighter Future: Knicks Or Lakers?" ESPN.ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

3.     "Los Angeles Lakers." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

How far do we want athletes to go for our entertainment?

There are points in some sporting events where the unexpected happens, and no, I am not talking about a miracle on ice, a diving catch in the back of the end zone or a buzzer beater to win the game.  I am talking about gruesome injuries that happen during live sporting events. The decision on how to handle horrific injuries in a broadcast is a tricky matter of negotiating, which tiptoes the line between being exploitative and being uninformative. Live sporting events are live for a reason, the viewers thrive the anticipation of what is coming next on. But when things go wrong, it always seems that the television broadcasts are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Viewers either want to see it all or see none and that’s where it gets tricky for programs.

Right around this time last year, arguably the most gruesome injury ever shows on live television was witnessed. On March 31^st 2013, Louisville was playing Duke in the Elite Eight of the Men’s division one basketball tournament when Louisville guard, Kevin Ware, landed awkwardly after attempting to block a three-point shot attempt and suffered a compound fracture to his right leg where the bone was sticking out of the skin. The injury left the crowd, teams and especially the announcers dumbfounded. Clark Kellogg was quoted by USA Today’s article, “CBS Handles Kevin Ware Injury With Restraint” saying that after the injury happened, the game coverage was left “in totally uncharted territory for everybody in the building, for players, for us."

On March 22, 1989, another one of the most gruesome looking sports injuries ever to happen, occurred. In an NHL game between the St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres, two players collided at the front of the net, and one player's skate caught Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk on the neck, slicing open his jugular vein, which caused blood to start pouring from his neck onto the ice. Amazingly, Malarchuk left the ice under his own power with the assistance of the team's trainer. This incident did not only affect Malarchuck, but also affected the spectators. Seven people in the stands fainted, two had heart attacks, and some of his own teammates threw up on the ice.

Probably one of the most knows horrific injuries comes from the 1985 NFL season where Washington Redskins quarterback, Joe Theisman was hit by New York Giants’ Lawrence Taylor and suffered a compound fracture to the tibia which broke through his skin. Taylor couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the damage that he did. Theisman was rolling around on the ground in horrendous pain while Taylor is standing next to him jumping up and down, waiving his arms frantically for the Redskins’ medical crew to come to Theisman’s aid.

These injuries are terrible and are wished upon no one but this is sports, and these things unfortunately happen. As a television broadcast, it is very hard to deal with certain situations. The questions star to arise like, at what point is it “okay” to show the injuries? Which injuries can be shown and which can’t? Are you supposed to replay these horrific injuries? Does the audience have the right to know what is going on? These are all the questions that broadcasts have to be faced with when something horrific happens during a live event. In the case of Kevin Ware, at halftime, Greg Gumbel and CBS decided that they would not show the injury again. CBS Sports head, Sean McManus said, “We did not try to highlight it. I think we did the right thing.” (Petchesky) He went on to explain his reasoning by saying, “You have to use great judgment about what your audience can stomach and what they must see. Actually, maybe more importantly, what they must not see. We used to run into this in horse racing. Whenever a horse was injured and had to be euthanized on the track, we tried to show where the injury happened. We showed that one time and then we'd shoot the scene wide enough so no details could be seen. I'm sure auto racing has the same protocol if a driver is injured. It's all part of the production plan and camera meetings: What do and don't we do if a catastrophic injury takes place.”

This brings me to my final thought. How far do we want athletes to go for our entertainment? How do you think television broadcast should handle these certain situations? As a viewer, do you feel as if you should have the right to know and see everything that is going on during these games whether it is right or wrong? Like I said earlier, these situations are tricky but when these horrific injuries happen, there has to be a point when the viewer deserves the right to know what is happening.

Hiestand, Michael. "CBS Handles Kevin Ware Injury with Restraint," USA Today 1 April 2013. Web.

Petchesky, Barry. "Two Replays, No Warning: How Broadcasters Handle Gruesome Injuries." Deadspin. N.p., 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

Raney, Arthur A. “Why We Watch and Enjoy Mediated Sports,” Handbook of Sports Studies, Jay Coakley and Eric Dunning, eds. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008: 313 - 29.

Should college athletes get paid?

There has been more talk about money this past week in college sports rather than who is going to the next big star or winner. A group of Northwestern University athletes have brought to the NCAA’s attention that they strongly feel college athletes should receive pay for their hours put forth and the inherent risks associated involved. In the article “College athletes take labor cause to Capitol Hill,” the Chicago-region director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled last week that Northwestern's football players on scholarships are employees of the university under the National Labor Relations Act and therefore have the right to vote to unionize.(Raum and Hefling) What has college sports come to? Is collegiate level still at the “amateur” status or not?   Should student-athletes be paid or otherwise make up beyond scholarships?

All these questions are to be solved but it will take some time. People have just become greedy and feel that they need money for there name and performance rather then sitting back and looking at the big picture of free education and many other great opportunities given to them that other non athlete students do not receive. Mr. Brandt said, "That would be a historic case if some marketing [and] publicity rights are given to players who are amateurs," (Adage)

The Courier Journal states, “The university and the NCAA disagree, arguing that student-athletes are students first and athletes second.” (Jennings) I know being an athlete here at Quinnipiac they really push this as well. My coach always stresses you’re here to get an education first and that you are seen as a  “student athlete.” Many players complain that all the hours they put at the field, arena or courts spent on the sports practice for the school it is an outrageous amount of time consuming their everyday life and it’s like a job. It is hard to stay up with academics and still perform how they personally would like to as well as meeting the coaching staff expectations.

Many people support the college athletic programs especially at the larger schools with the football and basketball programs. As the Men’s and Women’s March Madness is currently going on, people believe that this has become a huge business. Forbes' Chris Smith wrote, CBS and Turner Broadcasting make more than $1 billion off the games, "thanks in part to a $700,000 ad rate for a 30-second spot during the Final Four." Athletic conferences receive millions of dollars in payouts from the NCAA when their teams advance deep into the tournament. Ditto for the coaches of the final squads standing. The NCAA, as a whole, makes $6 billion annually. (U.S. news and World Report) The other arguments and lawsuits filed were claiming that none of the players see this money. The players in the past have been in trouble for selling their jerseys or signed for money because of finical problems or just not having the time to work outside of school and sports. Many players feel that the NCAA makes so much money off of them and their level of performance. All the merchandise for example, video games, jersey’s, etc., generates a huge amount of revenue for the NCAA. Kain Colter, starting quarterback at Northwestern: ‘‘we're up here raising awareness.'’(Raum and Hefling)

If we do pay college athletes, how much do we pay them? There needs to be equal salaries for each player and each sport, not just the revenue generating ones. For example, the women’s lacrosse goalie should receive equal pay as the star quarterback on the men’s football team. It is when there is a difference in pay that it violates Title IX and crosses over to professional status. But on the flip side, the argument can be made that the opportunity to both receive an education and get the exposure to win a major professional contract more than compensates NCAA athletes for their efforts. "Rather than push college athletics further and further from academics, we need to bring it closer," says NCAA president Mike Emmert. (U.S.News)

People believe that “There has been a remarkable step made that could revolutionize college sports.”(CBS video) Is it the right steps? Will it take away from the college sports overall? Joe Nocera wrote a New York Times article, "Let's start paying college athletes". In the Collegain University of Richmond’s newspaper, outlined a five-step plan for paying student athletes.  This plan included, a free market approach to recruiting, a salary cap for every team as well as a minimum annual salary for every scholarship athlete, a 6 year scholarship so the athletes can finish academically when their eligibility runs out, life time health insurance for each player and creation of a College Players Association. (Barry) Mr. Nocera summarized to say "college sports will become more honest once players are paid.”(NY times)

Overall with the Northwestern University football team unionizing this has brought national attention to the sports media and marketing in collegiate sports. Time will tell….lets level the playing field!

"College Athletes Can Unionize, Federal Agency Says." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

Nocera, Joe. "Let’s Start Paying College Athletes." The New York Times. The

 New York Times, 31 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.

           "Northwestern Ruling Won't Lead to Mad Dash of College Endorsers."                    

Advertising Age News RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

"Pay College Athletes, but Keep Union Bosses out of It." Pay College Athletes, but Keep Union Bosses out of It. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.

"Should College Athletes Be Paid?"University of Richmond Collegian. N.p., n.d.

Web. 06 Apr. 2014.

"Should NCAA Athletes Be Paid?" US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.

Raum, Tom and Kimberly Hefling. "College Athletes Take Labor Cause to Capitol Hill," Associated Press 2 April 2014. Web.

The Certain Future of Fantasy Sports

            Fantasy sports is a booming industry in today’s society, as millions of individuals are playing in games which can be accessed on all their electronic devices. And the thirst for Fantasy is only increasing. In his article “Fantasy Big Leagues: How Fantasy Sports are Scoring with Users”, Nielsen suggests that “Fantasy sports players are also taking their teams with them on the road, as more than 10 million Americans accessed fantasy football apps on their smartphones, up 15 percent from a year ago” (Nielsen). 10 million Americans and counting are downloading apps to access their fantasy teams across a range of technology platforms, from smartphones to iPads to laptops. As the popularity of Fantasy sports rises, the demand for advertising spikes as well, creating a revenue stream where the world of Fantasy sports is well positioned to remain profitable and popular.

Fantasy games allow a fan to take control and virtually live out their dream of managing a team of real athletes. The concept has been around for roughly 30 years, and the rules are simple; participants draft real life players to create their team and score points based off how well their athletes perform. They compete with a group of friends or a group of strangers and try to outscore them in order to win. The hobby has skyrocketed in popularity with the rise of companies, technology platforms, and enhanced smartphones contributing to the user experience. “Fantasy sports participation surged more than 60 percent since 2007, and more than 32 million people aged 12 and older play in the United States and Canada, research conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for the Fantasy Sports Trade Association in the past year showed” (Clapham).What Fantasy does is it allows fans to feel as if they are a real General Manager and created a sports team. Participants in Fantasy sports tend to feel extremely engaged and invested in their teams, the same way they would in reality.

Some fans take Fantasy sports incredibly seriously, gambling thousands of dollars on their teams and placing side bets on their game’s outcomes. One such Fantasy Football League, called the “Tattoo League”, involves groups of friends who have agreed that whoever comes in last place during the season has to get a tattoo. Fans are also spending large amounts of money purchasing trophies for their leagues. “Taylor Trophies & Sporting Goods in Allen Park typically has a bump in business just before the regular football draft, and another at the end of December, when football season winds down, manager Cindy Seamon-Darty said. She sells six or seven trophies, valued at up to $400 each, every year to fantasy football leagues. ‘It's very big,’ she said. "These guys will spend $300 or $400 on a trophy without blinking an eyelid" (Youssef). There is no doubt Fantasy plays a major role in people’s lives (along with their wallets), and companies behind the games are seeing revenue soar.

With the rising demand and money in the Fantasy marketplace, Fantasy sports technology production is increasing to cater to this large audience. And players themselves have interacted with their fans about Fantasy sports. Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White tweeted out, “If I don’t practice on Friday don’t start me in Fantasy.” The television show “The League” on FX is a show about a group of friends and their Fantasy Football league. They get appearances from athletes such as Adrian Peterson, Chad Johnson, Blair Walsh, Vernon Davis, Greg Jennings and many more. On top of this, having more ways at your fingertips to access teams through technology has allowed for more use: some friends of mine join mock drafts (a practice draft) every time they take a seat in the bathroom. It has also interfered with people’s jobs, schoolwork, and their social lives, which has led to discussions on Fantasy Sports Addiction and how it can be best compared to a gambling addiction.

           

            With all of this said, I wonder what the world of Fantasy sports will look like in 10 years. As popular as it is now, I can only imagine what it will become, because instead of turning on NFL countdown on ESPN on Sunday mornings, fans are tuning into Fantasy Now or Fantasy Live. These shows have expert analysis on who to start and who to sit. They also give live injury updates and suggest players to pick up that may be free agents in your league. The NFL in my opinion is gaining more fantasy fans than “true” fans. As fans find themselves in situations where they are watching their favorite team on TV but simultaneously own a fantasy player on the opposing team (who they want to perform well because money and points are on the line), it becomes hard to identify where your true fandom lies. But as Fantasy continues to increase in users and revenue by the millions, it will continue to fuel sports fulfillment, and unfortunately addiction. The demand for this popular game is booming, and I believe it will only get more popular as virtual engagement and technology continues to transform our everyday lives.

Clapham, Kyle. "Fantasy Sports Becoming Big Business as Popularity Continues to Rise." Fantasy Sports Becoming Big Business as Popularity Continues to Rise. Medill School, 14 May 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.

Nielsen. "FANTASY BIG LEAGUES: HOW FANTASY SPORTS ARE SCORING WITH USERS." Nielsen. N.p., 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.

Youssef, Jennifer. "Fantasy Sports, Real Profits: Entrepreneurs Cash in on Leagues' Growing Popularity among Fans." Detroit News [Detroit] 4 Nov. 2009: B6. Print.