NFL v NBA GPS: You Have Reached Your destination?
Aaron Conrad Perez Rodriguez
ENT MKT 4330
May 6, 2019
Professor Akopian
California State University of Los Angeles
Introduction
Since the 1800’s,
major league sports has looked to expand globally. Most professional leagues’
strategies include partnerships with big name brands such as Nike or Gatorade
as well as giving fans access to the stars of the game through camps, autograph
signings etc. Some sports have been successful at attracting new fans
internationally such as the NBA, while other leagues such as the NFL have not
been as successful in capturing these audiences. This paper will review the
history of the efforts of the NBA and the NFL to globalize their sport, as well
as what strategies they have used and continue to use to establish or maintain
a strong presence in countries internationally to become global brands. The
paper will also review why one league has been successful while the other has
not and what the struggling league can do to improve its global brand awareness
through various marketing tactics. Where are all your citations?
Football Globalization Journey
The game of
football started in Canada and the United States in the 1800s and since then
has grown to one of the most popular sports in those countries
(footballcanada.com). In the 1930s football had been introduced to Japan and
gained popularity in the country becoming the first country outside of North
America to establish a league. In the 1970s a real push began for football
globalization. However, a major effort was not given until the 1980s which
helped build the foundation for a new league to be established. In 1991 NFL
Europe was created, the purpose of the league was to develop talent to play in
the NFL as well as introduce the rest of the world to the sport. In 1999 the
first World Championship was held in Palermo, Italy which involved six countries;
Mexico, Japan, Sweden, Australia, Finland and the host country Italy. The
winner of this first championship was Japan where they beat Mexico 6-0.
In 2005 the NFL introduced its American Bowl, the American Bowl was a
series of games during the preseason played around the world to try and
showcase to the rest of the world the game of football. In 2007 NFL Europe was
shut down due to lost money, running through television partners and focusing
most of their resources on Germany despite producing Hall of Famers such as
Jake Delhomme and Kurt Warner (Gold, 2017). The league lacked excitement and
everyone watching knew that the players that were playing were not the best and
had little chance in making it to the NFL. Other problems included that the
league was mostly backed by the European media, once the media realized people
knew that they weren’t getting the quality talent they wanted media companies
stopped bankrolling the league (Forbes, year). Despite the failure of NFL
Europe, the NFL expanded their American Bowl series to regular season games,
where now a few times a year the teams go to London to play bringing in over
80,000 fans per game. Although football has had success with the American Bowl
series they fail to establish leagues worldwide to make the NFL global.
NFL Strategies for Globalization
The NFL has mixed success
on their globalization efforts. In Mexico, they have been extremely successful
with the most fans internationally according to Statista there are 23.3 million
fans and 19.7 million fans in Brazil. Huge drop-offs in numbers of fans begin
in Canada at 7.21 million and continue to decline from there (Statista).
Their success in Mexico is largely due to the fact that they established
partnerships with popular American brands in Mexico such as Bud Light, Pepsi,
and Dodge as well as popular Mexican brands Movistar and Sabritas (McDuling,
2017) The next step that the NFL took was to make deals with cable providers in
Mexico by giving the rights to televise nine games per year exposing the youth
to the game and is becoming popular among this segment of television viewers
Due to this high schools and colleges around Mexico have been establishing
teams. To capitalize, the NFL partnered with schools by donating footballs and
equipment and today in Mexico, 2.9 million students play football in their gym
classes according to the National Football League. Fans in Mexico of football
who prefer it over soccer do so according to an LA Times article because of its
focus on strategy, teamwork, and discipline. Despite all these efforts in
Mexico, less than 1% of players are Latino. Although there is a moderate
success in Mexico through most of the world the NFL is unsuccessful in
establishing their league and stars. According to Forbes the reasons for this
is the name is confusing in a game with the word “foot” in it there are almost
no feet used in it. Another reason is that is the lack of action in the game,
according to a study by the Wall Street Journal NFL games have an average of 11
minutes of action in a 3-hour game. Other reasons include that they fail to be
internationally accepted is that they have a perception of not being manly
enough compared to rugby because of players wearing pads. However, most of
their failure is due to their lack of visibility of the league on television
networks and online as well as their failure to capitalize on current league
partnership brands globally. Well written but to olong for one paragraph, break
it up. Also where are your citations?
NBA Globalization Journey
Basketball started
its globalization quest in 1893 by Melvin Rideout in France at the new YMCA
building on Paris’s Rue de Trévise which is the oldest original court in the
world today (Krassnoff 2017). The next year the game expanded to Brazil to
become the first country in South America to play basketball. In 1895
Basketball was introduced into China in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin and
two years later it entered Australia. Basketball started to become large in
multiple countries but didn’t become a global brand till the NBA started to
intervene with the “Dream Team” and touring the stars around the world with the
help of sneaker companies. Basketball has become one of the most popular sports
with 825 million fans globally and 108 international players from 42 different
countries in its most prominent league in the NBA. The global diversity of the
league has established the league to have “active fans” in 114 countries[MC2] .
NBA Globalization strategy
Although basketball
had been introduced into many countries since the 1800s the NBA started its global
expansion and rebirth of the league started in 1984. David Stern, the
commissioner of basketball and the league decided to televise the games
internationally and the Celtics vs Lakers rivalry helped reignite the league in
the United States as well as expand their fans globally. In that same year the
first European-born and trained player France’s, Hervé Dubuisson to the New
Jersey Nets and through the 1980’s more players came to the NBA bypassing the
NCAA. In the 1990’s the arrival of Michael Jordan intrigued the fans
domestically and globally and 2 years later the “Dream Team” excited the world
about the game of basketball and showed them all the stars of the game (Worldwide,
2017). [MC3] This became the catalyst for the exponential growth
of the game, kids’ interest in the game increased who now dreamed of playing in
the most elite league in the world the NBA. The NBA has also developed partnerships
with sneaker companies and have worked hard to maintain their stranglehold on
international markets by touring stars around the country to encourage the
public to buy their product, establishing camps to show the shoes in action as
well as for scouts to see talent overseas. These efforts have been successful
in showing the quality of the league and inspiring the next generation of
athletes to pursue the sport of basketball and grow up to be like their idols. The US coaches decided to set up camps for these
kids to capitalize on the new interest of the youth sparked by foreign stars
like Manu Ginobli and Dirk Nowitzki with the help of the growth of satellite
television and the internet, there were new platforms to watch the games.
Which League is Better?
The[MC4] NFL has a challenging task when trying to
establish their league in many different countries since athletes must not only
be tall but also big. They can fix this
by developing their talent in established countries such as Mexico and Brazil.
This will create stars that kids can look up to just like how kids who watch
basketball can look up to European and Chinese players. The NFL can expand
their popularity by increasing visibility. The league must look into working
together with foreign television providers to show their games in those
markets. Other tactics they can use is to provide games on online streaming
platforms such as Amazon to foreign countries and use social media to promote
these games. Currently, Rugby is the 9th most popular sport in the world
according to World Atlas[MC5] . There are a lot of
similarities between the two games which means that there is room in other
countries for football to grow. In order to get the youth into the sport, the
NFL can establish flag football leagues all over targeted countries. According
to an LA Times article, the appeal of football in Mexico is the strategy
and teamwork (Linthicum,
2017[MC6] ). The NFL can target countries which rugby is
popular and established leagues in the offseason. This can be perceived by the
youth as a way to keep in shape for rugby but when the coaches show how fun and
strategic the game can be they can convert these players to football players.
During the off-season they can bring in NFL stars to run camps and have
corporate sponsors such as Pepsi, Microsoft and Amazon provide attractions to
bring in the youth. Sponsorships has proven to be successful in Mexico and if they
replicate this strategy in other countries around the world. This influence can
lead to developing stars from other countries those countries will feel pride
for their fellow countrymen and support them and whatever team they are on,
which will also benefit the league by providing new fans who buy tickets,
provide free advertising through social media as well as increasing revenues of
merchandise. Currently, the NFL is failing at expanding their league globally
but if they decide to develop the youth of other countries to become stars in
the league they will be able to tap into new markets. Too long for one
paragraph, be mindful of structure
Bullman, E. (2018, December 17). The NFL Seeks More
Mexican Brand Sponsorship. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from http://www.mexiconewsnetwork.com/en/news/the-nfl-seeks-more-mexican-brand-sponsorship/
Gold, J. (2017, June 23). 10 years after NFL
Europe's demise, alumni remember league fondly. Retrieved from
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19638357/oral-history-10-years-nfl-europe-demise-alumni-such-kurt-warner-remember-developmental-league-fondly
International Federation of America Football
(IFAF). (2016, September 13). Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
http://footballcanada.com/team-canada/international-federation-of-america-football-ifaf/
Keeler, S. (2016, June 23). 'You didn't play to get
rich': What killed NFL Europe? Retrieved May 5, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/23/you-didnt-play-to-get-rich-what-killed-nfl-europe
Krasnoff, L. S. (2017, December 26). How the NBA
went global. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/12/26/how-the-nba-went-global/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ce71bd9c9cc6
Linthicum, K. (2017, November 17). Football - the
American kind - is all the rage in Mexico. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-nfl-football-20171024-story.html
McDuling, J. (2017, November 23). The NFL is
struggling. The AFL and NRL should take note. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-nfl-is-struggling-the-afl-and-nrl-should-take-note-20171123-gzr2d4.html
McMahon, B. (2012, October 28). A Dozen Reasons Why
The NFL Will Never Make It Outside Of The USA. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2012/10/28/a-dozen-reasons-why-the-nfl-will-never-make-it-outside-of-the-usa/#30b299331c3b
Sandomir, R. (2007, June 30). N.F.L. Pulls the Plug
on Its League in Europe. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/sports/football/30nfl.html
Sawe, B. E. (2016, September 16). The Most Popular
Sports in the World. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-most-popular-sports-in-the-world.html
Willner, B. (2014, September 28). American football
growing quickly in Brazil. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/09/27/american-football-growing-quickly-in-brazil/16335685
Worldwide, B. (2017, December 26). How the NBA
Positioned Itself as a Global League. Retrieved May 5, 2019, from https://www.boldworldwide.com/bold-marketing-blog/nba-positioned-itself-global-league
74/75
[MC1]Nice APA!
[MC2]Citations citations citations.
Any Master’s program would have marked down an entire grade by now
[MC3]Is this a website? If so, not
cited correctly. I implore you to get the APA book before going in to a Masters
program
[MC4]Writing 101, indent at the
beginning of a paragraph
[MC5]Why italicized
[MC6]Check formatting APA
[MC7]Over all good paper, great
content. You know your stuff and took initiative to research HOWEVER you have
to have to get the APA book I suggested on our syllabus if you are going to
make it in a Master’s program. Please. I’m proud of the effort and time. Shine
on
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