Final Paper

NFL vs NBA GPS: You have Reached Your Destination

Aaron Conrad Perez Rodriguez

ENT MKT 4330

May 6, 2019

Professor Akopian

Abstract

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NFL vs NBA GPS: You have Reached Your Destination

Introduction

Since the 1800’s major league sports as 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.

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 (ESPN.com). 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). 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.

NBA Globalization Journey

Basketball started its globalization quest in 1893 by Melvin Rideout when it was introduced in France at the new YMCA building on Paris’s Rue de Trévise which is the oldest original court in the world today. 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.

NBA Globalization strategy

Although Basketball had been introduced into many countries since the 1800s the NBA started its Global expansion in 1984 at the peak and rebirth of the league. David Stern 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. 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 US coaches decided to set up camps for these kids to capitalize on the new interest of the youth. With the growth of satellite television and the internet, there were new platforms to watch the games, as well as stars like Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Dirk Nowitzki who were foreign-trained, helped kids realize their dreams were attainable.  The NBA has 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

Which league is better?

The 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. The NFL should continue to develop 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 in those countries. Another platform the NFL can use to expand the popularity of the game is 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 online streaming videos to foreign countries and use social media to promote these games to other countries. Currently, Rugby is the 9th most popular sport in the world according to World Atlas. 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. 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. The first strategy they need to implement is to make televised games more accessible. Technologies they can explore is live streaming on the internet, this can be a cheap and effective way the league can expose the game globally as well as making an interactive experience for viewers. 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. This has proven to be successful in Mexico and if they replicate this strategy in other countries they can interest the rest of the world in their sport. Some campaigns the NFL can initiate with a sponsor like Amazon is to have games televised on their streaming channel and they can be used as a new conduit which the NFL can use to expose their game globally.  Once the NFL is popular among the youth so many of them will be playing that there will be a higher probability of a great athlete to choose the game of football and become a star in the NFL. Once there are 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.

References

American football growing quickly in Brazil. (2014, September 28). Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2014/09/27/american-football-growing-quickly-in-brazil/16335685/

Bullman, E. (2018, December 17). The NFL Seeks More Mexican Brand Sponsorship. Retrieved April 29, 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 April 29, 2019, from http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19638357/oral-history-10-years-nfl-europe-demise-alumni-such-kurt-warner-remember-developmental-league-fondlyInternational Federation of America Football (IFAF). (2016, September 13). Retrieved April 29, 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 April 29, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/23/you-didnt-play-to-get-rich-what-killed-nfl-europeKrasnoff, L. S. (2017, December 26).

How the NBA went global. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/12/26/how-the-nba-went-global/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ce71bd9c9cc6Linthicum, K. (2017, November 17).

Football - the American kind - is all the rage in Mexico. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-nfl-football-20171024-story.htmlMcDuling, J. (2017, November 23). The NFL is struggling. The AFL and NRL should take note. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/the-nfl-is-struggling-the-afl-and-nrl-should-take-note-20171123-gzr2d4.htmlMcMahon, B. (2012, October 28). A Dozen Reasons Why The NFL Will Never Make It Outside Of The USA. Retrieved April 29, 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/#30b299331c3bSandomir, R. (2007, June 30). N.F.L. Pulls the Plug on Its League in Europe. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/sports/football/30nfl.htmlSandomir, R. (2007, June 30). N.F.L. Pulls the Plug on Its League in Europe. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/sports/football/30nfl.htmlSawe, B. E. (2016, September 16). The Most Popular Sports in the World. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-most-popular-sports-in-the-world.htmlWorldwide, B. (2017, December 26). How the NBA Positioned Itself as a Global League. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.boldworldwide.com/bold-marketing-blog/nba-positioned-itself-global-league

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