The search for new sports fans
By Roger Blitz and Rose Jacobs Financial Times
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has brought its product to London, once more pitching the game to an overseas market in an attempt to expand its product beyond its North American homeland. The NBA had insisted that the LA Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves friendly last month would feel just like a US-based NBA game.
American football is also in the fourth year of its own export drive. On Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers take on the Denver Broncos at Wembley stadium in London in the latest annual attempt to sell the National Football League to a new audience. Sports operators face competition from other sports for revenues as well as other leisure interests and must find new markets if they wish to grow. Consumption can be measured both by the numbers participating in the sport and those watching it.
The NFL and NBA are not the only sports trying to find new markets. Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One motor racing chief, has dropped some venues and created new ones in Singapore, Bahrain, Malaysia and, most recently, South Korea. Football, the most popular sports, still has the Indian and Chinese markets to penetrate. Expansion in these markets is left to individual clubs to see what new fan bases they can reach.
Sports that enter new markets must bite into the leisure time and income of people already participating in or watching the traditional main sports of their countries. As David Stern of the NBA puts it: "We just want one in 10 people to bounce the ball rather than kick it." However, he concedes "the growth is different market by market."
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has brought its product to London, once more pitching the game to an overseas market in an attempt to expand its product beyond its North American homeland. The NBA had insisted that the LA Lakers-Minnesota Timberwolves friendly last month would feel just like a US-based NBA game.American football is also in the fourth year of its own export drive. On Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers take on the Denver Broncos at Wembley stadium in London in the latest annual attempt to sell the National Football League to a new audience. Sports operators face competition from other sports for revenues as well as other leisure interests and must find new markets if they wish to grow. Consumption can be measured both by the numbers participating in the sport and those watching it.
The NFL and NBA are not the only sports trying to find new markets. Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One motor racing chief, has dropped some venues and created new ones in Singapore, Bahrain, Malaysia and, most recently, South Korea. Football, the most popular sports, still has the Indian and Chinese markets to penetrate. Expansion in these markets is left to individual clubs to see what new fan bases they can reach.
Sports that enter new markets must bite into the leisure time and income of people already participating in or watching the traditional main sports of their countries. As David Stern of the NBA puts it: "We just want one in 10 people to bounce the ball rather than kick it." However, he concedes "the growth is different market by market."
The article headlined the search for new sports fans is written by Roger Blitz and Rose Jacobs for Financial Times.
ОтветитьУдалитьThe author touches upon the problem of competition between different sports and aim to find a new market for their growth.
Depending on the number involved in sports, you can determine the consumption. The National Basketball Association (NBA) trying to expand its product beyond its North American homeland. Not only the NFL and NBА are trying to find new markets.
The author mentions that sports must bite into the leisure time and income of people. He concedes "the growth is different market by market."
From my point of view is that any sport is looking for a new market, spreading its sport to new lands, and this is very good, people will be more interested and passionate about something