Hoops

Greer: Marketing The Game

The way I see it, the new CEO of the NBL is planting a seed, not to be taken literally right now but the fact he is expressing a long term vision should be a positive, action taken to get something moving right now appears to be slow but deliberate.

While there are some similarities, the comparisons with the A-League are unhelpful in my view.

Let’s put to one side the scale/scope differences of the two games/leagues for a minute. A reminder of this is that Melbourne Victory football club alone has a turnover greater than that of the entire NBL (at least based on the 2011-12 BA Annual Report figures). Let’s just focus on the challenges associated with marketing these two global games to domestic audiences.

Firstly, when Australia’s national football league moved to summer in 1989 (16 years BEFORE the A-League) it solved a series of massive capacity constraints and logistical problems such as ground access at all levels, grassroots attendance at national league games, synchronisation with Europe/FIFA (and now AFC) competition calendars, integrating a national ‘cup’ competition and playing against the two big, but still regional codes in rugby league and AFL (yes, they are direct competitors as ‘other footballs’ unlike the NBL). Rugby union stopped being a competitor when their CEO was employed by football to set up the A-League is now some distance in football’s ‘rear view’ mirror now on almost all measures. I don’t think basketball has the same logistical or competitive problems as football – so it should keep all competition window options on the table in my view.

Secondly, we can all agree that marketing a game is less of a problem if a game can market itself with a high, but not necessarily ‘world’s best’ playing standard. Football has developed technically in Australia and attracted some big names, ‘blue chip’ investors and mass media coverage (finally) which have all helped the league invest in player quality and build that critical intangible - 'credibility'. Indeed, in my view this has been so successful that the last three annual FFA media campaigns have focused on those things that unite the massive, national football community and ‘set it apart’ from other codes. The #wearefootball campaign and the associated focus on game atmosphere has been a marketing success. When you no longer have to convince your own people to take you seriously, you can begin to focus on the things that will bring new people to games and keep them and your base ‘attached’ (i.e. entertainment). Game quality first to unite the diaspora – entertainment second to bring the sugar! That order is important for sustainability. ‘Piss and wind’ will never sell basketball to basketball fans as well as actual ‘basketball’ can. But once your people are again interested and attending, you can attract and keep others by appealing to their sense of belonging and identity. You turn your base into league Apostles.

It is important to note that while the unification of the national football community is underway – it is still just at the beginning (at all levels). The ‘Eurosnobs’ and the ‘NSL bitters’ are still about in sufficient number to give some football people an excuse not to give the domestic top flight a go – but they are now clearly on the losing end of this perennial debate about legitimacy.I don't think basketballs 'enemies within' are as big a problem.

In my opinion the CEO should stop dreaming about 16 teams until the clearly significant domestic basketball community who respect THEIR game return. They will return if the competition is stable and of a high standard (it may take a decade?). It is they who will begin to drag the ‘NBA snobs’ along, and in time basketball be in a position to begin marketing to the broader community. The marketing of basketball should reflect a natural evolution that is honest about its place in the sporting economy. Basketball arguably has a case that its marketing can go all ‘showbiz’ earlier than football because of its American roots and the obvious cultural differences between the two communities (football fans find 'showbiz' anathema). However, to go in this direction to strongly, too early is a mistake because ultimately the implied message is that the playing standard is second rate.

That is no business model.

What really stopped me going to games for many years was the arrogance at the top as they played around with my favourite teams. First we lost St Kilda, who were fun to watch. Then we lost the Giants, who I watched most home games of. Then the Spectres became the .. became the .... Finally, we were left with only the Tigers and no more local derbies.

Maybe the bean-counters at the top thought that fans would just switch their loyalties to another team overnight - as if!!

I wonder how much the crowd numbers suffered during the Great Melbourne Downsizing.

Just emphasising the point regarding the popularity of NBA League pass...came across this on NBA.com (Hang-time blog):

"Australia ranks No. 1 in subscribers to NBA League Pass International and in NBAstore.com’s international revenue"

You'd be surprised at how many basketball fans don't have the time to follow NBA and NBL.

I'm not saying move the NBL back to winter, but it should at least be looked at. Lots of fans "back in the day" would use the NBL as a fill in during the NBA off season.

There's so many issues that need to be looked at that can't be summed up in a forum post.

News site comments/newspaper letters to the editor are cesspits.

Agree.
The article doesn't really propose any practical options. It merely reiterates what we all know about the state of the league.

Its not insightful, rather it is information/facts that most forum users on here would be aware of.

The article mentions that it is time to move on and look to the future, yet it actually only really talks about the past success of the league. Bit of irony

How much community work do the 36ers do with schools and district clubs? Serious question as most I read/hear about are radio gigs and appearances at rundle mall.

Big Red was at Morphett Vale for some of the Junior Winter GF presentations, but that's about all I can think of recently.

Considering it came from an NBL Team Captain, I suspect the CEO would be aware of it already ;)