U.S. Sports Are Fascinated With Foreign Markets
March 28, 2018 at 3:38 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
It’s not about trade with other countries, nuclear threats, whether or not it’s appropriate to congratulate someone who won an election that may or may not have been slanted toward the incumbent or anything like that.
It’s about sports, so admittedly that other stuff matters more.
I am increasingly concerned about American sports leagues and their fascination with holding regular season contests in foreign countries.
And let me be perfectly clear, I am not any sort of isolationist when it comes to sports. But give me a few minutes of your time and let me share with you my concerns.
All great empires – the Romans, the Greeks etc. – ran out of steam when they, as my mom used to say, got “too big for their britches.” They expanded so far beyond their home turf that they became unable to maintain control outside their borders while meeting the needs of their primary constituency inside their borders.
We have seen in recent years the NFL go from playing exhibition games in London to a regular season game in London to now multiple regular season games there. Mostly those games have involved struggling franchises (like Jacksonville) who are having trouble drawing fans in their own city’s stadium. It’s supposed to add value to the home games the Jags did have in Jacksonville, while showcasing the game of football to a European audience.
Last season, the NFL held a game in Mexico.
The NBA is very popular in certain locations in China, and teams have played exhibition games there.
Major League Baseball, the first professional sports league to establish funnels for players from Central and South America into its rosters, has dabbled in off-shore games in Japan.
All of the leagues have said they would love to expand their footprint in the world and place franchises in places like London, Mexico City and Shanghai.
My question is … why?
The cliff these leagues are leaning over is the same one those great dynasties of the past leaned over – it’s impossible to achieve what they claim is their intended goal of growing their sport.
People around the world are quite familiar with American sports, their teams and their stars. Having been to China twice, I have seen first-hand young people in LeBron jerseys or Golden State Warriors caps.
But to place a franchise for one of our sports leagues into their countries is failure waiting to happen. Here is why:
• Travel. Until someone figures out that whole “beam me to Beijing” thing like they did with Captain Kirk in Star Trek, it’s still going to take about nine hours to fly to London and 12 hours to China. If you have never done anything like that, try this: put a kitchen chair in your shower and sit it in for three hours. When you have gone completely crazy, understand that you have to do that for NINE more hours to get to Beijing. And a team based in China or London would not be able to, say, make a ‘quick road trip’ anywhere because all of their games would be thousands of miles away.
• Brand loyalty. Foreign fans look on our sports like many of us look on theirs. We know what soccer is but we don’t follow it that closely. They enjoy when our teams come to visit because it’s an event, but they would not support a team long-term. It’s a novelty … like a shamrock shake.
• Competition. To go along with that, Europe has no real interest in adding an American-based league franchise in one or more of their cities because they already have their anchor sport in futbol (what we call soccer). Not a single person sitting inside Stamford Bridge at halftime of the Chelsea v. Tottenham Spurs match Sunday will turn to the person next to them and ask “Do you think Baker Mayfield is fit to be chosen by the Browns with the first pick in the NFL Draft?” They will, instead, be focused on how Manchester City got so good that they have only one loss in 30 games this season and a 15-point lead on the field in the English Premier League … and of course the failures of their own favorite club team.
• Health starts at home. Leagues should want, for merchandising and other purposes, to expose their sports and stars in overseas markets. But by putting regular season contests in those ‘test markets’ abroad they run the risk of overlooking the people who made their ‘nations’ great. People in the U.S. made (and continue to make) football, baseball and basketball very popular and very profitable. If these leagues continue to covet having international franchises, they might appear to be turning their backs on the core of their fan base.
If soccer is the most popular sport in the world (and it is), and the English Premier League (EPL) is arguably the highest profile soccer league in the world (and it is), then this question drives home the point: “How many EPL teams are considering moving their franchises to the U.S.?”
The answer is none.
They get it.
Our leagues don’t seem to as much.
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It’s not about trade with other countries, nuclear threats, whether or not it’s appropriate to congratulate someone who won an election that may or may not have been slanted toward the incumbent or anything like that.
It’s about sports, so admittedly that other stuff matters more.
I am increasingly concerned about American sports leagues and their fascination with holding regular season contests in foreign countries.
And let me be perfectly clear, I am not any sort of isolationist when it comes to sports. But give me a few minutes of your time and let me share with you my concerns.
All great empires – the Romans, the Greeks etc. – ran out of steam when they, as my mom used to say, got “too big for their britches.” They expanded so far beyond their home turf that they became unable to maintain control outside their borders while meeting the needs of their primary constituency inside their borders.
We have seen in recent years the NFL go from playing exhibition games in London to a regular season game in London to now multiple regular season games there. Mostly those games have involved struggling franchises (like Jacksonville) who are having trouble drawing fans in their own city’s stadium. It’s supposed to add value to the home games the Jags did have in Jacksonville, while showcasing the game of football to a European audience.
Last season, the NFL held a game in Mexico.
The NBA is very popular in certain locations in China, and teams have played exhibition games there.
Major League Baseball, the first professional sports league to establish funnels for players from Central and South America into its rosters, has dabbled in off-shore games in Japan.
All of the leagues have said they would love to expand their footprint in the world and place franchises in places like London, Mexico City and Shanghai.
My question is … why?
The cliff these leagues are leaning over is the same one those great dynasties of the past leaned over – it’s impossible to achieve what they claim is their intended goal of growing their sport.
People around the world are quite familiar with American sports, their teams and their stars. Having been to China twice, I have seen first-hand young people in LeBron jerseys or Golden State Warriors caps.
But to place a franchise for one of our sports leagues into their countries is failure waiting to happen. Here is why:
• Travel. Until someone figures out that whole “beam me to Beijing” thing like they did with Captain Kirk in Star Trek, it’s still going to take about nine hours to fly to London and 12 hours to China. If you have never done anything like that, try this: put a kitchen chair in your shower and sit it in for three hours. When you have gone completely crazy, understand that you have to do that for NINE more hours to get to Beijing. And a team based in China or London would not be able to, say, make a ‘quick road trip’ anywhere because all of their games would be thousands of miles away.
• Brand loyalty. Foreign fans look on our sports like many of us look on theirs. We know what soccer is but we don’t follow it that closely. They enjoy when our teams come to visit because it’s an event, but they would not support a team long-term. It’s a novelty … like a shamrock shake.
• Competition. To go along with that, Europe has no real interest in adding an American-based league franchise in one or more of their cities because they already have their anchor sport in futbol (what we call soccer). Not a single person sitting inside Stamford Bridge at halftime of the Chelsea v. Tottenham Spurs match Sunday will turn to the person next to them and ask “Do you think Baker Mayfield is fit to be chosen by the Browns with the first pick in the NFL Draft?” They will, instead, be focused on how Manchester City got so good that they have only one loss in 30 games this season and a 15-point lead on the field in the English Premier League … and of course the failures of their own favorite club team.
• Health starts at home. Leagues should want, for merchandising and other purposes, to expose their sports and stars in overseas markets. But by putting regular season contests in those ‘test markets’ abroad they run the risk of overlooking the people who made their ‘nations’ great. People in the U.S. made (and continue to make) football, baseball and basketball very popular and very profitable. If these leagues continue to covet having international franchises, they might appear to be turning their backs on the core of their fan base.
If soccer is the most popular sport in the world (and it is), and the English Premier League (EPL) is arguably the highest profile soccer league in the world (and it is), then this question drives home the point: “How many EPL teams are considering moving their franchises to the U.S.?”
The answer is none.
They get it.
Our leagues don’t seem to as much.
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