No Such Thing as Plastic

Two totally different news pieces struck me in the past week.

1.      The Savannah Bananas are kicking ass and taking names.  It's genuinely phenomenal to see this baseball team selling out MLB stadiums and building the vibe and energy they do.

2.      Ange speaking his mind on ‘plastics and tourists’.  As he said, and I don’t think anyone can argue his credential in terms of his love of the game, according to the journalist he himself is a plastic – and we shouldn’t discredit those that spend a small fortune flying halfway round the world (or down the M1) to see their favourite team play.

What I loved about both stories is that Sports appeal to an enormous range of people.  Whilst, I keep hearing anecdotes that fans are switching off than ever before I think it's careless use of data.  It’s a bit like saying that because people don’t read newspapers anymore the news should be switched off – ignoring that more news is consumed today than ever before. 

More sports are being consumed than ever before – it's simply being consumed differently.

SPORT AS SOCIAL

I have long held the distinction that American Sports events are actually Social Events, where sports take place.  In Europe it's generally more the other way round – The Sport is the event, and we might make a social of it before or after.

Go to an MLB, NBA or even NFL game and it's fascinating.  The fans are constantly up an down, back and forth to concessions and merchandise shops.  Even in the US Open Tennis I was shocked at how talking continued during the points and people openly drank alcoholic drinks in sight of the court.

Even the way people dress to games is different.  Going to American Airlines Arena to watch the Dallas Mavericks can feel like going to a fashion show or high-end bar. 

Don’t get me wrong the fans in the stands are paying attention to the game but the whole experience is about being at the event and enjoying it with friends rather than living or dying by the scoreline.  Yes, there are exceptions and the NFL is generally the most sports-focused in my experience but still not close to Football.

The Savannah Bananas are simply the inevitable extension of this.  Perhaps, my favorite thing about them is that they are unashamedly ‘Fans First’.  It's clear on their website and you can tell from the entertainment product they put on that they have identified who their fan is and how to appeal to them. 

It may well be that they have a timespan – much like a Tough Mudder – but if they keep adapting to the times and the audiences that could be longer (or shorter) than anyone thinks.  Given they are a circus team and travel the fact that they sell out away MLB venues is mind-blowing… and shows that with the right marketing and audience appeal there are ways to build proper fandom for those IP owners who worry about not having a home base.

PLASTICS ARE FANS

I grew up in Rio de Janeiro and studied in Boston.  I check the scores every game day, I live and breathe them.  Its not so obvious as I live in London but during MLB season my first action every day is to check the box score.  When Flamengo won the Liberatores in the final seconds my wife thought I might have a heart attack.  If I’m ever passing through ether city I’m a lock to buy tickets.

As such I have always found it offensive when local fans or the media are disparaging about the fans who don’t get to the games.  By the definition that they want to use Manchester United is capped at about 300,000 fans because that’s roughly how many individuals pass through the gates each year.  Whilst the 1bn on the corporate website is nonsense so is the senseless limitation of fandom to those that go to the stadium week in week out.

EMBRACE ALL FANDOM

It’s not that any single type of fan is better or worse.  My son adores Chelsea.  He knows everything about them, their players, the facts and figures, and anything else you can think of.  He owns more shirts than I can bear but when the game is on TV he will dip in and out.    Yet if I go see him to say something about the team or a goal he has already seen it.

Fandom encompasses the young, the old, the casual, and the hardcore.  It’s also about the person who shows up every week in the stadium spending an incredible amount of their hard-earned income, as well as the person who saved up and flew over on a one-off, as well as the person who simply – like me checks the score every time they wake up and whose day is just a little bit better when they see the Red Sox beat the Yankees.

The problem we have is one of zero-sum.  The assumption that is held by those who buy season tickets have is that sports executives are chasing the fans across the planet,  yet the fans in Asia for example with the Messi debacle is the mirror image – they paid for tickets to see an icon, but he was rightly protected for the season ahead – and judging by sporting performance the right decision are angry that they didn’t get to see the GOAT live and in person.

To me, it always comes back to the fan and building out models that understand both the similarities and differences between the different sets of fans – and then, above all, enable them to interact with the object of their desire. 

It's not easy to build a revenue model that brings all these things together but it is possible… The Savannah Bananas are living proof of what is possible in a few short years when you put the fans first.