Better. Stronger. Faster.
by Mike D.
After steriods torpedoed, or at least put a serious dent, in baseball's post-strike renaissance, the NFL is the unquestioned leader in the US sports landscape. Which led me to wonder, if you were going to build a new sports league, Steve Austin style, from the ground up, what attributes or characteristics would you be sure to include to give the league the best chance of success?
Must Have Press Attention - The Internet has gone a long way toward mitigating the necessity of courting the mainstream television and print media, but being included in the three minutes nightly sports package or having a dedicated beat writer doesn't hurt. At this point even sand soccer has sites and blogs, but if two guys aren't arguing about it on ESPN, is it really a sport?
Superstars/Personalities - Call this one the Jordan Rules. As the NBA proved, you can market a league very effectively on the strength of a single ungodly talent. In my mind, this is what is killing new wave sports such as snowboarding and it's ilk. Snowboarding seemed poised to breakout in the late nineties, after Nagano, but almost a decade later remains in much the same place. It is a fast, exciting, Olympic level sport with big time sponsors, but remains relegated to the backwaters of Saturday afternoons on NBC. One big problem? No crossover superstar to carry the torch and look pretty on the posters. When I can name more WNBA players than professional snowboarders, your sport has a bit of a problem. That being said, Bode Miller is not doing skiing any favors.
Excitement/Pressure - This doesn't just mean fast, otherwise hockey would be enormously popular. In fact, hockey could be an argument for a spectator sport that is too fast; replays being a necessity to truly appreciate the skill and artistry of most passes and scoring plays. But regardless, a successful sport should raise the blood pressure a bit, whether it be through speed (hockey/NASCAR), pressure (golf, baseball, hell, poker) or a combination of both (football/basketball). I'd say finding a happy medium is a cornerstone of a successful sport.
Entertainment - You want people to pay, right? Boring the crap out of your fan base is not a good thing. This is probably Americans biggest gripe about soccer. Or the mid-nineties trap happy NHL. Right or wrong, when Americans complain about the lack of scoring they are saying they are bored. Of course, you can take this completely in the wrong direction, trying for more entertainment than sport, bastardizing the product, see the XFL.
Nice to Have Nationalism - A little jingoism never hurt a sport's prospects. Unless your country is embarrassingly bad at it. Being really terrible at a sport is never good unless it's incongrous, then John Candy and Disney will make a movie about it.
Olympics - Closely tied to nationalism, getting Olympic medal sport status gives a sport some mainstream legitimacy and credibility. Unless, of course, your country has made up the sport to improve it's medal count. Ahem, Profitable - Unless your sport has the initials WNBA, you are not going to survive for long hemorrhaging money. I think this is an area where MLS has done a good job with salary structure and avoiding the mistakes that took down the NASL.
Boring the crap out of your fan base is not a good thing. This is probably Americans biggest gripe about soccer. Frilly Extras Superficially simple - The Tetris principle. It may take a lifetime to master, but a sport shouldn't need more than a handful of core rules to make sense. I mean, Australian Rules Football and cricket probably could lay claim to many of these characteristics but for the life of mean any time I watch I can't figure out what the hell is going on. You've got googlies, sticky wickets, footies, clangers and occasionally groups of men linking arms and forming violent huddles.
Physical/Violent - Let's face it, despite the number of times Pete Weber might yell suck it, being a spectator at a pro bowling event just lacks the titillation factor of witnessing a bone crushing sack or an old time hockey brawl.
Venues - Watching a baseball game in RFK this year was not a good experience. A sport needs to be played in a venue designed to showcase it's finer points. Besides finally getting in line with FIFA rules, this may be the best news for the long term success of the MLS. Watching soccer in a football stadium lacks the intimacy and camraderie of soccer-only stadiums.
Climax - Signature or highlight event would probably be a better term, but I needed to fill our prerequisite of at least one veiled sexual reference per post. Dunks. Alley oops. Homeruns. Touchdowns. Sacks. Third turn crashes. Hole in ones. You need highlight reel fodder to get people excited.
Statistics - Two words. Fantasy sports. How do you know your sport may have a future? When people are holding down full-time jobs writing about pretend leagues based on it.
Definitive winners/losers - Thankfully, the Rose Bowl took care of this one at least for this year, but simply put, no likes ties. Co-champions are a cop out.
So that's it. Looking it over, it doesn't bode well for my dreams of starring on a pro Wiffle circuit, does it? By no means a definitive list. Greg made me cut a few things out because he didn't have the attention span to make it through the entirety of the first list. Thoughts on what I might have missed?
Television - In the very beginning, before color televisions got their teeth into the American living room, it's likely this relationship was reversed, television needing sport to survive, but now it is just the opposite. Lucrative television contracts and dedicated cable stations are the mother lode, both for the teams and the league as a whole. Strong television contracts just makes most everything else on this list easier to accomplish. Being on OLN doesn't help anyone.
Tradition - This is not really something you can engineer, only cultivate over time. But once achieved it can be very powerful. I'm sure the NFL ratings weren't hurt by the Colts taking a run at 16-0. MLB dug itself out of the strike funk with the homerun history chase. How they did it is another matter. Speaking of, MLB and Bob Costas like to think they've cornered the sports market on nostalgia and tradition, but like other items on this list it can be a double edged sword, painting the sport into a corner and making change extremely difficult and Congressional hearings more likely.
Accessible - I think I would really like skiing/snowboarding, but after not getting into as a kid (too much basketball practice) the barriers to entry now seem really high and rather expensive. Not to mention needing a mountain. One reason soccer is so prevalent world wide is that you only need something vaguely round to get a game going.