Sports Marketing Nfl Case Study

Kevin Cui

Professor Master

Sports Marketing

NFL Case

1. Discuss the factors that have resulted in the NFL becoming “America’s Game” and the most popular sport in the country?

        In the status quo, football is established as “America’s Game”. This would not have been possible if former Commissioner Pete Rozelle did not focus on Sunday afternoons to televise football games. After branding one of the least desired television time slots as “Football Sunday”, Commissioner Rozella helped transition football into the highest revenue and most-watched sport in the country. The Super Bowl has also become an unofficial American holiday that has helped the sport draw in more fans.

2. Explain the dynamics behind the competitive balance in the NFL versus other U.S. based properties as well as other leagues globally.

        The NFL implemented a “salary cap” and “salary floor” as well as an aggressive revenue-sharing agreement. The NFL also shared revenue in three ways in order to maintain competitive balance in the league; national revenue sharing, gate revenue sharing (to compensate visiting teams), and supplemental revenue sharing. The competitive balance is controlled due to the fact that most of the revenue is equally distributed among the teams whether home or away. Gate sales are also split between the home and away teams. This is almost the opposite of the soccer leagues such as FIFA or UEFA run in Europe, where the teams control their own revenue and the league has little to no influence while the richer teams reap all the benefits.

 3. Discuss Peter O’Reilly’s marketing/brand strategy discussed in the case along with Alex and Matt’s comments in class. What do you think has made it successful and offer other ideas on how the NFL can more effectively build the NFL brand and continue to grow its fan base?

        NFL has made themselves more like a life style rather than just a generic brand. Three words can be used to describe the NFL’s brand essence; intense, meaningful, and unifying. One key aspect that Peter O’Reilly has attempted to focus on was to turn fans of a particular team to fans of the league. Instead of watching one game a week, a fan watching multiple games a week is the goal of the NFL’s marketing strategy. I think that they can continue and grow through more personal experiences that the fans can have whether its meeting players or getting promotions to different games or events.

4. What is the NFL Blackout Policy (which has recently received some government attention) and what is your opinion of it? Good or bad idea and Why?

        The “blackout policy” states that home games are prohibited from being aired in the local home market (defined by a 75-mile radius) if an NFL game was not sold out 72 hours in advance. This seems like a good idea since only one or two games are “blacked out” and the purpose of saving local revenue for home teams is being served.

5. How has Brian Rolapp and his group transformed the NFL from a “sports property” into a “media company”? (Discuss the difference between the two in your answer)

        The group decided that the NFL should manage the operations of NFL.com and its other digital media properties in-house. This move would help the NFL generate higher revenues, learn how to better monetize content on digital platforms, maintain tighter operational control, and better couple digital assets with the league’s overall media strategy. Rolapp also let the agreements with AOL and CBS SportsLine expire. The key difference is that the NFL will now focus on generating revenue through their media content, and not the sport itself.

6. What is the distinction between a sponsorship deal and a content licensing deal and how does the wireless category bridge both versus the insurance category?

        A sponsorship deal does not come with the rights to offer a product or the content of a specific brand. Meanwhile, a content licensing deal gives companies exclusive opportunities to offer the content from another company through their own digital platforms. The wireless category blurs the lines between a sponsorship deal and a content licensing deal, according to Schroeder, because the wireless company (such as Sprint) can be the “Official Wireless Partner of the NFL” and offer NFL content on mobile devices. By having both aspects of a sponsorship and content licensing deal, the NFL found the perfect combination with a wireless category compared to an insurance category.

7. In your opinion, what is the best option for Rolapp to pursue regarding the NFL Mobile strategy? What are the advantages and disadvantages to the strategy you recommend to ownership? 

        In my opinion, I thought that forming non-exclusive partnerships with multiple wireless carriers was the best NFL Mobile strategy. The fact that this strategy could provide the NFL with a bigger audience on the wireless platform can also be the most lucrative strategy, especially since we live in a world where everyone is on their phones. A disadvantage may be opportunity costs of signing with an exclusive carrier, a strategy that has served the NFL well before with Sprint.

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