It really is a supersized Super Bowl

Roar Guru

By Steve Kaless, 30 Jan 2009 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: English Premier League, Super Bowl

I’m in Florida for Super Bowl this week and have been in constant amazement at the scale of everything connected with this event. There is no doubt that this game defines the marriage between sport and entertainment and in the US the two can almost be used to mean the same thing.

Having come across from Europe it is interesting to note the vast differences in the game day experience between the NFL and the English Premier League.

Australian sports marketers no doubt look to both leagues as the global benchmark for sporting entertainment but they are both very different in the way they entertain their fans (and I don’t mean just by the sport they play).

In England, the match is pretty much all you get for the cost of your ticket. There might be a few local kids involved in a kick about or they might wheel out some old player to wave to the fans but that is about it.

Whereas in the US of A, the game has been broken down so that every second can be analysed to see how it can be jazzed up, sponsored and connected to the vast entertainment juggernaut of the match.

There is barely a chance to think, let alone chant or sing off your own steam as you are constantly being directed to “make some noise for the boys”, stamp your feet or consider a particular rent-a-car company.

Meanwhile, every time the players leave the field, even for a few seconds, hordes of dancers, gymnasts and mascots descend to keep up the tempo.

It is a full-on assault on the senses and I always leave a match exhausted.

Australia has been a odd mix of the two, we are certainly told that we need a match-day experience but I think few very of us would actually care what was put on before a game and at half-time so long as our team won.

Would more people attend a match in Australia if they thought Midnight Oil might reform for the length of half-time, they had the chance to win 10 grand or an organ blasted out a tune every 15 seconds?

It is also interesting to see that the NFL thrives with such a short season.

The general trend seems to be for administrators to attempt to lengthen the season in order to increase income streams. But I wonder what effect on crowds and rating might be on an Australian football code if they decided to make the season much shorter?

They are thoughts I’ll ponder as I continue to make my way through enormous meals for the next week.

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The Crowd Says (5) | Page 1 of Comments

Forgetmenot said | January 30th 2009 @ 6:44am | Report comment

I dont like how American Football has all those stop starts whcih are purely for commericlal reasons.

Its show biz element in my opinion is holding the sport back, as it makes people feel like the sport is way to american.

Shorter seasons could be interesting as both the AFL, and A-League are considering longer seasons.

It would not work in Australia though, as people have already worked out what they will be doing each week of each year in terms of sporting events bascially anyway.

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The Link said | January 30th 2009 @ 7:33am | Report comment

‘Would more people attend a match in Australia if they thought Midnight Oil might reform for the length of half time, they had the chance to win 10 grand or an organ blasted out a tune every 15 seconds?’

Steve – John Ribot would be proud, very aligned to the Super League vision.

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Steve Kaless said | January 30th 2009 @ 8:26am | Report comment

Link,

I must admit I laughed when I heard The Boss would be doing the half time show, as he was the artist used to illustrate the sort of talent that would be at Super League matches.

Being a solid New Jersey boy I always imagined the Boss would have had a soft spot for the Hunter Mariners.

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Pippinu said | January 30th 2009 @ 8:35am | Report comment

Good article.

There was one thing all followers of all four football codes share in Australia – and that is a great distaste for over-commercialisation and major change. The AFL managed a fair bit of change, resulting in their commercial success, but it was a decades long battle to bring supporters with them, and even they are still at the lower end of the spectrum compared to where the NFL is.

Is that good or bad? That question can only be answered in 50 years time.

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Phil said | January 30th 2009 @ 7:19pm | Report comment

Leave the over-hyped crap to the Americans, its what they do best. The game is so boring they have to jazz it up with all these extras to make anyone bother. Its no surprise that American sports has little relevance to the rest of the world. We loathe the tackiness and blatant grab for money the USA is famed for.

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