In our increasingly globalised world, sports synonymous with a certain culture are facing increasing competition from international sports.
Worldwide presence is on the agenda of most administrative bodies as the concept of the ‘world game’ is moving further away from only soccer.
Strongest with AFL, rugby and cricket, the Australian sporting economy has made mild drives into the soccer (A-League) and basketball (NBL) markets. More recently, the establishment of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) and Ice Hockey Australia (IHA) have mustered local interest in baseball and ice hockey.
Establishing semi-professional leagues for basketball, baseball and ice hockey, foundation was cast after recognising a market for it in Australia. Although quality and financial standing cannot compare to their North American counterparts – a distant way down the track – they could be one day.
In a bid to increase revenue, two major forms of sports promotion are in practice locally. The first is to market the sport itself. This requires the compliance of the dominant markets and in this sense, Major League Baseball (MBL), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) must all be exposed to Australian audiences before our local leagues.
Take the English Premier League (EPL) and its importance to the A-League, for example. Soccer fans did not start their spectatorship as A-League fans. Fans take an interest most likely in the EPL or international teams before they consider the A-League. Excellent television coverage, newspapers coverage and specialised programming enables this.
The second form is to promote the league, which proves more difficult. Rather than promoting the sports best, it attempts to draw audiences to the lesser league, the Australian league. Newcomers learn and support a weak form of competition which may seem amateurish. In turn, interest may be lost quickly as passion cannot be sustained.
The establishment of OneHD has significantly strengthened NFL and NBA audiences in Australia. Only the start, success hinders on further platforms of media. The lack of local funding will never draw international talent therefore always reign inferior to professional counterparts.
Increasing local funding is an unsustainable solution as self-sufficiency rests on a strong supporter base. To build this, the sport itself must be promoted before the league.
For the NBL, ABL and IHA to develop, Australian coverage of the NBA, MBL and NHL must increase. Australian leagues are helpless alone. Due to the substantial difference between Australian and American leagues, promoting local leagues alone is bound for failure.
Free-to-air broadcasting, consistent major newspaper journalism and specialised programming of the American leagues will make Australian leagues more marketable in the future.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Interesting piece. About 15 years ago, in Perth we had FTA coverage of the Perth Heat, Perth Wildcats and the WA sheffield shield team. All locally produced and only shown in Perth. TV networks have since become national, and the only local sport that gets a run is WAFL football. It's harder now to get minor sports and leagues on free to air TV than ever for probably this reason. The only possibility is the ABC, who may cover you nationally if you have a womens league. On leagues such as the NBA and NHL, FTA networks will only ever run it as filler. If it ever gets mildly popular, Pay TV would snap it up as they did the EPL. That's not to say it's impossible for a minor sport to build up a following, but it's going to struggle to rely on FTA TV to do it. But the number of ways it can be beamed into households is increasing. It's amazing the sports that are shown live from around the world on the various cable channels like Eurosport and ESPN. I was watching live biathlon the other day. -99% of Aussies couldn't even name 1 of the 2 disciplines of it.
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Alfred, I think the A-league is viable, they just need cost control and to concentrate on building attendances - the two Melbourne teams getting occasional 40k attendances is a very big development. With the NCAA providing them with their players for free, neither the NBA or the NBL need a development league in Australia or NZ, and the national team does a decent job of that anyway for basketball. But building a sport in foreign soil, against existing competitors, is hard.
Alfred Chan
Expert
The A-League does this really well but the A-League is not sustainable. If Frank Lowy were to for some reason withdraw his funding, how long do you think the A-League would last? The A-League would become the soccer's NBL equivalent. If the NBA realised the potential in Australia, there would be more financial support in developing Australian potential. Instead, all talent is poached at an early age because good basketballers know that it is on them to go to the US to show off their talents. Obviously money comes into it, but there is no faith in Australian professional sports amongst Australians. I'm aware that there is near zero chance of the major leagues looking at Australia as a development region worth funding, but it would do Australian sport so much good if they did :)
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Alfred, "Free-to-air broadcasting, consistent major newspaper journalism and specialised programming of the American leagues will make Australian leagues more marketable in the future." Why on earth would any profit- or ratings-aware media do this without being paid by someone ? As well, regarding hoping seeing the best regularly turns into a desire to support local sides, you might talk to association football fans about "eurosnobs". Make a viable amateur sport. Work hard at creating clubs that dont rely on one or two individuals. If you do have players plying their trade overseas, use them in publicity. And if you are lucky enough to have international competition, work on that angle.