The Arena Football League has lived in relative obscurity since its 1987 debut with four teams. But it’s moving into the sports media mainstream fast as it kicks off its 18th season in February, thanks to an innovative agreement it made in 2001 with NBC Sports.
AFL spokesperson Chris McClusky says the multi-year deal is a “win-win” situation. It calls for NBC Sports to share in the revenues from the increasing value of AFL franchises, carries no rights payment and renews in perpetuity at the network’s option. “The league had been underexposed, and this was an excellent exposure opportunity,” McClusky says.
Just 12 million viewers watched in June 2001 when ArenaBowl XVI aired on ABC Sports (regular season play was on TNN). By contrast, the June 2003 ArenaBowl, in which the Tampa Bay Storm defeated the Arizona Rattlers, was played in front of 20,496 fans at the St. Petersburg Times Forum in Tampa, and NBC had 65 million viewers tuning in. The game had a 1.3 household share, up 65% from the 0.8 posted in 2002. “That is obviously a significant increase in the number of people that know about Arena Football,” AFL Commissioner David Baker says.
NBC Sports’ coverage also put a record number of fannies in seats at AFL games, gave its Web site 42% more unique visitors and a 140% climb in page views, and brought the league a host of new sponsors.
As planning heats up this month for ArenaBowl XVIII, the league has had 30 sponsors so far pony up a total of $25 million in sponsorships or advertising. These include ADT, the U.S. Army, Gatorade, Aaron’s, Champs Sports, Foot Locker and Loews Theaters.
Champs Sports and Foot Locker have reached a joint agreement with the AFL to become the Official Sporting Goods Retailer of ArenaBowl XVIII. (The two retailers promoted ArenaBowl XVII’s broadcast last June on NBC at their combined 2,000 retail store locations nationally.) Champs Sports also carries “Official Championship” product in the last winning market, Tampa Bay.
Last season, in conjunction with the AFL and NBC, Denny’s held a weekly Great Uniform Giveaway contest in all of its 1,750 restaurants. This was Denny’s first venture into network TV advertising and sports sponsorship. Denny’s gave away customized sports uniforms by Majestic Athletic to a different youth sports team each week of the season; winners were announced during the weekly broadcasts.
For 2004, the league has a three-year deal with Majestic to market team-replica jerseys online and via national retailers. It also has a new four-year agreement with Spalding, which designed a new, brighter game ball that is expected to make it easier for both players and fans to locate and follow.
Drawing power
For a marketing tie-in to work — and for a league to succeed — it needs an audience. Average attendance at AFL games last season was 11,397, up 15% from the previous season. There were 18 sellouts, not including those at arenas that had every non-curtained-off seat filled. The first-year Colorado Crush sold out each of its eight home games, with an average of 17,426.
The Crush, headed by former NFL quarterback John Elway, Denver Broncos owner Pat Bolen and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke, has been seen by many as the model franchise. It had a full house for every game despite going winless at home, but team president Ron Sally says a lot of that momentum had to do with the Elway factor.
“Elway’s presence was gargantuan; he’s as big as it gets in Colorado. Anything he gets involved with, people want to be a part of,” Sally says. “Fans saw this as Elway’s new team and wanted to get on board.”
With Elway, Sally adds, the team didn’t have to give something away at every game as most of the league’s franchises do. “We saw a market out there for people who wanted football and people who wanted value,” he says. “At the end of the day, people are willing to trade away a free bobble head doll for an affordable beer.”
The league is hoping to catch the same sort of lightning this season with another new franchise, the Philadelphia Soul, which is owned by a group led by rocker Jon Bon Jovi. “Elway’s presence gives us football credibility, and gets us into magazines like Sports Illustrated, but Bon Jovi gets us into Rolling Stone,” McCluskey says. “His presence lets a different group of people know about the AFL.”
When his team was introduced in October, Bon Jovi said the Soul would give the AFL new marketability and access to things that the AFL hadn’t had previously. For example, a two-year advance purchase of two VIP seats, in the first, second or third row of the Soul’s home arenas (Philadelphia will play in both the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum) is rewarded with some mighty premiums: a guitar autographed by Bon Jovi, the same seats for a pep rally and performance by Bon Jovi, and a football autographed by both Bon Jovi and co-owner Ron Jaworski. Jaworski led the NFL Philadelphia Eagles to Super Bowl XV.
“I hope to bring a lot of profile to the league, because it is a legitimate sport played by legitimate athletes,” Bon Jovi said at the time.
Bon Jovi the rocker is now Bon Jovi the businessman, and he could be a successful franchisee, McCluskey says. “Putting on a concert is very similar to putting on an AFL game,” he says. “You have the product, you’re selling T-shirts and you have the concessions. Bon Jovi is one of the hardest-working men in entertainment, and he’ll be one of the hardest-working men in all of sports.”
But Sally has some advice for the musician-turned-mogul: The Soul can be successful if it concentrates on selling tickets, selling merchandise and putting a good product on the field.
“On the field, you need a good coaching staff with significant AFL experience. Off the field, keep it simple,” Sally says. “It’s very easy and somewhat seductive to get caught up in the things that are available to you that isn’t available to other leagues. But you should focus on your business.”
X-cluding a predecessor
The AFL vows to remain fan-friendly. It is the only league with a Fans’ Bill of Rights. Post-game autograph sessions for the fans are mandatory, and are written into player contracts. “That philosophy is not something we would change, no matter who we have a broadcast deal with,” says Chris McClusky, AFL spokesperson.
When NBC started running TV promos in the autumn of 2002, however, sports fans feared a revival of the ill-fated XFL, a joint venture between the television network and World Wrestling Entertainment. That league was supposed to play testosterone-laced football in front of scantily clad cheerleaders starting in the winter of 2001. It was considered the biggest flop in sports history by viewers.
“Both parties were well aware of the dangers of being connected to the XFL,” McClusky notes. “NBC didn’t even show a cheerleader for the first five weeks of the season.”
The AFL improved in 12 of 14 comparable categories from 1999 to 2003 and was called “arguably the most improved major sports property since 1999” in the 2003 League Report Card, a comprehensive survey conducted by Street & Smith’s Sports-Business Journal, which studies sponsorship satisfaction and value.
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