Australia and New Zealand are major losers of FIFA's “Blackout” negotiations
Australia and New Zealand are major losers of FIFA's “Blackout” negotiations
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Australia and New Zealand are major losers of the FIFA Women’s World Cup “Blackout” negotiations
Countries make large economic sacrifices to bid and host mega sporting events, and they do this with the expectation that they will receive an appropriate return on their investment.
This holds true for Australia and New Zealand who are hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup which begins next month.
This mega sporting event is providing both countries with a platform to showcase ourselves to the rest of the world, and TV broadcast plays a pivotal role in delivering this. Put another way:
Mega sporting events provide host nations with huge amounts of global media value
To leverage this global media opportunity, it’s common for host nations to showcase their major cities, culture, lifestyles and tourist attractions during the broadcast to the massive number of fans watching from across the global… Think sky-cams providing birds-eye views of stadiums among the city skyline.
Another example is when the World Surf League is hosted in Australia, and how the broadcast acts like an an advertisement, reaching surfing communities across the world:
Surfing and the beach lifestyle is a big part of Australia’s global identity and major events like these allow us to host the worlds best surfers, and showcase the beauty of the surf coast for prolonged periods of time (Rip Curl Pro = 1100 hours on Fox Sports + Kayo), to help us reinforce this positioning to the rest of the world.
Global sporting event broadcasts work like a traditional brand advertisement, but for the host nation
The FIFA Women’s World Cup presents Australia and New Zealand with a key opportunity to attract global attention, which:
Creates/sustains global awareness, mental availability, relevance
Creates more positive associations and perceptions, making Australia and New Zealand a more appealing place to potentially visit, and trade with in the future
Delivers direct economic outcomes - Encourages people from across the globe to travel to our countries to attend the World Cup, purchase goods and services from us, and contribute to the local economy
The economic and non-economic benefits that host nations receive is huge, but there has been a key factor limiting Australia and New Zealand’s return on investment…
A war has delayed the pre-promotion across Europe, impacting the exposure that the host nations receive
Although the event is close, there has been a recent war between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the European media that has impacted the event’s pre-promotion across Europe.
“A slap in the face”
Last month, FIFA threatened a European TV blackout of the FIFA Women’s World Cup because they were disappointed with the offers that they’d originally received from the media.
Infantino specifically called out the offers from the “Big 5” European nations of Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and France as a “slap in the face” to the players.
Although all parties would hold rational arguments for their offers (e.g. time zone differences), the delayed agreements have come at the major expense of both the tournament, and the host countries, which has been lost in the news.
The below snippet from Unofficial Partner, featured in Athletic Interest, sums up the lack of pre-promotion hype:
The lack of TV marketing translates to lack of media value for the host nations.
TV broadcast is only one of multiple channels that will provide media value back to the host nations
It’s worth noting that there are other forms of media that achieve the same goal - host nation exposure. For example, players who compete (and have millions of social media followers) will consistently post themselves participating in the competition and Australian and New Zealand lifestyle’s, showcasing it to the rest of the globe.
FIFA have assured the globe that there will be no blackout
Although cutting a deal with public television is FIFA’s preference as it provides a dual benefit of 1) revenue generation 2) maximising reach, they have stated that they’ll resort to live streaming of games online through FIFA+ as its plan B if they’re unable to find middle ground.
From the point of view of the host nations, the preference is to finalise deals that extend the broadcast to as many corners of the globe as possible (public broadcast over subscription), and finalise these deals ASAP.
The longer the blackout war continues, the more it will impact the reach and return.
The AFL are teeing off with their own version of Topgolf
Through a string of PR activity last week, the AFL announced that Marvel stadium will be transformed into a golf driving range this September, called Stadium Golf.
This concept has been labelled a “Melbourne first” because it has previously been activated in Australia and internationally:
GIO Stadium Golf (Canberra)
ANZ Stadium Golf (Sydney)
A new commercial property for the AFL
Sporting organisations are always seeking new ways to build non-traditional revenue streams.
Stadium Golf appears to be a practical, and innovative step forward, allowing the AFL to trial a new commercial initiative during the break between the home and away season, and Cricket Australia’s Big Bash competition.
Given that its footprint will likely have a limited impact on the stadium’s playing surface, it’s a useful way for the AFL to make use of one of its major assets.
The AFL is generating revenue from Stadium Golf through traditional methods - ticketing, corporate hospitality and sponsorship, and they have onboarded many of their current commercial partners, including Sportsbet, to help do this.
Stadium Golf is an asset that provides SportsBet with a new platform to reach their target audience
Generally, revenue from wagering flows into sports in ways that will surprise you and many sports have a heavy reliance on the category.
This often creates a major ethical dilemma for sports teams and leagues because sporting organisations are increasingly under pressure to limit and/or remove their exposure to sports betting. Recently, there have been many calls from the community, politicians, health professionals, players and gambling addicts to better regulate wagering advertising.
Whether wagering needs an increased amount of regulation or not, new initiatives such as Stadium Golf allow wagerer’s like Sportsbet to find new and creative ways to reach their target audience, and stay ahead of the game.
Stadium Golf is symbolic of the emergence of a new category: “Sportstainment”
Start-ups are popping up around the globe, morphing sports an entertainment together to create a new category some are labelling “Sportstainment.”
These start-ups are combining traditional sports experiences with hospitality, technology and gamification to create a new proposition that appeals to sports' non-traditional fans and younger generations.
Topgolf is the most notable example of a successful Sportstainment start-up and one that has many similarities to Stadium Golf, although more advanced.
Topgolf was purchased by Callaway in 2021 for $2.6b and grown to over 80+ venues globally.
Noting the potential of this new category that has been demonstrated globally…
Is there a future for the Sportstainment category in Australia?
With the rise of the Sportstainment trend, will we see more similar attempts to build non-traditional commercial revenue steams from the AFL, or any other Australian sporting organisations in the near future?
Could Stadium Golf become an asset that the AFL look to build and expand? Or is it simply just a small-scale, short-term commercial initiative?
Watch this space.
Things worth noticing in sport 👇
LEGO teamed up with women’s football stars Megan Rapinoe, Yuki Nagasato, Sam Kerr and Asisat Oshoala to launch its "Play Unstoppable" campaign to champion the way girls’ play – both on and off the pitch
Westpac and XXXX launched new sponsorship campaigns during State of Origin:
Westpac: A beautiful partnership
XXXX celebrated Queenslanders' prideSTRONG Pilates has partnered with NRL and AFL star athletes Nicho Hynes, Shaun Johnson, Nat Fyfe and Travis Boak to break down the stigma of “Pilates” being a female sport
Wrexham AFC creatively announced yet another blockbuster sponsorship deal, this time with United Airlines
Patrick Mahomes worked around the NFL Rules to appear in a very comical beer commercial for Coors Light which has been viewed 1m+ times on his Twitter alone
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