Recently a frequent correspondent of mine posed a question about the AFL. He asked why the AFL sees the states of Queensland and New South Wales and the Northern Territory in Australia as the "new frontiers" of footy and does not see the 40 countries around the globe (where Aussie rules has a foothold) as that frontier?
I suppose only the people in the big offices on the 2nd floor at Telstra Dome can really answer that. However, I have some theories that might provide an answer.
There are several plausible explanations for why the AFL does not see international markets as the "frontier". One might be that they don't understand it is promoted or played in over 40 countries. Another could be that the AFL is quite happy being the "big fish in the small pond" in Australia and doesn't want to spend the money or take the risk that growth elsewhere would entail. Make no mistake that entering other major and larger sports markets such as Europe or North America entails a commitment of resources and a degree of risk that the AFL may wish to avoid.
More relevant to the question is that I suspect that the AFL doesn't understand how to promote the sport internationally. It's efforts, meager as they may be, are often misguided. However, I've already written on that issue in several different ways so I want to consider one more possible explanation.
Just as significant as any of the above is that when the AFL deals with the football entities in most of the other countries where there is a significant presence of the sport they are dealing with Australian ex-pats. This reinforces the perception around the AFL (and in some media down under) that most of these leagues are nothing more than expensive ways for the ex-pats to play a little footy on weekends and drink beer. (I say leagues here because AFANA has no counterpart we know of on any other continent where footy is growing.)
For example USFooty and CAFA have almost always been headed by ex-pats. This is not to say those leaders weren't qualified or competent, quite the contrary. Are the ex-pats essential to spreading the game around the world? Yes, without a doubt. Their knowledge of the game is invaluable. Should they be the face of footy in most of these countries? No.
You won't convince Americans (or Chinese or Canadians or Brits or Poles, etc.) to take the game seriously until they see the game being promoted and lead by fellow natives. As long as soccer was viewed in the US as a game of interest to, and played by immigrants and ex-pats only, the media ignored it. Only when natives finally started directing the sport, promoting it at the grass roots level, and playing and coaching the national team did it achieve recognition by the major sports media in this country.
The point I often make is that if you went to Japan to sell a new "widget" and needed business advice, who would you hire: an American or a Japanese businessman? 99% of the time the answer is a Japanese businessman. Ditto for footy. We have to get natives in each country involved. We need ex-pat Australians for their knowledge of the game but the future market for the sport in the USA and Canada is not ex-pats, it's native Americans and Canadians. And natives have to sell the sport to their countrymen. With or without the AFL along for the ride.
-Rob (one fan among a potential 300 million fans in North America)
Posted by rkdesantos at October 6, 2003 12:05 PM
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Rob,
I think you have a great point. Nothing against the Aussies but I'm not sure they totally understand marketing here in the US, as I would have trouble in Australia.
I also think that we have two very different 'sport cultures' and that gets over looked quite often. In Australia local football clubs are the norm and playing footy for your town against other towns continues past high school ages and into adulthood. The rules are full-contact, same as the AFL. Here in the US we have nothing like that. We play flag or touch football, almost no one plays NFL rules football at the adult level. Most tackle football is played at the HS level with 70% of all tackle football players in the US being under the age of 17 (SMGA Report).
I think the good news is we have one of the best 'products' around in the game of Aussie Rules and just need to work on the packaging a bit.
Posted by: Miles at October 9, 2003 10:29 AMMiles - I concur that we have a great product in front of us. I hope that my point was clear here... I have nothing against the involvement of ex-pat Aussies but if Americans want this to be a game for Americans then we need to step up to the plate and provide leadership.
Marketing the sport involves different concerns at different levels. Clearly footy clubs find it hard to get recruits when the sport is viewed as too physical. Conversely, this seems to be what the audience wants to see on the telecasts. A less physical version of footy, played on a smaller field, and with fewer players might just be what the doctor ordered for the clubs and like touch football, could be the vehicle for "numbers". Meanwhile, the telecasts can be altered to preserve the reality of the game while not advertising it solely as a game of violence.
Posted by: Rob de Santos at October 9, 2003 05:23 PM there are so many things that could be done to improve the status of the game here in the uk and the U.S.
firstly , when I walk into Australian themed pubs here (London) it strikes me that there is always an absence of aussie rules memorabilia as opposed to rugby stuff of which there is plenty, this needs to be addressed by the A.F.L.and there marketing division (if, as I suspect one exists )I did however notice that this year the promotion of the game held at the oval was much stronger in that it was mentioned in the mainstream london press
I would like to see two Things occur next year in the lead up to the grand final and they are as follows (this can be run both here and the states).
1. competition held on local popular radio giving away trips to melbourne that include tickets to see the grand final, this will act as a veicle for higher profile and awareness, It can also be run in conjunction with the A.R.L. and the N.S.L. as a complete australian sporting package that should receive ineterest from the Australian gvernment tourist dept.
this Idea should also receive interest from Sky network who broadcast in this country the A.F.L. Gf and the home and away games, i beleive this Idea to be simple but effective in it's goal in raising the profile of Aussie rules, American football does it enough to get people talking about their super bowl, why shouldn't we
2. I would like to see a traveling exhibition of photographs of Aust football especialy those featuring high marks and screamers, It always amazes me when I see an exhibition or a feature in a magazine or newspaper regarding great sporting photographs how narrow the selection is,of course the reasons are obviouse , but I beleive it is about time we showed the world that we who enjoy the game have a new definition for the word spectacular
lastley, buoght a DVD off the internet called miraculuous Marks, as greatful as I am and have shown it to European freinds, the quality is very poor and unprofesional(much like my grammer)my favorite part is the seventies part, which is made all the more enjoyable as it is slow mo and put to music, but that is all the rest is repetative and thrown together like a bolagnise at a cheap Italian resturant .
I would appreciate any response to my Ideas from anybody reading this who shares my vision (and or the A.F.L. themselves to at least give myself and other people some idea of their own vision, because I get the impression there are a lot of people out there who are asking the same questions)
brenton
P.S. I could go on forever and have so many other Ideas after living away from Aust for 2 years and monitoring what happens here.
.
Brenton,
Thanks for your comments. I'm not an expert on marketing in the UK but I can make some observations here. The AFL does have a marketing department but that's not the problem. The problem is no one there has the job of marketing the sport internationally and certainly not any expertise in marketing the sport in the US and Canada and probably not the UK either.
As to your suggestions... on the first, a give-away of a trip to the GF would be an excellent option though we couldn't use radio here in the same way it would be used in the UK as there aren't equivalent "national" radio stations in the US (to those that exist in the UK and Australia). There are national radio sports shows and of course the TV programs.
On the second, the value of a traveling exhibition of photos isn't clear to me though perhaps I'm missing something. The target audience for footy in the US is probably not the art museum crowd.
The video you refer to is one of over a thousand on footy available and probably a bit dated technically. I'll be if you purchased one of a recent vintage footy match you'd find the quality up to the standard you expect. Buy them thru the links at the AFANA site and support us in the process.
Thanks for your feedback. We need all of the fans we can get contributing to the discussion. I'm not expecting the AFL to join us though, they haven't yet in the seven plus years I've been at this.
Posted by: Rob de Santos at October 30, 2003 12:48 AM