Sports Documentaries Growing Popular Among Sports Fans

Sports documentaries are growing increasingly popular with sports fans who are "easy to target on the Internet, via their many affiliations with team and sports news sites," according to Anne Thompson of DAILY VARIETY. Hockey doc "In the Crease" has "grossed more than $500,000" since its '06 release, and soccer doc "Kicking It," about the fourth annual Homeless World Cup, is "hoping to find similar gold," as it was "one of the few hot acquisition titles at this year's Sundance" Film Festival. "Crease," created by former Fox acquisition and marketing execs Matt Gannon and Michael Sarner, tells the story of the California Wave Bantam hockey team. Gannon and Sarner "opted not to take the Sundance" route, and instead in November '06 "went straight to DVD via Amazon's online self-distributor CreateSpace." The film's grassroots campaign included sales partnerships with the NHL and USA Hockey. Gannon: "It's a perfect, targeted demographic." Gannon and Sarner also placed an "In the Crease" feature and ad in the November USA Hockey Magazine, read by "nearly every youth hockey player, coach and referee" in the USA Hockey League, and also "got access to USA Hockey's email lists." In December '06, the film became the No. 1 sports DVD in North America and the No. 34 of all DVDs sold on Amazon. The filmmakers licensed TV rights for one year to Versus, and "more traditional distribution through video retailers like Blockbuster, Netflix and foreign ancillaries is in the works" (DAILY VARIETY, 3/27).