The National Basketball Players Association will be flexing its marketing muscles at the NBA All-Star Game in Toronto next month, continuing a course we believe will end with it taking back from the league the group licensing/marketing rights for the union representing the league’s 400-plus players.
Since 1995, the union has taken an annual check (about $40 million in recent years) in lieu of marketing its own players, like its counterparts in the other big stick-and-ball leagues. However, under the leadership of Executive Director Michele Roberts, the NBPA is looking more and more likely to control the marketing rights of its membership.
It will start by marking territory. After an offseason during which the union and BET staged the union’s first awards show, the NBPA will have its own real estate during All-Star weekend, converting Toronto’s Thompson Hotel into a “Players House,” or union headquarters, in which it will hold meetings and host union members. While it’s not certain that every player will choose to bunk there, this will nonetheless serve as an asset the union is taking to market — a revelation in itself, since the venue opportunities at the All-Star Game site have generally been left to the league and its business partners.
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Jordan Schlacter of the NBPA says the Players House, at Toronto’s Thompson Hotel, will offer a place to conduct meetings and union business.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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NBPA Chief Marketing Officer
Jordan Schlachter said the Players House is intended to take advantage of rights the union has held but rarely exercised, afford a better experience for union members, provide a forum for players to meet with the sports business community, and conduct union business — all in a union-controlled environment. Sounds like a worthy enough idea to us that we’d be surprised if it isn’t appropriated by the other big athlete unions.
With more than 100 NBA players expected in Toronto for All-Star-related activities, the PA has been talking to brands including video game and consumer electronics companies about sponsorships that would allow them to showcase their products to that upscale audience; to automobile brands about providing transportation; and to movie studios about holding Players House private screenings there. The PA’s annual Saturday night party will be held elsewhere, but sponsorship rights to that will be bundled with the Players House.
So is this the NBPA’s latest move for independence?
Under the current CBA, the NBA controls player rights until 2021, but an opt-out clause that requires notification this December will put this issue on the table soon. Initial bargaining sessions have already been held. Assuming an opt-out, the new rights would take effect in July 2017. Licensees that require long lead time, like video game and trading card companies, might be interested in knowing ASAP.
“We’re just exploring the rights that we already have,” said Schlachter, who spent eight years with the NBA league office in the 1990s. “We’re just listening to our membership and giving them what they want.”
> SOLE-FULL PROMO: Bayer’s Dr. Scholl’s foot care brand is using rights gained via a three-year promotional partnership signed late last NBA season to mount a player-based campaign supporting sales of its Massaging Gel and Active Series insoles.
Atlanta Hawks guard Kyle Korver, Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley Jr. and Golden State forward Harrison Barnes will appear in short-form videos on NBA.com and DrScholls.com explaining how they take care of legs and feet during the grueling NBA season. “The content is solid and the NBA rights allow Dr. Scholl’s to authentically integrate their message into a sport with a passionate fan base and huge numbers in terms of participation,” said T.J. Cohen, vice president/account director at Paragon Marketing Group, Skokie, Ill., which is handling the promo for Bayer.
The program tips off this month with an All-Star Game sweepstakes; another consumer sweepstakes will be timed to the start of the NBA playoffs. Digital and social media as well as newspaper inserts support, along with point-of-sale advertising.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
