Execs from the NBA Brooklyn Nets, MLB L.A. Dodgers, Fox Sports and Wasserman Media Group addressed how they are changing their businesses to satisfy customers in a fast changing media, social media, and entertainment landscape at the Doha GOALS Forum in L.A. It is the first time the global conference has been held outside Doha and moderator Mike McCarthy, noting that L.A. is the entertainment capital of the world, kicked off the panel "The Changing Business of Sport" by asking if sports was a part of, or was competing with entertainment. "Sports is entertainment," said Wasserman Media Group Founder & CEO Casey Wasserman. "Entertainment, music, sports are all pieces of the media business. But sports, economically, from a popularity standpoint, and from a value standpoint, is no question the biggest part of the media business. And all you have seen in the last 10 years is the continued validation of that."
COMPETING FOR EYEBALLS: Christophe Charlier, member of the board of directors of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, noted that every night the N.Y. arena is holding sports events or entertainment events, and trying to attract customers. "From the point of view of all the different persons involved in entertainment it is part of the industry, because it is competing for all the different eyeballs and for the dollars," Charlier said. Dan Shell, Fox Sports VP & GM, USC/college sports properties, said that sports is entertainment, but it is different than other forms of entertainment. "From an advertiser perspective -- which is really my area of expertise -- sports, as we know, is the one thing that is DVR-proof," Shell said. "People like to watch sports live. Sports is always going to have a place." Both Charlier and Dodgers CFO Tucker Kain spoke about the importance of getting fans to their facilities to watch games, as TV, social media and other forms of technology have given sports fans more comfortable and easy access to watch sporting events. Charlier said that that Barclays Center execs have been striving toward making the the experience both comfortable and exciting by doing the mundane things, like adding more restrooms, to creative things, like commissioning art or hiring a D.J. to play music, rather than having say, an organ playing.
GETTING FANS OFF THE COUCH: "In every single decision that we made in building the Barclays Center, the idea was, 'How do we get people off the couch?' and that is the term we use, 'Competing against the couch,'" Charlier said. "Some of the older teams with established franchises, they put pictures of their history. Unfortunately, with the Nets, we haven't had a history where we can put too many pictures up, yet. But we commissioned world class art." Charlier said of Barclays Center, "It's a night club; it's a lounge; it's a great place to go." Kain said the franchise is lucky in that it has an established history and fan base. But an older stadium brings challenges, too, said Kain, who was an exec with Guggenheim Partners, which bought the Dodgers in '12, before being named CFO. "Unlike the Nets and Barclays, which has this new arena with all of those bells and whistles, we are trying to retrofit an incredibly historic stadium -- and we wouldn't change that for anything -- but trying to add those features and that fan experience is a big part of our push for the last three years since we have been here in L.A.," Kain said. Among the things the Dodgers are doing is adding WiFi capabilities, as well as technology to streamline the parking process, so fans have a faster experience with less contact to get into the stadium, Kain said.
CONVENIENCE FACTOR: Wasserman said that teams are trying to step up their game, not just because of the enhanced TV product, but because of the increased connectivity they have in their lives. "We don't have to go into a store to buy things anymore," Wasserman said. "The convenience factor in everything we do in life has gotten so much better than going and standing in line for 15 minutes at a game and missing an inning is not acceptable anymore. Waiting an hour for a parking spot is not acceptable anymore. So the teams have to work harder, but I am not sure that is because the TV product is better."
