How the NBA improved its image this season after the 2007 All-Star Weekend debacle in Las Vegas alone would be enough to merit nomination for an award as the top pro sports league.
The strategy for the 2008 All-Star Weekend in New Orleans hinged on the NBA’s creation of a “day of service” to help rebuild the hurricane-ravaged city, and the effort was no lip service. The NBA got the players and all of its corporate partners to buy into the idea, and the concept was beautifully executed.
But the NBA saw other successes this year, not the least of which was a regular season that brought an increase in television ratings across all of its network partners, ending a steady decline of viewership that had plagued the league in past seasons. Yes, the ultra-competitive Western Conference helped drive interest and draw viewers, but there is no denying that the NBA’s on-court product is improved and more balanced than it has been in years.
Just as impressive is the league’s creation of NBA China, the entity that will conduct all of the league’s business in China and put the NBA miles ahead of other sports leagues looking to gain a foothold in Asia. NBA China attracted five major partners that invested a total of $253 million to acquire 11 percent of the entity, including Disney, Bank of China Group Investment, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation and China Merchants Investments.
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SHOULD KNOW:
NBA.com has the most international audience of all U.S. sports leagues, with 46 percent of all traffic to the site coming from outside the U.S. and Canada.
On the domestic front, the NBA this season did see a 2.4 percent drop in average attendance, but the decline followed four consecutive seasons of record attendance. This season’s gate still ranks as the third highest in NBA history, and total gate revenue increased by 3 percent.
The league also crafted a new digital strategy that gave additional digital rights to Turner and ESPN. Terms of the deal also call for Turner to take over operations of NBA.com and NBA TV. Just as significant is a plan that will allow all 30 NBA teams to sell local rights to their Web sites, an effort that stands to generate additional local revenue for each franchise. One other digital fact to note: Traffic on NBA.com this season averaged 5.3 million daily visits, up 57 percent from last season.
Another notable accomplishment was a new revenue-sharing deal that brings a 63 percent increase in shared dollars. The total amount doled out to qualifying teams will reach $49 million next season. Though the vote was not unanimous, passage of the new plan shows a responsiveness to complaints by some owners over the widening financial gap between high-revenue and low-revenue franchises.
“The NBA continues to identify ways to reach their target audience,” said Jeff Urban, senior vice president of sports marketing for Gatorade, one of the NBA’s longest-tenured sponsors. “They are a league on the forefront of the technology wave and they do it well. The league has also done a great job of building a cadre of stars that can carry the NBA’s banner across all of their marketing communications.”
Increasing television viewership across all three network partners, reversing trend of stagnant or declining ratings.
