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VR has teams thinking beyond their borders

Monumental Sports & Entertainment held its annual Innovation and Technology summit in Washington, D.C., last week.
Photos by: COURTESY OF MONUMENTAL SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Imagine pro sports teams selling season-ticket packages to away games using virtual reality services. Think about those same teams selling packages of digital video rights in far-flung international markets.

When I write about all of the changes disrupting the sports media business these days, I am usually focused on how cord cutting will affect rights fees. But there’s another side to the changing sports media business. Teams could see some of their traditional market borders knocked down, allowing them to expand into many different markets.

Those are two of the more intriguing possibilities that Monumental Sports & Entertainment majority owner Ted Leonsis is looking into as a way to grow the fan bases of the teams he owns — the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics.

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In an opening keynote at his company’s annual Innovation and Technology summit in Washington, D.C., last week, Leonsis said the first time he put on a virtual reality headset, he thought of the idea to sell virtual reality tickets to road games.

“Why can’t we sell seats through virtual reality to our fans but in the first row in Cleveland?” Leonsis asked. “That’s the experience you can replicate and get [with virtual reality]. It changes the entire infrastructure of the media industry. Geotargeting changes. Your home market definition and geography [changes].”

Leonsis is a big believer in the promise of virtual reality and has signed Pepsi to sponsor some of Monumental’s in-arena VR services. But Leonsis cautioned that people need to be patient to allow the virtual reality market to develop.

“It always takes longer to be socially adopted than the evangelists and early adopters believe,” he said. “But once it hits, it gets much bigger than we ever could have forecast. That’s where we are right now on virtual reality. …
“You need to understand what is happening in that world because it is going to change everything. It is going to change gaming, it is going to change video games, it is going to change sponsorship. It will be a challenge but the greatest opportunity for marketers over the next 10 years.”

Monumental partnered with one of the most innovative VR companies, Strivr Labs, which made news last year by selling virtual reality systems to several NFL teams who use the VR system as a way to do film study. Now, Strivr is looking to work with teams on developing consumer services for fans before eventually focusing on the away-game package that Leonsis covets.

Monumental is a believer in the promise that virtual reality provides to marketers.
“We can put a piece of content into virtual reality that will allow that fan to be there, to see and experience it,” said Chris Little, head of partnerships for Strivr Labs. “That’s the passive immersive experience that fans really crave. We’ve seen it with every activation we’ve done. It’s the biggest thing they want to talk about.”

It’s not just the futuristic virtual reality service that is working to break down borders. Leonsis also is focusing on good, old-fashioned digital video to help the Wizards, Capitals and Mystics expand beyond the Baltimore-Washington corridor. To that end, Monumental signed a deal with MP & Silva that is similar to deals the international rights holder previously signed with English Premier League clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool.

MP & Silva will find international buyers for digital video packages featuring Monumental’s international stars, like the Caps’ Alexander Ovechkin (Russia), the Wizards’ Marcin Gortat (Poland) and the Mystics’ Emma Meesseman (Belgium).

“Monumental’s creating all this great content through the network,” said William Mao, vice president of digital for MP & Silva. “We can help to tap into those markets and go in the reverse direction. Whoever is the broadcaster that is picking up already the Wizards content — live games through a deal with the NBA, for example — I’m sure they would love some supplementary content specifically around the player that they particularly care about.”

MP & Silva used this strategy with Arsenal, helping the club set up Arsenal Media and distribute an Arsenal-themed channel in various international markets.

“Sponsors may have gone into their relationship with Monumental thinking specifically about the mid-Atlantic region,” Mao said. “Now that association with the teams and Monumental is being distributed internationally. It gives sponsors that brand extension.”

Athletes like Ovechkin, Gortat and Sweden’s Nicklas Backstrom of the Capitals are well-known in their home countries. But Mao used the Mystics’ Meesseman as an example of the potential teams have for programming internationally. MP & Silva uses Meesseman as the focal point of selling Mystics programming in Belgium.

“You wouldn’t think that would be driven traditionally by the WNBA property,” Mao said. “In Belgium, that could be the opportunity there.”

John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.

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