The United States is the largest sports market in the world, and it is also the fertile ground that football players want to conquer most. 1970, new york gave birth to a team with an unprecedented strong lineup-new york cosmos team, which brought together Pele, cruyff, beckenbauer and other superstars. If compared with NBA stars, it is similar to bringing together Jordan, O 'Neill, Bird, Johnson and other stars, which is enough to make today's warriors feel ashamed. Cosmos pioneered the introduction of the world's top stars into American football, and football legends such as george best and You Sebbio also came to American stadiums like Pique. The joining of many top stars has not brought the American football market into a virtuous circle. After years of burning money, the new york cosmos team finally realized that it was a "no return" and stopped investing heavily before the boss burned all his fortune. Cosmic team is good at hype and willing to invest. The root cause of their failure is underestimating the long-standing business rules of the American sports market.
The four most popular sports in America are American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey. Except basketball, they are all equipment parties, so they formed strong support from equipment sponsors at the beginning of the 20th century.
For example, football needs personal equipment such as helmet, shoulder pad, hood, elbow pads, knee pads, crotch pads, arm pads and elbow pads to protect itself. Incomplete equipment is tantamount to making fun of your health. A standard American football team needs 53 people, and the equipment price of the whole team needs at least several hundred thousand RMB, and a little attention will cost millions. These devices have been gradually popularized in American football since 1900, and now a huge team of equipment manufacturers has been formed. American football is not only getting farther and farther away from football, but also very different from rugby (rugby has fewer equipment and different rules).
Ice hockey requires a lot of equipment, such as helmet, skates, elbow pads, knee pads, chest pads, crotch pads, teeth pads, sports bras, clubs and so on. Only with these equipment can we go to the skating rink. Ice hockey equipment is expensive. The price of teenagers' equipment reaches 12000 RMB, and the price of adults' complete equipment is between 15000-20000 RMB. Ice hockey competition also needs special ice making, which is also an expensive expense.
Baseball doesn't save money either. It needs not only jackets, underwear, sneakers, elbow pads and knee pads, but also different equipment for different players. The catcher and catcher need special gloves, and the batter also needs special helmets.
The consequence of equipment first is that in the first half of the 20th century, football, baseball and ice hockey left enough sponsors and became the favorite of Americans. Basketball equipment is relatively simple. Compared with the other three major leagues, the early NBA stars were also a pair of defections, and the NBA game was even an afterthought during the ice hockey halftime.
The bitter days of NBA took place in the 1980s, and it finally ushered in a large investment from sponsors such as Nike. The cooperation between Jordan and Nike has become the best example of the cooperation between sports stars and sports brands. Nowadays, every NBA player has his own sneaker contract (the contract amount is generally small, and newcomers usually cost tens of thousands of dollars a year), and about ten superstars have signed sneaker contracts, which is the most popular advertising revenue of superstars. With Jordan's precedent, sports brands such as Nike also actively sponsored basketball leagues in high schools and universities.
Equipment sponsors, NFHS, NCAA and four major sports leagues in North America constitute a very important part of American sports, which naturally squeezes the development space of American football. The demand for equipment and hardware has also had a negative impact on various sports in the United States. The most typical example is American football. Only about 8% of Americans regard it as a daily sport, and flag football is often played. Only the sports leagues of middle schools and universities can form a team of tens of thousands of people.
American football has become the most popular sport in the United States, which has a lot to do with American football actively catering to American advertisers and media. 1955, the NFL signed a contract with NBC and began the exploration of television broadcasting, making MBL the first of the four major sports leagues in North America.
In the broadcast of programs, American TV networks and sponsors are also accustomed to the broadcast mode of the four major leagues, and the competitions of the four major leagues also take care of the media and advertisers to the greatest extent.
The actual game time of an NFL game is 60 minutes, and the average game time is 3 hours and 20 minutes. Playing for more than 4 hours is a common period. The NFL coaching staff has 20 suspensions, so the interval between games is very long. In addition to playing wonderful pictures repeatedly, the remaining hour has become the prime time for advertisers. The NFL Super Bowl has become the Spring Festival Gala in the United States, and its prime-time advertising price recently exceeded $5 million in 30 seconds.
There is no time limit for MLB (baseball league) games, and it is mandatory to play at least 9 games (there is no similar regulation in leagues in other countries, and whoever wins 5 games first will win). The competition time of MLB is 3 hours and 5 minutes, but the long competition time is better. It is common to play for more than five hours. 1On May 8, 984, the Chicago White Sox and the Brewers even played a game that lasted for 25 innings and covered the whole weekend.
The rule of NHL (Ice Hockey League) is three-quarters of 20 minutes per game, with a lot of business breaks in the middle.
The NBA is the most obvious competition alliance that takes care of business interests, and directly puts aside FIBA rules to start a new stove. According to the regulations of FIBA, the basketball game lasts 40 minutes, with the first half and the second half. For its own commercial interests, the NBA deliberately turned the game into four quarters, each quarter 12, and the time to complete an NBA game became about 2 hours and 20 minutes. The NBA deliberately set aside a lot of time for advertisers. In the specific details of the game, NBA also takes ratings as the ultimate goal, and has formulated different rules from FIBA in defense and three-point line.
In order to cope with the long competition time, the audience of the four major leagues in North America formed specific eating habits. MLB audiences like to eat melon seeds, hot dogs and beer, and NFL also makes avocados sell well. The food sponsors behind these habits have made great contributions.
Not only the four major sports leagues in North America have become the favorite of advertisers and sponsors, but even NCAA (American College Sports Association) and NFHS (American High School Sports League), which have always advertised themselves as unprofessional, have gone further and further in commercialization promotion. Every year, the ratings of "Crazy March" NCAA basketball match even exceed that of NBA, and NFHS matches also produce many NBA stars.
Due to the long-term business model of the four major sports leagues in North America, American football leagues can't find enough sponsors for a while, and they are at a disadvantage in business promotion, forming an atmosphere in which Americans don't love football.
Arvin