The Publisher
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Apr 15, 2009, 10:06 AM
Post #2 of 5
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Re: [The Publisher] Commercial value of America's Cup Deed of Gift match
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Scott MacLeod, Sr. Vice President, Business Development for the Sony Ericsson Women’s Professional Tennis Tour, understands the commercial value of sporting events. Scott is also closely connected to sailing, as his company, Force 10 Marketing, owns and manages the World Match Racing Tour. Here he disputes a story in Scuttlebutt 2823 regarding the promising value of a one-on-one America’s Cup Deed of Gift match between defender Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing:
First, the Deed of Gift (DOG) match will be two or three races at best so the sponsors will only get exposure in those races. Compare this with the number of televised matches during the 2007 Louis Vuitton (LV) series and 32nd America’s Cup (AC) match and there is no comparison. You may think that a DOG match with two billionaires going head to head would get greater television coverage and ratings but quite the contrary. There would only be two countries represented so only those two TV markets would care compared with the number of countries interested in a multi-challenger event (Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, etc.). You may get higher news coverage because of the sheer anomaly and history of the event, but compared to a five month long LV series and America’s Cup match, there is again no comparison. I also don’t believe that the nature of a DOG match will be the greatest image for those brands (or the sport) during these economic times. Actually, this would be a huge negative.
Second, the hospitality opportunity would again be limited to two races at best as you couldn’t guarantee the third race. Two races would greatly limit your opportunity to host customers compared with a five month long LV and AC series. Yes, a DOG Match would be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity but only for a limited amount of very key customers. For this type of customer, you would probably have to follow the racing from helicopters due to the speed and spread. This would further limit the number of customers and your Return on Investment (ROI) per head.
Having worked closely with several of the major sponsors from the 32nd AC, Valencia was a commercial ‘homerun’. There were some issues with television but all in all it was very successful for the commercial sailing market and most of the sponsors that participated. Most people are not aware of what’s been going on in the courts as they only expect an AC every 3-4 years. A multi-challenger event in 2010-11 could possibly revive the Cup as a major sports property on the world stage. However, a DOG Match (which may be fun) will present sailing as an elitist, wasteful sport for the rich, and I believe this will do more harm than good.
I hope that Ernie, Larry, Russell, and Brad will see this as well.
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