Does the NFL Have a "Product?"

Guest Post by Danielle Bruffee

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. You have tickets to go see your favorite football team’s game. You can already hear the fans roaring with enthusiasm. You get amped up, your adrenaline is rushing, your beer is ready in hand, and you are ready for the game to begin!

If you’ve ever been to a football game then you know the thrill and excitement that you experience during the event. Do you ever think about why you are there? What gave you the decision to purchase game tickets, and possibly a drink or two? Well, the most likely answer to that question is that you are there to be entertained. Whether you realize it or not, you the fan are a big part of the entire NFL ecosystem.

Entertainment is what we as people tend to look for during our leisurely time. You can expect to experience some sort of enjoyment, relaxation and pure fun. If you are indeed a football fan, I can’t imagine a better way of spending a Sunday afternoon than spending it at the arena.

Let’s talk about the “product” the NFL is trying to sell... This “product” is a bit more complex compared to other corporations. The purpose of a football game is indeed to provide entertainment to their consumers (the fans). They are also trying to sell tangible items such as tickets, food, drinks, and clothing. However, the NFL really needs to create a strong fan base in order to be recognized.

Have you ever worn a cap or shirt with your favorite team’s logo on it? Is it more than just a hat, or a shirt? Yes, it is. When you purchase an item with your team’s logo on it you are in turn advertising that particular team.

Without the fans the NFL wouldn’t have much to go on. What exactly do the fans do?

• They sponsor their team.
• They support their team.
• They advertise for their team.
• They give their team acknowledgement.
• They are always loyal to their team.

As you can see the fans give the NFL power. What good would a game be without the fans cheering them on? How would the NFL make any profit if there were no fans (no consumers)?

When it comes down to it, the fan base is the heart and soul in the NFL. Even when teams are having a bad season, the fans are always there supporting their team, because for them it’s so much more than about winning or losing. There is a mutual bond between both the NFL teams, and the fan base. The fans continue to stay dedicated and true to their team through thick and thin, and in turn the players provide their loyal fans with entertainment.

So next time you’re at your NFL team’s game, sitting in the seats having a nice cold beer you can take note in the fact that you play an important role in the networking of the NFL. Without you and the many other fans there wouldn’t be much entertainment provided.


https://www.bostonfed.org/peanuts/sptspage/inning1.htm
http://teamsportsmarketing.com/the-text/the-fan/why/
http://teamsportsmarketing.com/the-text/team-marketing/
http://www.sirc.org/football/football_passions.shtml
http://bulldog2.redlands.edu/fac/sawa_kurotani/soan465/soan465carreiro/index.htm
http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2012/02/15/the-psychology-of-sports-fans-what-makes-them-so-crazy/
http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2011/01/25/value-sports-loyal-fan/

Why a Gay Man Gets Excited About Superbowl XLVI (original post: 05 Feb 2012)

It’s the stuff that Disney feel-good movies are made of: my single memory of playing football in junior high school was accidentally catching a ball that somehow landed right in my hands - - and then running in the wrong direction.

I have a similar memory from basketball. I would always allow myself to be blocked, so that there would never be a chance that I would actually catch a pass. But one time it somehow happened (I think the opposing team just gave up on bothering to cover me). I caught the ball. In my panic, rather than pass it or dribble it, I ran with it. Ooops.

There was the wrestling demo in grade school, where the gym coach flipped me around and my neck cracked as it bent backwards and I ended up seeing stars for 30 minutes. And the little league game where the pop-up fly landed not in my glove, but hit my voice box square-on, causing me to black out.

Now, I shouldn’t make it sound like I’m a TOTAL dork...I can play volleyball pretty well, I’ve finished (poorly) in a few 10k foot races, I used to ski fairly well, I can bowl and shoot, and I found some major mojo in the gym once I saw the results in my arms and chest from a lot of hard work while weight training.

Still, it is a little odd that the kid who used to find any excuse in the world to escape gym class; who openly identifies with the gay community; and who only learned at the age of 51 how to throw a football with a spin (thanks to his teenage son) – can actually get excited about the Superbowl.

And that excitement is not just limited to the Superbowl - as an adult, I have enjoyed the World Cup in a gritty pub in Holyhead, Wales; followed the NY Mets during the US Baseball season; and remain fascinated by rugby and the culture surrounding it. Somewhere I decided that my relative incompetance and ignorance in sports skills did not have to last forever. But for the most part, I am still a very ‘late bloomer’ compared to my male counterparts when it comes to sports, so it stretched me to my limits six years ago when I created a college-level course in Sports Economics. When it comes to discussing the media revenue streams to the NFL or the salary structure of pitchers in MLB, I can hold my own – but when my students start throwing around names and statistics and player numbers, I get that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling I got when that football somehow landed in my hands in junior high.

Reading through the threads on Facebook today, many of my gay friends are making funny comments about the Superbowl, and being kind of campy about it…looking forward to Madonna’s half-time show, wondering how well the uniforms will fit, preparing to make Cosmos, and musing about how good-looking the ‘goalies’ will be. All in fun, all acknowledging in a sideways kind of ways that they, too, like me, were the “outsiders” as kids who never “got into” sports, and for whom sports was a dreaded opportunity for humiliation.

But aside from the tongue-in-cheek and campy threads, there are many more that are basic “hurray-for-our-side” or “Who are YOU supporting today?” threads. And therein lies, I think, one of the reasons for the pervasive hold that professional sports has on our society.

In teaching that Sports Economics course, the very first topic we seek to answer is a deceptively simple question:

What is the product that professional sports is selling?

Students who take the course are often sports-a-holics; with the exception of one or two females per class, they are exclusively male; and they are often the kinds of jocks with whom I had *nothing* in common in junior high or high school. As they grapple with this question, they often wrestle with the idea that Professional Sports is ‘selling’ leadership, teamwork, safe expressions of warrior-hood and male aggression, unrealized dreams, superstar brands, and entertainment; and to be honest, there are elements of all of these things at work in sports.

But the conclusion they always reach is that Professional Sports teams are selling something much more elusive in today’s society: Identity.

Both of my grandfathers worked their entire lives in a single company. My dad worked in several capacities for the same government unit his entire life, and my mom worked for one company for the majority of her adult life.

On the other hand, between the ages of 24 and 52, I have worked at nine different jobs.

My mom and dad got married and bought a house that was 3 blocks from where my mom was raised, and one mile from where my dad was raised. When they retired, they moved to smaller condominiums and apartments within two miles from there (They originally moved to Florida for a short time, but realized they wanted to be "home" and they came back to NY). My mom still lives in the same community in which she was raised. My father’s distant relatives remain in the NYC, all within an hour of where his ancestors stepped off the boat 370 years ago.

On the other hand, though I was born and raised in NY, I left there at the age of 30: I have since lived for 8 years in Massachusetts (in three different houses) , and 14 years in New Hampshire (in six different places). Statistically, I’m typical of most Americans: according to the 2010 census, the average American moves 12 times in a lifetime (which explains why I am about ready to ‘retire’ and settle down a bit!)

In this fast-paced century, where people have Facebook ‘friends’ they have never met on the other side of the world, where they move every 8 years, and where they change jobs 10 times before the age of 42 – “where is home?” What is “home?” With a growing integration of ethnicities into the American salad bowl, a growing number of US citizens simply call themselves “Americans” on the US Census rather than holding to older European nationalities (I did this myself on the 2010 Census: it was easier than choosing more than 10 ethnicities).

And so, with global communications and fast-paced mobility, Professional Sports Teams offer a sense of ‘belonging,’ of identifying with a particular location regardless of one’s ‘temporary’ or ‘transient’ station in life. Today’s Facebook threads are full of people emphatically supporting the NY Giants or the New England Patriots – and the strongest fans are precisely those who see one of these teams as their “home team.” Their identity is, in some way, wrapped up in these non-military warriors representing the “homeland.” Native New Yorkers living in California will root for the Giants; native Bostonians in Texas will be cheering for Tom Brady.

And for that reason, this gay man who couldn't throw a football until last year is preparing the guacamole dip, reading the online sports news, spicing the shrimp soup, picking up some more beer, watching his boyfriend wire up the surround sound system, and getting out the ingredients for some kick-ass Hero sandwiches.

And routing passionately for Eli Manning and the New York Giants.


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