The Globalization of the NFL report - Case Study Example

?One of the aspects of the current environment that is undeniable is fact that globalization has fundamentally impacted way in which individuals integrate with a good, product, or service. Many professional sporting activities, within the United States, understood the impact of globalization can have with regards to improving overall profitability. For instance, Major League Baseball is now broadcast in a handful of foreign markets and over 20% of all current players are foreign-born. This of course not only helps to improve ratings and profitability within a multicultural United States, it also helps to engender a further degree of interest with regards to nondomestic sports within the nation of origin that these sporting figures hail from. Although Major League Baseball has been chosen as a case in point, the same can of course be said with regards to the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, and a litany of others. As such, these domestic sporting associations have come to the realization that in order to ensure a level of continued and further profitability, it is necessary to continue to integrate with new viewers and stakeholders within the sporting process. In much the same way, the same levels of benefit can be enjoyed by the NFL is merely a set of determinants and key strategies are effectively engaged and met. Accordingly, the following analysis will seek to explain and elaborate briefly upon what some of the strategies might be. Firstly, it is necessary to recruit internationally for the National Football League. Even a cursory review of the NFL shows a situation in which nearly all draft recruits come directly from United States colleges. Although this has proven to be an effective strategy, the fact of the matter is that it does not engage any further participation with regards to the outside world. As such, a strategy for growth and the implementation of international recruiting for the NFL could drastically increase the level of stakeholder participation of different individuals from far-flung reaches of the world might have with the sport itself. A further beneficial aspect is with regards to international market presence. One does not need to look far to realize that the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and indeed the NBA have international marketing presence within a host of nations around the globe. This marketing presence is not only helpful with regards to selling merchandise, it is also helpful with regards to generating overall interest in viewing and becoming an active stakeholder in the sport itself. Moreover, the proliferation of a market presence around the globe would directly increase the level of interest the different athletic programs would have been offering the sport to their youth stakeholders. Going hand in glove with this international market outreach, it is necessary to understand that a significant amount of money will be required with regards to advertising and promoting the National Football League within these diverse regions. As such, the actual mechanics of the process will involve, like any new business venture, the appropriation of necessary funding to penetrate these markets and engage the respective stakeholders at hand. Such a process will naturally not generate increased revenues directly; rather, it will integrate with the respective stakeholders within these international environments in the hopes of generating interest and further revenues in the very near future (Alcacer & Furey 5). However, even though such a plan might be somewhat expensive to engage when one considers return on investment in the very near future, the long-term benefits of engaging with the rest of the world and seeking to globalize the National Football League have far-reaching impacts with regards to the survival and profitability of the entity itself. Where is the National Football League has generated a great deal of interest and a vocal fan base within the United States, none of this would’ve been possible had it not been for the fact that contractual obligations on the part of network television have allow the NFL to be broadcast into each and every home that has a television set. Whereas it would be ultimately impossible for the National Football League to negotiate expensive contracts with each and every television station, far more effective approach would be to leverage the market knowledge that currently exists in points to the fact that most stakeholders throughout the globe have access to satellite television. As such, the availability of the National Football League within a contractual agreement for a given region/country could exponentially increase the number of individuals that might integrate with such programming. As such, seeking to penetrate this market and forge international agreements with regards to what games are available and during what times could have a massive impact upon the degree and extent to which the National Football League can seek to become a globalized sport rather than merely a regional and domestic one. Whereas the information that has been presented thus far is effective in understanding some of the core growth strategies of the National Football League can engage in as a function of leveraging a much larger and more international fan base, it should not be understood that these recommendations are an exhaustive list. Rather, they merely help to highlight some of the key activities that can be engaged in the very near future as a means of ensuring and encouraging a level of international and global participation with the sport. Although it is true that the National Football League is behind the curve and not nearly as globalize is either the National Hockey League or Major League Baseball, it nonetheless faces a distinct advantage due to the fact that it has the possibility and ability to learn from the mistakes that these other sporting associations have experienced. Rather than having to craft an entirely new plan with respect to the way in which the market might be integrated with, the National Football League can leverage the success and failures of the NBA, the National Hockey League, and Maj. league baseball as a means of furthering a more honed and specific approach to engaging a globalized fan base. Work Cited Alcacer, Juan, and Mary Furey. "The Globalization Of The NFL." Harvard Business School Cases (2011): 1. Business Source Complete. Web. 29 Aug. 2013. Read More