Three Things: 1) How Chelsea nailed the Innovator's Dilemma in 1982. 2) The sports sponsorship sales gold rush. 3) Your customers aren't 'stupid'....maybe we are?
Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech and Live Events
Todd Boehly's group is in the driver's seat to buy Chelsea FC for $5b+. The same Chelsea FC that was sold for one pound in 1982. Some things seem so obvious in the rear view mirror when they were anything but. In "The Club"- the story of the English Premier League, the authors talk about the evolution of one of the biggest, most lucrative leagues in the world. Much of it was thanks to TV deals and an influx of new owners copying what they were seeing oversees in the NFL. Even then, the clubs were terrified of TV. In the first league deal, the five major clubs demanded only the second half of their games could be televised for fear fans wouldn't buy tickets anymore - which was really their only steady revenue stream at the time. The parallels to every change in sports, from TV deals to secondary ticketing to gambling are all over the book. Seems like yesterday Jeff and Eric from StubHub were being reprimanded at our AEG offices that we'd never consider secondary as it would "erode our season ticket holder base." Guess that's why history isn't written in the moment.
There's nothing better for a sports team's bottom line than a "brand new" sponsorship category that doesn't infringe on current partners- as we're seeing with gambling, crypto and cannibis which have exploded to help bottom lines and valuations. A day doesn't go by without a new deal in these categories (and the flex from the sponsorship sales teams =). That doesn't make it easy. I once met with a chief at a gaming firm. "Tony, I have 2.8b in proposals on my desk and just over 1b in budget. Yet the laziness and lack of creativity from some of these teams is incredible." We've experienced the same. I must be doing something wrong - we actually need to call back people looking to give us money =)
Your customers aren't stupid. We look a lot of companies and businesses to invest personally or to buy/partner with through our businesses. A common theme when we ask why a customer didn't buy from them over a competitor: "Our customers didn't buy from us b/c they are stupid, lazy, or crooked." We hear it from everyone. That's not a reason. It's a self-own. The goal is to sell something people want to buy. If nobody is buying our product, then who are the stupid ones? Denial isn't learning. It's losing twice.