Juancho Hernangomez was the star of the EuroBasket 2022 final yet the failure to capitalise on his literal Hollywood story afterwards points to the issues the sport faces in understanding its new audiences.
The biggest hurdles often have the best intentions
There were repeated points by Glickman throughout the talk that hit home, both in terms of my own frustration at trying to execute projects in other parts of my life and more directly with basketball.
“We have to understand them and use a lot of imagination. There tends to be this idea that if we pour content into all of these platforms it will take care of itself. The quality of that content is extremely important and it has to be precisely curated for the audience,” he said.
“To get great content means having better access. I watched a NBA game the other night where during the entire first half of the game, a player in the game had a microphone. It was not shared live but they did share it over the course of the broadcast,”
“If I suggested that to a European football team, they would put me on a plane and send me back to the United States. In Europe, the players have a wall around them.”
That access issue really is mind blowing at times. Think back to the EuroBasket championship game. Juancho Hernangomez went off for 7 threes and was the player of the game. Both his name and that of Bo Cruz, his character from Hustle, were trending worldwide including among many people who somehow never realised that the man playing Cruz was a legitimate NBA player.
Spain’s communications team marched Juancho, who was at that moment the perfect ambassador for them to the Gen Zers that Glickman discussed, right past every non Spanish language media outlet. This was compounded by him not doing a press conference.
In a moment where Spanish basketball and the sport as a whole on this continent was guaranteed an easy win with a broad mix of content going out on all kinds of platforms, the Spain PR people figured they’d pass. It was a bizarre choice in any era but utterly bonkers in the modern day.
At a time when the NBA is doing all it can to ensure its stars are relatable, European sport is putting up glass walls.
BallinEurope has a book, a real life actual book called I Like it Loud, and you can buy it on Amazon now. It’s here as a book and here in Kindle form.
“We’re pushing away families, we’re pushing away women. We have to get a lot more diverse and appeal to more diverse audiences. That has to change or else we are going to be in trouble,” said Glickman.
“There is resistance by the people at the top of the governance pyramids but not across the board. My client, La Liga, has done an outstanding job embracing the need for change at some level. They’re beginning to do things that make sense,”
“Those who are millennials and on the older side of Gen Z, have to speak up and demand empowerment. There are Gen X decision makers making decisions that will impact the Gen Z audience. Those two things are not aligned and we have to demand diversity in the decision making process.”
The appetite from Gen Z for content is varied. I’m lucky for my age. I’ve covered a broad variety of beats as a journalist which has forced me to always look at ways to stay fresh, not just in the type of content I create but in the variety and locations of it. That’s why you are as likely to find a 2,500 word long read analysing a talk from a sports executive as a quick hit video on our YouTube or a full on documentary type of piece.
The audience is varied and it no longer has to settle. Every sub demographic expects to be catered to because it has a choice that means it doesn’t need to compromise.
“Content isn’t just a matter of the live game. With the NBA, they give you the option of watching the whole game or a condensed version of the game. The key is that those great moments can be seen within literal seconds of them actually happening,” he said.
Basketball can either adapt or it be the victim of apathy. That’s the choice and not just for Euroleague.
Oct 5, 2022Emmet Ryan
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Publish date : 2022-10-05 07:00:00
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