September 28, 2020

Read in Browser

Front Office Sports

POWERED BY

Sports ratings are taking a hit despite live TV’s continued strong draw, airline partnerships are at risk with turbulent 2020, the MAC fills out the FBS football slate, and Vail Resorts preps for a tough winter.

Sports Log Jam

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Despite the constant drone of the death of cable, live TV — including sports — continues to dominate primetime. In a single week of August, the combined viewership of the NBA playoffs and the Democratic National Convention reached 41.2 million total viewers — about 1 in 5 American adults.

While live games are still a draw, the current glut of sports on TV is posing a ratings log jam. Week 3 of “Thursday Night Football” drew 5.43 million viewers, a drop of nearly 1 million viewers compared to last year. But the NFL is still the most-watched TV property of the year.

Initially, when the NHL returned Aug. 1, viewership was up 39% from pre-pandemic levels. The return of the rest of sports has sent Stanley Cup Final viewership tumbling, with Games 1-3 down at least 60% compared to last season.

Notable 2020 NFL Broadcasts:

  • Week 2 “Monday Night Football” Saints vs Raiders — 15.44 million viewers (largest “MNF” audience since November 2019)
  • Week 1 Sunday afternoon Buccaneers vs Saints — 26.3 million viewers (top program of 2020)
  • Kickoff Game Texans vs Chiefs — 20.6 million viewers (down 7.2% from last year, the most-watched season opener since 2016)

Soft Landing

Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren for USA TODAY

Australian airline Qantas has ended a 30-year partnership with Rugby Australia early, potentially a sign of things to come in the sponsorship space. “While we’re dealing with this crisis and its aftermath, the cash cost of our sponsorships has to be zero,” Qantas Chief Customer Officer Stephanie Tully said in a statement.

Airline travel in 2020 is expected to fall by as much as 70% globally compared to 2019, a huge blow to an industry that spends more than $761 million per year on sports partnerships. Currently, there are about 700,000 passengers a day in the U.S., a third of the normal rate.

Global sports sponsorship fees are expected to decline 37% overall in 2020 — the airline segment led all categories with a 61% drop. The long-term impact is still unknown as airlines remain a key cog in partnerships, with Delta signing on to be a founding partner for LA28 and Team USA for $400 million in late February.

Major U.S. Airlines’ Recent Quarterly Earnings Reports:

American Airlines: 86% decline in revenue

Delta Air Lines: 88% decline in revenue

Southwest Airlines: 82% decline in revenue

United Airlines: 87% decline in revenue

SPONSORED

A Tech Partner to Power your Remote Selling

You can’t afford to get stuck with a technology partner that doesn’t have your best interest at heart.

For the last decade, Sportsdigita has been changing the ways teams pitch to prospects with Digideck: a cloud-based presentation platform that is trusted by over 400 professional and collegiate teams all over the world. One of the 5000 Fastest Growing U.S. Companies according t0 Inc. for two consecutive years, Sportsdigita understands what sports professionals like you deal with in sponsorship, ticketing, and premium experiences with best-in-class software technologies.

For more info, visit www.sportsdigita.com and www.thedigideck.com.

MAC in Action

Alyssa Keown-Battle Creek Enquirer via Imagn

The Mid-American Conference was the first conference to postpone college football and now it’s the last to come back. MAC schools unanimously voted to return to action with a six-game, conference-only schedule starting in November. 

In classic MAC fashion, the November games will be played on weeknights before shifting to a Saturday slate in December. With the MAC’s announcement, all 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences will play in 2020.

While all the conferences are suiting up, three FBS schools won’t: UConn, Old Dominion and New Mexico State. 

MACtion: 

  • The MAC started midweek games in 1999.
  • ESPN started broadcasting the midweek games regularly in the early 2010s.
  • The network signed a 13-year extension with the MAC in 2014, worth a reported $100 million.

Behind the Vail

Richard Hallman-Salem Statesman Journal via Imagn

Winter is coming and it appears COVID-19 will affect a second ski season. In Vail Resorts’ quarterly earnings report last week, the company said its financial outlook will continue to suffer due to limits on lift tickets, food and beverage sales, and reduced travel.

Vail’s fiscal year ended on July 31, with revenue down 13.6% year-over-year because of the pandemic-shortened ski season and travel disruptions. Total skiers for the year declined by about 10%.

While season passes outpace where they were this time last year by 18%, the company says it’s largely redemption of credits from the shortened year and renewals. New customer sales have declined.

Vail’s Season Pass Pace: 

  • Roughly 850,000 passes sold for the upcoming season in North America.
  • Sold 1.14 million passes through early December 2019.

SPONSORED

Content Marketing: Real Time Storytelling in the COVID Era

During a time of sporting events with no fans, the PGA TOUR has been put in an interesting position of having to tell the stories of their tournaments in a whole new way.

Join us on September 30 at 1 PM ET as Laura Neal, SVP of Media, Content & Communications at the PGA TOUR, Matt Bordonaro, VP, Head of Media Relations at Travelers, and Ryan Jordan, Executive Creative Director at imre join FOS for a chat on how the PGA TOUR has executed their storytelling strategy during the COVID-19 era.

Latest On FOS

Latest On FOS

With people still craving access to their favorite athletes during the sports pause, Cameo’s revenue in May was up 400% compared to early March. The company expects to generate $100 million in bookings in 2020.

As the Crimson Tide prepared for their first game Saturday, there have been more than 2,000 positive COVID-19 tests on the University of Alabama campus. “Because of the virus, you can walk on campus right now, in the middle of the day, and you will barely see anybody,” said one Alabama student.

Four members of the University of Iowa women’s swimming and diving team filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school a month after it was announced the program would be cut.

Question of the Day

Have you flown in the past six months?

 Yes   No 

Friday’s Response

31% of respondents have bet on sports in the past two months.

Advertise Awards Learning Events Video Shows

If this email was forwarded to you, you can subscribe here.

Update your preferences / Unsubscribe

Copyright © 2020 Front Office Sports. All rights reserved.
460 Park Avenue South, 7th Floor, New York NY, 10016

Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletters

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.