NYR vs. NHL: the battle for individuality in a team sport

I was reading an article in the Sports Business Journal today about how the New York Rangers are looking to expand their foothold in the new media area with an increased online presence, leveraging the rights they have through the Madison Square Garden Network. The SBR is reporting that the Rangers and the league are at odds over the team's ability to package and sell their digitial media in a form they want, bucking the NHL's recent move to centralize all of their online efforts.

For a company like ours that is in the interactive space, the benefits of a central source vs. an every team for themselves approach has been a running internal dialogue and one we're watching closely.

If you're a little behind on this story, essentially the NHL chose to go with one source for their teams' web design efforts, following a path blazed by Major League Baseball, the NBA and others. As a result, they are using this opportunity to sell their services at the league level and taking that ability out of the clubs' individual hands. They think they'll be able to increase revenues to the point that the total amount will exceed what the teams were doing themselves.

The Rangers are claiming antitrust violations against the league because of this and are apparently getting support from some other major-market teams. The league sees benefit in solidifying this business model, so all teams in the league can share in the success, while the Rangers and others want the ability to manage their own operations however they see fit. It's becoming a standoff and one that has major implications on the NHL's marketing future, as this is another stumbling block for a league that can't manage to have any more internal issues.

The Rangers have a lot to lose here as they are debuting 'MSG Hockey Night Live' on a new web site launched through MSG Network, which owns programming rights to the Rangers, NY Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils. When it comes to hockey in the state of New York and New Jersey, they are Queens Boulevard. Last season, MSG experimented with a Rangers On Demand service which brought in 500,000 streams in just 10 days. There's a lot to gain for MSG and seemingly not a lot to lose for the league, which needs people to actually be interested in the product. However, this would effectively bastardize the agreement they had set forth when they set off to bring everything interactive in-house. Hence, the two organizations are at odds.

Streamlining down to one look/feel/provider is a tough call and most development shops like ours would say that it's ridiculous...unless we were the ones to provide the services. What something like this does is help those clubs who aren't marketing-savvy look like they are, while limiting the abilities of the upper crust to create amazing web sites and user experiences. At the minor league level, we see issues with teams all the time due to restricting budgets and eyes that are often larger than their financial stomachs.

At the major pro levels, representing your brand with a strong online presence can mean millions in additional revenue so lest you think this legal battle is simply posturing, there is a lot at stake. The Rangers and MSG feel that the league is squandering its opportunities to market themselves and bring in revenues that will otherwise go by the wayside if teams aren't allowed to manage it their way. Considering the Rangers have an amazing attendance run despite struggling in recent seasons, I think they know what they're doing. The NHL? Well, they had a lockout two seasons ago and most fans seemed unaware the puck was dropping on the 2007-08 season last week.

One of the joys in creating web sites and interactive functions designed to provide information and increase revenue is the ability to cater to each client individually. While template-style looks and feels are appropriate in some cases, having the opportunity to let the marketing cream rise to the top is what makes successful campaigns and award-winning material just that. On the financial side, shouldn't each team in each city be the best barometer as to what to sell and what to offer?

Information provided by Sports Business Journal and New York Post.

Josh Nason is the Director of Marketing for Pro Sports Media and spent seven seasons working in the front office of the Manchester Monarchs and Portland Pirates, both of the American Hockey League.

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