Sports' biggest rivalries and fans' evolving interest in sports

SLIDESHOW:  Sports' Biggest Rivalries   PHOTO:  WBO welterweight champion Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao (51-3-2) and Floyd "Money" Mayweather, Jr (41-0) are on a boxing collission course that is perhaps the biggest since Muhammad Ali first fought Joe Frazier in the early 1970's.  (Getty)

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      International Sports Examiner       
                - sports extra -

                    by Marv Dumon

    If there is a big catalyst for spurring fan interest in a particular sport, it is a great rivarly.  The media landscape is saturated with sporting events. 

PHOTOS:  Sport's Biggest Rivalries

Major sports such as Major League Baseball, the National Football Association, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Soccer comprise just a small portion of the athletic world which also includes racing, tennis, mixed martial arts, boxing, and cycling.

However, baseball, the NFL, and NBA each consist of dozens of teams that are difficult to track throughout the course of a season.  

   Today's sports fans are simply overloaded with too much athletic information.  With the advent of multiple ESPN channels and competing sports shows, the sports information overload occurs on a daily basis, 24 hours a day, 365 days a week.

The sports world today has evolved in several important ways, which is influenced by fans' aggregate behavior:

    Information Overload

1.  Many fans, especially those who like multiple sports, choose to cover critical events only such as the playoffs or championship runs.  For instance, the die-hard fan may follow his favorite baseball team for over 150 games in a season.  But the casual fan may only focus on the conference finals and the World Series.  There are simply too many baseball players, statistics, teams, and games to watch and follow - even within just a single sport.  For sports without a playoff system, a championship run may be the Indianapolis 500 or college football and its Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

2.  ESPN's rise in the 1990s changed the coverage of sports.  Sports anchors used to convey the latest results from popular local teams in the last section of regional news shows.  This type of localized coverage was presented throughout the U.S. and in many countries around the world.  ESPN, and its subsequent "copy cat" channels (ESPN2, etc.) changed the rules by transmitting major sporting events (and scandals) 24 hours a day, 365 days a week.  The large corporate backing of its parent, Disney, which is a publicly-held company, meant that in-depth stories could be done on athletes, teams, and entire sports industries - coverage that required extensive budgets beyond the scope of your local television station.  The ESPN model had its followers:  Golf TV covers the sport 24 hours a day.  The Weather Channel covers weather 24 hours a day and so on.  The specialization of news, executives found out, brings about handsome valuation for investors.  In 2008, major network NBA purchased The Weather Channel for a whopping $3.5 billion.  However, the advent of ESPN also meant the conveyance of immense amounts of information that simply became too much for the casual sports fan who works a regular job at 40+ hours a week.

3.  The popularity of the internet and social media allowed fans to filter and personalize sports information being received.  While local sports reporting still exist, the ESPN model has forced the casual fan to search for specific, relevant information tailored to his unique preferences - not a generalized "data dump" from ESPN and related channels.  Sportscenter, which is ESPN's most significant show, may be appropriate for 90+% of casual fans in the first 10-15 minutes.  This is when the network covers the day's most signigicant athletic results and stories (which now evolves more scandal and celebrity type of reporting).  The internet and social media (Facebook feeds, Twitter, etc.) can take over for more specialized content.

4.  The cream of the crop from any sport is what gets the limited attention from today's sports fan.  For instance, ask a regular fan and only the most popular baseball, basketball, and football players and teams will spur any intelligent conversation.  The second tier, average, and mediocre players and teams will be virtually non-existent from many fans' memories.  With information overload, there is no space for them.

    The Power of Rivalries

5.  In addition to the top performers getting "mind share," rivalries spark mass interest and excitement in a particular sport.  Rivalries are viewed as historic competition, and have simpler storylines that fans can relate to.  Fans also get divided in who to root for, and the lines of demarcation typically cause heated debates.  Angry arguments are telling of one thing: genuine interest in the sports and the personalities involved.  Boxing can be framed more understandably in the context of Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier, or Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather, Jr.  The fight transcends the sport and may be seen as a cultural or generational bookmark, or as a clash of culture or personalities.  The Los Angeles Lakers meeting the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals for the 12th time is not only a battle for a NBA Championship, it gives superstar Kobe Bryant a chance to earn a fifth championship ring around the age of 30, while legend Michael Jordan did not earn his fifth ring until he was 34 years old.  The rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics is not viewed as an ordinary NBA Finals, thus it sparks mass excitement among all sports fans.  In tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are battling to be the face of the sport.  In soccer: David Beckham vs Cristiano Ronaldo. 

The interest smahes through the clutter of information overload.  Similarly, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Games being held in South Africa in June and July represent a global soccer championship that comes around only once every four years.  National pride breed rivalries and patriotism will be on display as soccer teams representing their national flags will compete for FIFA's golden trophy.

    An Issue of Trust

6.  Trust and authenticity are critical issues affecting the media landscape in our hyper-commercialized world.  Fans are skeptical of corporate influence in news coverage - that a news station may cover a particular movie or service not from a reporting standpoint, but to secretly promote and sell those products or services.  Often, stations are owned by large for-profit conglomerates, and corporate ties often sway coverage in the direction of bottom line interests.

   The growth of social media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have partly been attributable to people's desire for genuine and authentic interaction.  Boxing videos by amateur analysts and fans have grown on YouTube and these videos can generate millions of views per month.  While the opinions and coverage shared on YouTube may be non-professional compared to ESPN's coverage, such videos do at least convey honest and sincere thoughts by fight fans.

In the evolving space of media and new media, credibility, relevance, and timeliness won't be the only variables that affect viewership.  The sports audience will also want to know that the views and opinions expressed are authentic in order to establish trust as well as a more human connection.

7.  To be sure, the coverage of sports will continue to evolve, and so will fan behavior.  Whether or not mobile utilities such as phone applications and the medium of mobile tablets will take mass root among sports fans remain to be seen.  Companies with such products and services are making a push for mobile hardware and software in the never-ending fight for mind share and consumer dollars out in the marketplace.  However, most of these new mediums do not seem initially positioned to address a major root cause of fans' concerns which is that there is simply way too much sports information to digest.  If there is a continued need for personalization based on individual preferences, then top performers and rivalries will continue to play a major role in who gets the attention - and who gets mentioned in day-to-day conversations. 

Still, we argue that rivalries are what generates mass interest in a given sport in the shortest amount of time.  There is a reason why the ancient Greek story of Agamemnon and Achilles still resonate today.  The spirit of David and Goliath exists.  These tales, often delivered in the context of rivalries, transcend sports itself - and impart lessons and wisdom that not only interests the sports fan, but once again serve to humanize him. 

In the bible, Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man; and not man for the Sabbath.  In that regard, transcendent stories are made for man's benefit - and often makes him whole for a truer experience of life itself.

Copyright © 2010, Marv Dumon

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