Why Do Americans Care

About Sports?

-Jarrod Farensbach

Do you really have a choice?

Sports offer a huge marketing opportunity for many companies/organizations.

Official sponsors latch onto individual awards and the sport as a whole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzenSPYntJk (Official Bank)

Do you really have a choice?

The rise of soccer in America has opened new opportunities for marketing. Since 2007 MLS (Major League Soccer) teams have implemented having sponsorships on the front of their jerseys (Bowman, Jensen, Larson, Wang, 2012).

Do you really have a choice?

NBC recently gained the rights to air English Premier League games (formerly owned by ESPN and Fox)

Like MLS teams, EPL teams also have advertisements on their uniforms.

$$$$$$$$ lots of money to be made for all involved parties.

The Internet Age/Social Media

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc all play huge role in our society.

Since 2004, Online Social Networks (OSNs) have gained millions of users yearly, helping link people together who may share common interests.In relation, over two-thirds of the online community participate or belong to some type of OSN or blog (Cheon, Kim, Kim, Leem, 2013).

The Internet Age/Social Media

When people are unfamiliar with something, but exposed to it constantly, they are prompted to take a look at it, see what it is for themselves (Chang, Chen, Lin, 2012).

Questions:

Would you agree with any of this?

Does social media push sports on you?

Are you forced to care?

Do you even care?