On this day, the day created for college football bowl games, it only seems appropriate to take a look at what lessons can be learned from the bowl business. An article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal discussed how the proliferation of bowl games has made it difficult for many teams to sell tickets. The executive director of the Meineke Bowl is quoted as saying, “There are some legitimate arguments that we may be diluting the market.”
College bowls face some classic business issues – many new market entrants, changing consumer tastes, entrenched market leaders, and an evolving market. New competitors, egged on by a major customer (ESPN) looking to diversify its supply chain and with visions of consumers flocking to consume their products (the games), are struggling. The bulk of a bowl’s revenues typically come from ticket sales, and it is difficult to get fans excited about seeing their team play in the “Low Cost, Low Quality Bowl.” The bowls playing at the margin are in danger of creating a commodity market for all but the strongest brands.
The BCS games – the strongest brands – continue to enjoy success, but they are not without worry. As more fans clamor for a playoff, they find themselves struggling to remain relevant as the market changes. With the addition of the fifth BCS game this year, the championship game, the other four bowls lose a bit of their luster. The struggle for relevancy has led some of these bowls to move their games after January 1st. This is a move that risks alienating the many fans who believe that bowl games should only be played on or before New Year’s Day. In addition, these games are played on weekday or Sunday evenings, usually finishing after their audience’s eyes have closed for the night. Has no one learned from Major League Baseball’s experience with World Series night games?
The market has also seen the demise of a once strong competitor, the Cotton Bowl, as well as the ascendancy of a minor competitor, the Fiesta. The Cotton Bowl began in 1937 while the Fiesta began in 1971. For years, a berth in the Fiesta was as sought after as a berth in the Meineke Bowl is today (which is to say, not that much). Somehow, though, the Fiesta built its brand (perhaps through a combination of location and payout) while the Cotton declined.
As we watch today’s bowl games, it’s hard to know what they will look like in five years, or even if they will still exist. This is another example of an industry facing change, but in this case not change brought on by technology, but by changing consumer tastes. Once it was fun to argue about who was really number one. Now we want a definitive answer. Now, more than ever before, bowls need to innovate. They need to determine how to give consumers what they want – an undisputed national champion – while maintaining and growing their business. One way or another we’ll have a playoff, the question is whether it will bring prosperity or ruin to the bowls.
