The Department of Defense spent $53 million to the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS on patriotic marketing campaigns. When you saw an American flag that spans the entire football field, that team was profiting from the DOD. Same for ceremonies honoring the military, color guard demonstrations, even those on-field family reunions with returning vets.
Roger Goodell, quick to get out in front of a good controversy these days, says the NFL will be auditing marketing contracts and returning money for paid patriotism.
John McCain and plenty of others are upset that those weren’t genuine demonstrations of patriotism by the major sports leagues and organizations, and I completely understand that notion. I would not have guessed that teams were profiting from those activities and it does give it a cheapened feeling.
On the other hand, I see where the DOD is coming from. You’d hope they could convince organizations “it’s the right thing to do” but they need to market the military. They need to keep recruiting.
Back in September, Deadspin had an article titled “Surprise Military Reunions At NFL Games Reach Peak Bullshit”, which took apart a “soldier comes home” moment at a Rams preseason game. The article is short, and well worth a read. Some key parts:
Advertising for the USMC; advertising for a Republican politician; money for the NFL. Win-win-win!!
I chalked it up to teams feeling like they had to kind of keep up with the Joneses on their acts of patriotism. I mean I’m not shocked to learn it was jointly organized with the DOD, but the fact that they profited is a little surprising. I agree it’s somewhat shameful.
Same here. i certainly didn’t think the teams were doing it out of an abundance of patriotism, but I figured it was to appeal to the typical sports fan who is generally more on the patriotic side. I was surprised the teams actually get paid for it.
That story is so representative of what is wrong with this country.
Seriously, a rich guy with connections coming home from Korea?
ETA: Add me to the list of people surprised at this. I understand the military needs to advertise, but I always saw this as a “goodwill” thing between the NFL, the military, and their patriotic fanbase.
How much does Breast Cancer Research pay for all the October pink?
I thought this was old news; am I wrong? Seems like this came to light about fifteen years ago when we learned the government was paying to have movies and TV shows show drug use as something inherently bad .
This is disgusting. It sounds like the military made the offer to the teams, meaning they should spend one hour less than eternity in hell for accepting.
You’re missing the reason for the surprise. No one is surprised that it was about money. I am surprised the money is coming from the DOD, and wasn’t a marketing ploy cooked up by the teams to look good to their fans.
I’m sure it was, at least in part, “a marketing ploy cooked up by the teams to look good to their fans.”
But you’re not thinking like a true sports entrepreneur. If you can market yourself AND get the government to fork over tens of millions of dollars in the process, why not do it? It’s the same worldview that allows them to say, with a straight face, that it’s in our own best interests to hand over half a billion in taxpayer money to build a new stadium that will pad the portfolio of a multi-billionaire team owner.
Yeah, if you asked me, I would’ve said that I thought the teams were making a nice donation to the military and said they’d have a little demonstration so they could feel good about it, in return for a nice tax break.
I suppose if you didn’t think it through, you might be surprised.
Qui bono? Did the teams make a lot more money with their show of patriotism? I don’t think it affected ticket sales at all; the stadia are as filled as they ever were, given the respective states of the teams and local fandom. TV money was unchanged.
Looking good to the fans is irrelevant unless it increases income. And money made directly from fans is about as good as it’s ever been.
So it’s not a money-maker for the team unless someone pays specifically for it. Who could that be? Who has deep pockets and a specific bankable interest in stirring up patriotism? As well as the actual resources to organize and support a rousing show of militaristic jingoism? Who could that be?
The only question remains is “did the leagues reach out to the DoD, or did the DoD propose this to the leagues?” And that’s pretty much a difference which makes no difference.
A sincere show of patriotism would have been a cost, not a profit. Hence, no matter what that was, it wasn’t a sincere show of patriotism. Q.E.D.
It’s been a long time since ticket sales have been a significant part of the pro sports income stream… but even so, there are still usually empty seats available.
TV money depends on how much the advertisers pay, which in turn depends on how many people are watching, which could very plausibly be increased.
Plus, of course, it’s not just increases in audience that they’re concerned about, but decreases: If a league didn’t continue to one-up all the other leagues in shows of how superficially patriotic they were, that might cause them to lose audience. They don’t want to risk that.
