Watch Field Hockey Live…on YouTube!

While you may not have heard of the World Series Hockey League, I’m fairly sure you’ve heard of YouTube. You know that websites that shows car wrecks, fights, and 8 year olds getting high (…while dad films).  Well YouTube has decided to go in a new direction. The Google partner has decided to broadcast live games of the World Series Hockey League through their website. This seems to be a huge move for both partners; and it seems as if the World Series Hockey League may have won the sponsorship battle. I mean think about it… everyone in the world who has the internet has heard of YouTube, but only a certain percentage of the world has heard of the World Series Hockey League.

In my opinion, the World Series League couldn’t have paid enough for this deal. Because of this deal, the whole world will have the opportunity to know what the league is, who the teams are, who the players are, etc.  Still, lets not short change YouTube here. While I feel as if the Hockey League may have gotten more out of this deal, we don’t actually know what went on behind the YouTube scenes (pun intended).  Perhaps YouTube could be using this as a platform for futrue events, and are therefore testing reception rates. Perhaps it costs YouTube a small amount of money to have these games streamed live, and perhaps their profits are through the roof.  What went on behind the scenes, we will never know.  But let me at least try to school you sport management students up in sponsorship deals…

While negotiation is key when discussing sponsorship deals, so is leverage. What I mean by this is sponsors will always want enough bang for their buck, while the sport organization will always want to ensure they are not being underpaid. The sponsor wants to ensure that if they pay x amount of dollars, their sponsorship will be well received by the audience in comparison to what they’ve spent. On the other hand, the sports organization does not want the sponsor to get away with paying x amount of dollars only to realize that the sponsorship is worth much more than what they have received. For example, during a basketball game, the camera will pan back and forth to both sides of the court – what is guaranteed is half-court will receive the most air-time. Therefore, the sponsorship rights to half court should be valued well above other spots on the court. In this case the sponsor has to ensure they are not overpaying for their rights to half court, while the sport organization has to ensure they are not being underpaid by the sponsoring corporation. It’s all about leverage.

So who got the most bang for their buck in this YouTube deal? As I said before, I believe the World Series Hockey League couldn’t have paid enough for this deal due to awareness levels. Still, I’m sure no matter what they have paid, YouTube has something up its sleeve…perhaps more live-streaming sports to come…