Global NBA
Jennifer Carr
Wilmington University

Global NBA

Unlike the National Football League, the National Basketball Association has been growing globally faster than ever. In 2009 the NBA had a total of three preseason games in different countries. This year they are going to have eight in eight different countries. Financially, they have begun to have the sponsors of the game pay for all of the expenses and have drastically cut their expenses (Lombardo, 2013). By making fans and other countries feel like part of the game, the NBA is starting to grow its fan base globally. The NBA decided to start taking preseason games overseas to try and get a fan base globally. They see great opportunity to increase revenue drastically by spreading out. The organization has develop ways to get fans overseas and that is by having pre-games in different countries. Before the games they have fan events for the three days which include fun games and prizes to the target market they are looking for like children and young adults (Lombardo, 2013). They have gotten the players to start going to these events to help get the fans to feel more individual and important. Just this past year, the NBA has launched to play eight preseason games in eight different cities in the world. By taking it to different countries, they are making the fans feel more involved and local to the sport. Not only do these fans need to feel wanted; they also should see local sponsors in advertisements (Lombardo, 2013). These eight preseason games have been almost completely paid for by sponsors. An example from this year’s preseason game in Bibaeo, Spain was sponsored by Spanish Bank to try and give more of a local feeling towards the fan base. (Lombardo, 2013) Other sponsors include Adidas, Nike, and Gatorade (Release, 2012). By having these sponsors be the main advertisement for each game, the NBA has cut expenses greatly, making it easier to have more global games. They also use these sponsors to pay for advertisements during the broadcast. Joining Nike was a great decision by the NBA because they were able to jump on Nikes global recognition and slowly get fans to start getting interested in basketball (Lombardo, 2013). Connecting to the fans is a huge requirement when trying to go global. Broadcasting is a big part of the NBA when trying to connect to different countries. When a game is on there are broadcasters in over twenty-nine languages giving play by plays. The live broadcast can be found online to over 215 different countries which helps people feel more involved in the sport. When they put a game on they want to understand whats going on or they will lose interest quick (Lombardo, 2013). By having different languages offered helps keep fans and get others to start learning how the game is played. Now that the NBA has been globalizing, it has definitely been a success. Around 2006 to 2007, because