If you’re just tuning in you’ve landed smack bang in
the middle of a complex SWOT analysis designed to peer deep inside the ABL
after its inaugural season. Before you scramble to click off the page, today
the Defensive Specialist is covering “weaknesses” which generally seems to hold
people’s attention more than any other part of the breakdown. As with any start
up venture, there are ups and downs – before you’re old pal dives into the
downs, a couple of strengths were sent in by reader Wagga Mick that the
Defensive Specialist kicked himself for missing:
- Internet streaming – the ABL did a great job of bringing real time scores and plays to baseball fans around the country through their own and each club’s website.
- Using the MLB website format as a platform for local teams’ sites. The upgrade happened overnight and absolutely took the accessibility and professionalism to another level (although content was sometimes lacking but this can be attributed to lack of resources available to produce content).
All right, lets roll up the sleeves and get into the
juicy stuff…
WEAKNESSES
- Although another anonymous reader suggested that the marketing was good, the Defensive Specialist has to disagree. Readers only need cast their mind back to mid 2010 when baseball fans were scrambling for information about the ABL and the Defensive Specialist was receiving thankyou emails for speculating on team names. Baseball people were genuinely excited and the ABL could have played on that by strategically and creatively dripfeeding information. It’s undeniable that teams absolutely made the best of a poor situation in terms of promoting themselves but it’s also undeniable that overall publicity and marketing was probably not where it should have been. Having said that, it’s worth considering who the ABL was trying to market to. If the first year goal was to get the baseball community buzzing, then it’s fair to say that was achieved. If the goal was to draw in the uninitiated then the view would be significantly different. The Defensive Specialist is surmising here that the year 1 goal was to get baseball people on board and then leverage that group to attract feeder groups like teeball, softball etc. Once you have a solid fan base then you can expand to a broader market and hope that Joe Public shows some interest and gets hooked on the product, but until you have the baseball community involved there’s no point even bothering for the uninitiated (either way, you’re old pal has just invented a sweet excuse for the ABL if ever questioned on publicity “yeah, our first year goal was to get baseball people….”)
- The powerbrokers at ABL HQ have to have concerns about attendance in a number of key states. The Blue Sox failed to sell out numerous games in a final series and attendance appeared to be an issue in Melbourne throughout the season. While franchises like Canberra and Adelaide enjoyed solid numbers and enthusiastic crowds, the league will never be considered sustainable until fan support is consistently high across the board. The only ways for teams to break even is to have sponsors on board and punters streaming through the gates… or a bunch of poker machines. With the two largest markets having splotchy attendance figures, the viability of the league has to be questioned. Speaking as a season ticket holder, the Defensive Specialist can attest to the quality of the product both on and off the field as well as the affordability of the event in Sydney – so there must be other factors keeping fans away (location, brand, venue etc) that have to be addressed.
- (File this one under minor weakness) The Defensive Specialist lives by numerous credos, none more important than: “the body is a temple”. So you can imagine the Defensive Specialist’s dismay when the healthiest options on a ballpark menu were green apples and bottled water. Seriously, the Defensive Specialist took to packing a picnic dinner so as to avoid greasy burgers, chips and myocardial infarctions. Obviously catering to everyone’s dietary tastes is not the easiest and cheapest thing to achieve but surely you’re old pal isn’t the only person who doesn’t have the tastes of the morbidly obese? Why kill the fans you’re attracting to games?
- Professionals on the roster. HOLD UP!!!! Ok, so professional hitters are fantastic to have on your ballclub, it’s the pitchers that seem to cause a problem. Let the Defensive Specialist explain. Professional arms are typically on a fairly strict innings restriction, meaning that by the last month of the season their workloads are being reduced or they’re being shut down. This is all well and good if you’re team isn’t going to make the playoffs, but if the ABL Championship is a goal then not having your best arms available is definitely detrimental. We saw the Perth Heat win the flag on the backs of 2 former pros who were neither restricted by pitch counts nor inning restrictions. There isn’t really any way around this issue unless you play it like the Bite did with Brandon Maurer which was to start him out with a small workload and gradually build him to a 5 inning starter. Fortunately for the Bite they mashed early in the season and had some decent arms to cover the load. So how do you fix it? The Defensive Specialist uncharacteristically doesn’t have a clear-cut answer. If a team brings out an import they are here to get their work in and will do so under instruction from the parent team. Australian pro’s are governed by the same rules so you cant even rely on home-grown talent to fill the innings.
- Which leads us to the next weakness – imports being pulled from local competitions. Teams will evaluate how the Heat won the championship and see that they relied heavily on imports that came from the local leagues to fill out their roster and play key roles during the finals campaign. While its safe to assume that local teams consented to their imports being made available (its important to remember that the vast majority of local imports are flown out and supported at the clubs’ expense), there may come a point when local teams refuse participation. What we saw with the Heat is that former pro’s are durable, proficient, reliable and a huge asset. Expect franchises to explore this resource in greater detail next year.
- The number of games played across the course of the year (40 plus finals) was a step up from the Claxton Shield in years past but may actually be counterintuitive to attracting the very best professional prospects to our shores. As baseball fans know, baseball is a sport best played on a daily basis, which means that until the ABL can offer more than 4 games per week, the best talent will elect to play elsewhere. The problem we face in Australia is A) the cost of teams playing 6 out of 7 days per week (travel, accommodation, meals etc) and B) getting crowds to midweek games. If teams could count on solid attendance mid week then the idea of a 60 game season becomes more palatable although it severely impacts the availability of non-professional players who still have to pay their bills by working regular jobs.
- Finally, a lack of television exposure is definitely a weakness for a professional league trying to get a footing in a busy sports calendar. The Defensive Specialist has discussed on a number of occasions ways that the game could be promoted without televising entire series or multiple games per week (featured game of the week and a highlight show as examples) and while it is unrealistic to expect a huge television presence, it is critical in capturing non-baseball people. The impressive ads that hit the screens before the season commenced really didn’t drive people anywhere and this is where some television presence would have filled the void and allowed those not familiar with baseball to turn.
As per usual, the Defensive Specialist is interested
in hearing the readers thoughts on perceived weaknesses from year 1 of the ABL.
Part 3 of the SWOT analysis will cover Opportunities – stay tuned.
1. The ABL needs the right people in the right jobs to be successful. There are too many ex-players and parents of players (junior and senior players) involved in running state baseball bodies and ABL teams. The ex-players are usually well-intended baseball lifers, and the parents of players seem to disappear when their child has gone as far as they can go. This was the same problem in the previous version of the ABL. Baseball NSW nearly went broke a few years back, and many former ABL teams went broke, and there were ex-players and parents of players as part of that mix. Baseball too often relies on people who are prepared to put their hand up, rather than finding the right people. That said, finding people with extensive successful experience in sports management is not easy. Also, states like NSW have more paid full-time staff than most others. For years Western Australia had very few paid staff, and their baseball program is one of the best.
ReplyDelete2. Baseball seems to be content with a lower economic status population. There isn't even a team in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, and baseball on the North Shore has seen much better days. Unless you're a communist reaching out to those with more basic means has its limitations. Plus baseball is an expensive sport. It makes sense to attract the wealthy. Look at rugby union if you don't believe in the power of the rich.
3. "Try Baseball" needs to operate in more of a surge, during the window of time when potential players can actually sign up to a club straight away. I've seen dates for "Try Baseball" which are weeks and months from any potential season sign up period, and if a kid is moved by "Try Baseball" they'll want to sign up straight way. Often there is about a one month period leading up to the summer and winter seasons.
4. The ABL needs to do a better job of remembering players from the past. I can't recall too many games that honoured ex-players as part of a pre-game show. ABL history is important to remember!
5. The ABL needs to pitch itself more in public places like shopping centres. This actually costs money, so it's easier said than done, but players in uniform in public places attracts attention, and this should be done in areas where baseball has lower participation rates, like the Eastern Suburbs or the North Shore.
Hey Buddy,
ReplyDeleteWhile the Heat may have won on the back of former pro's that were not on pitch restrictions they went through the blue sox to get there, the blue sox had Mr no no Dave Welch (not signed) Last years claxton shield Helms award winner (first pitcher in decades to win) Wayne Lundgren (also unsigned) and Former AAA pitcher Craig Anderson (unsigned)So I guess the blue sox have no excuses.
Being that the Blue sox have no excuses the only answer is that the Heat got through (and eventually won) becasue they can hit, this should be a lesson to all managers out there that stick to the theory that defence wins championships, sure defence goes a fair way but if you can't swing it it doesn't matter, and if you can swing it you can beat anyone just like the Heat beat arguably the best rotation ever put together in ABL history.
There was talk at the start of the ABL season that the Blue Sox could go undefeated...so much for that! It is a worry that crowds in Sydney and Melbourne were so slim, particularly Sydney, as the Blue Sox were minor premiers. A simple point to consider is that baseball has a lot of work to do to build itself up. We need a great Aussie baseball film! The Arts is always the answer. And baseball back at the Olympic Games would be a huge help too.
ReplyDeleteWord has it that the Blue Sox are attempting to move the fence in so more HR will be hit and excite the crowds more. Any hitter who has hit a BOP will welcome the move as it's a pitcher friendly park. 26 HR on the season for the SOX which is 2nd lowest of all the teams.
ReplyDeleteGood start for the league and I hope it continues to grow. The only problem I had all year was the price they charged for players uniform top. As someone said, "does that price come with a player as well"
For Perth I would have to say that field location is a big weakness, I love the field itself, love playing local baseball there, the groundsmen does a great job, but I hate the journey. It takes a fair while for most places North and West of the city, albeit driving mostly at 100k/hr along the freeway and Roe Hwy, driving is pretty much your only choice for transport and there is bugger all around the park. It is not really a place I want to drop in for a game or drive out to often.
ReplyDelete