This month’s column focuses on messaging and the importance of a clear communication strategy as a crucial element to successfully promote and grow a sport. In the U.S., the NFL sits atop the sports apex and, similar to racing, the league has had to address a variety of controversial issues that challenged the integrity and popularity of the sport.
After graduating from the University of Virginia, my roommate, Alex Riethmiller, and I decided to embark on careers in Sports Business. While my first job was producing events for the NBA, Alex began a career in PR working for the newest franchise in the NFL, The Jacksonville Jaguars. From there, Alex went on to work with the Atlanta Hawks and then ran communications for the sports, news and entertainment brands of CBS Interactive.
Currently, Alex is a VP in the NFL’s Communications department. Based out of the League’s offices and studios in Los Angeles, he oversees all communications for NFL Media, including NFL Network, NFL Digital and NFL Films. Additionally, Alex also handles the communications for the League’s Broadcasting and Media Strategy group as well as its Sponsorship and Consumer Products divisions.
CC: What is your favorite racing memory?
AR: I would have to say attending my first live racing experience, the 1999 Breeders’ Cup with you and your family. In the last race, the Classic, I picked the winner, Cat Thief, who was ridden by Pat Day and took a nice little price. I took my winnings and bought a Breeders’ Cup poster that I still have hanging on my wall in my house.
CC: Briefly explain why the NFL owns a network and the advantages of having one when the sport is already so well covered through other channels?
AR: I think for some other sports, it might make more sense as a marketing tool. And it certainly is a marketing tool for the NFL as well, but going all the way back to 2002 when the NFL decided to start their own network, they were really trying to extend their footprint into the off season and make the NFL 365 days a year. Basically, bridge the gap between everything that happens between the Super Bowl and the next time the regular season kicks off. The Scouting Combine is a perfect example of the type of off-season event the NFL has built using NFL Network.
CC: A change in the sports landscape is the advent of legalized betting. How does NFL Network plan on addressing the growth of legalized betting on its platform?
AR: For a very, very longtime the league had a pretty strong stance against gambling to protect the integrity of the game. And to be sure, that stance on protecting the integrity of the game hasn’t changed. At the same time, obviously the reality is that the landscape is changing in the United States towards sports betting and of course, we need to adapt to that. Clearly a lot of our media partners are asking us how comfortable we are with them talking about things like point spreads. I’d say it’s an ongoing evolution.
CC: Speaking of changes, what do you see as major trends outside of legalized betting that would affect the television landscape?
AR: Obviously we’re in the midst of the COVID pandemic, and that’s changed so many things. To me, the best example of something that could have a long-lasting change is how we had to adapt for the NFL Draft, which for the first time ever had to be done completely remotely. The Commissioner was in his basement and all the coaches and Gms around the league were at home. There was definitely some trepidation about whether we were going to be able to pull it off, not only from a technological standpoint, but if fans would enjoy it. We found that it worked extremely well. We had very few issues on the technological side and the feedback was that fans enjoyed seeing people in their homes in this type of presentation. From a production standpoint I think that’s going to change a lot of how things are done across the entertainment industry in general.
CC: How has COVID changed your business and operations at NFL Network?
AR: I think that we’re going to find various efficiencies in the way that we do business because of this experience, and there will probably be permanent changes in the way that media is produced. Now that we’ve gone through this whole experience, there’s going to be some major changes for the better, and certainly that are going to be cost-effective changes going forward.
CC: I’m sure everyone is asking, but obviously you have a season coming upon you pretty quickly. How do you control that message with the uncertainty around how the season will be conducted?
AR: I think the NFL has been fortunate on the timing of this because we’ve been able to see how others ports that needed to go before us have reacted. We’re a couple weeks away from training camps opening. All along Commissioner Goodell has been very solid about, “Hey, we’re going to start the season.” We’re going to obviously listen to all the medical experts and we’re going to adjust as we need to, but we still feel very confident about having the season. There may just be a few wrinkles along the way.
The big question is really how many fans are going to be able to attend some of these games. I think some of that is going to be determined by different state regulations. I know some news is already starting to come out in places like Kansas City, where they’ve already said that they’re not going to have full stadiums. I think probably some places will be empty, and some places you’ll have partial fans. It remains to be seen.
Alex with son, Christian | NFL Photo
CC: The NFL, like many other sports, has challenging issues to address, whether it be about health issues with concussions, violence with domestic abuse and cultural revolutions like the BLM movement. Do you have a philosophy or best practice on how to address challenging issues?
AR: When big issues come up, the NFL and Commissioner Goodell often look at it as an opportunity to take a leadership position in society and make some very positive change. Sometimes we’re directly involved in it, for instance the Ray Rice domestic violence issue that obviously brought the problem of domestic abuse to the forefront. I think we’ve tried to be very thoughtful about how we respond to it.
The best thing you can do is try to stick to your values. Although the NFL has caught a lot of criticism for things, I do honestly believe that they have a good set of values and priorities. And when we get to these issues that bubble up, I sincerely think that we try to do the right thing and try to convey that through our communications practices. If there’s issues that need to be addressed and fixed, we try to do that as quickly and fairly as possible.
CC: How do you manage covering negative stories about the sport or league when you own the network?
AR: That is a question that we get all the time, and there is definitely a balance between strictly being a PR mouthpiece for the League and then being a Hard News organization. I can tell you that a lot of folks that work for NFL Network and our digital properties in Los Angeles are long-time journalists that have broken a lot of big stories at other outlets and they certainly aren’t here just to be regurgitating press releases from the NFL. At the same time, I think everybody understands that we are owned and operated by the NFL. The general line that we try to stay on is we will report the news- both the good, the bad and the ugly. I think if you look at some other outlets dealing with negative news, they will go on for hours speculating about it. NFL Network is going to report the news as long as it’s relevant and as long as there are confirmed facts, but we’re going to stay very factual. We’re not going to speculate and obsess for hours.
CC: Horse racing has had its fair share of negative coverage in the last few years. If you were running the PR strategy for the sport, what would your suggestions be on how to address these matters?
AR: I don’t have a vast depth of knowledge of the sport, but being in Los Angeles and close to Santa Anita I have heard a lot about the health and safety issues the sport has faced. I don’t know if you can draw any parallels to the issues that the NFL has had on the player health and safety front with concussions, but I know for Commissioner Goodell and everybody on down, our number one priority, no matter what we’re talking about, is the health and safety of our players. I can’t speak to if that has been mare the number one priority in horse racing in terms of not only the horse, but the jockeys as well.
From my standpoint, you really need to make sure that these tracks have the latest state-of-the-art safety measures. There need to be regulations in terms of medications these horses are being given. I think making the health and safety of the horses and their riders a priority has got to be something that is at the forefront of every decision that’s made in the industry.
CC: What are the unique traits about the sport of horse racing that need to be exploited by stakeholders to promote and introduce their sport to a larger audience?
AR: I don’t think it’s any secret that the sport of horse racing is tightly intertwined with sports gambling, and it does have the benefit of being something that is available pretty much every day at any time. So as sports gambling continues to become more prominent across the United States, there is an opportunity for the horse racing industry to piggyback off of the increased popularity in sports betting and see if the rising tide of that can help lift their boat as well, so to speak.
CC: Is there a business mistake that you try to avoid at all costs?
AR: A lot of what I do is constant communication with the media- whether that’s texting with reporters, phone calls or trading emails with them. Those relationships can be harmed pretty seriously if you’re not up front with them, or if you don’t deal with them in a way that is fair. I’ve probably made that mistake over the years and I’ve definitely learned from it.
You’re not going to always be able to tell the media everything that they want to know, but if you’re honest and you let them know the reasons why you can’t speak to a certain thing or that you need to avoid the subject, I think you’ll always have their trust. Having that trust, transparency and honesty with the media is something that’s not only important to me, but it’s something that can be translated into other industries and relationships that people have in business.
CC: What’s the best advice you have received on how to be good at PR-related issues?
AR: It was from a former boss who used to say, “If you have to eat-” well, let’s just call it horse manure. “If you have to eat horse manure, don’t nibble.” And what he meant by that is if you have some bad news, don’t try to downplay it or put a little of it out there at a time. Instead, just go ahead and rip the band-aid off, get it all out there at once. The quicker you get out there and the quicker you own up to it, if that’s what the case is, the sooner that you can start to move forward and not suffer a death by a thousand cuts.
CC: If you were the commissioner of horse racing, what would you look to change to improve the image or perception of the sport to reach a new audience?
AR: Well look, I don’t pretend to know all the distribution and media deals that racing has. I do see racing on NBC Sports and FS1. Of course there are networks like TVG that focus on the product seven days a week, but they’re also owned by a third party. It is unfortunate that the sport does not have its own platform to generate content focused on fan development and a channel to entertain avid fans not exclusively through the lens of wagering, but the story-telling side of the game.
I know in this environment were there are a million different ways to consume content, it can be a challenge to cut through the clutter. But I think for horse racing, if it’s going to continue to grow and be more popular, it’s not only the sports gambling angle on it, but they really need to increase their distribution on all forms of media platforms and have better control of its message and the content that is being disseminated.
If you look at the horse racing fan base, it’s considered a sport that attracts an older generation. A big challenge for horse racing stakeholders is how are they going to develop that new generation of fans? Which is going to be important and frankly, something that we face at the NFL. When you look at kids now, they have so many options. So how can we get in front of that younger generation and get them interested in what our sport is or what our entertainment is? When we think about that as the NFL, we think a lot about our presence on social media.
So, what is horse racing doing about social media? Because let’s be honest, that’s the way a lot of kids consume content these days. I think some of the older generation is a little dismissive of those social media platforms, but they are important for getting in front of a younger generation, which again is the first step towards building fans for the future. Media distribution, control of content platforms like a network and a vibrant presence on social media are all important things that horse racing needs to lean into, with the overarching value of never compromising on the health and safety of equine and human athletes at the forefront of it all.
Carter Carnegie is President of Metrical Consulting and has over 30 years of experience as a sports business professional both in racing and working with sports leagues/events such as the NBA, NFL and Olympics. Metrical offers marketing solutions and business strategics to brands as well as sports properties.
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