BY DAN

In many sporting organisations the business side of the business often exists in tension with the more visible aspect. ‘Sports is entertainment’, a business, is often the refrain. Someone has to worry about the dollars and cents because if you ain’t getting dollars then you’ve got no sense.

The Canberra Raiders’ desire to play in Vegas next year is driven by business interests. That’s not a criticism but rather a recognition of the ongoing quest of the broader organisation to build its brand and financial base. The organisation has done well to start the process of diversifying its revenue sources, beyond central grants, rugby league business (i.e tickets and merchandise) and the benefits of owning a range of venues with pokies. Vegas would be a continuation of that. It isn’t a salve to long term financial sustainability but rather an attempt to build in stronger revenue foundations.

You may have seen reporting lately that put the Raiders money from sponsorship at $4.6m per year, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. That’s one of, if not, the lowest, in the competition, alongside Manly. Sponsorship has always been a challenge for the Milk. The lack of big private sector organisations based in Canberra, it’s relatively small consumer market, and it’s lack of exposure on free-to-air television have always made it a hard sell to sponsors.

To an extent this is shortsighted on the part of the private sector. While the Raiders have limited exposure on terrestrial television they are consistently one of the most watched teams on Fox Sports. This is driven by the fact that the Milk’s games are so heavily weighted to that platform, and by the fact it’s likely that more Canberrans have Fox or Kayo (per capita at least) than other cities. You would think the more ‘high-end’ sponsors would be keen to capitalise on the eyes of the nation’s disposable income.

Evidently the aggregate size of the market isn’t worth the effort and Canberra don’t attract the sponsorship money of other clubs. They subsidise this with a range of property holdings which on occasion they’ve liquidated at opportune times, as well as a host of league’s clubs that aren’t just property value, but also make money in range of ways.

Canberra would love to increase how much of that diversification of risk comes from the sponsors pocket. But to do that they need to show sponsors value outside of their immediate market exposure. Getting involved in the Vegas game takes on a massive benefit there. While the impact in the US was tiny and debated (it was still watched by the equivalent of a big A League game), domestically it was unquestionably a success, at least in terms of eyeballs on TV.

This is a bit to do with the novelty, and a bit to do with the fact it was the start of the season. The novelty will obviously wear off, so the business benefits of that will decline in the coming years as it eventually returns to a regular baseline in terms of exposure. With that in mind the exposure to be gained will come from getting in early so to speak. Being a part of the Vegas game next season will potentially be its high point, or at least as high as its likely to be over the coming year, unless Americans take to a sport they’ve stubbornly refused to embrace, even with the entirety of the Murdoch empire swinging in to promote the game in the USA.

Which is why the Raiders are so keen to get on the game for next year. Exposure, and riding the wave before it peters out in a few years and round one (or zero or whatever) returns home, is critical to getting the metrics that can be put into a sponsor prospectus to sell jersey space to willing buyers.

Getting more sponsor money is obviously a good thing for the financial sustainability of the club. But Vegas does not guarantee this and it comes with a cost. The season of each team that went to Vegas has been unusually bumpy. The Roosters took six weeks to get going. The Broncos have found it hard to be consistent, dealing out whippings for twenty minutes, and then getting bored, and basically behaving as though they’re still jetlagged. Manly have been similarly inconsistent. Souths may still be stuck in Vegas. There’s a risk that all that exposure amounts to is middling performance; and the impact of that on them getting more FTA games would be noteworthy.

It’s hard to say this is definitely an impact of being overseas. There’s not many teams that have been consistent this year. Canberra are equal fourth with a record of 7-5, which puts them one win ahead of 12th place and one win short of the team in first at time of writing. So it’s hard to differentiate what is travel sickness and what is just how it be this year. And it’s hard to not think that jet lag, while a pain, isn’t quite the season ending problem that we have tended to characterise it as.

Apparently in their favour has been the shared name with the Vegas NFL team which makes somewhere between no and less than zero sense if you actually think about it. Canberra’s obvious government connections wouldn’t hurt, but given Vegas isn’t Washington I’m not sure to what end.

Either way the players and the club are keen. As Don Furner noted after the first event:

We would love to get there next year. (We’ve) spent a lot of time lobbying on it … for our sponsors it would be amazing (to get) the coverage of that game. I’ve done a lot of lobbying already and we’ll put a submission in in two weeks. I’ve spoken to (coach) Ricky (Stuart) … a couple of times to make sure we were keen to go, (and) I know the players will be.

Reported by AAP’s Alex Mitchell here

And that is the bet the club is making by putting their name up, hopefully into the bright lights of sin city. Despite their best efforts, at the moment all reporting suggests they might miss out. (Update: actually no! They’re going!). But the intent of it is clear. The Raiders are keen to be in the business of Vegas.

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