Since the Sports MBA Class of 2010 is on Spring Break this week, we're going to feature a guest blogger from the Class of 2009, Masanari Kawai. Nari penned the following piece after working as a media liaison for Team Japan, the winners of the 2009 World Baseball Classic...
The World Baseball Classic is an unprecedented baseball event that featured many of the best baseball players in the world competing for their home countries and territories. The inaugural tournament in 2006 gave fans around the world a chance to see the exciting, world-class baseball games. The 16 countries and territories selected as the first participants of this historic competition were chosen because they are among the best baseball-playing nations in the world and provide diverse global representation. The tournament was created to provide a platform that will increase worldwide exposure of the game and promote grassroots development, attracting new fans and players in traditional and non-traditional baseball regions.
In Japan, team Japan’s camp for the World Baseball Classic (Feb 16th-22nd) at Miyazaki prefecture created an economic effect of over $100 million USD. The first matchup between Japan and Korea earned a TV rating of 37.8 in Japan, with more than 45 million viewers tuning in nationwide. The game ranked as the highest rated sporting event of any kind in Japanese history, surpassing even the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, although the event resulted in record-breaking television ratings and larger crowds than the inaugural tournament held in 2006, I felt there was a great deal of growth opportunity among Japanese baseball fans in the U.S.
The last iteration of the event in 2006 saw disappointing attendance figures for Team Japan games in the U.S. For example, there were only 16,591 in attendance for team Japan against Mexico despite nearly 60,000 Japanese expatriates living in Los Angeles and another 11,056 in San Diego. I knew that the interest in baseball and national pride were strong within the Southern California Japanese community, but I felt that I could help MLB and the WBC by assisting with their Japanese outreach.
Therefore, I launched a ticket sales project for the 2009 WBC second round games, which were held in San Diego at PETCO Park. Since the SDSU Sports MBA program is partnered with the Padres, I was able to garner support from the club in securing tickets to specifically sell to Japanese fans. I launched a website (http://wbc2009round2.blogspot.com/) in Japanese to promote the project, and recruited Yuma Ono, a Japanese student in the Sports MBA Class of 2010, to assist me. Once the site launched and the tournament began, I was focused on my job working with the Team Japan as a media relations liaison for the tournament.
Yuma took a leadership role from the beginning, bringing on three assistants to help market the PETCO games for several weeks prior to the start of the tournament. Our plan was to attract Japanese fans to buy tickets through us for a number of reasons: first, our site was in Japanese whereas the MLB site sold tickets only in English, second, we charged no additional fees, third, the Padres had secured our group great seats for the event, and fourth, we were marketing only to Japanese fans, creating a vibrant atmosphere that helped give the team an advantage.
Yuma Ono (Sports MBA '10) developed a social networking and new media marketing strategy by getting support from the president of "San Diego Town," a local Japanese community website, advertising on "mixi," the biggest Japanese social networking site, and creating partnerships with local Japanese baseball teams. This project was covered and broadcasted by Japanese national TV program (Fuji Television and Nippon Television Network Corporation) and a Japanese sports newspaper.
This strategy, in just a few short weeks, yielded excellent results. In total, 201 tickets were sold and the project raised $13,130. In addition, this project resulted in 24 tickets sold to fans who flew to San Diego from Japan, increasing the economic impact of the event exponentially. The total attendance in game 1 of the second round (Japan vs Cuba) was 20,179 compared to 16,591 in 2006 (Japan vs Mexico). Both Padres executives and the international media covering the event noted that more Japanese fans were at the stadium this time, giving the atmosphere a boost for the Japanese team.
Although this project was a success, we feel that with greater time and resources, we could have done more to get additional Japanese fans to the games. We still feel it is necessary and there is a great deal of potential for MLB to expose and promote the WBC more on a global level to increase attendance. We also feel that MLB must measure attendees and fans from specific countries to have an accurate depiction of the sport's global interest continuing to build and grow beyond traditional markets.
For Yuma and myself, the opportunity to work with MLB on this major international event was a great experience. We have enormous pride for Japanese baseball and it was very satisfying to defeat our rival, Korea, in the final at Dodger Stadium. I really hope this tournament will grow and expand to more countries for the next World Baseball Classic. I see a lot of potential for the event, and although it has started small with 16 teams, remember that the FIFA World Cup started with only 13 participants in 1930!
Masanari Kawai (Sports MBA '09)
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