NBC Deal: Who`s In Charge, AFL or NBC?
Kevin Sheller
Tuesday July 23, 2002
Good things.
“You can’t have more fun in a meeting than you can with [the AFL] guys,” said NBC Sports V.P. of Communications, Kevin Sullivan. “Commissioner Baker is a lot of fun to be in business with. They are very creative – very high-energy. You leave the meeting kind of jacked up about getting after it.”
“We’ve been meeting [with the AFL] every three weeks for several months, since the agreement was completed in March, 2002,” said Sullivan a few weeks ago. “We meet more often than that when things come up.”
The continuing meetings are a necessary part of the joint venture into which the AFL and NBC has entered. And it means that the AFL is far from out of the loop.
There has been some conjecture that NBC will try to wrest creative control from the indoor league. It’s no secret that the AFL is small potatoes compared to broadcast behemoth NBC.
The AFL has been dying to get onto network TV since Jim Foster concocted the game in 1981. Meanwhile, NBC has laughed in the face of sporting giants like the NFL and the NBA. In most relationships to this point, the AFL has had little power. Poor ratings on TNN thus far lessen the sport’s television value. So, when networks enter into relationships, smaller leagues like the AFL can dictate very little, and the networks can take control.
To an outsider, NBC already appears to be in charge. The network required that the AFL change its season from a spring/summer to a winter/spring schedule. This is not a small adjustment that should be taken lightly. For the past 16 years, the AFL has used its summer season as a selling point. Said the AFL, where else would people want to be than inside an air-conditioned arena during the dog days of summer?
However, both sides knew that the ratings are paramount, and both felt that a February start was the best chance for success. After working out the initial requirements, the two sides have been sitting down as equals to decide the details of the 2003 season. Roles are clearly defined.
“Make no mistake. They run the league,” said Sullivan about the AFL. “Our role is promotion and production.
“With this deal, we’re true partners of the Arena Football League, both groups have a great incentive to make it work and grow the league. And that’s really the most important aspect of it.”
League officials echo the same sentiment. Any league member who has met with NBC Sports gushes about how excellent the NBC staff has been to work with this year. Everyone from the president of NBC to the local affiliates treat the AFL with professionalism and respect.
“To go into meetings side-by-side to develop and craft a program is really a unique opportunity that very few leagues or properties have,” said Glenn Horine, Executive V.P. of Business Development for the AFL.
NBC understands the property and they understand the product. They don’t want to change it into something it is not. Arena Football is valuable to NBC, not just a gimmick to exploit.
“At the time the deal was set on March 5, Dick Ebersol said that he thought that as a television property, the sport had been underexposed,” said Sullivan. “Everybody agrees with that. We think we can grow the nature of the sport.”
And there’s little doubt the network will be able to promote the Arena Football League as a big-league sport. If you haven’t already seen the trailers played at arenas across the country this season as an advertisement for the AFL on NBC, then you probably won’t need to. As the television season begins in the fall, expect to see plenty more Arena Football League promotions.
Horine is banking on the fact that “NBC is known as a brand builder.”
Luckily, NBC also recognizes that the Arena Football League is boring on television. Face it. There is simply no comparison to watching the AFL on TV to attending a game in person – so far.
“How can we convey the excitement? You want to convey what it is like to be there,” said Sullivan, “and that challenge will be met head-on by our producers to approximate the arena experience for the viewer at home.
“That’s the advantage of having the production expertise. The people that are going to be working on it have done Olympics, Super Bowls, World Series, NBA Finals, and are really at the top of their field. The challenge for them is to go to the games in person and see where can we put cameras a little different than it’s been in the past.
“Many people in the NBC Sports office have gone on multiple field trips to see games. When they come back, they love it. They see how much fun people are having there.”
Take that to mean that the game won’t be changed – much. Sure, a few small rules will likely be implemented to satisfy the network, but you won’t see single-platoon football or eradication of rules to protect the quarterback. Expect a few more tweaks during the shortened offseason to squish game times to two and a half hours.
The two sides love every minute of the agreement, and fans can expect the good chemistry to be evident in the promotional and production quality of AFL broadcasts on NBC in 2003.
With any luck, ratings will go up, and both sides will be saying the same things again.
Good things.
New AFL Logo
Some fans have begun to receive emails asking them to vote on the best new league logo. Evidently, the AFL and NBC want to give the league a face-lift. After 16 years of branding the traditional logo, it may seem strange to change it. However, when given a second chance to make a first impression, the more professional your product all-around, the more likely you are to succeed.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
