Just before the 2016 NASL season, the league announced several landmark broadcasting deals. They snagged four separate national broadcast deals with BeIn Sports and CBS Sports Network joining the existing ESPN3 and ONE World Sports (OWS) deals. Notably absent from these new broadcasts schedules, however, was the league’s flagship team, the New York Cosmos. On this week’s Inverted Triangle podcast, host Neil Morris had a remarkably candid conversation with Cosmos COO Eric Stover that shows the Cosmos seem to be asserting their own economic interests over the league’s.
Morris broaches the subject of TV deals around the 11th minute, asking Stover about the exclusion. Stover responds, “There is some common ownership between the Cosmos and OWS. OWS has invested a lot in the NASL, but the challenge for the league with OWS and the Cosmos is distribution… OWS has to get its distribution up and part of the vision of the ownership group is… the New York Cosmos, a new stadium, and OWS all need to work together to grow this property and at the same time help grow the NASL.”
Morris pushes back and asks, “Doesn’t it hamstring the league in negotiating TV deals and their terms when you approach potential broadcast partners when the league’s most popular brand located in the #1 TV market in the country isn’t a part of the package?”
Stover: “I think it’s a fair point, but you also have to remember that OWS was the first in the door and has invested a lot and One World wants to protect that investment too.”
Morris: “Does it come down to the fact … that by carrying it on their particular platform that the Cosmos stand to retain a larger share of… ad revenue as opposed to putting their property on other channels around them?”
Stover: “No… it’s really more about distribution and trying to grow OWS and getting that in more households.”
Morris: “Is that to the benefit of the Cosmos or to the league?”
Stover: “Both of course. One World has invested in the league and was the only national television deal the first couple of years. They led the charge in improving broadcast standards so other broadcasters would be interested.”
Cosmos First
The interview is fascinating and you should certainly listen to it in full. Stover is really quite honest about the Cosmos’ interest here, though he misrepresents OWS’s involvement slightly. OWS broadcast only the Cosmos matches nationally; the first national broadcasting deal for the league was ESPN3. Last fall, OWS did give the league its first national TV deal with its Wednesday night Game of the Week.
The key difference here is that because of the shared ownership of Cosmos and OWS, the “investment” of the network is an investment in its own product. And don’t get me wrong, there is nothing insidious about this. Stover is honest in saying that OWS needs to grow its distribution in order to grow its brand and it is natural that it should lean on a product like the Cosmos. I can see the “Synergy” PowerPoint from here.
What really stands out about the interview is that it is quite clear that the Cosmos operate in their own bubble at the expense of the rest of the NASL. They have negotiated separate TV deals so that they can build their ownership partner’s brand (OWS) rather than their league’s. Morris’ question gets directly to the point: “Doesn’t it hamstring the league… when the league’s most popular brand located in the #1 TV market in the country isn’t a part of the package?”
The answer is absolutely it does. No team in the NASL comes close to the brand recognition of the Cosmos, not just in terms of history but in terms of current star power. Imagine Kleenex trying to sell its line of products without tissues.
The television deals that the NASL inked were important because they increased the footprint of the league. At this stage, they were never going to negotiate deals that brought the teams much revenue directly. But with a larger footprint, those teams have an easier case to make for selling their own sponsorships. That front-of-the-jersey sponsorship is worth a lot more if it is being seen on national television. Even without the Cosmos, then, these national broadcasts are helpful to the teams.
However, Stover indicated that this OWS exclusivity would extend beyond this year. The NASL needs television revenue. It absolutely cannot grow, let alone compete with MLS, without eventually bringing in some money from networks. But the Cosmos have taken away the league’s ability to significantly alter its fortunes by banding together and putting its best products on national television. Miami FC versus Jacksonville, for example, recently drew only 4k viewers on BeIn. One would imagine that Miami versus the Cosmos would perform significantly better.
The Cosmos are certainly well within their rights to look after their own self-interest. But this blatant self-interest is a threat to the future growth of the league. It’s a reminder that the Cosmos will operate in their own sphere and with their own rules, the rest of the league be damned.
Final Note: I recognize that writing this from a Minnesota website and as a supporter of Minnesota United, there is a rich irony of discussing a team and its self-interest in relation to the league. I have watched the NASL since its founding and though I am often critical, I want it to succeed well beyond our years in it. The Loons leaving the league has little bearing on my attitude toward NASL.
However, the Cosmos are often discussed as almost altruistic in their relationship to the league. This is a fiction. The Cosmos made a calculated assessment that by staying in the NASL (and not moving to MLS), they could make more money in keeping control of their brand. Again, that is their prerogative, but the martyrdom mythology that surrounds their choices is dispelled by this interview. The Cosmos are there to make money.
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