In response to a SAM editorial in the September issue titled “What has sports marketing got to do with the ski consumer and the ski industry?” we received some important response. We print here two of these letters: one from a ski marketer and one from Nick Badami, the incoming chairman of the governing body, U.S. Skiing, who, is also the owner of Alpine Meadows and Park City, and a former chairman of NSAA. And we sum up with a restatement of SAM’s thinking. —The Editors
Sir:
I was intrigued by a piece in SAM that suggested the American public has no interest in ski racing. As a person who put in his time in a consumer marketing company and market research, it appears to me that this is another example of getting the right answer to the wrong question.
Take a look at the recently completed U.S. Tennis Open: huge numbers of empty, but paid-for seats for the semis and finals. Why? Because there was no one to cheer for from the U.S.— only a bunch of funny names from Eastern Europe. Ski racing fails on TV and as a marketing tool for the ski industry primarily because the U.S. Ski Team fails competitively on the slopes. The reason that no American skiers are household names is that no U.S. skiers deserve to be. None are doing well enough.
It’s my opinion that the ski industry needs the ski team as much as the team needs the industry. Skiing as a sport is now flat to declining. If it intends to grow it needs to at least achieve a presence in the sporting press, which can be achieved only by the ski team becoming a major force in international racing. This can happen only with the ski industry acting as owners or alumni for the sport.
Stephen Wells, Oliver Milton Assoc., Greenwich, Conn.
Yes, we’d like nothing better than to be able to cheer some ski heroes again. That’s a personal, stars-and-stripes,emotional thing. Our business sense tells us, however, that even the increased media attention gained by having a winning team would have only a minimal effect on growth of the skier market. Skiing is, above all, a participant sport; it is not a fan sport.
Strategies for building the sport might well include building a winning U.S. Ski Team, but it would have to be way down the list in terms of effectiveness and especially of cost-effectiveness.
Sir:
I have read with a great deal of interest your very subtle suggestion (subtle like being hit with a sledgehammer) of the overall impact of ski racing, sports marketing and whatever else you can refer to as ski racing.
Kidding aside, there is no question that I agree with you that the sports business of ski racing needs to be integrated into an alliance with not only NSAA but also SIA. While U.S. Skiing, NSAA and SIA are all independent entities, it is after all only one sport.
The only way U.S. Skiing can be an advocate for or against any matters is if it is, itself, successful. The definition of that success probably means different things to different people. We need to define our goals and how to measure that success. It can not be measured purely by the number of medals won by our teams. We need to have a system that integrates the grass roots programs that are really created by the individual locations and areas. We use the word “development” loosely, but that development needs to start at the individual areas. We have to find a method to aid and support that development. In the next six months we hope to lay out our goals, receiving great input from SIA, NSAA and PSIA.
We at U.S. Skiing need also to be the instrument that attracts people to this sport. This has to be the way we pay back SIA and NSAA for their cooperative efforts. As I write this, I make it sound like very difficult goals to achieve; however, every journey starts with the first step, and hopefully we will have started by next spring.
What I find very interesting, while there are only some 11 million skiers in this country, I know I have had at least 15 million different responses since the announcement of my appointment. I would appreciate any input that is constructive in nature that will help us achieve a solidifying of all industry efforts towards a goal of making the sport attractive, interesting, productive and recognized throughout the world as the best in the business.
Nick Badami, Chairman-elect, U.S. Skiing
Chairman-elect Badami has a wonderful opportunity in the two years he has set for his stewardship of U.S. Skiing to put the sport—and the business that underpins it—on a wise and sound course. It is hard to describe exactly what U.S. Skiing (USS) is, what its mandates are, how it got there. Believe us, you wouldn’t want to have to wade through the definitive history.
At the risk of over-simplification, U.S. Skiing is two entities: 1) It is responsible for the U.S. Ski Team and is internationally recognized as the governing body insofar as international ski competition is concerned; and 2) In being responsible for U.S. Ski Association, it has inherited the role of being the representative of the skiing public.
There is growing pressure to build a winning ski team,to develop winners. Some of the motivation is emotional and flag-waving; some is marketing oriented, based on the theory that winning teams build the sport as a whole; some is business motivated, as from product manufacturers whose pitch is linked to racing performance; some is a mixture of all the above.
Others of us, SAM included, while not immune to the emotional appeal, find ourselves at odds with the linkage made between a winning ski team and growth of the ski market, or benefits to the skiing public. This is not to argue against ski racing itself. Racing always has been a healthy element of the sport, and will remain so. It is fun for the participant; it reflects pursuit of excellence.
But it is still only one part—and a small part at that—of skiing as a recreational activity. Every single piece of consumer research emphasizes other values the sport has for participants, and it is those unique and priceless values that our industry and its future growth are based on.
In his letter, Nick Badami says “We at U.S. Skiing need also to be the instrument that attracts people to this sport.” We welcome the thinking. We like to think the “grass roots” development effort he refers to will be more than just a racer development program designed to produce winners on the international racing circuit. We like to think it might be a development program to bring youngsters into the sport, some of whom might, indeed, enjoy and excel in racing, and from whom a handful might even make it to the very top.
