Organized sports are a big part of every nation’s cultural fabric. From fitness clubs to die-hard fandom, sports move us, one way or another. Aside from global events such as the Olympics and the World Cup, sporting traditions are representations of cultural and geographical idiosyncrasies and, accordingly, each nation or geographical region has its own preferred sport – football/soccer in Latin America and Europe, baseball in Japan and the US, and hockey in Canada and Northern Europe. Within the last several decades though, these preferential demarcation lines have started to blur and some disciplines have started to branch out beyond their typical playing arena, thanks to globalization, increased social networking, and economic development.
To see the difference globalization is making in sports, all a person needs to do is look either online or, in some cases, at their local media source. For example, until the mid-1990s, a major domestic soccer/football league in the United States was just a pipe-dream. Now it is a viable economic reality. On the other side of the world, basketball’s explosion of popularity in China has been well documented and has spurred the development of domestic leagues. While these amazing examples demonstrate a massive spike in popularity that is not feasible everywhere, there are other signs which are just as telling, such as the ease of viewing foreign sporting events and having up to the minute access to team news and information via the internet.
This level of access has propelled some teams from mere domestic popularity to becoming global marketing phenomena. One of the first teams to really consider their brand and capitalize on it on a global scale was Manchester United Football Club. Thanks to exposure due to their unparalleled success in the 1990s as well as their access to the Commonwealth media, Manchester United’s fan base was recently polled at close to 700 million people, which means that virtually 1 in every 10 people in the world is at least a casual fan of Manchester United. Though they have not yet reached the same level of popularity, Spanish teams FC Barcelona and Real Madrid appear to be following the same path to global success with a bevy of trophies and a groundswell of Spanish-language support. Real Madrid considers their global fan base to be approximately 450 million while Spain itself only has a population of 47 million.
Yes, these are extreme examples that were aided by linguistic and organizational exposure, and it is a given that, in sports, the level of popularity and international exposure for a team is often tied to success. However, what these examples demonstrate is that sort culture and the business that goes with it is undoubtedly moving beyond the traditional limits of location, culture, and language that used to restrict marketability. Unfortunately, many sporting teams, the leagues to which they belong to, and the businesses that support them are still too geared toward domestic business to really capitalize on their global prospects. Thankfully, building an international fan base does not mean that you have to neglect the domestic market and your longtime supporters.
EVS Translations is an international translation and localization company with more than 25 years of experience in helping teams, sports marketing companies, and producers of sporting goods to take their game to the next level. Learn more about how we can help you capture new business and reach your fans around the world and give us a call TODAY.
Our USA and UK translation offices will be happy to answer all your questions!
Atlanta office: +1 404-523-5560 or send us an email: quoteusa(at)evs-translations.com.
Nottingham office: +44-115-9 64 42 or send us an email: quoteuk(at)evs-translations.com.
