Football and Future Fans: Fields Apart?

Eric Bentley doesn’t know it, but he’s evidence that football’s immense popularity might be starting to fade.

When the pregame hoopla for the Super Bowl kicks off in Miami’s Pro Player Stadium on Sunday, the 26-year-old Huntington Beach resident will be driving to his job at a warehouse. But he won’t fret about missing what could be Denver quarterback John Elway’s final game, because if he wasn’t working, he’d probably be spending the afternoon riding ramps at the new Vans Skatepark in Orange.

“I like watching the [highlights] clips, but it’s boring to sit there for the full three hours,” Bentley said. “I prefer to go out there and do it. . . . I don’t really identify with that ‘watching football’ mind-set.”

Guys who view football as their father’s sport aren’t the only problem that the National Football League must address as the champion Denver Broncos line up against Atlanta’s surprising Falcons.

NFL’s broadcast ratings have been sliding for a decade. ABC’s venerable “Monday Night Football” broadcasts alone were down a stunning 7% during the last season. Corporate sponsors such as McDonald’s and TruServ have shifted millions of dollars out of football, and sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Sprint have balked at the skyrocketing costs of being on the NFL team. A family of four now spends at least $214 to attend a pro game, pushing the price of the NFL experience beyond the reach of many wage earners.

League executives argue that there’s little danger of football fumbling away its position atop the sports pyramid. Football-frenzied businessmen in Los Angeles are sparring for bragging rights to the next NFL franchise. Advertisers spent $78 million on commercials during last year’s Super Bowl broadcast, nearly twice the $39.6 million spent in 1990. Companies such as Anheuser-Busch, which paid a premium to be the only beer sponsor on Sunday, say the game gives them visibility that’s simply not available elsewhere on the TV dial.

Despite the unprecedented availability of competing sports programming, the NFL still occupies the top spot.

“We’re the No. 1 fan sport,” said NFL President Neil Austrian. “On any given weekend, 115 million to 130 million different viewers are watching some part of an NFL game.”

But observers say cracks are appearing in the sport’s foundation. There’s evidence that the game is losing its appeal, particularly in cash-strapped school districts where costly football programs are being eliminated.

When student attendance faltered during the mid-1990s, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. hired a sports marketing company to help rekindle interest on campus. And two years ago, NFL owners and players agreed to pump $100 million into marketing their sport. The NFL is rebuilding youth football fields, producing CD-ROMs to help youth football coaches, and the league repackaged its “Pass, Punt & Kick” contest for use in high school physical education classes.

Still, some observers wonder whether the game is slowly falling from grace.

“Football is a violent sport that came out of our nation’s Industrial Age, out of its blue-collar heritage,” said Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “But society has changed. There are now a lot of soccer moms out there wondering if football is too demanding, too harmful for their kids.”

And there are fathers like 39-year-old Mitch Lantow, who is learning to live with the fact that his children won’t necessarily play on the same fields where he once chased his dreams.

When 8-year-old Taner Lantow straps on his helmet and protective gear, he’s not envisioning himself as the next Elway. As the Westminster elementary school student rides his skateboard into the recesses of empty concrete pools and across vertical ramps, the shoes he longs to fill belong to gravity-defying world champion skateboarder Tony Hawk.

“The question is whether it’s more thrilling to watch their dad’s favorite football team on TV or be out there snowboarding and skateboarding,” said Jay Wilson, vice president of marketing for Santa Fe Springs-based Vans. “And the answer is that sitting in front of the TV is something that their parents do.”

Burton believes that youngsters raised on video games and the Internet “don’t need three hours to watch a football game. . . . They need just three minutes to compress the entire story line of an NFL football game into five highlights and the final score.”

NFL football is still the most effective way for advertisers to reach males between the ages of 18 and 48, and the Super Bowl consistently ranks as the most-watched program in any year. That’s why Sunday’s game is commanding record ad rates of $1.6 million for 30 seconds.

But marketing expert Burton says the NFL needs to safeguard its future by developing a clearer understanding of the viewing habits of males between the ages of 12 and 24, the “audience that car companies, beverage companies, footwear manufacturers and fast-food chains prize.”

College football’s caretakers hope to get more student bodies into the stands on Saturdays. Fan interest fuels television ratings, they say, and colleges also know that students who show up on Saturday to cheer for their alma mater are more likely to become alumni who return to campus later in life--with their checkbooks open.

NFL President Austrian acknowledges that the NFL also must market itself to tomorrow’s players and fans. “I don’t think anybody can put a product out there with fans or consumers today and not spend some time and money trying to make it relevant.”

Relevancy is important at a time when television viewers are being bombarded with sports programming. Football, basketball, baseball and hockey all are scrambling to reach youngsters who represent tomorrow’s players and fans.

Baseball fans relished last season’s home run derby, but World Series ratings were the second-lowest ever. The NBA is about to learn what life is like without Michael Jordan. And ratings for hockey broadcasts stalled in 1998.

Part of the problem is that fans such as skateboarder Bentley no longer feel a kinship with high-paid professional athletes who are seen as out of touch with consumers. Players are constantly switching teams in search of bigger paychecks. And as ticket prices skyrocket, “football is rapidly becoming a rich man’s game,” Burton said.

Other sports hope to avoid those pitfalls by remaining accessible to fans. One reason extreme sports are popular with teens and young adults is that ticket prices are low. And once at the event, fans can easily mingle with top skateboarders or snowboarders.

Fast-growing NASCAR is also proving to be an effective alternative for traditional sports sponsors. Not only is NASCAR reaching men, but 40% of its viewers are women--making it doubly attractive to sponsors that have relied on male-oriented sports in the past.

Football isn’t going to disappear from the radar screens of executives in the $4.6-billion sports marketing industry. But sponsors are reviewing their options. In the past year, McDonald’s and TruServ, which owns the True Value hardware chain, dropped expensive national sponsorships with the NFL.

Coca-Cola renegotiated a pricey national sponsorship with the NFL, reportedly cutting its annual payment to about $4 million from the $15 million it used to pay.

And, like many top sponsors, Coke has strong ties to NASCAR, a sport that “is totally fueled by sponsorships,” Koonin said. NASCAR’s appeal to marketers stems from the obvious advertising opportunities that drivers and cars offer. “Fans know that [advertisers] . . . are putting their favorite driver on the track,” Koonin said. “The advertising is immediately relevant, and fans reward sponsors for having a common interest.”

As advertisers scramble to better understand what clicks with kids, some long-standing fans are reconsidering their favorite sports.

Although he was initially crushed when Taner opted to concentrate on board sports, Mitch Lantow subsequently erected a skate ramp in his driveway and will spend Super Bowl Sunday watching Taner and his brother, Daulton, skate.

“They’ll still occasionally play football in the front yard,” Lantow said. “But Taner wants to be Tony Hawk when he grows up, not Elway. And I’ll be here Sunday watching them.”

* PUMPED UP: One firm’s business boomed after free TV ad last year. C1

* SUPER SPOTS: Viewers’ opinions on Super Bowl commercials sought. C6