Size Matters

Written By Troy Ewers

Quick Question, Does it matter to you that the city you live in is a “Big Market”?

Do you care how often your favorite sports team is on ESPN? When your favorite artist announces a tour, do you check how many shows are in your city, if any? I do care to be completely honest. I’ve stated in previous articles that I’m from the Bay Area, specifically San Jose and even though the Bay Area is a major market, because of San Francisco and Oakland, San Jose has this little brother feeling to it, because even amongst some people in the Bay Area, San Jose almost feels like it’s not the Bay, but it’s own place. Now San Jose is 100% the Bay Area, but because of its distance from the other major Bay Area cities, it has a different texture about it. San Jose is the heart of the Tech Boom and home to some of the richest companies in America, but still has a vast diverse population of Mexican, Asian, Black, Samoan, African, White, Indian, Gay, Straight, Everything and Else under the Sun. The city is the 3rd biggest city in California behind Los Angeles and San Diego, and with all this being said the city has a stigma of being a “Small Market”. The Sharks for example had 3 games out of their 82 games on ESPN and TNT this past season, with another 10 games on ESPN+, showing that San Jose, when not winning, is considered a small market for cable television, but still big enough to try to attract a digital audience to a growing streaming platform. All this makes me wonder as a sports fan who loves his city, does it matter if your city is a big or small market in the era where the market is on our phones, no matter what city you’re in?

Big markets actually do matter to sports fans, but small markets make a hell of a story. A player like Ja Morant makes Memphis a very attractive city, Aaron Rodgers makes Green Bay a little bit cooler, and as a kid seeing what Ken Griffey Jr. meant to small market teams like Seattle and Cincinnati is a big reason why he’s one of my favorite baseball players (on top of that he had one of the best swings in baseball). All these stories make sports what they are… real life fairy tales, but let’s be real, when Kobe’s Lakers won championships basketball became a more ubiquitous thing, when Jeter’s Yankees were in the playoffs baseball becomes a cultural viewing experience, and when the Cowboys are even close to good or have a star, every week they are the topic of conversation. Big markets have been important since television was invented and the teams I named are 3 of the biggest brands in sports and mainly because they are in markets that will spend every dollar to keep themselves relevant. In this social media era however, every team is playing the game these 3 brands have been playing since the 60’s. Ja Morant and Memphis are all over social media, because social media is ahead of Sportscenter as to when people see highlights, now to the point where Twitter and Instagram determine what’s the Sportscenter top 10. Nowadays if a team can do everything to market a star, primarily on social media, then they can be considered a major market even if television ratings say different. The Twitter timeline matters more than Nielsen ratings (unless you’re a network or advertiser). The key to all this marketing though almost has nothing to do with if your team is good or not, but to have a star. Put Shohei Ohtani on the Colorado Rockies and he’s still a star, because he’s a once in a lifetime talent, which will make him the most talked about baseball player on Twitter, which will then make Colorado look like they’re a better team until someone actually looks at the box score. Ohtani being in LA makes him bigger than life and keep in mind, the Angels have always been the little brother team to the Dodgers, similar to the Clippers and the Lakers, but even then the conversation changes a little bit when a star like Kawhi Leonard is in your uniform. A star in any market makes you a part of the major conversation, but a star plus winning makes you the Bulls, Patriots, and San Francisco Giants. Back in the day the only teams that could attract stars were the big markets, but now with social media and athletes being way more brand conscious they’re aware that if they are a star aligned with a potential championship franchise, they can use the business model set by Lebron James and Tom Brady about how to turn their businesses into full corporate entities. Being a star in sports requires great social media marketing, don’t believe me look at Lamelo Ball, he’s on Charlotte, a team never considered a major market in really any sport, but his branding is so huge, you forget they are as small of a market as they are. Imagine Lamelo on the Knicks, the brand would be even bigger, but that doesn't matter, because in this social media era, a star can turn anywhere into “the cool place”, look at what Drake did to Toronto.

I guess to make a long story short, the San Jose Sharks is a small market team but that’s because other than Silicon Valley it’s genuinely unknown to people in the country, most people still think the Silicon Valley is in San Francisco. A star like Conor McDavid or Austin Matthews is what’s needed to attract people to San Jose as a market, but what if that type of exciting player is already on your roster and he’s not old enough to drink. William Eklund is a 19 year old Swedish kid on the Sharks roster and I personally think if he was marketed as the most exciting young player in hockey it would sell out the SAP Center faster than you can say “Auf Wiedersehen”. I advise everyone to look up his highlights on YouTube where you can see him do nothing, but Sportscenter Top 10 plays and even was Swedish Junior player of the year a year ago. San Jose with the right social media marketing, a great example would be the Orlando Magic in the NBA, could turn their 19 year old sensation and turn him into the next Sydney Crosby, which to be honest other than Wayne Gretzky might be the only hockey player black people know. A star can do big things for any team, but in this era a team like San Jose doesn’t have to keep its legends on the roster just to get people in seats. A star can be grown just with some social media moments, after that spend the money on a supporting cast and do the best thing you can with that to get you the best result… Golden State Warriors did it and they used to give away tickets at the Albertsons when I was a kid.