In the San Antonio suburb of Paris, France — and that’s no typo — the Spurs will hold a watch party Sunday that amplifies the momentum behind the NBA’s International Team Marketing Program.
On a Paris street called Rue de Crimée, at a sports bar with the familiar name “Belushi’s,” the Spurs expect a crowd of 500 or more for Game 4 of their playoff series against the Trail Blazers — many expected to be in Victor Wembanyama jerseys even though the Parisian Wembanyama is out with a concussion.
The watch party — seven time zones away from Texas at 9:30pm Parisian time — is not only a follow-up to the successful “Spurs Week Paris” from February, but an outgrowth of significant changes this season to the league’s ITMP, a plan that, at its core, is designed to help the NBA take over the world.
Starting in 2023, the ITMP gave every team the bandwidth to sign up to 10 international sponsors, fortuitous considering a foreign player has won the league MVP award seven consecutive seasons. But then, heading into this season, the NBA’s Team Marketing & Business Operations (TMBO) department gave teams the ability to do the following:
Conduct global basketball clinics subject to NBA approval and requirements.Conduct international public receptions, meet-and-greets and in-marketing promotional activities (but no basketball competitions).Conduct activities on a co-branded basis with an international sports teams that is not a basketball team, per NBA approval.Sponsor NBA-approved sporting events or music concerts other than basketball games.
“It gave teams the opportunity to largely conduct very similar marketing activities outside the United States to what they do in their own territories, in their local markets,” NBA EVP and Head of TMBO Jonathan Tillman said. “The majority of the NBA fans globally will never set foot into an NBA arena. So how do we get people to bring these unique experiences to them directly?”
A watch party, which is a glorified meet-and-greet under the new rules, has become the convenient, purposeful route to take. The Magic have already rolled them out in Germany alongside its stealth business relationship with Deutsche Telekom. The Spurs’ “Texas Tip-Off” watch party during Spurs Paris Week in February — in collaboration with its jersey patch sponsor Ledger — was an invitation-only event at Ledger’s multi-level corporate headquarters that only drew 200 because of the limited space and could have packed in more. But an overflow watch party at a nearby pub drew close to 100 more, all of it mirroring what the Spurs have done with watch parties in another of its so-called suburbs, Austin, Texas.
“But doing it in Paris isn’t the same as Austin,” said Tim Salier, SVP/Business Development, Membership & Ticket Operations for Spurs Sports & Entertainment.
The Spurs drew 200 to an invite-only watch party at Ledger headquarters last February. Ledger is the team’s French-based jersey patch sponsor. Spurs
In Paris, the Spurs have been royalty ever since they had Tony Parker at point guard and Boris Diaw at forward. So, taking advantage of two other TMBO tweaks, the Spurs have staged basketball clinics and built a business relationship with Paris Saint-Germain, which has led to co-branded activities.
“Certain teams approach it a little bit more aggressively than others,” Salier said. “And given our history with international players and international development, I would say that we’ve historically been a first mover, as well.”
But other teams such as the Nets in France and China (five staffers devoted to Asia alone) and the Pistons in England (with sponsor Diageo) have similarly been first movers. Overall, the new IMTP rules this past season led to a record 27 teams securing a record 77 international deals (+57% YoY) across Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Australia.
“And we think there’s a lot more headroom for us to actually grow,” Tillman said.