How would you define "credibility" and "legitimacy" for Ultimate? What is it and from whom do we need it?
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19 comments:
Jose Cuervo was a great oppousrtunity for the UPA to build recognition and legitemacy for our sport. Look what theye did for beach volleyball. I think with some more time the slight changes to the rules could have been removed. I think it was the whole "we don't wanna be sponsored by a liqour co."
corporate sponsorship
next venue.......NCAA
Is "Credibility/Legitimacy" defined by more media exposure? More acceptance from other athletes as a real sport. Understanding from our firends and family that Ultimate is not disc golf/Guts/tossing to my dog? Increased spectator interest? All of the above?
I agree that corporate sponsorship is a must. In the early days, tournaments were sponsored by such big hitters as Nike, Pepsi, Cuervo, etc. Do the companies in their current form even know what Ultimate is? Is enough being done on a nationwide level to increase exposure to Ultimate and secure larger, long term sponsors? As the national governing body, is this the UPA's responsibility? What has the UPA done at this point to bring in bigger sponsors and promote the sport to the masses?
What can we do individually to help this? What roadblocks are in the way? (These are serious questions, not criticism, btw)
IMO, there is much more that can and should be done that isn't happening. Maybe there is something that I, as an outsider, am not seeing. I'm not a marketing whiz, but I do know that hundreds of thousands of people are playing Ultimate, and most of them are educated professionals who are loyal to their sport and would probably be loyal to a good sponsor...
Hayabusa and Baer,
Welcome to the UPA Strategic Planning blog and, specifically, the Credibility/Legitimacy topic. I have agreed to serve as moderator for this topic, so I very much appreciate your comments.
Hayabusa,
In your last sentence, do you mean that Ultimate should seek out becoming an NCAA sport?
Baer,
Thanks for all of those questions. Lots of stuff to consider there.
So, corporate sponsorship gets the first nods as a part of the definition of credibility and legitimacy. I think I have a pretty good idea of why, but I would be curious about some specific reasons why corporate sponsorship is considered important. In other words, I don't want to make assumptions....I am curious about the specifics.
Thanks,
George Cooke
If i may add my two cents, when i think of the credibility of ultimate it goes like this -
when i tell someone i play ultimate frisbee, i dont want my next sentence to then be - "its a game with seven people with a frisbee and its kind of like...." etc
credibility seems to be a widespread recognition of the sport as having a valid or even noticeable existence.
the ideal situation following the statement, "i play ultimate frisbee" is "oh really, at what level? who do you play for?"
until that level of response is reached in at least 1 out of 10 random people on the street, i think ultimate still has a long way to go in striving for legitimacy. right now i would wager its somewhere in the realm of 1 in maybe 200 - 300 people would know what ultimate is, recognize it as a sport.
corporate sponsorship is a major avenue to change this obviously, big money = big publicity, big publicity = a gradual lowering of general ignorance regarding the sport we play.
corporations are something that a vast majority of people consider legitimate. as are media outlets. in a way i guess legitimacy comes through association with things that already fall under the label. stoners, hippies, etc, probably not considered the most legitimate lifestyles by most. ncaa, disregarding the bcs, fairly legitimate.
so, first step would be to begin associating and forming partnerships with people, companies and social norms (uniforms etc) that people already consider legitimate.
this need not necessarily include referees. uniqueness is also a respected form of legitimacy, people respect the ability to stick to the fundamental roots of what makes a thing what it is. laws change, but the basic tenets of its foundation do not change - the constitution; freedom of speech, bill of rights.
so just a few ideas on the subject,
-matt
Matt,
Thank you very much for your balanced and interesting perspective.
You point out, as others have in this discussion, that legit/cred is somewhat of an "external" judgement. How we ar viewed by others. To some extent, that is an "uncontrollable", but your comments do speak to the idea that Ultimate could associate itself with entities that are already considered legitimate. On the other hand, you also mention that there is value to the basic foundation remaining unchanged. I think this very much speaks to the idea of the "concessions" sub-topic.
I think this issue, and your comments, really speak to "values". What are our values? What do we consider important? Do we need a clear set of values in order to ask for legitimacy?
Great comments.
Thanks,
George Cooke
UPA SPC Blog Moderator
McCabe's statements are very well put. To answer your earlier question, George, a goal of sponsorship, other than financial backing of course, would be to create extra publicity and recognition. Hopefully, if people see Ultimate side by side with other recognizable brands, familiarity wouild grow among the non-Ultimate public. In this society, we see the power of marketing and advertising. Even poor products, if marketed well enough, will gain recognition and become popular.
I think this can be done without sacrificing our values (including SOTG, and Ultimate's history and culture) if it is done right.
Beyond sponsorship, other balances will need to be found between how to make Ultimate more watchable to the public vs. how to increase participation. If millions of people are playing the game, Ultimate will look more legitimate, and if many people are willing to pay to watch the sport, it will look more legitimate. However, some of the things that attract new players may also stifle the watchability of the game to outsiders (self officiation, for example). Other rules or parts of the game may also impact this balance, so we definitely need to be careful with this. History (and current discussions) have shown that changes in the Ultimate world are not met well.
Baer,
Well put. Thanks for elaborating on your first post.
I work some of the time doing audio work for corporte meetings. It seems to me that many times decisions around image, marketing, etc are made from the point of view of "fear". As in the decision is based on how not to screw up.
I think the concern for balance that you mention in terms of promotion vs values, watchability vs playability is important.
Do people think that we can have our cake and eat it too? Can we retain our values AND engage in aggressive self-promotion? Or does credibility necessitate concessions?
Thanks,
George Cooke
UPA SPC Blog Moderator
Rutgers University is currently going through the process of redefining its image, with special intent to unify the iconography that represents the University. The idea is that various part of the school have gained respect, but most people don't see how everything ties in together as part of one educational community. By limiting what gets used to advertise and promote itself, Rutgers is able to control its image. The problem that I see happening is some of the wonderful diversity of the University--historic images, logos, etc--are being phased out.
The UPA is in a similar situation, I feel, where it is being called to promote the sport, part of that being this question of Legitimacy. One of the difficulties with this push is that we have an exceptionally diverse community, thousands of players who all approach the sport differently. So on the one hand, Matt's "ideal situation" is a very real possibility for the future. The problem is, how do we get there, as others have pointed out, without trying to homogenize the community?
I think the contract with CSTV has been a great example of how we can push into the mainstream but still stick to our roots. Corporate sponsorship, I fear, would be too much of the former and too little of the latter. By expanding the sport--through greater youth/college involvement, more tournaments, and more of what CSTV has done--I think that kind of aggressive self-promotion will happen naturally as people clamor for field space, community involvement and assitance, etc.
RSD has mentioned recently how people are putting together halftime Ultimate presentations at high school football games, pro basketball games, etc. Somebody talked about the economic impact of a tournament. I believe that we have, and will continue to see results in expansion. The problem is, so far we have been approaching the credibility question with a fear of losing our values, when I think we haven't really determined as a community what those values are. The polls tell us a lot, but something the UPA needs to create from this "revolution" is a game plan of what we will actively reinforce, what will be passively encouraged, and HOW we will eat our cake. I think it can be done.
Gapoole,
Thanks for those comments. I strongly agree that a big part of this initiative should be a definition of values.
The UPA has a mission statement, but should the UPA publish a "definition of values" with the intent that such a document could guide the process of things like self-promotion, marketing, etc? Is it possible to have a value statement with the diversity that you correctly identify?
I also agree that proceeding without fear or, more precisely, the fear that comes from assuming concessions is important.
-George
I just discovered this last night, but the UPA already has a definition of values, which is printed at the back of the 11th edition rule book.
You can also read it here:
http://www.upa.org/upa/mission
I think we need some TV commercials that show what the sport looks like, and tell people how they can get out and start playing. I'm sure that there are lots of people out there who would play Ultimate, but just don't know about it.
The UPA has several hundred thousand members, and at 20-40$ per membership, I think that there should be more than enough funding to get a commercial on a major network.
Just my opinion.
Ernest,
Thanks for that input. I think that is an interesting idea.
SamTH,
In terms of a value statement, I was think of something slightly different than the mission statement.
The topic of this post is a good example. I think an approach to bottom vs top growth could determined by a clear statement of values. Something along the lines of what this whole startegic planning initiative could generate. The mission statement, while beneficial in terms of outlying the general and core values of the UPA, is not detailed enough to inform us in this specific example...and others in this blog. So, the value statement would be, in my opinon, something that went into the fine details of how the UPA should proceed on many issues.
-George
Ernest,
Just a slight correction. The UPA only has about 25,000 members (not several hundred thousand).
-Kyle
George -
I don't know if you're referring to the actual "Values Statement", which is also quite vague and doesn't answer the questions we are discussing, but I want to point out that the page I linked to has a "Mission Statement", a "Vision Statement" and a "Values Statement", in addition to a list of the things the UPA does.
Sam, I don't think we're talking about the posted "Values Statement" (honesty, integrity, hard work, fun, athleticism, sportsmanship, teamwork). I think what we need right now is closely tied to these discussion fora, as George mentioned. (forum, fora?) For example, we KNOW that SOTG is important to us, but what exactly is it? What does it look like in highly competitive Ultimate? How far would we go to enforce it, or how far CAN we go? Which "credible bodies" will we target, specifically? What is our stance on corporate sponsorship, and will we limit the corporations or groups that represent us? The answers to these questions may be influenced by what the UPA has already posted as its objective, but adhering to "integrity, tolerance and fun" is an ambiguous direction.
my bad.
I was thinking about that thing that said there were an estimated 600,000 people who PLAYED ultimate.
Thank you for the correction.
Still, I think that a TV commercial could generate some interest in the sport.
There was a long spot about Ultimate on the Disney Channel a while back. I was pretty excited when I saw it, but it was definitely geared towards parents.
Working it out so that Ultimate would be an official NCAA sport would help with legitimacy I think. Lacrosse was a college sport first and has since developed into two major leagues. People now know what lacrosse is also. I think that would be the first step.
Do we need publicity? yes
Do we need sponsors? yes
The sport needs to reach out and have Cuervo and Nike sponsoring big teams, but at what cost will that come. SOTG, self-officiating both the fuundamental principals of Ultimate in my mind. when I explain Ultimate to someone those points is generally whenever the take a genuine interest to the sport.
"Really no refs?"
Ultimate needs to be sponsored and well known and on tv and maybe even NCAA, but we must make sure we keep it Ultimate.
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