News Crows buy professional eSports team - Update: SOLD

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

If people are coming from the point of view that any venture the club does must help the AFL side win a flag then it will probably be a tough sell. It's about building a brand and strong ties across codes. Like FC Barcelona has Football(soccer) for mens and womens, Basketball, Handball, American Football, Futsal and field Hockey.

Why are they building a brand?

 

[spexau]

Why are they building a brand?

Build a larger supporter base and to create revenue opportunities.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Build a larger supporter base and to create revenue opportunities.

Exactly, so whatever way you describe the motives the measure of success is greater revenue/profit

 

[Truck25]

This has totally confused me Truck ... Paladins pays better? At what level? What is your son's handle for Overwatch / Paladins - would love to understand where he is playing / what roster / which tournaments that Paladins is more financially rewarding ...

At the moment its DOTA 2, LOL, CSGO then a big gap in terms of money, but the Overwatch League has changed the landscape internationally.

Overwatch is just over a year in the wild, and it's had hundreds of professional comps - I thought that Paladins (a very poor copy of Overwatch if you ask me) has had very few opportunities to earn any real $. Or have I missed something? Does your son travel overseas to play - or are you talking about playing locally only?

Would love to know more about your son's journey - as my son is on a similar path

Just to qualify I don't follow Esports, I have only got this from talking to my son's. I get the appeal but it's like Footy, you either love it or you don't. I play some but can't watch others play.
He was in masterminds back when they hit number 2 on the ranking. He got heaps of free stuff and was flown around the country a couple of times to LAN's. I know that in at least one game they had 50k views on the stream...50K that's Adelaide oval. He was with another team recently that was looking to challenge top again but he got pissed with the way Blizzard has locked down the tournaments and kept putting off the main league. There was just not enough comp's to actually make enough cash to make it worth while. He had to either go to the US or change. He went back to CS for a while but has at the moment moved to Paladins because of the regular comps and reasonable prize money. And as you say it's a copy of Overwatch. He recons Overwatch players can do well in Paladins but not the other way around. I suspect he'll probably go back to OW once they sort things out.

As I stated I don't follow so I might be getting the facts a bit off but I think it is a path worth following the same way music or sports are worth following. It's only a matter of time and the money will be there. At the moment it's like playing SANFL in the 70's. some cash around but you've got to love what you do and the chances of making a living are slim. But in time I have no doubt it will rival modern day professional sports one day.

 

[1970crow]

They wont look at Overwatch because Blizzard have stuffed the local league. My Lad was one of the top players in Oceania but he left for Paladins because they pay better.

Paladin , is this true, are you paying better?

 

[Paladin]

Paladin , is this true, are you paying better?

I pay top dollar mate

 

[baldandbroke]

Exactly, so whatever way you describe the motives the measure of success is greater revenue/profit

I agree that the money will be a tell tale indicator of success - but it isn't the only measure. Same as winning a premiership would deliver more dollars but would be a secondary goal compared to actually winning the damn thing.

We are a business - and we didn't buy an eSports team for the good of the community ... but I don't think we bought an eSports team for the good of the AFL side of things either.

 

[baldandbroke]

Just to qualify I don't follow Esports, I have only got this from talking to my son's. I get the appeal but it's like Footy, you either love it or you don't. I play some but can't watch others play.
He was in masterminds back when they hit number 2 on the ranking. He got heaps of free stuff and was flown around the country a couple of times to LAN's. I know that in at least one game they had 50k views on the stream...50K that's Adelaide oval. He was with another team recently that was looking to challenge top again but he got pissed with the way Blizzard has locked down the tournaments and kept putting off the main league. There was just not enough comp's to actually make enough cash to make it worth while. He had to either go to the US or change. He went back to CS for a while but has at the moment moved to Paladins because of the regular comps and reasonable prize money. And as you say it's a copy of Overwatch. He recons Overwatch players can do well in Paladins but not the other way around. I suspect he'll probably go back to OW once they sort things out.

As I stated I don't follow so I might be getting the facts a bit off but I think it is a path worth following the same way music or sports are worth following. It's only a matter of time and the money will be there. At the moment it's like playing SANFL in the 70's. some cash around but you've got to love what you do and the chances of making a living are slim. But in time I have no doubt it will rival modern day professional sports one day.

Well hopefully Legacy can be part of the Overwatch League when Blizzard open up a team or two in Australia. Also notice that ScreenPlay are starting an Australian League that will be part of their CH7 TV series. Your son might be a good candidate for that as it will cover a couple of games, probably Lol and Overwatch ... it has some $ behind it too

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I agree that the money will be a tell tale indicator of success - but it isn't the only measure.

What are the other ones?

 

[baldandbroke]

What are the other ones?

Winning tournaments / championships


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[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Winning tournaments / championships

Why is winning good?

 

[baldandbroke]

Why is winning good?

It's the reason a lot of professional sports people compete.

To test themselves against the best.

Of course the are also the Nick Kyrgios' of the world who seek success because it brings $ ... But most eSports players aren't doing it for that. They want to earn a good living doing what they love, but they aren't in it for a huge pay cheque.

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[DD#23]

It's the reason a lot of professional sports people compete.

To test themselves against the best.

Of course the are also the Nick Kyrgios' of the world who seek success because it brings $ ... But most eSports players aren't doing it for that. They want to earn a good living doing what they love, but they aren't in it for a huge pay cheque.

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c'mon now, so is the hope that that'll rub off on the footy players? This has nothing to do with the whole point of the line of questioning.

we didn't acquire Legacy because we rue the fact that we can only give 40 blokes a chance to test themselves against the best in our footy operations. This is a sideshow, intended to be a money spinner. Simple as that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that either, I'm all for it.

however there's no escaping the fact that if it doesn't make money its a failure for the AFC (that is the Adelaide Football Club).

 

[baldandbroke]

c'mon now, so is the hope that that'll rub off on the footy players? This has nothing to do with the whole point of the line of questioning.

we didn't acquire Legacy because we rue the fact that we can only give 40 blokes a chance to test themselves against the best in our footy operations. This is a sideshow, intended to be a money spinner. Simple as that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that either, I'm all for it.

however there's no escaping the fact that if it doesn't make money its a failure for the AFC (that is the Adelaide Football Club).

No, I think you'll find that it has very little to do with football.

It has more to do with using the existing business functions and skills in another sport.

If will benefit the business overall, not the AFL program.

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[DD#23]

No, I think you'll find that it has very little to do with football.

It has more to do with using the existing business functions and skills in another sport.

If will benefit the business overall, not the AFL program.

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the business only exists in support of the AFL program.

 

[Bob Neil]

I disagree. I don't feel like this venture needs to pass the "does it help us win the next flag" test any more than having an AFLW team, or a netball team, or anything else. Diversification in any business is generally good, and doesn't necessarily need to be about supporting the core business as much as it should support "the brand".

Of course, if it diverts unacceptable levels of funding away from the program you'd have to reassess, but any new venture requires seeding from the parent company,and I'd expect the crows would have budgets and targets for the Legacy team consistent with a view towards eventual self sufficiency.

If people are coming from the point of view that any venture the club does must help the AFL side win a flag then it will probably be a tough sell. It's about building a brand and strong ties across codes. Like FC Barcelona has Football(soccer) for mens and womens, Basketball, Handball, American Football, Futsal and field Hockey.

I fundamentally disagree. The 'brand' is not the ultimate objective - it is a means to achieving the ultimate objective...which in our case is a premiership. I'd further suggest that diversification in most businesses is bad not good as most businesses are not capable of excelling in their core objective let alone having multiple objectives.

With respect to the decision to have an AFLW team - that is different as that involves us modifying our core objective to incorporate achieving a premiership in either the men's or AFLW competitions (note: I'm only guessing at what the AFC's objective/s are as I don't believe I've ever seen or heard it stated definitively before which itself is cause for concern and what allows decisions like this esports acquisition to occur.)

 

[baldandbroke]

the business only exists in support of the AFL program.

I think you may be wrong.

If you read and listen to what the club has said about this acquisition, it's about using the high performance, marketing, branding, knowledge in a new and emerging business space that has fairly low standards in these areas... and enormous potential for growth.

ESports teams are not great at monetising their following yet, but traditional sporting organisations live and breathe this stuff.

Watch the new Overwatch League take a big step in the right direction as huge sporting companies take the reigns. For instance, NYXL is owned by the owner of the Mets. Check out who else is buying the franchises : https://esportsobserver.com/guide-to-the-overwatch-league-teams/

Its going to go up a cog or two.

No doubt business / marketing lessons learned in the eSports side will be applied to the AFL side where possible... But these two arms will have very little direct crossover.

Nowhere have I read that AFC are looking to improve the performance of the AFL players in any way through the Legacy purchase.

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[DD#23]

I think you may be wrong.

If you read and listen to what the club has said about this acquisition, it's about using the high performance, marketing, branding, knowledge in a new and emerging business space that has fairly low standards in these areas... and enormous potential for growth.

yeah no kidding, in order to make some money.

Nowhere have I read that AFC are looking to improve the performance of the AFL players in any way through the Legacy purchase.

there's no way that an increase in club revenue might filter through to improve the performance of the AFL players?

that's an interesting take.

 

[feenix67]

I fundamentally disagree. The 'brand' is not the ultimate objective - it is a means to achieving the ultimate objective...which in our case is a premiership. I'd further suggest that diversification in most businesses is bad not good as most businesses are not capable of excelling in their core objective let alone having multiple objectives.

With respect to the decision to have an AFLW team - that is different as that involves us modifying our core objective to incorporate achieving a premiership in either the men's or AFLW competitions (note: I'm only guessing at what the AFC's objective/s are as I don't believe I've ever seen or heard it stated definitively before which itself is cause for concern and what allows decisions like this esports acquisition to occur.)

Frankly, I can't see the difference between AFLW and Legacy. Both are different teams operating in different competitions. Neither team has any direct influence on the AFL team, both teams benefit the club/brand/organisation.

 

[AFC3000]

With the tax on footy spend, I thought the point here was to efficiently boost our other departments like media and sponsorship etc. and have them also work on another sport.

Immediate benefits, we've improve these areas and can apply them back to the Crows side. Longer term, if the e-sports thing takes off here, we'd be one of the first teams organised enough to benefit.

I don't think it's ever had anything to do with selling a bit of Legacy merchandise to Crows supporters or selling Crows memberships to gaming fans.

 

[baldandbroke]

yeah no kidding, in order to make some money.

It's not the reason we chose eSports - we didn't choose eSports because it has the biggest potential payoff. We chose eSports because we have many existing skills and services on hand that will add value immediately to the teams AND it has a big potential payoff .

If you think it's only about making more money and that's it, you can keep travelling down the wrong rabbit hole all by yourself ... I don't want to be involved with that line of discussion anymore. The club has been clear on this, listen to the audio I linked to from Nigel Smart above.

there's no way that an increase in club revenue might filter through to improve the performance of the AFL players? that's an interesting take.

So why don't Collingwood win the flag more often then?

Look at this list from 2016 and explain to me how the Bulldogs won the premiership that year: http://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=2946

Sure, you don't want to have the tins out at every game and be hanging on by a thread ... but having more money does not equal success.

 

[Sanders]

We did not make the stupid decision to enter eSports to just be good at something else FFS.

It was solely to expand our brand appeal, and ultimately strengthen the business in pursuit of its core purpose - AFL success.

This all AFLW exists for too. To expand reach and support in the community of our brand

These are worthy aims, it’s very arguable whether these initiatives will deliver or be successful but that’s the idea

Each distracts management attention from the core business, and that is the biggest cost though. Business moved away from the idea of conglomerates who can turn their organisational expertise to multiple fields after the 1980’s

Don’t know why it’s come back, or more to the point, we want to revive it as if it hasn’t already been a proven bad idea

 

[DD#23]

It's not the reason we chose eSports - we didn't choose eSports because it has the biggest potential payoff. We chose eSports because we have many existing skills and services on hand that will add value immediately to the teams AND it has a big potential payoff .

please, that could apply to ANY sport, and our existing skills and services would go a hell of a lot further if that sport involved a ball.

we chose eSports because of the bargain basement entry price and the growth potential - with the most important aspect of the latter being its appeal to the next generation audience.

 

[1970crow]

We did not make the stupid decision to enter eSports to just be good at something else FFS.

It was solely to expand our brand appeal, and ultimately strengthen the business in pursuit of its core purpose - AFL success.

This all AFLW exists for too. To expand reach and support in the community of our brand

These are worthy aims, it’s very arguable whether these initiatives will deliver or be successful but that’s the idea

Each distracts management attention from the core business, and that is the biggest cost though. Business moved away from the idea of conglomerates who can turn their organisational expertise to multiple fields after the 1980’s

Don’t know why it’s come back, or more to the point, we want to revive it as if it hasn’t already been a proven bad idea

Testify, it's exceedingly simple. Why don't our pimply and gooby mates understand this. Nobody gives a s**t unless it's putting cash in the wallet that we can spend on trying to win a flag.

 

[baldandbroke]

Testify, it's exceedingly simple. Why don't our pimply and gooby mates understand this. Nobody gives a s**t unless it's putting cash in the wallet that we can spend on trying to win a flag.

Mmmmm I've heard this all before, Luddites getting scared by things they don't understand. Lol. You in sales by any chance?

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