Recruiting thoughts – Stars or Marketing?

17 April 2010 – Nick Marvin

Recruiting season is always a difficult time for sporting clubs.

This year the process will be even more challenging with the addition of a ninth team, the Sydney Kings. A talent pool of 80-odd active players must now be spread to nine teams.

Add to that the retirement of Sam Mackinon, Chris Anstey, Martin Cattalini, Paul Rogers, Tony Ronaldson, (arguably a group of starters) and Tony Rampton.

Then there are those who wish to play overseas or unlikely to return: Mark Worthington, Julius Hodge and Tywain McKee, Awee Storey and John Rillie.

Whilst we must be grateful to the High Stakes Hoops for bringing into national focus some old (Willie Farley) and new faces (Ben Allen), the end result is still a depleted pool. Further, the time lapse between this exhibition event and the start of the season is too long for those players to still be available come September.

I have long argued for a draft camp of sorts in July or August to provide similar opportunities for local and national talent and to give the sport some much needed pre-season hype.

When selecting players different teams use different models and have varying motivations.

One common misconception, however, is that of recruiting stars for no other reason than their flamboyance.

Like most other NBL club CEOs I get numerous petitions from fans to sign such ‘draw cards’. But initial research on the matter is not so convincing.

Townsville’s Corey Williams, LA Galaxy’s David Beckham and even Adelaide’s Julius Hodge provided a tremendous initial boost in attendances but never proved sustainable. Based on statistics, in most cases attendances dropped in following years.

I would be tremendously surprised if the Ben Cousins’ spike in the Richmond’s membership base lasts.

It is still early days yet, but our recruiting decisions at the Perth Wildcats to be selflessly team-focused and hire on character-first has resulted in surprisingly good results – so far.

The question then is how much of a risk do you take in recruiting flamboyant stars as opposed investing in marketing resources for players that you recruit for other more strategic reasons.

Our emphasis on strong social engagement through schools and community visits has been tremendously rewarding. So too is the significant investment of resources in media and promotions.

Listed at the bottom of this article is a key web statistic of unique page-views of individual players assessed from across the NBL and each of the club websites for this season.

The results are startling!

It is important to caution this data with the fact that it entirely online, meaning it does not represent real opinions. In other words strong web-hits do not necessarily mean that a player is more popular in reality. It is restricted to that segment of the demographic, which is internet savvy and chooses to go online to follow a particular player. It does not include those that express their following off-line. It is also important to note that these statistics are not audited and are a simple extract of initial data.

An interesting pattern to note is that Adelaide and Perth have a strong online presence resulting in more players in each of these teams being more popular.

However, it is an indicator of sorts. One dimensional as this exercise may be it is surprising to see Corey Williams ranked 24, well below the likes of even Sam Harris from Perth, who did not play a full season.

Surely then, from initial research, there is a strong case for investing more resources in developing a strong following for the brand and players than on recruiting flamboyant stars as a quick fix.

1. Kevin Lisch – Perth
2. Stephen Weigh – Perth
3. John Gilchrist – Adelaide
4. Luke Schenscher – Perth
5. Martin Cattalini – Perth
6. Adam Ballinger – Adelaide
7. Darren Ng – Adelaide
8. Jesse Wagstaff – Perth
9. Shawn Redhage – Perth
10. Damian Martin – Perth
11. Chris Anstey – Melbourne
12. Cortez Groves – Adelaide
13. Drew Williamson – Perth
14. Tywain McKee – Wollongong
15. Mark Worthington – Melbourne
16. Ayinde Ubaka – Gold Coast
17. Brad Robbins – Perth
18. Sam Harris – Perth
19. Paul Rogers – Perth
20. Galen Young – Perth
21. Ryan Bathie – Melbourne
22. Matthew Burston – Adelaide
23. Erron Maxey – Gold Coast
24. Corey Williams – Townsville
25. Christopher Goulding – Gold Coast