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March Madness By The Numbers
March 24th, 2008Okay, okay. I admit it. I am an absolute sucker for statistics and numbers. But, as they say in American business, knowledge is power…and power is money. If those worn out cliches are tried AND true, the NCAA is likely rolling in the dough right about now.
I have spent the last two weeks or so absorbing every possible commentary relating to the business of March Madness. There have been numerous reports estimating the number of viewers watching the tourney, the cost to American businesses and economic impact in various markets. I’ve seen numbers identifying the amount of time consumers devote to following the tourney and more numbers illustrating the amount of money advertisers are willing to spend to reach those consumers.
Today I thought I’d share those numbers with you in hopes that some of the statistical data will translate to a lesson or two in your business and/or marketing classes. So without further delay, I present to you March Madness By The Numbers…
13.5 – Minutes – The average amount of time Americans will spend tracking the tournament online per day for 6 straight business days
3.7 - Billion – Anticipated nationwide productivity loss in dollars during March Madness according to a leading research firm
7.6 - Million – Approximate number of American homes tuning in to each 2.5 hour march madness telecast on CBS
$40 - Million - Estimates of the economic impact for this past weekend’s regional and the NCAA women’s Final Four next month for the Tampa/St. Pete economy with both events being held at the St. Pete Times Forum
$545 - Million - Advertisers are so crazy over March Madness that TNS Media Intelligence projects they will funnel a record $545 million into the coffers of CBS Sports for its coverage of the NCAA men’s-basketball tournament this month
5 - Percent - The increase in ad sales over last year’s tournament
$6.2 - Billion - The staggering amount CBS paid to the NCAA six years ago to secure broadcast rights for the tournament
20 - People - The NCAA employs 20 representatives dedicated to ”counterfeit enforcement teams” throughout the tournament looking for bootleggers selling unlicensed NCAA merchandise
$3.8 - Billion - Amount of money the FBI estimates will be wagered on the NCAA tournament, more than half of it in office pools
122 - Percent - Increase in the number of unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video player on CBSSportsline.com over last year’s figures
10 - Million - Number of pizzas Papa John’s expects to sell in just the first two weeks of the tournament
100 - Acres - Americans will eat more than 100 acres of pizza a day during NCAA March Madness (consider that 463 basketball courts can fit in an acre, that means fans will consume enough pizzas during the tourney to fill 926,000 basketball courts)
* NOTE: Information (sources) for this blog post compiled from numerous reports online.
Hopefully this look inside the numbers of March Madness can help bring the overall impact the tournament has from a sports business perspective. This discussion provides another great opportunity to demonstrate to your class that sport means a lot more than just filling out brackets, ordering pizza and watching games. Sport represents BIG business, not only here in the United States but globally. Hopefully the NCAA tournament can provide a fun means for communicating this valuable lesson to your students.
*** Questions for Classroom Discussion ***
1) As a class, try to make some sense of all these numbers. What do they mean for CBS? For the NCAA? For businesses? For consumers?
2) What is “bootleg” merchandise? Why is it important for the NCAA to monitor bootlegged merchandise?
3) What is sponsorship? How does that relate to March Madness?
4) Using the Internet, research who owns the trademark to the phrase “March Madness”. I think you will be surprised! As a class, discuss the importance of a trademark and how the concept relates to this blog post.
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