Though Brooklyn Nets lost badly in Paris, it was part of new international marketing strategy. (Biggie, pizza.) 36% of single-game tickets sold to foreign visitors.

Players at the Louvre (NBA + Photoshop?)

The Brooklyn Nets went to Paris last week to play the Cleveland Cavaliers, and though the slumping Nets lost badly--"forget to play basketball," according to NetsDaily-- it was, by other metrics, a smashing success.

First, it was a sign that the NBA, which reinstated regular Paris Games in 2023, can broaden its footprint.

Second, as Sports Business Journal reported, in France latest focus of Nets’ global mission, it was "a microcosm of its ambitious 9-month-old international marketing plan," given that they were "bringing Flatbush pizza [WTF?] and Biggie hip-hop to the Seine."

Of course, as even SBJ acknowledged, the Nets are second-fiddle in their home city and currently don't have any marquee players. (Was this scheduled when the Nets had the Big Three of KD, Kyrie, and Harden?)

"Projects change, markets change"

Hey, remember how, back in May 2004, Brooklynites were told, in a promotional brochure from developer Forest City Ratner, "And we get the Brooklyn Nets!"

Now the Nets, like other sports teams, represent a broader platform for promotion and advertising. 

It reminded me that, in the famous words of Forest City Ratner executive Jim Stuckey, "projects change, markets change."

In this case, the market has changed. While the Nets were once marketed as something of a local novelty--a new product--appealing to Brooklyn, metro-area residents, and general tourists, they have a new focus on international visitors, who come with more money to spend.

So far "this season, about 36% of Nets single-game ticket purchasers are international, up from 22.3% last season," SBJ's Tom Friend reports. Those are astounding numbers.

"You're rooting for the clothes"

It also reminded me of how Jerry Seinfeld famously said, "You're actually rooting for the clothes."

But the Nets have managed to create a significant marketing presence and cultural presence with a very much shifting cast of performers.

Brooklyn 🖤 Parishttps://t.co/ksav1fdVNg pic.twitter.com/B2QKAB6gXd

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 8, 2024

Dropping viewership, solid attendance?

Meanwhile, as noted by the NY Post and NetsDaily, TV ratings on YES have dropped to 43,000 total viewers per game, down nearly 35% from 66,600 a year ago, when KD and Kyrie were on the team.

Still, the Nets are averaging 17,564 in reported home attendance, close to the 17,732 capacity--though the caveat is that tickets distributed does not equal gate count (and there have been big gaps in the past).

A global team?

Are the Nets are a global team, as SBJ suggests, because they're owned by Joe Tsai (Taiwan born, Canadian citizen, homes in NYC/La Jolla, made his fortune in China) and have executives from Oceania and a CEO Sam Zussman, "who has lived in Tel Aviv and London"? Maybe, maybe not.

Is the fact that they added more more than $1.3 million in revenue from international brands relevant? Maybe, maybe not. We recently learned that Sportico experts think stock trading platform Webull overpaid to sponsor the team's jersey patch.

But Brooklyn has far more cachet than Cleveland and, as NetsDaily reported, the crowd in Paris "belonged to the Nets."

Yes, the Nets are good at marketing, to quote SBJ:

According to NBA analytics, the Nets have 53.6 million fans globally (the team claims it’s 94.13 million); rank ninth out of 30 NBA teams in international Instagram followers; eighth in terms of NBA App “favorites” and “follows” outside the U.S.; and were fifth last season in average unique international viewers on NBA League Pass. 

pic.twitter.com/zOy77iTo8Z

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) January 8, 2024

So they did have "the help of an undisclosed French creative agency," creating a pop-up pizzeria, unveiling a custom t-shirt, and marketing the Nets’ City Edition uniform, from the Brooklyn artist KAWS.

And, hey, they sponsored an orchestral tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., the late Brooklyn rapper whose mantras ("The Brooklyn Way") have long been useful for marketing. (Yes, Biggie by orchestra is a thing, having already been performed at Lincoln Center.)