What Cultural Factors Must a U.S. Sports Franchise Overcome to Increase Popularity Abroad?

What cultural factors must a U.S. sports franchise overcome to increase popularity abroad? From my research the list seems to be never ending. From politics to economical and social conditions; and then there’s religion, language, social conditions and the list is long. You can even get so far into it that certain colors could be offensive to some cultures. Here in the United States if you walked into any sports bar on any given Sunday during football season you would see people wearing a wide variety of football jerseys from all sorts of different teams. If you wore the same attire in Japan you would stick out like a sore thumb. Then again in Europe the word Football all together means a different sport. The biggest hurdle I believe is the popularity of the sport itself. Most of the sports franchises here in the states are running out of ways to make revenue. Players salaries continue to go up so the business aspect of the sport needs to look to other markets to make more money. Since the late 80’s most major U.S. sport teams/leagues have made some attempt to go abroad to increase popularity and increase revenue. NFL has been played in Europe, NBA has played in Japan, NHL has played in the Soviet Union among other places, Nascar has raced in Mexico and Canada. Major League baseball has even been recruiting players from other countries in hopes of increasing popularity abroad and opening new markets and sources of revenue.

Franchises can ensure their products are compatible for international markets by doing research, research, research. “Committing to a new country requires an extraordinary amount of effort, resources and commitment from the franchise company” (Franchise.org). Initial research could be as simple as hitting the internet but after your initial research you have to delve deeper into it. This could consist of hiring people from the market you are heading into if you don’t have them already in place within your franchise. You can also research...