What Organizational Leaders Should Learn From The Super League Debacle
The Super League might go down as the shortest-lived idea in the history of sports. A $4.5 billion dollar idea made it 72 hours (generous estimation) before complete meltdown. The collapse can mainly be attributed to the blowback that was received from fans (supporters for those outside the US) although clearly players and politicians (Hey Boris) also were not exactly happy. There are a lot of reasons why it was an unpopular idea that many have written about, but the biggest failure here, in our estimation, was the lack of understanding of how the fans would react.
Fans protested this Super League around all of England, Spain, and Italy. In the UK, supporter groups from each of the six members of England’s Premier League made statements of opposition. Hundreds of fans protested outside the Chelsea Stamford Bridge stadium and posted banners on the Liverpool Anfield stadium gate. The backlash was not only from the fans of the English teams reported to be in the Super League but clubs all over the country.
Given the fallout, it is crystal clear that the owners of the founding clubs did zero research into their fans. This decision was made by a handful of multi-millionaires/billionaires who feel that their net worth equates to IQ. There clearly was no talking, engaging, or learning from those whose opinions truly matter. The owners of these clubs were only looking out for their own best interests. On a scale this large, not knowing your consumers only sets you up for failure. One of the only CEO’s who has been able to pull off something like this without any research was Steve Jobs with the iPhone. Clearly the Super League is no iPhone.
If we had to guess, the owners around the table thought that they could not possibly ask about this because it would cause too much of an outroar. This is probably true when looking through the lens of outdated research, but if these clubs had been using more forward looking research approaches and engaging with their fans over time it would have been incredibly easy to put together a solid understanding of what the reaction would be without having to ask point-blank “do you support this club leaving the Premier League/La Liga/Serie A and joining a different league, totally disrupting the Football world (soccer for those in the US) as we know it?”
Success comes from knowing your audience, and the lack of knowledge and underestimation of their fans is mindboggling. After the fastest retreat since the Battle at the Cave of Caerbannog, the recovery effort has been almost worse. Just look at the statement from FC Barcelona:
“Given the public reaction that the aforementioned project [the Super League] has generated in many and various spheres, there is no question that FC Barcelona appreciates that a much more in-depth analysis is required into the reasons that have caused this reaction in order to reconsider, if necessary, and to the required extent, the proposal as originally formulated and resolve all those issues, always for the good of the general interest of the football world. Such in-depth analysis needs time and the necessary composure to avoid taking any rash action.”
First of all, you should never let your lawyers write your press release.
Second, yes in-depth analysis takes time. But the time to have done that analysis was before you launched this idea. This is especially true when it comes to changing something that is already ingrained in the audience’s life.
Third, due to the lack of quality research and analysis, the clubs in the Super League have created a massive unforced error and they are unlikely to understand what the fallout really looks like. If the League had put less than 0.0001% of the funds they were going to put into the League into research, the owners would likely have never actually announced this idea and would be much better equipped to handle the fallout.
Finally, you really need to keep the lawyers away (worth pointing out twice).
There is a good reason why no German teams join the idea. The teams that would have been invited (Bayern and Dortmund) are majority-owned by their supporters. This connection gives the boardroom a much clearer view into their fanbase. Something most of these owners are clearly missing.
The big takeaway here for leaders across the globe is that understanding your audience is critical to success. If you are ignoring them, or moving ahead without them because you think you are smarter than them, you are destined for failure. Granted probably not to this scale, but failure nonetheless. Our world moves at lighting speed these days, and bad ideas often are magnified to levels that were unthinkable just 15 years ago. If you are not constantly engaging with your audience, you are likely making decisions based on outdated information. Perspectives change rapidly in today’s fast-paced environment. It is important to be well-informed as leaders so that decisions are being made with the full knowledge of what is happening right now, not what might have been the case a week or month ago.
