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How to make a polished sports entertainment product...

Before some get offended that I'm writing about something I know nothing about again, please take a look at all my social media... a part of my world virtually revolves around sport. I'll watch anything sports related if it's worth my time watching from the Olympics, EFC, FIFA World Cup, various football leagues around the world & basketball... so I think I would know what fans want & how sport can benefit a land. 

One mistake we make in Africa in terms of our sport is over-dependence on the outside world & lack of interest in making our local sports better &, if possible, the best in the world. What the big sports entertainment franchises do around the world is simple, they market the game & capitalise on the hype which earns them some monetary or other return. The team headquarters have a shop & shirts of the legends of the team are sold & not shirts of currently active players. It doesn't take much to make a good sports entertainment product but just some smart planning & a stable, consistent culture of the team/league.

Along with these points , we could employ: 

1) Internet & social media: YouTube & Wikipedia are two great platforms for many sports fans. YouTube has the highlights & Wikipedia has the stats & records of sports teams & athletes. In Wikipedia, there's Wikipedia sites for almost every popular language around the world including African languages.

2) Independent sports data agencies: For stats, records & accurate player performance data. This could be used for Player of the Year criteria, awards & other areas related to the sport.

3) Apps: Leagues can have an app that books tickets, processes bets & shows performance data of games & individual athletes. An app can also be made for gaming & online gaming. Often big sports games like FIFA, NBA2K etc. have no African representation & African teams & athletes are often not analyzed to get data on their in-play activity so with athlete information from our sports data agencies, we can make an avatar for a gaming app for each player. 

4) Helping fans be fans: Fans can have regular "Meet & Greets" with their local team's players. Each team having their own band & banner holders for home games. see Fan blog.

5) Athlete professionalism: Athletes wearing standard suits of their sports team before & after the game. Athletes wearing official team merchandise while doing sports team activities like charities, media interviews & "Meet & Greets". No hairstyles or piercings. 

6) Numbers: Often players choose their own numbers to be displayed on their shirts but I don't think this should be the case, I think players whether it's football or basketball should be given season numbers according to the position they'll play for the season. This will give order & standardise numbers. Also, numbers should not be retired. When a player's number is retired, it feels barring, as if to say this mortal man (or woman) is bigger than all players that came before & after him. Even though they're hailed as the best, they shouldn't own a number. It would be better to rather have the legend's shirt put on display in their team's headquarters than prevent future players the opportunity of wearing that number.  

If this plan is followed, I have no doubt that our sports leagues & related products will be sought after all over the world by sports TV channels as well as provide some benefits for the our lands.
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