Kent State University - School of Journalism and Mass Communication
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Sarver Coombs investigates branding of British soccer team
Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner knows how to turn around a football team. Unfortunately for Browns fans, it's not the kind of football with helmets and quarterbacks that's played on the shores of Lake Erie. It's the football with multicolored shirts, long socks and goalies. It's the game Americans call soccer. |
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JMC Assistant Professor, Danielle Sarver Coombs, knows this because she has been investigating how American ownership has worked and how it's been accepted in the UK. She and her colleague, Anne Osborne from Louisiana State University, have been doing extensive research on Lerner's Aston Villa team, located in Birmingham.
It works there, not here
"One thing that's been amazing about this is that Randy Lerner has been publicly cited and credited by a number of journalists as providing the outstanding example of what an owner should be, foreign and domestic," says Sarver Coombs. "The fact that everyone is saying what did he do right has been great because now we get to say this is what he did right. This is why this worked in this instance."
Through participant observations, in-depth interviews, analysis of fan website content and press coverage, Sarver Coombs and Osborne have found that the very reason why American football fans criticize Lerner is the key to his success overseas.
"A lot of the reason his ownership worked was because he let other people do the talking for him," says Sarver Coombs.
"Lerner came in and he wasn't the quintessential, stereotypical American where you're brash and loud and saying this is how it should be. Instead he took a back seat."
Team more popular now
The team's recent success is also helping Lerner's popularity among UK fans. Sarver Coomb says before Lerner bought the team, Aston Villa was ranked 16th out of 20 teams. Now that the Lerner ownership is in place, the team is ranked in the top four.
Sarver Coombs and Osborne are using the Aston Villa club as a case study to explore the implications of foreign ownership in a multibillion dollar business rooted in the English working class culture. The research will be expanded to national teams in the 2010 World Cup.
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Watch a photo gallery while Sarver Coombs explains the project
By Danielle N. Wiggins for the Co-Lab