Polish basketball shoots for the big leagues

But after arriving in Poland's fourth-largest city, and realizing that he could purchase a USA Today newspaper and eat at McDonald's, he decided that he could survive.
"It's like a paid vacation," the 35-year-old Upshaw explained. "I still like to play. My ability allows me to play at this level."
Upshaw, who played one full season for the Celtics in the 1980s and, later, on teams in Western Europe and South America, took the Polish spot after being out of the game for two years due to an injury. After playing for Wroclaw he moved onto the smaller town of Stargard Szczecinski's team.
Foreign players like Upshaw are just one way that Polish basketball teams are trying to build interest in this still nascent sport. The other is through sponsorships that allow teams to pay for better players and increased television coverage that they hope will attract more young people to the game.
Their efforts have been boosted by television coverage of the U.S.'s National Basketball Association (NBA), where players such as Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman have wowed Polish youngsters and built interest in the game.
But building the sport in a soccer-crazed country like Poland is no easy task. Money is still tight and large sponsors are only now starting to come into the game. Players and managers said that the sponsors and the teams they work with must use the business-sport connection better to build the league.
"We are beginners in sports marketing," said Tomasz Kudlicki, manager of the Polish Basketball Federation. "Our federation is the first that switched on the green light for the professional league. But we are still beginners."
While the 16 teams in the Polish Basketball League may be a ways off from the NBA, and wealthy Western European clubs, they still offer foreign players such as Upshaw and talented Poles a shot at playing their game in a country that had the seventh-best European team in 1997. The league manages the professional men's teams; the Polish Basketball Federation handles youth leagues, women's teams and Polish national teams.
"I never wanted to play in Europe," Upshaw said, explaining that as a Chicago kid he dreamt only of playing for the NBA. But Europe offered an opportunity, and an average player can actually make more money on this side of the Atlantic than playing for the NBA.
If I make $100,000 per year here it's like having a job for $150,000 in the United States because of the low cost of living and taxes, Upshaw said.
Foreigners are not the only ones cashing in on the game, though. The best Polish players get about $11,000-$12,000 per month, according to Wieslaw Zych, president of the Polish Basketball League. And a team like first-place Wroclaw is paying the best money in Poland, offering as much as $20,000 per month to some players.
Top salaries like these, though, eat up most of Wroclaw's approximately $2.5 million-$3 million annual budget, according to Zych. Between 65-80% of Wroclaw's budget goes to paying players and coaches, according to Grzegorz Schetyna, president of Zepter Slask Wroclaw. The remainder goes to referees, gym rental and promotions.
"For sure the players are earning too much," Schetyna said.
But with talent in demand, clubs are finding that they must shell out the zlotys for players and find sponsors to pick up the tab.
No easy ride
Sponsors cover anywhere from 35-60% of a team's budget, according to league officials. The remainder is split between a combination of the sale of tickets and television rights. American Mike McCollow, who coached the Pekaes Pruszkow team, quickly realized the reliance of Polish teams on sponsorships when his team started to run out of money this past fall.
Freight forwarder Pekaes ran into some financial problems because of Russia, according to McCollow, who has coached both college and minor league teams in the United States. "They let me go because they just couldn't pay us," McCollow said from his home in Minnesota. "I had no idea the finances would be such a mess."
The financing is "absolutely, dramatically different" from the United States, he said. In America, teams have a wealthy owner and no questions are asked about finances.
"In Poland it's a year-by-year, sometimes a month-by-month thing," McCollow said. "The teams are not really money makers.
"Sponsors pay the bills and the teams go and play," he added. "They don't have the direction or overall commitment necessary for anybody to build a championship basketball team. There's very much a sense of let's build a champion in two days and if they don't work let's tear it down."
League President Zych agreed that money is the league's weakest point, but insists its financial situation is good.
"It's difficult to find a good sponsor that will pay $1 million-$2 million per season," Zych said. But in one or two years the league should be able to do that.
Sponsoring popularity
Over the past five to six years interest in basketball has taken off in Poland, he said. The transmission of NBA games on Polish television sparked interest in the sport.
Now 50 Polish league matches per season are televised, Schetyna said. From year to year, interest in the sport has increased 30-40%.
This growth is evident through an increase in television viewership and attendance of matches, he explained. For example, Wroclaw's 6,500 capacity gym is often full for games.
Basketball offers several advantages over other sports, according to Zych. Young fans like to watch the game; it's popular to view on television and the game is safe.
And the interest of young Poles has not been lost on sponsors. Chocolate maker Cadbury decided to sponsor Zepter Slask Wroclaw because basketball attracts the same young, active audience at which it is currently targeting Picnic candy bars, said Leszek Rogacki, marketing manager for Cadbury.
In return for its endorsement, Cadbury is able to advertise on four stadium billboards and players wear Picnic patches on uniforms, Rogacki said. He refused to disclose the amount that Cadbury pays for its sponsorship.
"Basketball is the second most popular sport in Poland," said Rafal Tyszkiewicz, sports promotion assistant for Adidas. "A few years ago a great interest among youngsters in basketball" began in Poland.
For supplying four teams with equipment, and paying an undisclosed amount for sponsorship, Adidas has its logo on team jerseys and stadium billboards. Adidas also releases team cards for signatures and uses team images on promotional materials.
But both the league and Polish companies need to further develop their marketing techniques to fully reap basketball's potential.
The league is really behind in sports marketing, said former Pruszkow coach McCollow. "I know that it's a poor country ... but lots of things could have been done that weren't," McCollow said. Unexploited possibilities include concession sales, half-time contests, and associations with sponsors.
Sports are one of the few areas in Poland where people notice the sponsor, said Frank Chipman, director of market research company Macro International. Sponsorship "gives them a good feeling about a company."
But sponsorship does not allow you to craft your message the way advertising does, Mangham said. "It would be unwise to rely on sponsorship alone, especially in an underdeveloped market like Poland," he added.
If you want to directly communicate a brand then just being a sponsor is not enough, he added.
In addition, companies also must carefully evaluate if their product fits a team endorsement, Chipman said. "Some companies are better suited to this activity than other companies," he added. "It's a trickier game."
Advertising executives argued that placing a value on sponsorship vs. television or print advertising is not an easy task. While a 30-second commercial on TVP1 during the weather, one of Poland's most highly viewed shows, costs zl. 95,000 ($27,142), companies cannot simply hold this price up to the cost of a sponsorship.
A sponsorship's value depends on what you receive in return - how many billboards, where your logo is placed, Mangham said.
Adidas has no exact barometer to measure the effect of its sponsorships on sales, Tyszkiewicz said. However, its market research has shown that "when people think of the best in sports, they think of Adidas" - a belief that he feels has developed through the company's various sponsorships.
Sponsoring soccer is about twice as expensive as basketball, he added. While Adidas does not sponsor the national soccer team, it does sponsor several local teams.
Buying the rights to broadcast soccer are also about twice as expensive as the rights to broadcasting basketball, said Jacek Okienczyc, deputy sports director for cable company Canal+ Polska.
While soccer may currently reign supreme, many see basketball edging into the spotlight and becoming the next area for sponsors. "For the right client, yes, it's definitely an up-and-coming sport," Mangham said, adding that the sport has a grip on children, including his 4-year-old son. "Sports that you play a lot as a child are sports you will watch more as an adult."
"Basketball is next in line," agreed Paul Turner, owner of the sports marketing company Turning Point. "There seems to be a very big interest in the NBA in Poland."