Besides the Olympics, swimming gets very little attention in between the Games. Consequently, top professional swimmers make very little compared to athletes in the NBA and NFL as they rely on winning Olympic medals and elusive sponsorships to support themselves financially. The recently established International Swim League hopes to eliminate these problems by providing financial stability and a global audience for the athletes through ensured fair revenue distribution and sponsors, all in a media friendly format. Although the ISL awarded $2,580,400 to its 256 athletes over the inaugural 3-month season, there are still ways for the league to improve and reach the high potential that it has. Here are some of my suggestions for how the ISL can improve in the future.
Improved Advertising
If you google “ISL”, the first results that pop up are the “Indian Super League”, a soccer league in India, “Introduction to Statistical Learning”, and English ESL worksheets. The advertising for the ISL has been terrible, but we can cut them some slack because the league is still in its infancy (at least they show up in the search results). Next season, the league can start by placing more advertisements on various social media platforms and sports channels, places where prospective viewers are common. According to a survey by YouGov, swimming ranks 12th in the most boring sports with 43% of its audience finding it unexciting. However, it ranks first in the “neither boring nor exciting” category, making up 29% of the viewers’ attitudes. With many viewers on the fence, a focus on better advertising has the potential to increase viewership and revenue significantly. The ISL can also add more teams to broaden the league’s appeal in other countries, and it’s already off to a good start with plans for franchises in Tokyo and Toronto in the next season.
Distance Events
The ISL’s format is different from the traditional swim meet format. There is an emphasis on sprint and relay events to maximize excitement and intensity. Logically, this makes sense because the most popular swim events are undoubtedly the shorter sprint events because there is nothing more thrilling than a neck-and-neck race that comes down to the last millisecond;however, there are also viewers who genuinely enjoy watching these “boring” events because of the surprising amount of strategy that goes into each race. Distance swimming is similar to cycling, which attracts billions of viewers worldwide and requires strategy when teams coordinate drafting, potentially saving 15-40% in energy. My point is that not every spectator despises slow-paced sports. Some enjoy watching teams use bold strategies to pull a surprising upset. The ISL should not be so quick to remove these events because they are an integral part of swimming. By removing these events, the ISL will be unable to showcase famous mid-distance and distance swimmers, who can increase viewership dramatically, like Katie Ledecky therefore limiting the league’s potential. To put this into basketball terms, take LeBron James for example. Before LeBron joined the Los Angeles Lakers, the average ticket price was $128, which then skyrocketed a whopping 63% to an average of $209 after LeBron’s arrival. ISL ticket prices will not increase as dramatically as they did in LA , but by adding more star-studded lineups, the ISL should be able to increase their viewership and revenue, which is important for such a young league.
Longer Seasons
Next season the ISL plans to have a longer season, and I wholeheartedly support this change. The ISL’s 6 meet season was very short and inconsistent, with a 20-day gap between the some meets such as the Budapest and Maryland meets. By having meets every weekend or on a fixed schedule like the NFL and NBA, fans will have a greater and maintained interest. The short schedule also allowed teams to constantly rely on their stars, which created competitive imbalance in the league. Longer seasons can help fix this issue because it will allow teams with more depth to be more competitive, which will ultimately balance the league out.
A Draft
One of the most exciting and profitable parts of other sports leagues is the draft. The record-breaking 2019 NFL Draft had an economic impact (the effect on the area/city’s economy, usually measured by business revenue, profits, jobs, etc.) of $224 million for the host city of Nashville, which was a 79% increase from the 2018 NFL Draft. It’s true that the ISL is nowhere near the NFL in terms of size, popularity, and revenue, but with the rising popularity of the draft event and its potential economic benefits, an addition of a draft to the ISL would help the league reach a wider audience and earn more revenue. A draft would also increase anticipation for the following season and interest for college prospects.
Bios for New Faces
The swim world has always been dominated by few names like Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, etc. but the ISL changes that. The ISL increases the importance of lesser-known swimmers because of its innovative, team-based point system, which shifts the focus of swimming to points instead of medals. Traditional swimming is reliant on star power because only the top-3 finishers matter; however, the ISL’s scoring format adds point-values for 4th-8th place, which allows teams with more depth to also compete and makes every swimmer a valuable part of their team. Because of this, it is important to include athlete bios on TV and other forms of media as this will make swimmers more recognizable to viewers, which potentially will increase and maintain interest in the league.
Home Aquatic Centers and Uniforms
Having home pools or aquatic centers like home stadiums/courts for football and basketball is very unlikely at such an early stage, however in the future, home meets would be a nice addition as it would highlight the team aspect that the league is centered around. Swimming is commonly categorized as an individual sport because athletes swim their own race and try to achieve a personal best time, but the appeal of the ISL that sets it apart from traditional swimming is its emphasis on points, which transforms swimming into a team sport. Home pools/aquatic centers fit perfectly with the focus of the ISL and will certainly increase the excitement along with the team spirit that comes with a home crowd. Another nice addition would be for each team to have their own “home” and “away” suits, like in other professional sports. As of now, the ISL swimmers wear very similar suits and the only way to distinguish them is by their bland swim caps. To make things worse, it certainly doesn’t help when almost half of the 8 teams in the league share blue as one of their primary team colors and another quarter share black as a primary team color. The ISL should find a way to diversify team colors, which will really put an emphasis on the team-based appeal that is the major selling point of the league. Flashy, eye-catching team uniforms will enhance the ISL’s appeal as a revolutionary, team-based swim league.
Final Thoughts
I initially did not have high hopes for the ISL because the idea of swimming at this scale was unprecedented and unpredictable. Shockingly, its first season exceeded my expectations,however, there are still many areas of improvement. I believe that the potential for the league remains high but potential without action is still just potential. The ISL has my full support as it is transforming the world of swimming for the better, but the league will only grow in popularity if the right decisions are made.
Sources used include YouGov, Swimming World Magazine, and ISL