Mark Cowan married his kids’ passion and talent for basketball with a marketer’s dream – and he’s now proud part-owner of an NBL team. Lia Timson reports.
If your children are mad about basketball and you are a marketing professional with money to burn, what do you do? You buy a basketball team, of course.
But not any team. One that needs rebranding and reinventing – a challenge that is second nature to Mark Cowan.
Since starting work as a trolley pusher at Safeway in the mid-’80s, the investor now in charge of the Melbourne South Dragons has come a long way.
In 20 years, he became a grocery buyer for the supermarket chain, dropped out of university – he was going to be a chiropractor – toyed with the idea of a pizza franchise, owned a couple of small ad agencies, opened a construction business and bought a furniture store.
In the past 18 years, he also built up Cowan, previously a graphic design company and now an ideas group with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Ho Chi Minh, Shanghai and Auckland.
Cowan Design is responsible for the branding of Nestlé’s
Heaven ice cream as well as packaging for Arnott’s Tim Tam, Toohey’s Maxim and, most rec-ently, Coke Zero.
His ply to buy the South Dragons in partnership with Visy Industries chairman Raphael Geminder began four years
ago, when the team was but a collection of former Melbourne teams with one sole National Basketball League (NBL) franchise licence.
“The NBL didn’t accept me and my partner into the competition. That was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me more time to get the [Cowan] business settled,” he says.
They were finally able to take over the former Victorian Giants/ Titans licence in December 2005, for a reported $1 million.
The team amalgamated the former North Melbourne Giants, South East Melbourne Magic and South East Melbourne Saints, among others. The new South Dragons became Melbourne’s official second team along with the Tigers, and the last of 12 clubs allowed into the NBL.
“Because of lack of marketing and lack of success, [they] were disenfranchised.
“I thought it would be a great thing to own a team, especially
if you approach it as a marketer. You could make a difference . . . to provide the public with some-thing to connect with.”
Cowan developed a passion for basketball after spending 10 years courtside watching his two children, Nathan and Ryan, play.
Having the team allows him to continue that connection with the boys in their teen years.
“When your kids play basketball, as with any sport, it’s a huge time commitment. I found myself at basketball stadiums morning and night, before and after school.
“The most enjoyable part of my week was watching them play. With sport you see them develop and they let you into their world. [Now I] have great conversations with them, rather than the grunts you normally get.”
Cowan owns 51% of the new South Dragons, with Geminder owning the remainder. This, Cowan says, ensures he has a
final say in matters that affect the brand.
“We have a small board [of two], it’s really easy to make decisions.”
Since December, the team has been busy re-engineering itself.
It has taken a long-term lease of the 10,000-seat Vodafone Arena, brought former Sydney Kings’ Shane Heal out of retirement as captain and managed an international coup by attracting former All Star shooter Mark Price as 2006/07 coach.
In an audio interview streamed on the Dragons’ website, Price says he’s extremely excited about his first coaching job, moving
his family to Australia and “trying to get the South Dragons off on the right foot”.
Cowan says he secured Price’s allegiance by making an offer he couldn’t resist.
“It’s like packaging design: you have to understand what motivates someone [to buy] and you pitch it to him,” he says.
Cowan estimates it will take approximately $3 million a year to run the team but, ever the optimist, he hopes to break even in two.
“We’re in the business of entertainment. What we are doing is create a sporting brand. It’s about filling the arena. If it feels right, you get the atmosphere. It’s an experience.”
While there is some degree of competition with other sports, the greatest challenge in making basketball attractive to spectators is the competition for young people’s leisure time.
“Australians love sport. They will pig out on sport if we provide good sport, [but] we’re competing against Xbox and the movies,”
he says.
Cowan’s basketball antics have recently extended to his local court as well. He’s been playing with his sons’ social team (aptly named the Baby Dragons) since the day he was driving them to a game and one of the players didn’t show up.
“They said: ‘Oh, Dad, can you play?’ I now have my L plates firmly on,” he laughs, adding that Nathan, 17, and Ryan, 16, are very skilled. They play representative basketball for the Waverley Falcons and the Sandringham Sabres respectively.
“I don’t have to do anything and we’ll win,” he adds.
But he says he won’t be asking Mark Price to include the boys in the squad. He hopes they may one day study in the US on a basketball scholarship, before returning to prove themselves.
“If it ended up happening . . . and they deserved it, I’d be really happy.”
FANCY A GO?
YOU NEED
You’ll need an investor’s bank balance to buy a team, but not to have fun:
• join a local social team from $60 a year and play once a week in a local competition
• train with friends at a local park for free
• invest in good running shoes, from $100
• watch the South Dragons all season for $249 club membership
VISIT
• basketball.net.au
• nswbasketball.net.au/bnsw_links.htm
READ
• The Basketball Handbook, by Lee Rose, Human Kinetic Publishers, $34.95
• handle Magazine
Got a life outside work?
Let us know. Email details to: ltimson@bigpond.net.au
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