Cornhole is a sport best known from BBQs and tailgates for other sports. But now the American Cornhole League’s competitions are beginning to vie for space against more traditional events on ESPN.
With a technology platform that’s spurring grassroots participation, ESPN as a broadcast partner, and a digital streaming network to support original content, ACL commissioner Stacey Moore believes his sport could even one day reach the Olympics.
The ACL is newer of two groups that governs cornhole in the U.S.—the other is the American Cornhole Organization. More than 35,000 athletes have played in one of the ACL’s 105,000 events since the league’s inception. Moore expects the number of ACL-hosted events to double or triple by the end of 2019.
In 2017, the ACL inked a three-year deal with ESPN to air some of its tournament events—the ACL Pro Series and the ACL National College Cornhole Championship—on ESPN 2 for the 2018 to 2020 seasons. By Moore’s count, ESPN has been rebroadcast each show an average of six times across ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN 3, and ESPNews. The ACL had five different pro broadcasts and three college tournaments air on ESPN last year, meaning the league’s content has appeared on ESPN some 48 times.
In August 2019, ESPN will make cornhole a featured sport on The Ocho, a 24-hour fringe-sports takeover of ESPN 2 that touches everything from sumo wrestling to dodgeball and darts.
“We’ll have the only live broadcast on The Ocho that day,” Moore said. “We’re really excited about that.”
Reaction to league coverage hasn’t always been positive. When ESPN rebroadcast a months-old ACL tournament between soccer matches during the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup, Twitter erupted in outrage, according to NESN. Earlier this month, Barstool Sports poked fun at the league with a story highlighting what it called the most intimidating ACL pros. But Moore, who played cornhole during football tailgates at North Carolina State, laughs at the dissenting views. He’s happy people are talking about cornhole at all.
“It’s a pretty aggressive goal [the Olympics], but I’ve seen the reaction people have had to it, especially since we landed our deal with the ESPN,” he said. “As we’ve been able to improve the broadcast and analytics in our sport, I have a lot of confidence that we’ll be able to make this an Olympic sport.”
Recognition from celebrities has further fueled the ACL’s growth. Last summer, star softball pitcher—and Athens 2004 gold medalist—Jennie Finch faced off against ACL Pro Timmy Pitcher. (Finch lost). At the ESPN VIP Tailgate Party at the College Football Championship last year, ACL Pro Cody Henderson played and defeated retired NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens, former NFL running back Derrick Henry, Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end OJ Howard.
This is going down tomorrow… I’m pretty pumped! #Cornhole
https://t.co/2Gn9eLU4q0
— Jennie Finch (@JennieFinch) July 2, 2018
Moore is currently focused on building the technology infrastructure that will take the ACL into the future. The league already has its own web-based application to enable people to schedule and track events, score competitions, and evaluate basic statistics and rankings. To be considered official, all events must be scheduled through that platform. The ACL had iOS and Android apps initially, but scrapped both in exchange for the web app. Moore said that decision had a lot to do with the cost and effort that come with maintaining apps in the App Store and on Google Play.
Streaming capabilities and more recently, original content, are another pillar of the ACL’s growth. The league’s newest show, The Film Room, offers a technical breakdown of cornhole action. It is produced and hosted by ACL media director Trey Ryder, who oversees the ACL Digital Network and the ACL’s social media accounts. Another show, ACL Throw Down, launched last year as a Sportscenter-like overview of matches, including player interviews.
“Those two concepts cover the most important elements: a recap and general view of results. The Film Room is equivalent to NFL Live, where we’re breaking down and analyzing a specific match to give people greater insight into our sport,” said Moore.
All shows are pushed across social video platforms, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. Some of the ACL’s largest Facebook live streams have neared one million views.
Moore said a near-term goal is to improve the production quality of both shows and to add new interactive features and statistics to get fans more deeply entrenched in the league’s content. The ACL plans to roll out “new granular statistical analysis,” he said, covering metrics such as hole, score, and round-by-round averages so that teams can better understand and improve upon their play.
After that, he hopes to implement digital tracing technology—akin to the Toptracer ball-tracking technology used to track golf balls in flight—to make the bags easier for fans to follow during live streams and broadcasts. Moore eventually wants to be able to tell stories about the different arc angles, trajectories, throw speeds, and release points athletes use.
“The next level is to start databasing and analyzing that information,” Moore said. “Our goal is to roll out some new, cool features each season to continue to improve the experience for our players and fans.”
Over time, Moore believes that the ACL can improve its production quality enough where it can win original content slots on platforms such as ESPN+ and Amazon. “We’re developing a lot of digital content right now and it’s only going to increase,” he said.