World Sports Today

The Meaning of Adam Scott's Winning for Uniqlo

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:46:00 +0000

As you know, sports jersey is one of the great mediums for advertising company name and logo. Also it is a big income for sports teams. Therefore, many sports teams are selling advertising spaces on their jerseys and racing cars. If you are interested in how much sponsors spend to put their logos on sports jerseys, please check this previous post.

However, not only putting ads on sports jerseys, but also being the manufacture of the jersey is a great opportunity for exposing the brand.

On weekend, an Australian golfer, Adam Scott won the 2013 Masters Golf Tournament. He played sudden-death with Angel Cabrera. Some of you might be excited to watch this match.

Adam Scot (Forbes.com)

Anyway, how many people noticed that Adam Scott was wearing a Japanese brand cloth? Last week, a Japanese clothing company, Uniqlo just made a multi-year contract with Adam Scott. As Forbes said, this Scott’s winning will draw more public attention to Uniqlo.

Uniqlo brand is a part of the Japan based company, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. It can be said that Uniqlo is in the same category with H&M and Zara. Uniqlo aims at growing their market globally, and 292 stores out of 1,137 stores are located outside Japan (by the end of Aug, 2012). However, most of them are located in Asia. Only 12 stores in Europe and 3 stores in US. The annual sales in 2012 was $9 billion.

On the other hand, a giant clothing retailer, H&M made $22 billion in sale with 2,776 stores. Uniqlo is far behind H&M by the number of both stores and annual sales.

Novac Djakovic (Forbes.com)

In order to grow Uniqlo as the global brand, they have put a lot of money and effort into supporting famous athletes. Last May, Uniqlo made a 5-year contract with a top-ranked tennis player Novak Djakovic. According to Forbes, Djakovic made $9.5 millon from endorsement. It is easy to guess that Uniqlo has spent a lot of money to him.

And now, new Masters champion, Adam Scott is on their list. We do not know how much Uniqlo have spent for supporting them. But, it is obvious that these two guys will expose the brand worldwide. And it is also shown that Uniqlo has potential power to compete with H&M and other brands by supporting these top-ranked players.

It is interesting if Uniqlo make jersey for professional soccer team, isn’t it?

Basketball in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:07:00 +0000

Last week, I read an article on an online Japanese newspaper that titled “6 Works Teams Will Not Join the New Basketball League”. This article disappointed me because I had strongly believed that we would have a new basketball league in order to encourage the basketball industry in Japan.

As discussed on the previous blog post, two professional basketball leagues exist in Japan. One league is named Japan Basketball League (JBL) that is formed by 8 works teams. Another league is Basketball Japan League (bj League) that includes 19 teams. Usually, each country has one top league, but Japan has two top leagues. As the result, there are a lot of arguments that this strange situation in Japan has made obstacles to develop basketball in Japan.

In 2009, the president of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), Bob Elphinston, requested to the Japan Basketball Association (JBA) to merge these two leagues in order to resolve this complicated situation and develop the national basketball team of Japan. Since then, the JBA has worked on establishing a new basketball league that involves both the JBL and the bj League. The leaders from the both leagues were involved as the board of the new league in order to find out mutual benefits for each other. This new basketball league is expected to start in August 2012. However, 6 out of 8 works teams from the JBL suspended to join the new league.

Why the JBL do not want to join the new league? Reasons are strongly connected with the origins of both leagues.

The forerunner of the JBL was formed in 1967. Since then, this league had been considered as the top league by the JBA, but players were still considered as amateur because the league was formed by works teams. After a professional soccer league was formed in 1997, the JBA started to consider changing the league to a professional league. However, most of works teams declined to change their teams to professional teams did not want to take the risk of failure and the financial risk. Therefore, the JBL decided to keep running the league as amateur for a while.

On the other hand, two teams from the JBL desired to form a professional basketball league. When the JBL decided not to form a professional league, these two teams left the JBL as well as the JBA and tried to form a professional league by themselves. They recruited new teams in order to establish a new professional league, and they formed the bj League in 2005. The bj League was the first professional basketball league in Japan, but this league had not been authorized by the JBA because the original teams of the bj league had already left the JBA. It meant that the players in the bj League could not play for the national team. Because of the origins of two leagues, the JBL still look down on the bj League even though both leagues are looking for any solution to make a new league.

There are other problems that should be solved in order to make a new league.

· Differences on the rules and regulations

· The JBL players are paid double than the bj League players in average

· Corporation vs. Club teams

· Etc.

It is often said that basketball is the most played sport in Japan. On the other hand, it is still small business as the sports industry. The average ticket sales of a bj League game are 2,500. If the JBA can form a new basketball that involves both the JBL and the bj League, they can grow market of the new league because they will have both market of the bj League and the JBL.

April 27^th is the deadline to apply to join the new league for the basketball teams. We will see what is going to happen on the future of basketball in Japan.

What We Can See from the MLB's Opening Games in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:31:00 +0000

Photo From: Nikkei.com

Prior to the regular season of the Major League Baseball (MLB) starts in the United States tonight, the opening games of the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners were taken place in Japan on March 28^th and 29^th (in Japan Time). A lot of Japanese baseball fans enjoyed watching the playing of Ichiro Suzuki, the most popular Japanese MLB player.

This event was not the charity event, but it had a lot of meanings for Japan. The MLB payers visited Ishinomaki, a stricken area of the earthquake and the Tsunami last year, in order to have a baseball clinic to local children. Also, the MLB donated $500,000 to Ishinomaki for rebuilding the baseball park there. The victims of the disaster want to rebuild the baseball park instead of building temporary houses because they need a place to communicate each other.

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Video from: MLB.com

On the business side, this event made a huge success for the MLB. They sold out the tickets of these games. Many tickets were sold for more than $200, and extra seats were built. It showed that the MLB already has a big market in Japan. Since Hideo Nomo’s debut with the Los Angels Dodgers in 1995, more Japanese baseball players have played in the MLB or some minor leagues’ teams. In this season 15 Japanese baseball players play on the MLB.

Along with the increasing the number of Japanese MLB players, more Japanese people became to watch the MLB games, and now you can see billboards that are written in Japanese in some ballparks in the United States.

Currently, all of 4 major sports leagues in the United States, MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL, have a lot of foreign players. Therefore, expanding markets globally would make great sense to raise their revenue streams.

NBA

The NBA was the first league of the 4 major sports league that exported their games abroad. In 1990, their games were played in Japan.
As discussed on the previous post, the NBA focuses on the Chinese market now, and they hosted the NBA’s China tour in 2007.
The NBA is the most global league among the 4 major sports in the United States.

MLB

In 2000, they operated their first games in abroad in Japan. Since then, the MLB have played in Japan in every 4 year.
Players are from 44 different countries.

NHL

More than 20% of viewers of NHL.com come from outside of the Northern American countries.
Recently, they made TV deals abroad for 5 years with $50 million in Europe.

NFL

They owned a league in Europe, the NFL Europe, until 2006.
The NFL will host at least one game per year in London until 2016.

As the success of the MLB in Japan, other leagues also have their own strategies to expand their market globally. However, I want them to educate the sports leagues in different countries as well as raising their international revenue. If they only expand their leagues in different countries, the number of people who watch the domestic sports leagues will decrease because American sports leagues are more attractive than the local leagues in most of cases. Therefore, I hope them to share the business models to grow their market together in different countries in order to develop the whole sports league industry.

Angel Investors for the Sports Industry vol.2

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:56:00 +0000

As discussed on the previous blog post, Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca can be the investors for a venture company in the sports industry. Both of them have been angel investors and helped new businesses. Mark Cuban owns an NBA team, Dallas Mavericks. Chris Sacca is helping younger ages by supporting Tony Hawk Foundation.

On my master’s degree program, I have developed a business plan that is a travel agency specialized in voluntourism for Japanese young ages. Participants of tours will visit local schools in Asian countries and teach sports to local children in order to help educational developments by sports education.

Photo From Forbes

Those 2 experts can be investors of my start-up business to help start-up costs. Moreover, Chris can consult the web technologies on my business because he has expertise in consulting web and mobile technologies. My business is more focused on online sales. Therefore, his expertise can be helpful for my business.

When Mark and Chris get a new business plan, they pay attention to different points. Mark wants to know if this business is well designed enough to make profit. Therefore, as he mentioned, the first paragraph of the business plan is important to catch his attention to the whole business plan. I have changed the first paragraph of my business plan to clarify my business, the unique points of my business, and the structures of making profit.

Photo From Lowercase Capital

On the other hand, Chris is looking for if the entrepreneur identifies the target and knows what problem he is solving. He wants to know more about the entrepreneur than if the business can make money. Therefore, I have edited the mission statement on my business plan into clarify why I want to start this business.

As I mentioned earlier, the first paragraph of the business plan is important to Mark Cuban, and the mission statement is more important to Chris Sacca in order to pitch my business plan to them. Both of parts on the business plan can be said as the core of the business. Especially, the first paragraph is the key to attract readers. Therefore, if I can make a good opening paragraph that can clarify the business in a short message, I can pitch my business plan to investors more easily.

Angel Investors for the Sports Industry vol.1

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:51:00 +0000

If you are planning to start up a new business in the sports industry, pitching angel investors is a great option to kick-start your business. Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca can be considered as great angel investors for the sports industry.

Why are they appropriate angel investors for the sports industry?

Mark Cuban

Photo from Forbes

Mark Cuban is the owner of an NBA team: Dallas Mavericks as well as the founder of Broadcast.com, HDNet, and some other companies. Additionally, he has been an angel investor, and he had invested for Goowy, Boxnet.com, etc. Therefore, he is actually working in the sports industry, and he has knowledge and experiences in the sports industry.

Photo from Lowercase Capital

Chris Sacca

On the other hand, Chris Sacca does not own any sports team, but he is helping Tony Hawk Foundation to help younger ages’ development through skateboarding. Therefore, he is not alien to the sports industry. He used to be Head of Special Initiatives at Google, Inc. And then, He established an investment firm, Lowercase Capital. Their significant investment is Twitter, Inc. Chris has consulted business plans about web and mobile technologies by himself as well as consulted other fields’ business plan through Lowercase Capital.

What do they want to hear from your pitch?

Mark Cuban

What the unique points of the product
How it can make profit.
Whether the product is in his area

He mentioned that the first paragraph of the business plan is important because if the business plan does not have these three components, he will not read rest of the plan. He also mentioned that he does not want to hear about personal information because it does not relate to the business plan. He wants to know more about products if he can make more money from them.

Chris Sacca

Your target
What problem you are solving

These two key components are listed on the Lowercase Capital’s website. He explains why these elements are important to decide investing a company in an interview. Chris wants to know if he can help the venture business. Different from Cuban, he wants to know more personal information. He likes to work with people whom he likes or he is interested in.

Foundation 07 // Chris Sacca from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.

Cuban and Sacca have different point of views on of the entrepreneurs. Cuban focuses more on money, but Sacca wants to invest whom he likes. However, the most important elements of pitching a business plan to them are clarifying what you want to do, and how both of angel investors can help you. Therefore, If you are planning to pitch angel investors for sports industry, you have to make a business plan that is simple but clear enough about your intentions.

"Lin-Sanity" Can Change the World

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:46:00 +0000

Video from YouTube

Since the emergence of “Lin-Sanity” on February 4, the New York Knicks has not lost any game. Now, the winning streak of the New York Knick is 7. Along with his incredible performance, the “Lin-Sanity” brand has skyrocketed all over the world in these 10 days.

The number of his Twitter account followers has increased from 60,000 to over 345,000. More than 800,000 people follow him on Weibo, a Chinese Microblogging website, including 200,000 new followers in the 24 hours after the game with the Lakers. His name was mentioned more than 140,000 times in 7 days after he beat the Nets.

Moreover, he impacts on the economy. He has boosted the ticket prices; merchandise sales, and the Madison Square Garden’s stock price.

Why is “Lin-Sanity” rising to stardom so fast?

1. He plays basketball well

Jeremy Lin had scored 136 points in five games since he started to play as the starting guard. This is the highest points since the NBA and the ABA merged in 1976. In addition, he is the first NBA player who has kept scoring more than 20 points and more than 7 assists in 7 games in a row since playing as the starting player.

As the result, he was named as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week of February 6 to 12.

2. He was the underdog

American people like the story of underdog becoming a champion.

Lin Joined the Golden State Warriors in 2010, but he had fewer opportunities to play in the last season. Unfortunately, Lin was dismissed by two teams, the Warriors and the Huston Rockets, before this season started.

He joined the Knicks, and finally he got a chance to show his skills because the team had troubles with injuries.

3. Asian-American

Lin overturned the image of “Asian can’t drive” as the first Asian-American NBA player. Therefore, Asian people are proud of him and looking forward to his success in the NBA.

As discussed before, Chine is one of the biggest markets for basketball. The stardom of “Lin-Sanity” has helped increased the page viewer of NBA.com/China by 43% from the last year.

The future of “Lin-Sanity”

He would be one of the NBA’s top-earners if he can keep the performance because he had already made great impacted on the economy in 10 days. Forbes.com said his salary could be $5 million in the next year. Also, he could earn another $10 to 20 million in endorsements.

He would also generate $25 to 50 million to the Knicks and $40 to 80 million to the league in the next season by the global interest in “Lin-Sanity”.

“Lin-Sanity” can change the world.

What do you think about “Lin-Sanity”?

Do you follow this trend?

Economic Impacts of 2012 London Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:35:00 +0000

Image from Wikipedia

Forbes.com listed the 2012 London Olympics as one of the 10 sports business stories to watch in 2012.

The cost projection of the London Olympics had been grown from $3.6 billion in 2005 to $14.4 billion in 2007. Forbes.com expects the total cost of the London Olympics would be between $15 to 18 billion. This number is the second most expensive Olympics below the 2010 Beijing Olympics with the cost of $40 billion.

As discussed before, hosting the Olympics can bring positive economic impacts to the hosting country and the city even it costs a great amount of money.

Video from cnn.com

Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organizing Committee (LOCOG), stated on the CNN’s interview that the London Olympics actually encourages the UK’s economy. 30,000 people have been employed for the project. Also, 98% of facilities have been built by British companies and generated £6 billion (= $9.5 billon) value.

He stated that most of the economic benefits of the London Olympics 2012 would affect the London’s economy. However, whole UK’s economy will get some sort of benefits from the London Olympics because British companies have contributed to the project most of parts.

The Telegraph stated that the London Olympics has already sold £300 million (= $470 million) on the ticket sale. This ticket revenue guarantees to grow the economy by 0.1%. It is also expected that £700 million (= $1.1 billion) will be spent by overseas visitors during the Olympic Games.

On the other hand, some articles stated there are some negative economic impacts by hosting the Olympics.

The same article from the Telegraph said the Olympics has damaged some traditional tourism industries. Public transportations will be overcrowded during the Olympic Games, and it will disrupt local businesses. Actually, the number of booking theaters is reduced.

Interestingly, less than half of businesses in UK think that the Olympics can boost the UK’s economy, the other article of the Telegraph reported. 53% of businesses in the South of England, including London, believe the London Olympics will be beneficial for their businesses. On the other hand, only 22% of them in Scotland believe it. Even people in UK think that the Olympics are profitable for only London.

There are some positive facts as well as negative facts about the 2012 London Olympic will boost or bust the UK’s economy.

Do you think the Olympics is profitable for the UK’s economy?

Please leave your opinion about it.

3D Technology in Sports

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:13:00 +0000

3D technology is a new technology for the sports industry. The world’s first live broadcasted sports game in 3D was come out in February 2010 in UK. In the US, a New York Rangers hockey game was the first live sports game that was broadcasted in 3D in March 2010. Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, mentioned “sports programming has been a key component for driving the success of virtually every new media technology over the past 90 years, from analog radio to broadcast television to cable, satellite, broadband and wireless”. However, there are a lot of issues that have to be overcome by the media industry.

First issue is that how many 3D TVs are sold. In 2010, only 1.1 units of 3D TV were sold in the US. This number was the half of the expectation. Therefore, most of consumers are still buying 2D TVs. The price of 3D TV might be one of the reasons that people are not buying 3D TVs. To buy a 3D TV, consumer has to spend $500 to $700 more than 2D TV. In this bad moment for the economy, it is difficult to effort to pay extra $500 to get a new technology.

Another issue is the 3D technology itself. This technology is still under developing. When people watch 3DTV, they are required to wear 3D glasses to enjoy 3D programs. So, they have to keep their face toward the TV screen. However, most of sports fans enjoy sports program with talking, moving their bodies, eating, and drinking. They feel 3D glasses are kind of obstacle to enjoy watching sports on TV. There are other technical issues. For example, to provide exciting 3D visions, the cameras have to be close to the field. However, those places are places for seating. So, it is difficult to steal those seats for the 3D cameras.

ESPN stated interesting reports that satisfaction of watching sports on 3D TV is only 5% more than 2D TV. So, it seems there is no benefit to see sports in 3D. On the other hand, the director of Avatar, James Cameron also said “2D to 3D could be like the move from black-and-white to color”. But he also stated that it takes five year to get popularity of 3D TVs. This year is the third year for 3D broadcasting for sports, and London Olympics will be broadcasted in 3D in this summer. Big sports events are great opportunities to sell new TVs with the cutting edge technologies. So, this Olympic Games can be the turning point of the 3D technology in sports.

Media Technology and Sports

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:40:00 +0000

Everyone might agree that the best way to enjoy watching sports is going to stadiums and watching games. It is difficult to share the atmosphere and feeling at the stadium through TV or radio. However, the advance of technology has changed ways of sharing games and information. Therefore, the sports industry utilizes new technologies to maintain their fans and get new fans.

Wireless and handheld digital cameras let people to see amazing views of sports. Senior coordinating producer of ESPN’s X Games and Winter X Games, Phil Orlins mentioned that these cameras are arrowed to get closer to the athletes and to take shoots the actions that viewers can feel they are at the stadium. Some of those videos cannot be seen by people even they are at the stadium because cameras are so close to the athletes. Extreme sports uses those cameras a lot to share the incredible actions, and distributes through YouTube to get more fans. Many companies create YouTube channels and share highlights and interviews of athletes. Teens and twenty somethings are the main viewer of those videos. These generations are the main audience of action sports and they are the generation of the Internet. So, this strategy of using YouTube is a great way to maintain their fans.

Mobile devices and social media are also a great technologies to keep attract sports fans. 94 Fifty utilize information technologies. Its system can capture 6,000 pieces of information a second and provide information to the audience in another second. So, fans can access to real time information through their mobile devices everywhere. Also, fans exchange information about their favorite sports through social media. The great example of utilizing social network is that the NFL Super Bowl will set up a social media command center. The team of this center will monitor the digital conversation, and provide helpful information about the stadium and the area through Twitter and Facebook. This media center will help to improve relationship between audiences and citizens.

Watching sports at the stadium is still the best way of enjoying the sports. However, technologies help to fans to come to the stadium by providing amazing videos, real time information, and communicating with fans. I am looking for future technologies that change the way of communication between sports games and fans.

Sports Disputes

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:03:00 +0000

To understand what kinds of legal issues would be happened in the sports industry, I watched two podcasts related to sports law. The first podcast is “The Future of Sports Dispute Resolution” provided by Pepperdine University, and another one is “Sports in Courts” provided by North Carolina State University. Both podcasts discussed about the potential disputes in the sports industry with some actual cases.

“The Future of Sports Dispute Resolution” discussed about disputes of the Olympic Games. According to the podcast, there are 4 different categories of issues would be raised; qualification issue, nationality issue, issue on the field of play, and doping dispute. For example, qualification issues would be happen before the Olympic Games. These issues are dealing with team selection. The Spain’s hockey team won the competition, and had been qualified to play at the Olympic Games once. However, after two players was founded the use of illegal doping, the team became disqualified to play at the Olympic Games because the number of players who are not allowed to use illegal doping exceeded the limit. The players filed the arbitration to prove that they are qualified to play at the Olympic Games. However their claim was thrown out.

In the “Sports in Courts” podcast, they expanded sports issues including the cases that are related to civil rights and the safety of the sports gear. Nike, Inc. was sued for infringing on civil rights of their employees in Malaysia. The plaintiff claimed that Nike was forcing their local employees at the factory in Malaysia to work for a long time shifting with very few wages. The plaintiff also mentioned that with that salary, the employees were able to use only $1.25 per day. $1.25 a day was not enough amount of money to live as a human in modern society in Malaysia.

As listed by the Future of Sports Dispute Resolution, we tend to think that legal issues in the sports industry come from the regulation of playing sports, the structure of the contest and the process of how to choose the right athletes or staffs to be qualified. However, we have to be careful with if we are infringing on other rights, such as civil rights, at the same time when we are operating the sports industry. In my business plan, I would hire some local staff in developing countries. Therefore, I have to research the average wage of the industry in those counties to avoid the similar issue with the Nike case. As well as, it would be better to research about other civil rights and human rights in those countries to prevent other potential issues.

Court Cases Involving Sports Volunteering

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:18:00 +0000

Since my business plan is providing package tours including sports volunteering in developing countries, I was looking for some court cases related with coaching sports, travel abroad, and volunteer tourism to protect my business from lawsuit. I found three articles that can help to develop my business plan.

The first article from TIME.com was related with adventure tourism. Volunteer tourism is a sort of adventure tourism. This article was about a man was killed by a shark when he was participating shark watching. This article didn’t show any court case, but it discussed controversial points about participating high-risk activities. First point was whether the participant knew the risk or not. The second point was whether or not the tour operator spelled out the risk on the contract. The third point was the location. Depending on these points, federal or state law will apply the case. On the last part, this article suggested that participant should not think the tour operator provide the same safety standard in foreign countries with the US to protect them selves from danger.

The second article was named “the volunteer sports coach”, and showed some court cases related with coaching sports and the duty of sports coach. In Jarreau v. Orleans Parish School Board, 600 So. 2d 1389 (La. App. 1992), the court stated coaches should not expect to diagnose the extent of the player’s injury. And, in Halper v. Vayo, 568 N.E.2d 914 (Ill. App. Ct. 1991), the court stated a coach has a liability for moving a player who had sustained a serious player. These statements were about what coaches should or should not do when players injured. In Niemczyk v. Burleson, 538 S.W.2d 737 (Mo. Ct. App. 1976), the court listed material factors as a negligence standard. There is some statutory immunity for volunteer coaches, but the article said the important thing was we should not forget we volunteer for children, not for ourselves. If we tried to get self-satisfaction, it would be easily to see ourselves as defendants in a lawsuit.

The last article was about studying abroad. According to the article, the number of students who study abroad has been increasing. Also, the number of students who were involved crimes in foreign countries has been increasing. However, there is no federal standard of liability that would hold colleges accountable when the unthinkable occurs.

In my business plan, my target market is collage student. They are participant of my package tour to abroad, but at the same time, they are volunteer coaches to coach sports to children in foreign countries. There is no high-risk activity in my service, but it is better to provide the same quality of safety standard in foreign countries to protect my business from being sued. Also I want to teach what the participants should act as sports coaches prior to the tour. Finally, I want to express how I can protect the student from crime and what we liable for.

Collage Sports

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:22:00 +0000

In Japan, we don’t have any popular collage sports event like the NCAA basketball tournament in the United States. We have a popular high school baseball tournament because baseball was almost the only sports to watch long tome ago. These days, Japanese people watch and play more different sports, such as soccer and basketball, but there are no professional or amateur sporting event, which has nation-wide popularity besides international match of the Japanese soccer team. So, I became to dream to develop collage sports events as a business in Japan like the NCAA basketball tournament in order to enhance more people to get interested in sports, develop more young talented players, and encourage local economy. Therefore, I was looking for the pros and cons about the NCAA basketball tournament and found some interesting articles.

According to the Pop History Gig, the organizers of the 2009 “final four” championship NCAA basketball games estimated the event could generate somewhere between $30 million dollars and $40 million dollar to the host city, Detroit. In fact this event brought a lot of NCAA fans to Detroit with 72,000 people in the first 2 days. So, nation-wide popular sports event can encourage the local business by visitors from other places.

The NCAA basketball tournament is in the second position in terms of ad sales for sporting event in the US. CBS got $613.8 million in ad sales from the tournament in 2010. Only the NFL playoff could make more ad sales revenue than the NCAA basketball tournament with $793.8 million dollars, but the NBA and the MLB were more than $200 million below. The cost for 30 seconds commercial during the last 2 rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament was $1.2 million; on the other hand it was $400,000 for the World Series. Smart Money explained this difference comes from the system of the games between the NCAA basketball tournament and the World Series. Since the World Series is head-to-head style, the number of audiences and ticket sales depend on the size of fan base. However, the NCAA basket tournament are gathering teams from all over the nation, so this event has always national appeal. Also, I think there is another reason that the NCAA tournament is more popular than the World Series. It is that in the NCAA tournament, each game is concluded in one game instead MLB plays more than 4 games to come to a conclusion. So, each game of the NCAA tournament is more exciting.

John Calipari earns $4 million a year

On the other side, there are several negative sides of the NCAA basketball tournament. First of all, only little school’s sports programs in the black. Most of sports programs are loosing money because the cost of maintaining a team in a good shape costs a lot. Also, the salary of a head coach is the issue for maintaining a team. Some coaches get more than 5% of the team’s annual revenue even though the head coach of Los Angels Lakers, Phil Jackson gets only less than 2% of the team’s revenue. As the article from Forbes said, head coaches are representing teams, but they get too much portion of the revenue with less working hours than head coaches of the NBA teams.

The NCAA basketball tournament generates big money. However, because of the popularity, the cost of running a team is increasing every season. If I want to bring the business model of the NCAA basketball tournament to Japan, I have to modify the negative part of it. A lot of collages in Japan have economic difficulties. So, it is better to create a good distributing system of the revenue like the NFL does. I will keep researching about the NCAA basketball tournament as well as the trends of the Japanese sports industry to come up with good ways to develop collage sports in Japan.

David Falk: A Sports Agent

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:19:00 +0000

David Falk

David Falk is a sports agent who mostly works with the NBA players. He has worked with more than 100 NBA players including famous players, such as Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson. His significant career was representing Michael Jordan for his entire career. In 1990’s, he was considered the second-most powerful person in the NBA because of his impact on the NBA.

I found out an old interview of David with Charlie Rose, which was taken place in 1996. In the interview, David talked about how he achieved the success with Michael Jordan. When I heard about his story about the “Air Jordan” brand, I thought David is not only an agent but also a great businessman. He explained that there was no African-American role model in the team sports who can sell shoes. However, as David described, Michael was the guy who can break barriers. So, David tried to lead him to the next level by breaking the barrier of selling shoes. He also mentioned in another interview that he chose Nike because Nike was very small at that time. He believed Michael can change the shoe company, and he knew he had to differentiate from others to be successful.

Besides the success of “Air Jordan”, he influenced a lot on the relationship between the players and the teams. He was the key person in the 1995 NBA lockout. He contributed to increase the players’ share of the league revenue from 52% to 57%. Also, he brought the idea that the players, who make more fans to come to see the games, can get more salary than other players. Even though basketball is a team sport, David has been seeking ways to make more benefit to each individual player.

In the last part of the interview, David talked about an interesting opinion about young athletes. That was young athletes should stay at school as much as possible. He explained if a potential athlete were able to spend 2 more years at school, his would have more opportunities to choose. Also, he would be mature enough to start his career as a professional athlete. I was surprised when I heard this opinion because I had thought he wanted to collect money as much as possible even if his clients were immature or less experienced in the field.

What I learned from David Falk were sports agent has to be a businessman to bring the clients to the different level, and how much sports agent can earn depends on how much they market their clients. However, sports agent has to patiently wait until young potential athletes are mature enough to last their career for long time.

Another Resource: Marantz, S. (1996, October 14). The man with a plan | Sporting News, The | Find Articles. Find Articles | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. Retrieved October 26, 2011, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_n42_v220/ai_18764598/?tag=content;col1

Toshihiro Nakatsuka: A Japanese Basketball Player

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:40:00 +0000

Toshihiro Nakatsuka is a professional Japanese basketball player for the Japan Basket League (JBL) and is signed to the Panasonic Trians (2009 – Present). The JBL is a professional basketball league in Japan in which the teams are company sponsored. The JBL is ranked just below in popularity to the Basketball Japan League (bj League), a league that is state owned. The two leagues are in fact one in the same but due to a conflict of interest during merger negotiations both leagues remained independent and now competing against each other in ticket sales.

Toshihiro and I meet during our first year of high school where I played side by side with him for our school’s basketball team. Although I was only a team player for a short time he remained on the team only to become a rising star player leading our school’s team to numerous victories and ultimately winning us the regional championships, by the time our high school years were over he was ranked 8^th place at the nationwide competition. We continue to remain good friends, as result I was able to arrange this interview.

I begin my Skype interview with Toshihiro with a simple question, “Since graduating from the University of Tsukuba, why did you choose the Panasonic Trians over any major team in the bj League?” His answer,” I had tremendous offers from teams in the bj League, in fact I wanted to play in the bj League! The pay was more than enough for me to start building my own business strategy, However I decided to play for the Panasonic Trians over at the JBL. The reason for my decision was clearly because of the way I was approached by the bj League. A team from the bj League one day came unannounced to my high school while I was taking lessons from my teacher to negotiate a possible team signing, I thought discussing sports in my class during a lesson was not a suitable place to negotiate a contract, this was unprofessional on their part and because of that I refused any offer from the bj League. The opportunity to play in the bj League is still a goal of mine, not only do I wish to become successful basketball player but I also want to be a successful business man, that is my dream. If done right I will consider exploring my options with the bj League in the near future.”

Every season Toshihiro has to negotiate salary and contract renewal with the Panasonic Trians. The JBL contracts are one-year contracts only. Negotiations with his team commence with contributions. How is Toshihiro an asset to the team? Not only does Toshiro generate ticket sales and help win games but he is also the first player from his team that takes advantage of social networks to communicate with fans, because of this his fan base and ticket sales have doubled! Toshihiro explains that appreciation is the most important part in the negotiation process. He said “If the company you play for does not appreciate its players, there is no motivation to win”.

I asked my final question “Is there a mutual benefit when a player is signed to a new contract?” His answer was simple, “Making a contract with the team is the team’s own benefit, my reward? Playing basketball and getting the appropriate appreciation from my team. Players should be fair with the team to develop the basketball industry in Japan.” Today Toshihiro is trying to find a way to develop the level of basketball in Japan.

The new season of the JBL just started. This season will be Toshihiro’s third season with the Panasonic Trians. He may not be a starting lineup player, but with his increasing popularity that could very well change. I hope he can play as much as possible and bring the championship to the team just like he did in our high school days.

Ads on Sports Jersey

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:18:00 +0000

Selling ad space on the team jersey is one of the great ways to generate revenue for sports teams. According to an article on Advertising Age, total income of selling ad space on jerseys of 20 English Premier League soccer teams was $155 million in the season of 2010. Each team got different amount of revenue by selling ad space, but Liverpool and Manchester United took 40% of the total amount of the advertisement income. Both teams took more than $30 million. On the other hand, 7 teams tool less than $1 million. Therefore, popular teams in the English Premier League can make more revenue from selling ad space on the jersey.

NASCAR

In the US sports, NASCAR is the great example of the success of selling ad space on the car. To operate a NASCAR team, it takes at least $15 million per one season. It is difficult to generate such amount of money from ticket sales and merchandise sales. So, NASCAR teams decided to sell ad space on their cars. There are three different types of sponsor to put ads on a car; associate sponsor, major sponsor, and primary sponsor. Associate sponsor pays $500,000 to $2 million, major sponsor pays $2 to $5 million, and primary sponsor pays $10 to $20 million to the team. Only Primary sponsor can put their ad on the car’s hood. Some racing teams can generate more revenue by getting more sponsors at the same time.

However, no team of NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB sell their jersey space as ad space. It doesn’t mean these leagues are not interested in selling as space on the jersey. Some leagues are very positive to put ads on their jersey. The WNBA and the NBA Development League has put ads on their jerseys. The NFL also put ads on the practice jerseys. These leagues are seeking what will happen if they put some companies’ logos on their uniforms. Once, MLB tried to sell ad space on bases, but the fans complained about that idea.

On the other article on Advertising Age, the US sports has a possibility to generate more than $370 million by selling ad space on jerseys. Also, this article shows the top three of potential ad value of the four major US sports. NFL teams had same ad value with $14,011,721. The highest ad value of the MLB teams was New York Yankees ($13,830,011). Los Angels Lakers leaded NBA ad value with$4,059,744. Chicago Blackhawks was the highest ad value in NHL with $1,372,007. As I mentioned last blog post, the NFL tries to develop as a whole league. Therefore, the ad values of top three teams might be the same amount.

A lot of companies are interested in putting their ads on the jerseys of the four major US sports teams because there are the great places to let people know about the brands at the same time. Also, this is a good way to get more income for each sports team. However, it might be difficult to put ads on jerseys because most of sports fans probably want to keep jerseys “clean” as the MLB fans.

The World's Most Valuable Sports Team

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Soccer is the most popular sports in the world. The best three prize money sports events in the worlds are soccer events: UEFA Champions League, UEFA European Football Championship, and FIFA World Cup. So, when I found “the World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams” by Forbes.com, I expected that soccer teams dominated the ranking.

Manchester United

Manchester United was on the top of the list with a value of $1.81 billion. However, only eight soccer teams were listed on the ranking. On the other hand, all 32 NFL teams were ranked on the list. The most valuable NFL team was Dallas Cowboys with a worth of $1.81 billion. Even the lowest valuable NFL team, Jacksonville Jaguars with a value of $725 million, this team was ranked above than any other NBA and NHL teams. Why all NFL teams are do valuable? What is the difference between soccer teams and NFL teams, and NFL teams and other major sports teams in the US?

The worth of Manchester United keeps growing. The new shirt sponsorship with Aon, $32 million per year over four years, raised 50% from the previous contract with AIG. Also, merchandise sponsorship with NIKE will be increase as same amount as the shirt sponsorship. Now, Nike pays $40 million each year, but the new contract from 2015 would be $70 million per year. Moreover, Manchester United is thinking to sell shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange because the team estimated the value of the team would be $2.7 billion.

Dallas Cowboys

The NFL is also fast growing sports league. The TV revenue has increased 700% in 25 years. The most valuable NFL team, Dallas Cowboys built the $1.25 billion stadium to increase annual ticket sales. Ticket sales are one of the most important revenue for not only the NFL but also the European soccer leagues. Also, the NFL teams got sponsorship with lucrative companies as well as the European soccer teams do. So, teams try to find valuable sponsor and get more people to come to the stadium.

The big difference between the NFL and the soccer leagues is the NFL divides the TV revenue equally to every 32 teams. 70% of each team’s revenue is shared equally among all NFL teams, while each soccer team makes contract with TV companies directly. The NFL chose other interesting policies, such as the limitation of the payment to the players, and the weakest team can pick up the rookie first at the rookie draft.

The NFL has developed as a whole league. In the soccer league, if the team were weak or poor, it would be less opportunity to be the champion for that team. The weak team or poor team can’t be run the team as the business because nobody wants to see the game. The NFL realized that point and it organized the league as every team and every game can be exciting for the fans. As the result of the success of this business model, All 32 NFL teams were on the list of the world’s most valuable teams.

TED Talk

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:23:00 +0000

In my course at Full Sail University, I am developing a business plan named “VolunTripper.” The product of this business plan is a package tour that includes volunteer working related with sports development in developing countries. I believe that playing sports can help children to develop their humanities and communication skills. To prove my opinion makes sense, I was looking for a speech on TED.com that talked about the importance of sports. I chose an interesting speech about educating children by Gever Tulley. The main topic of this speech was not sports, but this speech showed a relationship between the physical activity and educating children.

In this speech, Gaver talked about 5 dangerous things that people should let their children to do to develop children’s creativities; 1. Play with fire, 2. Own a pocketknife, 3. Throw a spear, 4. Deconstruct appliances, and 5. Break the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). He also mentioned that driving a car was also great way to help children’s education. Behind of his encouragement of experiencing dangerous things for children, he tried to warn that the safety regulations are too strict these days. He mentioned that if children grow up in these regulations, they would not be able to react properly when they meet a dangerous situation because they have no idea about the situation. I agree with his concept because I learned how to assume the danger of the situation through I actually experienced some dangerous situations.

The third dangerous thing in his speech especially inspired me a lot because it was related with my topic. He explained that throwing things is the combination of analytical and physical skills. So, this physical action is connected with brain. Moreover, throwing things to the target requires the attention skill and the concentrate skill. He showed that physical activities could help the brain to be more active. This is the final goal through sports educational volunteer working in developing countries. I want to encourage children to focus on study and make good relationship with others by teaching sports. And then I want them to develop their society and country by themselves.

I cannot agree with some parts of his ideas, such as children should have pocketknives and break the law. These things might be good experiences for expanding children’s knowledge and creativity. However, I do not want to encourage doing the things that could against the law. Besides of this, this TED talk showed that playing sports is good for not only building up body but also developing brain. I want to involve this study into my business plan.

Voluntourism Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:57:00 +0000

WYSE Work Abroad

Most of sports development program in developing countries are operated by volunteer workers and non-profit organizations. According to Adventure Travel Trade Association, travel companies provide package tour including volunteer work. This kind of tour is known as voluntourism, and this industry is growing fast. WYSE Work Abroad is a trading association for the voluntourism industry. This association is one of the sectors of WYSE Travel Confederation dedicated to improve the youth travel industry. More than 150 companies and organizations from 40 different countries join WYSE Work Abroad, and as the benefits of being the member, they can receive business opportunities and trends for the industry. Also, the member of this association can receive research.

WYSE Work Abroad hosts “Expand Your Horizons Video Contest” and “Partnership Of The Year Contest.” Expand Your Horizons Video Contest to give the members of this association an opportunity to introduce their valuable experiences through the volunteer abroad. The company provides the best video will be given $2000 as the prize. On the other hand, the members are required to share their partnership success story for Partnership Of The Year Story Contest. The award for the winner is one-year-free membership for both the member of WYSE Work Abroad and the partnership. These contests encourage the members to improve their services and promotions. Winning the contest is also a great tool for branding the company.

Business Appointment at WYSTC

The most important program for WYSE Work Abroad is World Youth & Student Travel Conference (WYSTC). WYSTC is the annual conference of WYSE Travel Confederation to improve the youth, student and educational travel industry. Over 450 organizations from 80 different countries participate this conference and attend exhibition, workshops, and meetings. This event gives big influence to both the voluntourism industry and other youth travel industries. By attending this conference, the voluntourism industry can expand network with different travel industries, create new business opportunities, and understand the global trends. Communicating with different travel industries give the voluntourism industry to see itself from different angles. This is helpful to develop the industry and important to keep adjusting to the trends.

Making a global network is crucial for the voluntourism industry because potential markets exist all over the world. Focusing on the sports development through voluntourism, each country has different trend of sports and different environment. Participants of voluntourism also have different objectives. WYSE Work Abroad gives opportunities to the voluntourism industry to exchange the current information of different countries by the large number of the members.

The Olympics: Does it actually help the economy of the host countries?

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:48:00 +0000

Pyeongchang, South Korea will host 2018 Winter Olympics

On July 7^th, South Korea won to host 2018 Winter Olympics. South Korea calculates to gain 27billion dollars by hosting the Olympics. Also, the potential economical benefit of the Olympics is estimated as twice as large as the benefit of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup and 4 times lager than 1988 Seoul Olympics. As South Korea, a lot of countries try to host the Olympics to boost their economics. However, it is hard to say the Olympics always bring economical benefit to the host countries.

The benefits of hosting the Olympics are getting investments in infrastructures, foreign visitors, job creation, and economic growth in a short term. The hosting countries are required to build up or update stadiums, transportation, and accommodations, and these infrastructures encourage local business. Hosting the Olympics is a big project, therefore, host countries need to start preparing years before the Olympics takes place. During the preparation, more people can get job opportunities because making new stadiums and roads create jobs. During the Olympics, a lot of foreigners visit the host country and spend money at the local business. This helps both local business and national economic because the government can get benefits from tax.

There are both positive side and negative side to host the Olympics. Barcelona, Spain succeeded about visitors and this city keeps the good number of foreign visitors. On the other hand, the benefit to Barcelona from hosting the Olympics was only 0.03% of increasing of the regional GDP. Therefore, it is difficult to develop the economic by hosting the Olympics, especially long terms growth. However, hosting the Olympics are beneficial for small countries and developing countries because these countries don’t have good infrastructure and they can get more revenue from investors and visitors.

India: the Hottest Sports League

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:37:00 +0000

Since 2008, India has hosted major sports events. The Indian government plans to develop infrastructures and transportation by hosting sports events. Also, India associates with other countries to educate future athletes, so the government send athletes to abroad and invite coaches to India.

The most popular sport in India is cricket. It is said that every Indian boy played cricket. Therefore, cricket is called as the unofficial national sport of India. Also, India is one of the most important countries for the development of cricket. In the middle of the 19^th century, cricket was brought to India by the British. Since then, it spread throughout the country. Because of the popularity of cricket, the national cricket team won the World Cup Cricket in 1983. This year, team India won the championship again.

IPL 2010

In 2008, India established a professional cricket league called Indian Premier league (IPL). Cricket is one of the popular sports in the world. It has a long history, and it is played more than 100 countries. So, some professional leagues had existed before IPL was established. However, there was no league that was organized as a business. IPL followed the American professional sports leagues and chose twenty20 rules to finish each game in three hours. They focused on making profit through TV broadcasting. Originally, each cricket match takes days, but twenty20 rule sped up matches and let people enjoy watching matches through TV. Unexpectedly, IPL also succeeded with selling tickets. The average of the audience a match was 58,000 even though it was the first season. (This number is 80% more than a Major League Baseball game.) As the result, the worth of the franchise increased by 31% at the first season. Because of this fast growing, IPL was introduced as the world’s hottest sports league.

IPL can be a business model for the professional cricket leagues in other countries and other sports leagues in India. As Abhijit Kadam Football Development Centre(AKFDC) stated, India needs professionals who know the science of sports to develop the sports industry in India. The success of IPL can motivate more people to contribute to the development of the sports industry.

China: Potential Market

noreply@blogger.com (Atsushi Sawa) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:55:00 +0000

China is the fastest economic growing country, and it is the second largest economic country after the United States. The sports industry in China is one of the most important industries to support the economic growth of this country. The Chinese government established the five-year plan to boost the value of the sports industry to accelerate the economic growth. Also, the Chinese sports industry is the potential market for the foreign sports industries and the sports related industries.

Yao Ming

Table tennis and badminton represent the sports in China because the Chinese teams of these two sports won a lot at the Olympics Games and the world championships. However, basketball is also popular sports in China. Actually, China was the third oldest country that plays basketball after the US and Canada, and China became the most populated country of basketball. Since Yao Ming joined NBA in 2002, the popularity of basketball has been increasing. NBA realized that China was the great market for the NBA revenue. They expanded the TV network to let Chinese people be able to watch the games. NBA also found partners to sell the NBA goods in China. In addition, NBA’s marketing in China brought another business opportunities for other companies. The NBA’s China tour was held in 2007, NBA made partnerships with 11 companies. It helped NBA to expand the brand throughout in China. At the same time, 11companies also succeeded to expand their market in China.

X Games Asia in China

Recently, the Chinese government put the energy to develop the action sports in China. They positioned the action sports as the one of the biggest thing for the growth of sports in China. X Games brought totally different experiences to Chinese people. That event was the combination of sports, music, and culture. The action sports were the big impact for the young generation in China. So, the Chinese government built the world-largest skateboard park in Shanghai to encourage young people to play action sports. However, most of skaters in the park are foreigners. It seems taking more time to develop the popularity of the action sports in China.

After the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, the economic crisis affects the growth of the sports industry in China. However, the sports related industries, such as apparel industry, are still growing. The number of the participating to the fitness gym is also growing. Therefore, China still has the potential market for the sports industry because of their huge population and the economic growth.