• Atlanta: Thanks to our organizers J.W. Cannon (ING), Aldo Kafie (Octagon) and Jenny Schmitt (CloudSpark). Also, thank you to Becky Rentz who took some great pictures during the event. Click here to view them.
• Dallas: Thanks to our organizer Walker Simmons (Learfield Sports).

From the feedback I’ve heard, both events were quite successful. For our 2nd time in Atlanta, we had around 75 attendees and for our first get together in Dallas we had almost 50. Thank you to everyone who attended, and if you enjoyed the events, make sure to pass the word around to others!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Matt Weinberger. Make sure to check back next week for part 2 of his column.

The sports industry is an exciting place. Too often I get questions asking how one can go about getting into the industry. In response I have created my personnel list of nine things one MUST do to get into the sports industry and be successful.

1) Be Proactive - This is your career. If you want to be successful at it you need to take matters into your own hands. In the sports industry, you can get lost quickly if you sit still on the sidelines (excuse my pun). Being proactive means talking to people, finding out what they do and what a daily day is like in their current position. The more you know about the industry, and how teams/marketing agencies/league offices function, you will better be able to pinpoint exactly what type of job you would like in the future. Too often people ASSUME they know what a Marketing Coordinator, General Manager or a Group Sales Manager does for an organization on a day in and day out basis. But think long an hard…do you REALLY know what these people do in their positions on a day in and day out basis? If you don’t then it would be wise to find out, because the more knowledge you acquire the better you are able to position yourself effectively in the industry by correctly matching up your skill set, wants, and desires.

TIP: Find people that are currently in positions that you would one day desire to have. Take time each week to try make contact with some of these people. Send them an email – not in a harassing way, but a polite way. Ask them a few questions about their job, and maybe some advice. Kindly let them know that you appreciate them taking time to answer you. You never know when their information/advice could come back to help you. Remember, not everyone will always write back, but I can assure you that most people are very helpful if you approach them properly – after all they most likely are in the position they are in currently because someone else took the time to help THEM.

2) Network - Listen, we hear it all the time… network this and network that. Sometimes just the thought of the word “networking” conjures up a thought of a stuffy awkward conversation. But the truth is, it really does work. It’s time tested, and for sure recession proof. With that I mean that whatever the current job market situation is, networking with people never fails. Again, learning about other people and their careers can go a long way to influencing and helping your own. In the era of web 2.0, there are a variety of opportunities to network. Blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn are all first steps to cultivating meaningful and long lasting conversations. Look around, throughout the internet space there sport industry professionals chatting and sharing ideas with each other. Join in with them. Take time to hear them out, and make connections with them. Be careful, in the era of 2.0 there is a temptation to lose touch with personal networking, that is live in person face-to-face conversation. This type of networking is still way and above better then any done online. Take time to seek out networking events, and try your best to attend each and every one.

TIP: TheBusinessOfSports.com regularly organizes sports business networking events. As a first step, check those out!

3) Read – With the Internet these days the amount of material on the sports industry is astonishing. It’s almost overwhelming. Information overload is certainly a problem with all of the various sources of “news.” But yet reading is still key. Things happen in the sports industry at a rapid pace, it’s part of what makes it so appealing, so adjusting to the information flow is crucial. Finding areas of the industry that interest you is a good way to prevent information overload. For example if you one day aspire to be a sports lawyer, a good place to start would be the Sports Law Blog, which contains commentary from some pretty experienced sports lawyers and professors.

TIP: Find a few reliable sport BUSINESS outlets to follow and follow them consistently. But look in the right places. Sure ESPN, FOX Sports etc are great places, but if you want to be in the Sports Industry, you are going to want a place where you can find Sports BUSINESS news. My suggestion: the Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily.

4) Understand – Understand how the sports industry works. Realize that the sports industry is 24/7. Unlike a typical workplace 9-5 job, sports events take place at “odd” times – nights, weekends and on national holidays. On a given day, while your friends head to the local bar at 5 PM for happy hour, you and your organization may be prepping for a game stating at 7 PM against the cross town rival. Can you handle working at these so called “odd” hours? If you can’t and aren’t prepared to do so then this might not be the industry for you. Remember, the excitement comes with a price. Just ask some coaches or general managers how many times they have moved across the country for new positions.

TIP: Take time to access what you are willing to give up and what you aren’t willing to give up for a career in the sports industry. If you do this now, you will save a lot of headaches and possibly even heartaches in the long run.

Check back next week for the rest of the list!

Matt Weinberger is a graduate of the Sports Management program at the University of Massachusetts and has held various intern positions at professional sports organizations in the NYC area. Matt is currently studying at New York Law School in New York City. You can follow Matt on Twitter (@MattWeinberger) and he can be reached via email at Matthew.D.Weinberger@gmail.com.

Our 2nd Atlanta event is tomorrow, Wednesday, March 10 from 5:30 to 8:00 PM at Meehan’s Public House in Sandy Springs. Click here for full details and to RSVP. We already have over 75 responses, so this should be a great follow-up to our first Atlanta event from late last year. Special thanks to J.W. Cannon, Aldo Kafie and Jenny Schmitt for all of their help in making this happen!

Our first ever Dallas/Fort Worth event is this Thursday, March 11 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM at The Londoner Pub in Addison. We will have a private room upstairs and this should be a convenient location for people working around the DFW area. Click here for full details and to RSVP. We’re up to 50 responses now, so this should be a great start to building a series of regular networking events in this area.  Special thanks to Walker Simmons for his help in getting this going!

Please pass these links along to any friends or colleagues that would also be interested in attending. The more people we can bring together, the better networking opportunities we can create for everyone.

Remember to keep an eye on the Event Calendar page for future networking events.

You may ask what’s so special about this, but in case you didn’t know, Wawa is a very big sponsor of the Philadelphia Flyers. This got me thinking – how great would it be for integrated property/sponsor social media efforts to be aware of certain sponsor relationships and be able to cross-promote each other in such a natural way through Facebook’s standard interface? Maybe this is actually an instance of it already happening!

In this specific case, the more likely scenario is that there is a very high index between fans of the Flyers and “fans” of Wawa (Wawa is HUGE in the Philadelphia and South Jersey region). Facebook is simply recognizing the overlap and making a suggestion that is statistically logical. Of course, that statistical logic is further support for the team/sponsor relationship that the two entities have.

With the power that Facebook has to collect and instantly analyze large amounts of consumer data, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing new measurements like the “Facebook Index” that supplement the current standard consumer research data that a company like Scarborough Research provides.

This poll ran back in October, when there was some controversy surrounding the size and location of the enormous screen in Cowboys Stadium. It’s funny to see such a distinct and even split between those who love it and those who clearly do not.

This poll ran for the first couple of weeks after the Tiger Woods controversy became public. It’s funny to see how many people thought that the sponsors would stick by him, but as the trouble kept on piling up, it became too much for most of them. That’s when those votes really started shifting to the 50%+ option!

It seems like there are some differing opinions on what the top sports business story of 2010. The World Cup got about 1/4 of the votes, more than the other major global event of the year, the Winter Olympics. Many people recognize how big the collective bargaining issues are going to be to the sports landscape this year. And of course, there’s still Tiger.

If you have an idea for a new poll, please use the Contact Us link at the top of the page to send me your suggestion!

• Email/Print links (have been there for a while)
• A Comments quote box with count
• Twitter and Facebook share buttons

I don’t know what you think, but all of a sudden, this layout has a lot more of a “blog” feel to it, and I think it’s great. To me, this is an example of how “traditional” media (a news website) has identified elements of “social” media (blogs) that will positively influence their business. These elements highlight an emphasis on generating conversation and sharing information, two key principles of social media.

Now you might say that ESPN has been using their “Conversation” product on their website for a while. However, instead of burying it at the bottom, they’ve put it above the fold, showing an increased dedication to this aspect of their site. They’ve also made the Facebook and Twitter buttons more prominent, which will easily lead to more active sharing of their content across these social channels.

It’s great to see how new forms of communication and media continue to be a positive influence on more traditional channels, and a company like ESPN trying to combine the best of both worlds.

February 13 - Danica Patrick finishes 35th in her Nationwide debut at Daytona International Speedway, and Jamie McMurray gets the Daytona 500 win the next day.

February 14 - The NBA’s All-Star game sets an attendance record for basketball when over 108,000 pack Cowboys Stadium to see the Eastern Conference squad defeat the Western Conference squad 141-139.

February 19 - Tiger Woods makes his first public appearance since his now-famous car accident in November (see Russell’s previous post for the public reaction). He returns to rehab soon after to complete his treatment.

February 20 - UFC 111 heads to Australia after selling out their venue in four hours

February 22 - Papa John’s signs on as presenting sponsor of the NBA D-League on Versus
- ESPN suspends Tony Kornheiser over comments made about Hannah Storm
- Coca-Cola extends their agreement with UEFA, meaning they will be a global partner for the next two UEFA championships.

February 24 - MLS’ Philadelphia Union announce that a naming rights deal has been signed for their new soccer-specific stadium with PPL Corp.
- Mike & Mike in the Morning celebrate their 10th anniversary by broadcasting from Disney World.

All week - With some stops and starts due to weather, Major League Soccer and the players’ union continue discussions about a new labor deal. The deadline was pushed back from January 31 to February 25.

Needless to say though, the Olympics have dominated the headline for the last 12 days. Lindsay Vonn’s bruised shin, a surprise U.S. hockey win over Canada, the untimely and tragic death of a luger, curling’s fashion faux pas, Bode Miller’s redemption and the lack of winter weather in Vancouver are just a few of the storylines. So, what has caught your attention over the last couple weeks? Do the Olympics crowd out everything else going on? If not, what sports story do you think was missed in all the international, patriotic hoopla?

To provide a quick background, the “Own the Podium” program was an effort by Canada to commit more money to their Olympic athletes that have the best chance of winning medals, with the overall goal of taking home the most medals of any competing nation. Canada currently sits in 5th place with just ten medals, 15 behind current leader, the United States. Now I’m not saying they shouldn’t have committed the money towards their athletes to help them try and succeed in their respective sports. I applaud their efforts to provide extra support to their athletes leading up to and during their host Olympics. However, I think they mis-branded their efforts, and because they are going to fall short in the overall medal count, the program now appears to have failed.

By publicly branding their efforts to “Own the Podium” with a goal of winning the most medals of any country, they created a perception that anything less than perfection would be failure. Canada finished third in the medal count four years ago, and before that, they never finished higher than fourth, so this was quite a goal to set. They could have made the same financial commitment to their athletes with a goal of being in the top 3 (which fits with the general theme of the top 3 athletes receiving medals), and this still would have been a huge (and still achievable) accomplishment. They also could have branded their program with something more related to being the host country than with specific results, something like “The Pride of Canada”. This focuses the rallying cry around supporting the local athletes, not just on their results. By conceding that they will not reach their goal, Canadian athletes and fans alike could easily look back to the 2010 Vancouver Games and think about their nation’s failure instead of pride in their country for hosting the Games and in their athletes for their efforts. Not only that, by making this public concession now, they’ve potentially overshadowed any additional medals that Canadian athletes win during the remainder of the Games.

Of course, the other side of this would be if they did achieve their goal, the Canadian Olympic Committee would look absolutely brilliant. In general, tying any branding or marketing platform to the on-field results is a high risk/high reward proposition, and when you’re dealing with a global stage like the Olympics, I don’t think it was worth the risk.

• Feb 24, 2010 – 2010 Phoenix Suns Sales & Service Symposium (Phoenix, AZ)
• Mar 1, 2010 – Philadelphia 76ers Career Fair (Philadelphia, PA)
• Mar 10, 2010 – The Business of Sports – Atlanta Networking Event (Sandy Springs, GA)
• Mar 11, 2010 – The Business of Sports – Dallas Networking Event (Addison, TX)

The first two events listed are great opportunities for those looking to break into the sports industry. At the Phoenix Suns Sales & Service Symposium, attendees will have the chance to learn from Suns leadership and build their sales/service skill sets. They will also be interviewing for sales positions at the event. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers have put together a great lineup of local sports organizations that will be accepting resumes and interviewing candidates at their career fair.

The second two events are the next installments of The Business of Sports regional networking events. We just scheduled our 2nd Atlanta event for Wednesday, March 10 at 5:30PM, and our first Dallas event will take place the next day on Thursday, March 11 at 6:30PM. We’ve gotten anywhere from 50 to 150 attendees at our different locations, so these networking nights provide a great way to connect with other industry professionals in your region. You can click on the links above for full details and to RSVP.

Keep checking the Event Calendar page to see if there are any sports business events coming up in your area, and if you have an event you’d like to see added to the event calendar, please let me know through the Contact Us page.

Update: Last minute addition to the event calendar. This Saturday, February 27 – New York Knicks Tweetup and Social Media Panel. Click the link for full details.

• sportsarizona - Tiger reax: An acting performance that would have made William Shatner proud.
• Stefmara – I didn’t watch! Haven’t cared about this story since the news broke back around Thanksgiving that he cheated.
• 7thWoman – “insincere.”
• khuda1 – Narcissistic
• MeganCassidy – I like that he apologized and defended Elin, I didn’t like how it was delivered at all. Message was right, not the presentation
• js_bizofsports – A heavily-scripted yet ultimately fascinating performance by Tiger Woods. Not necessarily effective, but riveting.
• sports_business – who cares? 1st step to return to normalcy. Time/performance will make him like everyone else (Lewis, Phelps, Kobe, etc.)
• amandarykoff – My take on the Tiger statement: “I screwed up. I got caught. And now I need to say these words.” Blah blah blah.
• nikegoal - it was artificial & hollow, carefully calculated by team Tiger, lack of a true human touch
• EdisonLee – Took a half step forward, TW will still need to answer questions – press won’t be satisfied w/ the staged presser
• IOnSportsMedia – “He did what he had to do as part of his “recovery” process (i.e. apologize), so only time will tell”
• mmahoney13 – Tiger’s anger was believeable, if not poorly timed, but his apology was not believable.. Just play golf please
• jhalitsky – Sure, he’s robotic. We knew that. Did every1 really expect a charismatic Tiger to magically show? Didn’t love it, but w/in expecs
• SteveDittmore – I see lot of vitriol to Tiger’s speech. What is that ppl wanted him to say? Or, is it reaction to delivery and sterile delivery?
• Anita_Lobo – wasted opportunity i.e. going through the motions drags Tiger’s image a few notches lower #sportsbiz #tiger / on the other hand now that the apology is done; let’s get back to #golf!
• WesleyMallette – Perfect today? No. Starting point? Yes. He owned it. Addressed most important issues. Now? Time to rebuild. Most important comment? Owning the money, power, fame and entitlement issue.

One quick aside before I delve into specific sponsors… I think some Olympic sponsors will be hurt by NBC’s decision to air the competitions in prime time in MST and PST. I personally know that after I’ve seen a result earlier in the day, I’m less likely to watch the entire broadcast,  if I choose to watch at all. Now that we’re in the twitter age, networks will need to re-think their policy of playing everything in prime time. Also, I enjoyed watching uninterrupted footage of the snowboard halfpipe. Other events have been chopped up, competitors cut out, and drama ‘manufactured.’ I’d rather watch the full competition every time.

Ok, now on to the sponsors. Coke includes an environmentally-friendly aspect to their activation by encouraging Canadians to “adopt sustainable environmental practices.” They will purchase carbon offsets to offset the carbon footprint from their operations at the Games as well as the torch run. This means their carbon emissions will have been reduced 100%. (Courtesy of Cokenews.ca). “Every piece of our Olympic marketing has a social and mobile component,” says Katie Bayne, marketing chief for Coca-Cola North America.

Meanwhile, much has been made of Visa’s decision to put 40% of their activation budget towards digital, quadrupling past spends. Their YouTube channel unveiled their Olympic spots before they were even shown on TV. These spots drive awareness and help reach their objectives, spelled out in this interesting document.

According to a USA Today article, GE is “using the Olympics as a ‘launch pad’ for it’s biggest social media push.” They have created a Twitter hashtag (#GEhealthy) and an account (@gehealthy) with the bio of: A shared commitment to creating better health for more people . Together. With only 184 followers, it remains to be seen if this push will be fruitful for them.

One company who seems to really get it is Red Bull. On Tuesday night, NBC showed a segment about Shaun White and his secret halfpipe. The segment really reinforced why Red Bull is the perfect sponsor for the halfpipe competition. They didn’t just slap their logo on one of White’s boards, they instead found a way to help him achieve his goals, thereby making the partnership valuable from both perspectives.

I thought the remark that best summed up what these Olympic sponsors should strive for was said by Mark Pritchard, CEO of Proctor & Gamble: “So what really makes the difference? The idea. When the idea is good, people flock to it and build on it.”

There is still a significant amount of time left, and many amazing Olympic moments that are sure to occur. What sponsor(s) are you most looking forward to stepping up to the challenge?

I’ve included two of their recent videos here to give you all a preview. They do an excellent job in creating both entertaining and informative content. You can visit their website, byoftv.com, to view additional episodes.

“Come on @ispsportnetwork and @learfield. Two of the biggest college sports marketing brands – you guys can do so much more on Twitter!”

I didn’t think much of this at the time. I sent it because I noticed that these two corporate Twitter accounts had a very low number of followers, didn’t tweet much and offered little in terms of actual content. I was pleasantly surprised when a few days later, I got the following reply from@Learfield:

Learfield: @rscibetti Guilty as charged. Been working on the Grown-Ups for 3 years. How about a blog post: “10 Reasons Learfield Sports Should Tweet”

So, at the prompting of the @Learfield Twitter account, here are ten reasons why Learfield Sports should tweet (in no particular order):

1. Raise awareness for your properties – At a most basic level, Twitter gives you a popular communication channel to promote all the great things that your college teams are doing, both on and off the field.
2. Create an engagement opportunity to connect with fans and customers across your properties – Beyond promoting the schools and teams, Twitter will let you interact with the fans in those locations, building a deeper connection to the property and also providing you valuable feedback.
3. Help test and execute social media campaigns that you can share as best practices with your properties – What better way to assist your properties than by learning about Twitter yourselves, finding out what can be most effective, and then spreading best practices across your different locations.
4. Engage in conversation with other sports media and sponsorship professionals – Twitter is an incredible educational platform that gives you an easy way to learn from other industry leaders and apply those ideas to your company.
5. Leverage your network of properties to create high-value social media promotions that generate direct value for top-level sponsors – It’s one thing for a corporate partner to run a Twitter contest with one location…you can harness the power of Twitter across multiple locations to really generate a powerful campaign for a sponsor.
6. Get direct feedback about current marketing promotions that your properties are running – People on Twitter are honest and direct, which will help you learn what is and is not working.
7. Connect with future Learfield employees – There are a lot of talented individuals on Twitter that have unique skill sets that could benefit both Learfield and your properties.
8. Create more value that can help retain customers – If you are at risk of losing certain partners, perhaps developing integrated, cross-property social media campaigns as an addition to their current elements can provide more value and help retain your customers.
9. Build a stronger relationship with your properties – Some schools are running great social media campaigns, while others are well-behind the curve. If you can leverage your own Twitter presence is a way that educates and assist these schools, you provide more value and make your relationship indispensable.
10. It’s fun – I wanted this to be last, but there’s importance to it. There is a uniquely fun element to engaging with others through Twitter, and I believe that whoever at Learfield shares this responsibility will get more satisfaction out of their job, which will in turn make them a better employee.

So that is my list of 10 reasons why Learfield Sports should tweet. I hope I’ve made a strong case for it, and if anyone at Learfield would like to talk more about this, they can reach me right here!

If you are interested in attending, please click here to RSVP! Pass this link along to any friends or colleagues that would also be interested in attending. The more people we can bring together, the better networking opportunities we can create for everyone.

Special thanks to Walker Simmons for his help in making this event happen!

Remember to keep an eye on the Event Calendar page for future networking events. I’m hoping to have dates set soon for Phoenix, Atlanta and New York!

You can view a reply of the discussion below. In general, all future live chats will be run through our new Live Chat page, and we will also include links to all archived chats. I don’t have an official date/time for the next chat yet, but my goal is to run one in conjunction with some of this weekend’s NBA All-Star game coverage, so keep an eye out here and on Twitter for the details.

But today I received a press release from a large PR firm. It’s not clear who exactly commissioned the press release, but I’m guessing it is a group called ‘the Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports logos.’ After reading the press release, it really made me wonder if sports fans care about this age-old question: Are they real, or are they fake? (Merchandise, that is).

The press release attempts to ’separate facts from fiction.’ Some of the fictions include statements like ‘counterfeiting isn’t that big of a problem’ and ‘people don’t sell counterfeits in North Texas.’ The facts given are that businesses lose $600-700 billion (yes, billion) annually due to counterfeiting and that innocent buyers get scammed by this inaccurate and often poorly made merchandise.

So my questions for all of you are:

• If you went to an event like the All-Star Game, are you concerned with whether the merchandise is official or not?
• Do you look for the hologram on the tag?
• Do you double-check the spelling of all the names and logos?
• Are you concerned with the exact colors of the logos?
• Or does the lure of 2 shirts for $15 override any of those issues?

At times I’ve been worried only about getting a good deal. Other times, the event or team involved has been important enough to me to make sure I have the official merchandise. What do you think?

Social media is literally a game changer in sports. It’s leveled the playing field (pun most definitely intended), as fans can communicate directly with athletes. Social media has changed and is changing the way we receive, process, deliver and consume all information. Stories break on Twitter before they’re picked up by the so-called “mainstream” media. Blogs make everybody – including fans – reporters to a certain degree. Access to news and information changes every minute. The line between “mainstream” media and blogs blurs each day. And the impact of the blogosphere cannot be underestimated. Just look at Deadspin, which has become as much a part of the sports vernacular as ESPN.

Given the monumental impact of social media both on and off the field, the New York Times presented “Unleashing Social Media on the Sports World”, featuring the following panelists from a variety of perspectives in and around sports:

• Moderator: Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee), Partner and Co-Founder of VaynerMedia, author of the best-selling book Crush It, and an unabashed New York Jets fanatic.
• Michael DiLorenzo (@NHLdilo), Director of Social Media and Business Communications for the National Hockey League
• Matthew Cerrone (@matthewcerrone), Founder of metsblog.com
• Tyler Kepner (@tylerkepner), National baseball writer for the New York Times
• Jim Bankoff (@bankoff), Chairman and CEO of SB Nation

As noted above, the panel represented a variety of perspectives (a league, a blogger, a mainstream media sports writer, a businessman who runs a blogging network, and a fan). Personally, I would have liked to see at least one woman on the panel (attention powers that be: there are plenty of female sports writers and bloggers); there were many women (myself included) in the audience.

After brief opening remarks by each panelist, Gary V. immediately opened up the floor for a lively and engaging Q&A session (in which I was a willing and vocal participant – another shocker). What follows is my Tale of the Tweets from the panel. For a complete wrap-up and more detailed analysis, check out the outstanding post by Matt Wurst of 360i at the SWMNY blog.

The bottom line: thanks to the emergence of social media, the boundaries in the sports world shift every minute. The old model has been turned on its head. This represents a challenge for some, an opportunity for many, and an exciting time for all.

Keep reading below to see a complete “Tale of the Tweets” – live commentary via Twitter of the discussion panel.

Tale of the Tweets: Unleashing Social Media on the Sports World

• Social Media & Sports at @nytimes w/@garyvee @tylerkepner @nhldilo@matthewcerrone @bankoff. #smwnytsports
• Whoa. @garyvee is a die-hard NY Jets fan? Had no idea. #sarcasm #smwnytsports
• Per @bankoff: with social media, there has never been a better time to be a sports fan. #smwnytsports
• Social media changes fan’s expectations. Fans expect a player to say something to them now. @garyvee #smwnytsports
• Interesting discussion of how athletes use Twitter. Personally, I don’t follow a single player. They’re boring. #smwnytsports
• RT @dwag29 No longer does ESPN decide who fans will see. Allows non “face of franchise” players to connect w/ fans. #smwnytsports
• We’re in an era of transparency. If you’re not authentic, transparency will run over you. @bankoff #smwnytsports
• Biggest challenge for brands (sports or not) is how to engage the negative. You have to own it. @garyvee #smwnytsports
• Battle to be 1st vs. accuracy. Make sure it’s right. @garyvee says if you’re wrong 3x in a row your brand is dead. #smwnytsports
• Sorry guy who just said Peter King is “the best”, I’m not listening to your question. #smwnytsports
• Paging @jerodmsf: @garyvee just mentioned “that guy who wrote about Ibanez.”#smwnytsports
• This is social media. It’s about engagement and relationships. Sports fans = engagement. #smwnytsports
• Missed the @amyknelson story on @ogochocinco I mentioned? Here it ishttp://bit.ly/awJg0L (h/t @moneyries)#smwnytsports
• Social media is sunlight and water for the NHL fans’ passion. Passion grows. @nhldilo #smwnytsports
• SBNation has 5 credentialed “bloggers” at #SB44. Times have changed. @bankoff#smwnytsports
• Criticism of @mlb. Need to allow viral distribution of video to grow the sport and attract younger fans. #smwnytsports
• What’s next? @bankoff: some place to allow real conversations btwn sports fans instead of cacaphony/shouting. #smwnytsports

I also picked up some good tweets from others who attended the panel:

From Jason C. Fry:

• Thing I keep returning to at #smwnytsports — How do things change when most athletes are social media natives?
• NHL’s DiLorenzo has great warning for leagues re control at #smwnytsports — “No one roots for the shield.”

From Dana Wagner:

• NHL stance on social media is to create “rich experiences” not just promote websites. e.g. NHL Tweetups @NHLdilo #smwnytsports
• People value effort. Athletes don’t need to reply to every single reply/mention as long as it’s clear they’re making effort. #smwnytsports
• Opportunity for brands to integrate with sports fans’ conversation on Twitter during games. #smwnytsports

Winner – Drew Brees – An easy selection for the player that should make the greatest marketing leap because of the Super Bowl. He already got to give the trademark “I’m going to Disney World” line, and there should be many endorsements to follow (hopefully something a little more glamorous than Pampers).

Loser – Peyton Manning – Not that I expect his endorsements to drop off, but as one of the most marketable players in the league before the game, I don’t expect Peyton Manning ads to get a lot of extra airtime this week.

Winner and Loser – Twitter and #SB44 – The Super Bowl completely dominated the Twitter-scape last night, showing its power to unite sports fans into one giant conversation. However, right after the play of the game (Porter’s INT return), Twitter crashed, probably due to everyone wanting to comment on that play. That was bad timing for Twitter.

Winner – Bridgestone – Of all the big time presenting sponsorships that connect to the NFL, Bridgestone really seems to capitalize on their halftime deal. The Who also came through with a solid performance (although not on the level of Bruce Springsteen’s from last year, in my opinion).

Loser – GMC – For a company that was supposedly the presenting sponsor of the biggest sporting event of the year, I still had no idea that they were involved except for the mentions on the NFL website.

Winners – CBS and the NFL – The game had a 46.4 rating and a 68 share, up 10% over last year’s game and the highest ratings since Super Bowl XXI in 1987 (USA Today). In total, this represents almost 100 million viewers.

Winner and Loser – Bourbon Street – The drinks were flowing and the celebrations ran through the night, leading to a good time…for most. However, one individual ruined the night by firing shots from his gun that injured three others. This is not the type of celebrating that New Orleans needs.

Winner – Las Vegas – Based on how the line move throughout the two weeks, it seemed like most of the Las Vegas betting action was on Indianapolis. With the Saints’ win, the casinos may have taken in quite a score.

Advertising Winners:  (Note: this is purely my opinion – I’m sure others will disagree, and that’s fine. Leave your opinions in the comments!)

• Google – A simple, effective and heart-warming ad that should have lasting brand value.
• Doritos – Pretty funny across all their ads, and they did a great job building interest leading up to the game since the commercials are all based on fan ideas that were submitted and voted on through their website.
• Denny’s – Their two ads will have more impact on a company’s bottom line than any other from this year.
• Boost Mobile – A little anti-climactic after the recent build-up, but still a fun parody and something that should drive a steady stream of visitors to their site that they can convert to sales.
• Budweiser – Pretty much the same staple of humorous ads like any year. I enjoyed the Voice Box ad the most, but the human bridge and house made of bud light cans were also strong entrants.
• CBS – Normally I’m not impressed by a station advertising its own shows, but I thought their ads stood out this year and they made the most out of their spots.

Advertising Losers:

• All movie trailers – I still do not understand how this is a profitable marketing approach, unless you are debuting a new trailer and want to make a splash (at least this was the case for Prince of Persia). I doubt that a 0:15 second spot for Wolfman will have any noticeable effect since this ad has been in heavy circulation for weeks now.
• Teleflora – Is it me, or did they run a nearly identical ad in a recent Super Bowl as well? Although, considering how close the Super Bowl is to Valentine’s Day this year, maybe it was a smart move.
• truTV – I just think that this ad was a little creepy, and even if they are launching a new football show, I think its a stretch to say that they’ve added 6 more weeks of football. After all, we have the NFL Network for 52 weeks.
• GoDaddy – These ads were controversial at the time, but now the schtick is getting a little old. Of course, I say that and I’m sure they get more hits to GoDaddy.com this week than any other time of year.
• Dr. Pepper – For all intent purposes, this is the same ad they’ve run with Kiss as part of their “Trust me, I’m a doctor” series of ads. I know they wanted to take advantage of Pepsi’s decision to not advertise this year, but was this the best they could do?
• E*TRADE – I might be in the minority here, but just like my complaint about the GoDaddy ads, I think this joke has run its course – using a new baby doesn’t change anything.

1. What company do you expect to produce the best commercial? How about the worst? The most controversial (besides Tebow’s)?
2. Will Tim Tebow’s commercial be aired?
3. How will the actual halftime performance by the Who impact the value that Bridgestone gets out of their sponsorship?
4. Which presenting sponsor from the past two weeks got the greatest impact from their deal (McDonald’s for the Pro Bowl, Bridgestone for the halftime show, or GMC Sierra for the Super Bowl)?
5. What player has the most to gain in terms of marketability and potential endorsement deals?
6. Will the NFL’s #SB44 hash tag be the top trending topic on Twitter on Sunday?
7. How will the ratings compare to last year? Could we have a record viewership?
8. Which team winning would lead to the most merchandise sales?
9. How successful of a year has this been for the NFL as a whole?
10. Finally, who do you think will win the game?

Enjoy the game!

From the very beginning, Under Armour has built their brand around the idea of high-quality apparel for peak athletic performance. This concept has been consistent throughout all of their various marketing platforms. In fact, Under Armour has rarely endorsed specific athletes, instead opting to focus on the imagery of intense workouts and competition. What event offers more coverage of talented athlete workouts than the NFL Scouting Combine? Their brand and apparel will be featured on every potential draft pick that participates in combine drills, and with the increased coverage of the event on NFL Network and NFL.com, the exposure level and overall media value should be even greater than last year (they already have a significant presence on the NFL’s combine website).

A nice addition to this partnership is an increased level of activation leading up to the combine itself. Rather than being content with just media coverage, Under Armour is running a “Countdown to Combine” grassroots campaign in the Miami area. They’re kicking off this campaign by creating a “combine-like” event for local high school and youth football players right after Super Bowl weekend. Local events like this will continue right up to the combine itself at the end of February.

It’s good to see a deal like this between UA and the NFL. With such a strong fit between sponsor and property, both sides should see more benefit. If the deal was with a food chain, financial firm or some other disconnected industry segment, it would be more challenging to build a successful campaign around the event. That’s not to say those deals wouldn’t have been effective, but they would definitely require some creative approaches and extra effort to generate the same type of impact.

Dear Russell,

Hello!  I hope you do not mind my staying in touch with you!  It has been about six months since you purchased your new vehicle and I just want you to know I am here, at your service.

I hope you will give me a call any time you, your family or your friends have any automotive needs or questions.  I am here to help.  Remember, my commitment is to be of service to you.

Sincerely,
– HIS NAME HERE –
– HIS COMPANY –
– HIS PHONE & EMAIL –

There’s nothing fancy here, no sales pitches or angles. Just a simple message to say hello and see if there’s anything I need. Yes, there is a subtle reference to potential referrals, but that’s an important part of sales, and most of the time, people do need a little prodding before they’d refer a personal contact.

To me, a letter like this is a critical component on maintaining a valuable relationship with your customers, and this can easily be applied by sales and service staff for any sports organization. You don’t always need a reason to reach out to your season ticket holders. Sometimes just saying hello is enough to make them feel valued and important. It’s also a great way to casually remind them about your product, and that alone can lead to incremental sales and increased customer lifetime value at practically no cost to you.

The rest of the top five were LeBron James, Phil Mickelson, Albert Pujols and Peyton Manning. LeBron at #2 makes a lot of sense, but I thought that Manning (the NFL’s most marketable player) would be a shoe-in for #3. Instead, another golfer slides in at #3 and the most dangerous hitter in baseball landed at #4, even though he’s seems to slide under the radar in the public spotlight (probably because he plays in St. Louis). Here are some other quick “surprises” in my opinion:

• Brett Favre at #15 – Seems low considering his immense impact of the NFL’s ratings and merchandise sales
• Joe Mauer at #19 – Seems high since he still has a reasonably low contract number and plays in a small market
• David Beckham at #35 – Seems low – he’s still arguably the most iconic soccer player in the world
• Alex Ovechkin/Sidney Crosby at #37/39 – Seems low, since they are the current identity of the NHL
• Hines Ward at #40 – Seems high for a aging WR who doesn’t get nearly the attention that other NFL wide receivers receive
• Danica Patrick at #88 – Seems low – with her move to the Nationwide Series, her marketing and earning potential keeps growing

BusinessWeek does a nice job is breaking down the methodology of their list, providing additional analysis on why some did (and didn’t) make the cut, and other looks at the top sports business stories of the year. Click here to read more about their Power 100 list. If you want a quick look at this list yourself, you can see it right here behind the break.

           POWER 100 LIST
==========================================
     Athlete             Sport
==========================================
  1. Tiger Woods         Golf
  2. LeBron James        Basketball
  3. Phil Mickelson      Golf
  4. Albert Pujols       Baseball
  5. Peyton Manning      Football
  6. Dwyane Wade         Basketball
  7. Michael Phelps      Swimming
  8. Adrian Peterson     Football
  9. Shaquille O’Neal    Basketball
 10. Lance Armstrong     Cycling
 11. Rafael Nadal        Tennis
 12. Kobe Bryant         Basketball
 13. Larry Fitzgerald    Football
 14. Ryan Howard         Baseball
 15. Brett Favre         Football
 16. Serena Williams     Tennis
 17. Roger Federer       Tennis
 18. Eli Manning         Football
 19. Joe Mauer           Baseball
 20. Tim Duncan          Basketball
 21. Jimmie Johnson      Auto Racing
 22. Kevin Garnett       Basketball
 23. Chris Johnson       Football
 24. Randy Moss          Football
 25. Drew Brees          Football
 26. Kurt Warner         Football
 27. Usain Bolt          Track & Field
 28. Jeff Gordon         Auto Racing
 29. Dirk Nowitzki       Basketball
 30. Tom Brady           Football
 31. Kevin Durant        Basketball
 32. CC Sabathia         Baseball
 33. Derek Jeter         Baseball
 34. Prince Fielder      Baseball
 35. David Beckham       Soccer
 36. Dwight Howard       Basketball
 37. Alex Ovechkin       Hockey
 38. Andre Johnson       Football
 39. Sidney Crosby       Hockey
 40. Hines Ward          Football
 41. Mark Martin         Auto Racing
 42. Venus Williams      Tennis
 43. Donovan McNabb      Football
 44. Chris Paul          Basketball
 45. Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Auto Racing
 46. Mark Teixeira       Baseball
 47. LaDainian Tomlinson Football
 48. Tony Stewart        Auto Racing
 49. Chase Utley         Baseball
 50. Jim Furyk           Golf
 51. Shaun White         Snowboarding
 52. David Wright        Baseball
 53. Ilya Kovalchuk      Hockey
 54. Ben Roethlisberger  Football
 55. Steve Nash          Basketball
 56. Lorena Ochoa        Golf
 57. Evan Longoria       Baseball
 58. Deron Williams      Basketball
 59. Paul Pierce         Basketball
 60. Carmelo Anthony     Basketball
 61. Alex Rodriguez      Baseball
 62. Johan Santana       Baseball
 63. Tim Lincecum        Baseball
 64. Apolo Anton Ohno    Speedskating
 65. Stewart Cink        Golf
 66. Ray Allen           Basketball
 67. Carl Edwards        Auto Racing
 68. Yao Ming            Basketball
 69. Troy Polamalu       Football
 70. Kyle Busch          Auto Racing
 71. Landon Donovan      Soccer
 72. Manny Pacquiao      Boxing
 73. Padraig Harrington  Golfer
 74. Vince Carter        Basketball
 75. Tony Romo           Football
 76. Dustin Pedroia      Baseball
 77. Ichiro Suzuki       Baseball
 78. Ray Lewis           Football
 79. Andy Roddick        Tennis
 80. Maria Sharapova     Tennis
 81. Sergio Garcia       Golf
 82. Fedor Emelianenko   Mixed Martial Arts
 83. Derrick Rose        Basketball
 84. Vijay Singh         Golf
 85. Steven Jackson      Football
 86. Andy Murray         Tennis
 87. Allen Iverson       Basketball
 88. Danica Patrick      Auto Racing
 89. Brandon Roy         Basketball
 90. Manny Ramirez       Baseball
 91. Floyd Mayweather    Boxing
 92. Candace Parker      Basketball
 93. Shane Mosley        Boxing
 94. Diana Taurasi       Basketball
 95. Misty May-Treanor   Volleyball
 96. Brock Lesnar        Mixed Martial Arts
 97. Patrick Kane        Hockey
 98. Chad Ochocinco      Football
 99. Matt Ryan           Football
100. Ryan Sheckler       Skateboarding

Sunday, January 31 - Case Cup competition: Some of you may not know, but I am a member of the final (for now) Sports Business MBA class from Arizona State University. Four of my classmates will be participating in the annual Case Cup competition. I am excited to cheer them on (silently) and hopefully go out on a winning note!

Monday, February 1 – Morning: After the General Session and Super Panel, the first round of Breakout Sessions start. The one I’m planning on attending is: ‘New Media = New Opportunities: Using the Latest Communication Technologies to Generate Revenue.’ It is a panel, and considering my current fellowship at Digital Royalty, I’m very interested in how the sports industry responds to and takes advantage of new media. You’ll notice this as a theme throughout the week.

Monday – Afternoon: This session will be spent at ‘The 3 Social Media Musts.’ I see a lot of Top 10 lists, or articles about ‘20 things to do to improve your personal brand,’ but three is a number I can handle. I still consider myself somewhat new to Twitter, and a total rookie when it comes to LinkedIn, so I think this session will be a good litmus test for my social media savvy.

Monday – Evening: One of the events I’m most anticipating is on Monday night. Digital Royalty is hosting a ‘meet-up’ at the ESPN Zone in Inner Harbor. We’ve put the word out through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as inviting our friends and colleagues. Anyone who will be in Baltimore is invited. Come out, have a drink, get an ESPN game card, and meet some of the dR crew (ie Amy and me).

Tuesday – Super Panel: Tuesday’s Super Panel looks really interesting. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Kevin Plank from Under Armour are two of the guests. I’m excited to hear what Mr. “Iron Man” Ripken has to say. He seemed to play the game with such joy and passion, and was looked to as the penultimate leader. Kevin Plank has led Under Armour to amazing growth in a market that must have been intimidating considering how dominated it was by Nike and Adidas.

Tuesday – Morning Breakout: For this session, I’ll be front row (if not backstage) for Amy’s presentation on ‘Social Media: The Bottom Line.’ In the short time I’ve been with Digital Royalty, I’ve been really impressed by the amount of metrics and data that go into their social media campaigns and presentations. For anyone who works for a company that is trying to monetize social media, or who needs to justify to the ‘higher-ups’ the time commitment to do social media correctly, I think this is a must-see.

Tuesday – Lunch: Wow. Ari Fleischer. I’m really interested to see how many times the BCS comes up during his keynote speech. I have followed InsideTheBCS for awhile on Twitter, and feel a little like I’m getting sent propaganda, but regardless, this is an absolute lion in the Public Relations realm. I’m pretty sure there will be some worthwhile takeaways.

Tuesday – Afternoon: I’ll be attending ’7 Touches.’ Besides Sports Business, I am also specializing in Strategic Marketing and Services Leadership at ASU. Ever since my first services marketing class, I have been hyper-sensitive to customer service, and how each and every interaction with a brand shapes the way you feel about that brand. Knowing that, I think customer service for teams and leagues right now should be a huge focus.

Wednesday: I’ll be attending the “What Keeps You Up At Night” Super Panel. I especially want to hear what Kevin Payne, the President & CEO of DC United, has to say. I know they have had some on-going stadium proposal issues, and are facing ever-increasing pressure from new MLS teams. My ears will be tuned for his comments in particular.

Wow, just writing this has been a little exhausting, so I can only imagine what the actual four days will be like! I hope to see some of you there, and would love to hear what sessions you’re most interested in attending…

As time goes on, there is more and more content buried deep in the archives of this blog, so every now and then, I like to reach into “the vault” and revisit an old post. This article was originally published on February 11, 2009, right after last year’s NFL Pro Bowl took place. I discussed the pros and cons of moving the 2010 NFL Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl, which is this Sunday.

——————–

Did you catch the big football game on Sunday?  There were some amazing plays and even a great 4th quarter comeback.  In case you’re confused, I’m referring to the NFL Pro Bowl, which due to the timing of the event and the lack of participation by many players, is generally the least-relevant all-star game of the four major U.S. leagues (yes, I’d even put the NHL All-Star Game ahead of it).  Because of the the NFL’s schedule structure and the risk of injury, the league cannot have a mid-season exhibition like the other sports.  However, the NFL did decide to make some changes for next year, moving the game up to the off-week before the Super Bowl and playing the game at the same location as the Super Bowl.

I’ve heard many mixed opinions about this change.  The biggest downside is that any Pro Bowl players from two Super Bowl teams (and theoretically there should be several) would not be able to participate.  But considering how many players voluntarily decide not to play in this game anyway, I don’t see this as a big loss.  Its clearly a negative for Aloha Stadium in Hawaii, but the contract with the NFL had expired, and the league is still going to give them a chance to get the game back in the future. (Editor’s Note: The game will be back in Hawaii in 2011 and 2012, but it may occur the week before or after the Super Bowl, still to be determined.) Finally, the players (and the wealthier fans) tend to enjoy a trip to Hawaii.  While next year’s Super Bowl is in Miami, future games will not be in such a tropical location, which could actually hurt game attendance by players and fans.

On the positive side, making the game an official part of Super Bowl Week will create more public interest and media exposure, which in turn will boost the ratings.  The Super Bowl is such an exciting climax to the season, that anything occurring after it does not get any attention.  This change also creates another exciting event for people in town that week, which is more important now considering the number of events that did not happen this year because of the down economy.  Finally, the Pro Bowl will be able to connect with the NFL Experience, which is one of the biggest attractions of Super Bowl week.  One of the reasons that the NBA All-Star Game is such a successful event is the All-Star Jam Session that takes place leading up to the game.  The Pro Bowl does not have that same type of fanfare in Hawaii, but in conjunction with the Super Bowl, there will be plenty of hoopla to help create a more exciting environment.

I think this decision will prove to be a good one by the NFL, and even if its not, I give them a lot of credit for acknowledging the current problems and trying something different.

——————–

So last year, I thought this was a good idea for the NFL, but now that we’ve reached the week of the actual game, it seems like there has been some more backlash than I expected about an increased number of players opting not to play. Clearly this includes all members of the Colts and Saints, but there also seems to be more injury-related dropouts than normal.  Maybe the two week difference in game date is enough to influence these player decisions as well. I’m sure we’ll have a more final verdict on this decision after Sunday’s television ratings come out, but in the meantime, what do you think of the timing of this year’s Pro Bowl?

This year, instead of another “video” contest, they are tapping into fan creativity in a different way. Every viewer has their own ideas on how they can improve their fan experience, but outside of their own circle of friends, they don’t have a large platform to share their ideas. Coke Zero is using this concept to create a “Department of Fannovation” campaign where people can share their ideas on a large scale through the website http://www.cokezero.com/ncaa (you can also click here to watch a video on how the contest works).

The top 64 ideas will get entered into a “Brain Bracket” just like the traditional NCAA basketball bracket. Fan votes will determine the winner in each match-up until one idea is the crowned champion and receives the top prize of $10,000 and a trip to the 2011 NCAA Final Four. There will also be prizes for making the bracket itself and advancing to the Sweet Sixteen and Final Four levels.

For Coca-Cola, the goal is to connect the idea of innovation back to the Coke Zero brand and the way they “innovated” a new diet beverage that still mirrors the traditional Coke flavor. Doing this through a platform like the NCAA tournament, which has a very passionate and interactive fan base, has the potential to make a deeper brand impact among this particular consumer audience (and we know that sports fans are more likely to be brand-loyal consumers).

Here is a great example that I just stumbled upon from the Trenton Thunder, one of the local minor league teams here in New Jersey. They decided well before the season starts that they want to have something special to offer on any given day of the week, so why not let everyone know about it now and get their fans excited about what days they want to come to the ballpark. Their plans breaks down as such:

• Kids Eat Free Mondays – great for bring families out to the game
• $1 Dog Tuesdays – A favorite marketing tactic for any cost-conscious buyers
• Wacky Wednesdays – Theme nights designed for those that want more than just baseball entertainment when they come to a game
• Thirsty Thursdays – Beer specials and fireworks, who doesn’t enjoy that?
• Family Fun Fridays – Giveaways and fireworks, again geared toward family consumers, but without any discounting involved
• Fireworks Spectacular Saturdays – Another way to generate excitement for the less baseball-obsessive customers (who would come to games anyway)
• Kids Rule Sundays – Giveaways, youth entertainers, opportunity for kids to run the bases, and a free ticket incentive for Kids Club members (which can boost sales of their $15 kids membership club

This is an excellent mix of tactics that should help the team reach a wide customer base beyond the team’s core fan base. In addition, all of these promotions can be successful individually , but without a schedule, it is much more challenging for the team to try and promote each separate event or offer. By taking this approach, the Thunder can really plan our their marketing efforts for the season knowing that each of these offers occurs on a consistent schedule.

Now, we’re all busy people. We have filled our lives with work, family, blogging, reading, UFC, Conan and/or shopping. So, if you’re anything like me, you read about the demise of the Washington Times sports section, your mouth fell open, you retweeted it, and then you moved on to the next thing. I don’t blame you at all, but I had to bring it up one more time… because we have an epidemic on our hands.

Ok, maybe it isn’t actually an epidemic. But I can just about guarantee you that TWT won’t be the first major newspaper to do-away with its’ sports section. I think Bob Dylan said it best: Times, they are a-changin’. I’m not lamenting that fact, I just think this is a great opportunity to see the future before it happens.

Think about what a world without traditional sports news looks like:

• That two and a half minutes in your local news broadcast, that used to be sports (and which has been slowly shrinking over the years), gets re-appropriated to weather/traffic/muggings.
• The empty suites at your hometown stadium become part of the press box to accommodate the 250+ blogger/fans that cover each game.
• You have to bookmark 10+ sites to make sure you really know what happened on the team plane, because there were no actual reporters/bloggers there, and no one has been able to get the story from more than one player to corroborate it.
• You save roughly $300 a year since you can now cancel that pesky newspaper subscription, millions of trees are saved, global warming ceases to exist, and 2012 becomes just another year, instead of ‘the end of the world.

Ok, to be serious, it just hit me this week what a major development this is. It’s easy to dismiss it now, because I have ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and countless team forums/official web sites/fan pages to give me the news that I want at the touch of the ‘Search Now’ button. Plus, I have Twitter, which is like a sieve that helps me catch those stories that I would otherwise have missed.

In closing, I think the shuttering of the Washington Times sports section was like the lighting of the Olympic torch. There is still a journey to take: a journey that will consist of other major papers taking  the same route. Some day, our kids (or grandkids) will have to ask us what ’sports section’ means. Maybe Wikipedia will even have an entry for it. So let’s take a moment to remember the sports section fondly… the newsprint on our fingers (and eventually on our clothes), the asterisk next to the late game that didn’t finish before the paper went to print, the endlessly optimistic or pessimistic view of the local teams’ beat writer, depending on their personality. If you’re feeling as nostalgic as I am, go out and buy your local paper and read the sports section one more time, for old times sake. And if you’re a Washington Times subscriber, hmmm… I guess there’s always USA Today!

The timing of the deal ends up being unfortunate for Land Shark Lager, since they just miss out on being tied to the biggest U.S. sporting event of the year (although I’m sure they had plenty of opportunity to renew the deal, but decided it wasn’t worth the cost). On the positive side, Sun Life has definitely increased their marketing spend over the past few months, and now topping it all off with “hosting” the Super Bowl is quite an accomplishment. There is also an interesting parallel with their recent television campaign where they want to change Florida’s nickname to the “Sun Life State.” In a way, they’re actually doing that!

The Dolphins should also get some credit for being able to turn around a full, five-year deal in such a small time. However, the contract is only worth $7.5 million for an average of $1.5 million per year, which is well below the revenue generated by most other NFL naming rights contracts. UPDATE: I’ve seen conflicting information on the annual cost of the deal. The Miami Herald article now says the deal is worth $7.5M per year (it’s possible I misread this the first time), while the New York Times is reporting an annual net fee of $4M per year.

I have a few questions on this topic:

• Has the frequent turnover in their stadium name had a permanent impact in the value that the stadium name offers to a potential partner? Along the same lines, can the naming rights partner generate as much brand equity being the 7th name on the building?
• Could they have generated more revenue by going with an even shorter-term deal for the upcoming Pro Bowl/Super Bowl events, and then exploring a longer-term agreement with a different partner?
• Does the fact that the Pro Bowl now has its own title sponsor (McDonald’s) diminish the value associated with the name of the facility where the event is occurring? Did that have an effect on the total dollar value of the contract?
• There seems to be a trade-off between pursuing long-term naming rights deals vs. exploring shorter-term deals. Which method do we think will be the trend moving forward. I would still think long-term deals are better for both parties in terms of potential value generated, but there is a definite loss of flexibility.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Do you like the partnership for the Dolphins and Sun Life? Who got the better end of the deal?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of time to write today, but I want you to have your sports business fix, so here are some good articles I’ve seen over the past couple of days. Enjoy!

• Antitrust Case Has Implications Far Beyond NFL – New York Times, 1/6/2010 (also check out the followup editorial piece fron 1/12, Football and Antitrust)
• Sony To Be The Official Sponsor Of ESPN 3D Network – Eye On Sports Media, 1/7/2010
• Soccer Looks To Philly For A Dose Of Brotherly (and Sisterly) Branding Love – Sports Marketing and PR Roundup (Joe Favorit0), 1/8/2010
• McDonald’s to be presenting sponsor of 2010 Pro Bowl – NFL.com, 1/11/2010
• Jazz ticket holders get transfer-fee rights – Salt Lake Tribune, 1/11/2010
• NY Mets Beaned By Ads, Sues SpongeTech – New York Post, 1/14/2010

Also, don’t forget to vote in our “Top Sports Business Story of 2010″ poll to the right!

UF Sports Law Symposium to examine legal playbook as Collective Bargaining Agreements expire

On Jan. 29 sports agents, litigators, salary cap analysts and sports law students will huddle up at the University of Florida Levin College of Law to get ready for a whole new ball game.

In the next two years, time will expire on the Collective Bargaining Agreements affecting the negotiation of salaries and playing conditions for professional athletes. The 2010 UF Sports Law Symposium, “Discussion: Bargaining Collectively,” presented by UF’s Entertainment & Sports Law Society, will bring together sports law experts and representatives from the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball to discuss why CBA’s exist, how they help players and owners, and to identify contract terms that will likely be argued before the agreement expires. The free event, set to kick off at 11 a.m. at UF Law’s Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom 180, will offer CLE credits.

“The 2010 UF Sports Law Symposium will be an excellent forum for students, athletes, professors and others interested in sports law to network and learn from the brightest minds in sports law,” said Darren Heitner, president of UF Entertainment & Sports Law Society.

The keynote speaker for this year’s symposium will be Harvey W. Schiller, Ph.D., who has served as president of the International Baseball Federation since 2007 and is also chairman of the board and CEO of GlobalOptions Group, a multidisciplinary international risk management and business solutions company located in New York. Prior to joining GlobalOptions in 1994, Schiller held posts at Turner Broadcasting System, served as the executive director/secretary general of the United States Olympic Committee and was the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.

“It’s an honor to be able to address future sports-business leaders in Gainesville,” Schiller said. “We live in very challenging times where the changes in the way we conduct business occurs in minutes. Adapting and understanding those changes is critical to our success as professionals. It is my hope that forums like the one being held at the University of Florida, provide the framework for the growth of the industry and to inspire further discussion and opportunity.”

Closing the day-long symposium will be Donald Fehr who served as the general counsel of the Major League Baseball Players Association beginning in 1977, and as its executive director for 26 years from December, 1983. In his role as executive director, Fehr served as the players’ chief negotiator in collective bargaining with major league owners and was responsible for contract administration, grievance arbitration and pension and health care matters. Fehr will address the role of collective bargaining in professional team sports, and discuss his experiences in his role with the players association.

“Interesting things are on the horizon for the four major professional team sports in North America,” Don Fehr said.

To view the symposium agenda, speaker profiles and designated CLE credits, visit http://www.ufsportslaw.com/symposium.html. For more information regarding the symposium, contact Darren Heitner at heitner@gmail.com.

• Tiger Woods: The top story of 2009 will continue to dominate headlines through this year. We’ve probably seen most of the sponsor fallout already (a few more may bail out later on), but the biggest stories will be his impact on the PGA Tour as a whole, his attempt to rebuild his image, and what sponsors may decide to support him again once he returns to action.
• Collective Bargaining: Three of the four major U.S. sports leagues (4 of 5 if you include MLS) have labor deals that expire in 2010 and will need to be negotiated. Most of the talk has focused on the NFL labor deal, since their lack of a renewal is leading to an uncapped year for player salaries in 2010, but the impending negotiations for MLB and NHL are also worth watching. These leagues have each suffered from work stoppages in the recent past, so I expect all measure to be taken to prevent another now.
• The Winter Olympics: Just around the corner from now, the Olympic Games are always a top story when they take place. So many important elements to watch, including athletes that make the leap into public awareness (making them marketable in the future), television ratings and media coverage (seems to be quiet headed into the games), and how sponsors are able to leverage their Olympic partnership leading up to, during and after the Games.
• The World Cup: The other major international sporting event of the year takes place this spring in South Africa. Like the Olympics, media coverage and ratings is an important story, especially since the World Cup seems to be the one soccer story that generates public interest in the U.S.  This is also the first time that the World Cup will take place in Africa, and with that comes a massive economic impact to the region, along with concerns about the local infrastructure supporting the event.
• NBA Free-Agent-Palooza: This summer will without a doubt be the highest profile free agent season that the NBA has ever experienced. The biggest story is clearly LeBron James, but throw in the likes of Wade, Bosh, Nowitzki, Ming, Stoudamire, McGrady, Ginobli and Shaq among others, and the market is going to explode. Of course, the timing is also interesting because of attendance and revenue problems that most NBA teams are currently suffering with, which will lead to a smaller cap and luxury tax threshold next season.

There are several other stories beyond these, such as the proposed law against the BCS being a “national championship” game, Danica Patrick’s move to NASCAR, the NBC-Comcast merger, and the NFL vs. American Needle lawsuit (which attacks the antitrust protection that sports leagues currently have). What stories are you going to follow in 2010? Don’t forget to vote in our new poll on the top right of the page!

Please pass this along to any friends or colleagues that would also be interested in attending. And keep an eye on the Event Calendar page for future networking events in New York and other locations!

Thanks as always to Joshua Duboff from The Sports Business Exchange for his continued help in organizing this event!

January 7 – Bill Cowher accepts the head coaching position for the Buffalo Bills (this will be important later in the year).

January 18 – Brett Favre retires (again) after the Vikings are knocked out in the Divisional round by the Arizona Cardinals.

February 13 – The US Speedskating team takes Gold-Silver-Bronze in the Men’s 5000 meter race, and Stephen Colbert is hailed as a hero. Skin-tight speedskating suits with ‘Colbert Nation’ imprinted on the thigh become the highest-selling Olympic merchandise in the U.S.

March 29 – Tiger Woods makes his first appearance on a golf course since the infamous one-car accident in a final tune-up to The Masters. He is peppered with questions but continues to maintain his silence about all personal matters. The next week he takes out his pent-up frustration out on Augusta National, winning the Masters in 1997-like fashion by 10 over former good buddy, recently-rejuvenated Jesper Parnevik. The southern gentlemen in Georgia take it easy on Tiger, but he really hears it from the fans as he wins the  U.S. Open in Pebble Beach in June.

May 31 – Roger Federer shows he isn’t content just to hold the record for Grand Slam victories, he wants to put some distance between himself and Pete Sampras. He adds to his total by winning the French Open at Roland Garros, defeating Andy Roddick in four sets.

June – The United States Men’s Soccer Team makes good on the U.S. Soccer Federations Project 2010 when they make a spectacular run through Group C, tying England 1-1 and defeating Algeria and Slovenia by matching 2-1 scores. They advance on penalty kicks after a 2-2 tie in the quarterfinals, then see a rematch of the 2002 quarter-finals when they face Germany. This time, though, the U.S. emerges victorious by a 2-0 score. Finally, the Yanks face Brazil in the finals, and set off a national frenzy when they sneak by the yellow, blue and green 1-0.

July 30 - Reminiscent of Kevin Costner in ‘For Love of the Game’, Pedro Martinez pitches a perfect game against his former team, the Boston Red Sox, in Fenway Park, after being picked up by the Detroit Tigers as a free agent during the off-season.

August 23 – Brett Favre comes out of retirement for a third time after being signed by the Detroit Lions. Matthew Stafford is injured in pre-season training camp, paving the way for Favre to be signed. At the ensuing press conference, Favre states that he’s had a long-standing desire to play for every team in the NFC North, basically telling Kyle Orton to watch his back in 2011.

September 4 – In a total reversal from his December press conference, Urban Meyer is on the sidelines as the head coach for the University of Florida’s football game against Miami of Ohio. After the game, he says he got plenty of family time in the three weeks he took off after the Gators’ Sugar Bowl win over Cincinnati.

November 21 – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wins his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship in the last race of the season, edging out four-time winner Jimmie Johnson by a nose.

December 26 – The Buffalo Bills, led by Cowher, defeat the New England Patriots to finish 2010 with a 15-0 record. Only a game against the New York Jets stand between them and a perfect regular-season record.

So there you have it. 2010 is going to be an amazing year in sports, so invest in that satellite sports package, make sure your DVR has plenty of room on it, and get ready for another entertaining ride!

I also want to thank some of our great contributors from the past year. Their guest posts have added more insights and value to the site that I could possibly have done by myself. Here they all are…I hope I didn’t miss anyone!

• Amanda Miller – our first official regular contributor
• Dino Gomez – our first official intern
• Amanda Rykoff
• Donald Dell
• Christopher Byrne
• Rob Campbell
• Steve Koss
• Tyler Tumminia
• Tim Newman
• Bob Burris
• Kris Mathis
• Ron Contorno
• Joshua Duboff
• Dave Fogelson
• Brendan Wilhide
• AJ Maestas
• Dan Beeman
• Paulo da Silva
• Jackie Adkins
• Gail Sideman
• Adam Sherlip

Thanks again, and I wish all of you a happy and successful new year in 2010! And if you live in the New York area, don’t forget to RSVP for our first networking event of the year on January 13. Click here for all the details.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

• New stadium openings for the Yankees, Mets and Cowboys
• 2016 Olympics awarded to Rio
• The passing of Myles Brand
• Michael Phelps’ image issues
• ESPN’s regional expansion efforts
• Soccer making noise in the U.S.  (MLS expansion to Seattle and interest in U.S. National Team)
• The NBC – Comcast merger
• The tribulations of college head coaches (Mangino, Leach, Weis, Calipari, Meyer and more)

Top Five Stories of 2009 (in reverse order):

#5 – Performance Enhancing Drugs – These stories continued in 2009 with some very high-profile additions, most notably Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. A-Rod and Big Papi were connected to previous failed tests (A-Rod admitted his guilt, while Ortiz denied it). Meanwhile, Manny become the most prolific player to fail a test during a season, leading to his 50 game suspension. While the initial response to these failed tests was very negative, especially in Rodriguez’s case, it seems like much of the negativity has subsided. In fact, Manny Ramirez seemed to suffer no public repercussions outside of his lost salary during the suspension. Maybe baseball is finally starting to get past the PED issue.

#4 – Famous Athlete Returns - Michael Vick and Brett Favre both “returned” to the NFL under slightly different circumstances, but both became major stories. Vick’s return really created a divide among sports fans, with some feeling that he should never be allowed back in the NFL while others felt he deserved a second change. Ultimately the Eagles gave him that chance, and Vick became a polarizing figure in Philadelphia. On the other end, Favre’s back and forth about un-retiring and ultimate decision to sign with the Minnesota Vikings was a national obsession by the sports media and arguably the biggest story of the 2009 NFL season. The Monday Night game between the Vikings and Packers set a viewership record, and his impact on ticket and merchandise sales has been tremendous. And I almost forgot about Lance Armstrong’s return to compete in the Tour De France, making cycling relevant again in the U.S.

#3 – The Twitter Explosion – Who knew that you could make such an impact in 140 characters or less? Twitter has become a must for all levels of sports communications. We saw everything from players leaking news (Kevin Love’s tweet about McHale leaving), inappropriate messages leading to suspensions (Texas A&M and Larry Johnson scandals), social media policies from almost every league and news outlet, multiple companies attempting to aggregate and monetize content, and much more. Twitter has arguably created the most direct way for leagues, team and athletes themselves to connect with and communicate with their fans.

#2 – The Phoenix Coyotes Saga – Between all the moving parts (NHL, Gary Bettman, Jim Balsille, Ontario, Glendale, Jobing.com Arena, Jerry Reinsdorf), this was quite the story. Hockey has clearly not done well in the desert, particularly after the move from Phoenix to Glendale. The team filed for bankruptcy, and Balsille was ready to step in and save the team…as long as he could move them to Hamilton, Ontario. The NHL refused, the league and Balsille went to court, Reinsdorf wanted to but the team but changed his mind. This story is still not resolved, but something has to be done soon to save this franchise.

#1 – Tiger Woods – Do I really need to expound on this one? I would say that the sports business year closed with a bang, but that pun is borderline inappropriate. In the last couple of weeks, this has become the overwhelming top story of 2009, and it could easily be the top story for 2010 as we witness the complete fallout, from lost endorsements to his overall impact on the PGA Tour. What a story, and what a year!

1. Become the commissioner of a professional sports league: Roger Goodell (2, NFL), David Stern (4, NBA), Bud Selig (7, MLB), Gary Bettman (12, NHL), Tim Finchem (18, PGA), and Don Garber (33, MLS) all made the list by being their sports’ head honcho. While I bet it feels good to be king, all of these men have taken shots for their decisions over the course of 2009, and some are feeling the heat for the decisions of others (Mr. Finchem, I’m referring to you). Regardless, becoming the Commish is a pretty good way to gain influence (but we can’t guarantee that people will like you).

2.  Head up a major television conglomerate:  George Bodenheimer (3, ESPN/ABC Sports), Brian Roberts & Steve Burke (5, Comcast), Dick Ebersol (6, NBC Universal), Chase Carey & David Hill (8, Fox/News Corp.), Sean McManus (10, CBS Sports), John Skipper & Sean Bratches (19, ESPN), David Levy (21, TBS), Jeff Shell (29, Comcast), Steve Bornstein (31, NFL Network), and Tracy Dolgin (50, YES Network) all saw their name in print because, as we’ve been reminded of many times in the past 12 months, television is big business for sports. Rights fees, retrans fees, carriage fees… it’s harder to grasp than the legalese on that credit card application, but for those who are schooled in the language of TV contracts, chances are good that they’ll hold some sway over the sports industry.

3.  Work your way up at an agency (or start your own):  George Pyne (26, IMG), Casey Wasserman (32, Wasserman Media Group), Michael Levine & Howard Nuchow (37, CAA Sports), Scott Boras (38, The Scott Boras Group), Tom Condon & Ben Dogra (44, CAA Football), Phil de Picciotto & Rick Dudley (47, Octagon). Whether you’re representing the athletes in major sponsorship deals or representing major companies in their deals with sports properties, heading up an agency guarantees people will pick up the phone when you call.

4.  Own an NFL team:  Jerry Jones (9, Dallas Cowboys), Robert Kraft (13, New England Patriots), Pat Bowlen (35, Denver Broncos). Some joke that Kraft has as much power as Goodell. Regardless, these men have a strong voice when it comes to decisions that swing millions of dollars… from players to owners, from small-market teams to large-market teams (or vice-versa).

This might not be a road map for your career, but it does give you an idea where to concentrate your energies if you want to become one of the 50 most influential people in sports business. Oh, one final note:

5.  Be a man:  Only one person on the list of 50+ can wear a skirt to work without getting sidelong glances. Katie Bayne (46, Coca-Cola) was the sole female on the list this year. Hopefully, this is a trend we’ll see changing over the next few years as more women advance to senior positions in the industry.

For example, I saw this Phil Mickelson/Callaway commercial twice this weekend (click here to view the video).

I believe one time I saw it during a Sunday NFL game, which is an expensive time slot. Now I don’t remember seeing many Callaway commercials over the past few months, so hopefully this is an example of Callaway realizing that Nike is vulnerable right now. By committing more money to their advertising spend, I believe that this will be their best chance to steal market share from Nike. This same approach can be taken from any other golf club, ball or apparel manufacturer.

Hopefully all of these non-Tiger-endorsed golf companies are reevaluating their media spend budget and schedule right now. How many opportunities like this will they get to make a big dent in their competition?

In Miami: You get to take your pick, the Panthers (up to 7 games, a puck and free parking), the Marlins (one ticket to each home series in 2010) and the Heat (too complicated to even get into here).

In Cleveland: The Cavaliers have a holiday ticket plan that includes two Cavaliers games and a Lake Erie Monsters game (hockey) with the choice of either the Harlem Globetrotters, Disney on Ice or a Mid-American Conference (MAC) tournament game. The Plan can cost as little as $79 and you get a FREE Cavs basketball. Not too shabby for anyone within shooting distance of Lake Erie.

In Atlanta: The Falcons’ Holiday Package includes two tickets to the Buffalo Bills game on December 27 (who wouldn’t want to see the Bills play? I would!!) and a $50 gift certificate to hhgregg.com (an online appliance and electronics store). Package of two tickets starts at $98.

In Los Angeles: Chivas USA is offering tickets to four games for as low as $45. The interesting thing about this one is that they are offering tickets to games that traditionally sell well. Games include the home opener versus the Colorado Rapids and match-ups with in-town rivals the LA Galaxy, the Chicago Fire (with popular Hispanic player Cuauhtemoc Blanco) and defending MLS Champions Real Salt Lake.

In Denver: The Colorado Avalanche’s Holiday Pack includes four games (one the day after Christmas, two in January and one in March), an autographed puck and a team flag. Prices start at $89, and the pack also comes with playoff ticket priority.

These are just a few of the offerings available out there right now. If your favorite team or city isn’t listed, I can almost guarantee you that your team has some kind of holiday promotion available. Even if you’re team doesn’t play until the spring, there’s still a good chance that they are offering some kind of deal. And if you work for a team and you aren’t offering a special holiday package, use the ideas above as examples and get to work! Happy Holidays!

I feel very fortunate that I’ve gotten to know Josh, and he’s put a lot of time and effort into developing The Sports Business Exchange into a valuable industry resource.  He’s also been instrumental in the success we’ve had with The Business of Sports networking events, which we organize together. We’ve actually just announce the date for our next New York event, which will take place on Wednesday, January 13 (location TBD). You can RSVP for the event here – Josh and I hope to see you there!

I’ve included a copy of the latest TSBX issue below, or you can click download to get a PDF version. Enjoy!

The Sports Business Exchange – Fall 2009 Issue

• Some #sportsbiz thoughts from tonight’s #NYR game: I don’t like the “I am a Ranger” messaging. Been done too many times by other teams.
  • Reply from Stefmara “I am a Ranger” has been their tagline for 3 seasons now.
• I want to ride the SpongeTech zamboni! http://mypict.me/266xU
• Rangers dashers are packed tight, only one spot that I can see with an in-house ticketing message and two for MSG HD.
• No ribbon bands at MSG, which limits inventory a bit. Even so, there is still some internal facade that could easily be used but isn’t.
• Some scattered no shows in the building, but still very good for a Monday vs. Atlanta. Rangers have had a great show rate all year.
• Also find it interesting that the MSG teams refer to their season ticket holders as subscribers. Makes me think of a magazine subscription.
  • Reply from bluejayrock - Or perhaps a subscription to your friendly local cable company, say maybe Cablevision?
  • Reply from mario_prosp – “Subscriber” makes the fan sound more connected w/ the team, “ticket holder” sounds transactional.
  • My reply – I see that perspective. But I also think that of a subscription as something that I can just cancel – I don’t feel invested in it.
• Just had the Coca Cola fan music choice of the game. Nice way to activate in a unique way around a basic part of the game experience.
• Sponsor of the Night: FXDD – in the ice, on screen for replays, text messaging promos. I have no idea who they are, but now I want to know.
• Might have spoke too soon. The NY Lottery’s Human Puck Race was great! Engaging participants and the crowd loved it. http://mypict.me/269e6

Without giving too much away, here are a few quick quotes from the book:

• Brian Gainor: “The smartest U.S. brands will look to benchmark the mobile marketing practices of our European and Asian counterparts, who are paving the way with some innovative campaigns.”
• Joe Favorito: “People have to get some kind of ROI on what is going into the development and the time that social media consumes, and as of today very few if any smart brands have figured out a way to monetize what they are spending.”
• Lewis Howes: “I predict we will see even more opportunities for sports fans to engage in real-time interactions.”
• Pat Coyle: “In these favorable conditions, 2010 could very well be the year in which we see some teams moving social media from the periphery to the center of their marketing strategies.”
• Rob Katz: “Moving forward, controlling the message means active participation and some level of transparency to allow deeper, more sustainable audience engagement.”

This is just a small selection of what this e-book has to offer. I’m personally honored that Jason let me contribute to this project…you’ll have to read it for yourself to see my thoughts and predictions!  I’ve included a copy of the e-book below that you can view here, or you can click the download link to get a PDF version. Great work by Jason, and I encourage everyone to download this today!

Sports Social Media Predictions 2010

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Amanda Rykoff. You can read her personal blog at www.amandarykoff.com or follow her on Twitter as @amandarykoff.

A key component of my post-ESPN journey involves attending as many conferences and networking events as possible. And last week was no exception, as I attended the annual Princeton Sports Symposium, which took place this past Friday. Now in its fourth year, the symposium provides an interactive and informative forum for sports executives, professionals and students to learn more about the sports industry. I won’t provide a detailed play by play summary, but wanted to share some of the highlights and most interesting insights.

Roland Hemond Leads Off with a Home Run

My favorite speaker of the day was also the first: the legendary Roland Hemond. If you don’t know who he is, Google him to find out what an amazing career he’s had in baseball. At the age of 80 years young, he’s currently serving as the Special Assistant to the President of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Hemond spoke to the audience in an anecdotal, folksy and very unaffected way. He was so pleased to see so many young people in the crowd and so eager to help that he actually provided the audience with his cell phone number. No joke. He also encouraged anybody interested in getting into the sports business to take whatever job they could, wherever and regardless of salary. Here are a few of the most helpful nuggets that Hemond shared with us:

• “During my 1st 8 years, I did a lot of listening and not a lot of talking. Absorb.”
• “Respect everybody in your organization, at every level. Including janitor and grounds crew.”
• “Enjoy every moment. Particularly when it involves beating the Yankees.”

I had the pleasure of speaking with Hemond on a one-on-one basis during lunch. He is truly one of a kind and a legend in the game. I look forward to seeing him again when I go to Phoenix next June for the Yankees-Diamondbacks series during inter-league play. As I summed up on Twitter: “Roland Hemond is awesome. That is all.”

Tony Ponturo:  Keynote Speaker

Next up was the keynote speaker, Tony Ponturo, who was introduced by Ben Sturner, CEO of the Symposium’s main sponsor, Leverage Agency. Ponturo is now with Ponturo Management Group after serving as President and CEO of Busch Media Group and the VP of global media, sports and entertainment marketing of Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

Ponturo presented a pretty powerpoint presentation on how the sports marketplace has changed over the years. It was helpful and informative. But he said one thing that really struck me: “Regardless of fancy titles, we’re all either buyers or sellers in the sports marketplace.”

Building Your Brand with Social Media

This panel appeared to be the most popular one of the day, as it was standing room only. And why not? Social media is THE hot topic of the moment in all businesses, and sports is no exception. Sports media consultant and blogger extraordinaire Dan Shanoff served as moderator for a panel that featured:

• Peter Robert Casey, the St. John’s basketball twitterer (Peter is the first person to receive media credentials for using Twitter during a sporting event)
• Christopher Lencheski, Managing Member and Team Owner, Quad City Mallards
• Lewis Howes, Founder, SportsNetworker.com
• Amy Martin from Digital Royalty

The panel covered a lot of material in a short period of time, including how social media supports an overall branding strategy, the importance of listening and responding, and adding value through social media. Overall, I took three basic messages away from this session. First, don’t forget that social media is social. So, be social. Create original editorial. Second, listening and responding is critical. Third, ask yourself what’s the value to follow you? Give people a reason, whether it’s discounts or additional behind the scenes info.

Digital Media and Technology I

Next up with the creatively titled “Digital Media and Technology I” panel moderated by Troy Ewanchynia, Senior Director, Comcast SportsNet Digital Media. The featured panelists were:

• David Birnbaum – Senior Advisor, Strategy and Acquisitions, Alloy Media + Marketing
• Anthony Caponiti– Partner, Activ8Social
• Robert E. Freeman, Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP
• Derrick Heggans – Principal, HACE Sports Media Consulting
• Greg Shaheen – Senior VP, Basketball and Business Strategies, NCAA

This panel was supposed to be a roundtable discussion of the implications of digital media on the sports industry. Though each of the panelists was extremely knowledgeable and qualified, we unfortunately didn’t get to much of the substance of the discussion beyond their biographies. However, there were a few nuggets that stood out. Derrick Heggans reminded everybody in the room that there is no substitute for hard work and your integrity. Always aim to underpromise and overdeliver. And don’t point it out to anybody.

Greg Shaheen, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the NCAA, won the panel (and probably the day) with one of the best lines I’ve ever heard. He’s had an interesting and varied career that started with one day of law school. He told us that after his first day, he decided to leave, telling his contracts classmates: “I’m going to leave here now and I’m going to make enough money to hire a******s like you to handle s**t like this.”

Teams (What’s Going on with the Nets, Redskins and Vikings)?

The final panel of the day, moderated by Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead, focused on developments in the sports business from the team perspective. The featured panelists were:

• Jeff Gewirtz, SVP and General Counsel, Nets Basketball and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment
• Michael Rowe, President & CEO, Positive Impact Management Group
• Shripal Shah, VP, E-Commerce and Web Strategy, Washington Redskins
• Mark Wilf, Owner & President, Minnesota Vikings

I really enjoyed this panel, and thought it was one of the most interesting, informative and insightful of the day. Each participant was candid, and McIntyre kept it moving at a good pace.

Shah of the Redskins provided an impressive overview of the team’s digital endeavors, which appear to be far and away the most aggressive and ambitious in all of professional sports. The team has embraced digital and social media via significant investments in Redskins.com, Twitter (via Redskins Twackle) and Facebook to engage fans, while also staying within the bounds of the NFL’s stringent content rules. Shah also discussed the importance of digital media in sponsor packages, citing the Redskins Powerboard as a specific example of how the team has taken digital assets and moved them back into a core sponsor (in this case, Audi). According to Shah, Redskins sponsors want 25-50% of their packages in digital content. That’s impressive.

Mark Wilf, Owner and President of the Minnesota Vikings, managed to avoid mentioning He Who Shall Not Be Named as he presented the team’s three main goals: 1) Bring a Super Bowl championship (or championships) to Minnesota, 2) Focus on community involvement and grow the connection between the team and the community, and 3) Secure a new $900 million stadium with a retractable roof. The connection with the team certainly appears to be paying off, as Vikings games regularly achieve a 70 share of the television viewing audience in Minnesota. Wilf also demonstrated candor and a good sense of humor. When asked about the NFL’s international appeal, Wilf quipped, “The Vikings are very proud of their Norwegian fan base.”

Wrapping Up

Overall, I enjoyed the symposium and found it to be a great way to connect (and reconnect), engage, network and learn from people from all facets of the business. I only wish I didn’t have to choose between panels and could have attended all of them. Look forward to attending again next year.

At a time when American car companies are struggling and NASCAR is feeling the pinch from cash-strapped sponsors, Patrick’s announcement was a welcome shot in the arm. The GoDaddy.com spokeswoman has been a mainstay on the IndyCar Series, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar race when she took the 2008 Indy Japan 300. Mainstream race fans may know her better as the woman with the highest finish ever at the Indy 500, a third place showing earlier this year, while non-fans know her from her commercials for GoDaddy.com, SportsCenter, or Boost Mobile.

Patrick has risen to stardom due to a combination of skill, luck and good looks. A photogenic brunette competing against a bunch of men on the IndyCar circuit, the pressure was on her to make good on her talent. Even before getting her first win in 2008, the marketing push was on. Now she’ll be in the big leagues, at least for a few races a year. She’ll compete full time on the IndyCar circuit, get her feet wet in at least one third-tier ARCA race, and then move up to the Nationwide Series. NASCAR marketers must be salivating, as they are assured a rise in media coverage for any closed-wheel race that she competes in.

The question is: Will interest in Patrick stick it out if she doesn’t get an early win? Juan Pablo Montoya wasn’t a consistent performer until his third year on the circuit. How much time will she be given to learn the nuances of these cars? They are much heavier and less responsive than the open-wheel cars that she’s used to. Also, her competitors will have the extra incentive of not wanting to be beat by a girl.

In interviews over the last two days, Patrick has talked about this season as a learning experience and the ‘next challenge.’ What she should expect is plenty of bumps and being pushed into the wall. The other drivers will try to test her mettle and see if she can be rattled. And while NASCAR execs are raising a toast to an (unexpected?) boost to their bottom line, many race fans will take a ‘wait and see’ attitude. If they get bored in the meantime, there are those 2 million links to keep them occupied.

Anderson ultimately decided to continue with this event.  He still promoted that the 1-on-1 match would occur at halftime of Monday’s game and there were “Jordan sightings” around town that day. This led to over 7,500 fans attending that night’s game, expecting to see this halftime match, but instead they ended up seeing Russell take on a Jordan lookalike. The crowd was outraged, and the team experienced a very vocal backlash. Anderson now regrets his decision to move forward with this stunt, and is trying to repair the damage with refunds and free tickets to future Flash games.

So what do we learn from an incident like this?

• Viral and word-of-mouth marketing is very powerful! Anderson had all the makings of a great viral campaign, even “leaking” a video of “Jordan” eating at a local restaurant. However, his campaign came with a very specific expectation that he could not meet. If you build up that much buzz, you have to deliver on customer expectations.
• Teams need to be more transparent when using publicity stunts to sell tickets. For example, last year the Philadelphia Phantoms hosted a game where David Akers and Andy Reid were going to do the ceremonial puck drop and sign autographs. However, through the language of the press release and marketing materials, it was pretty clear that instead of the Eagles’ player and coach, it was going to be a fake Akers and Reid in attendance. The team ended up with the desired effect of generating buzz, but they also managed the fans’ expectations and still had a successful promotion with a boost in attendance.
• When customer expectations are not met, immediate action must be taken to try and resolve the problem. Anderson is doing just that through his immediate apology and offer of refunds and free tickets. The only question will be whether fans feel that this service recovery is enough to compensate them for their failed promise. There may be some lingering skepticism for casual fans that were in attendance to purchase tickets to a future game.

But my question is this: is sports better or worse off in this era of 24/7 news cycles?

On one hand, you don’t have to hear about the “shot heard ’round the world” from a newspaper article. You don’t have to imagine Babe Ruth calling his shot and moments later hitting a homerun to that same spot. You don’t have to wonder for 12 hours who won Ali-Frasier II (or III or IV).

What’s left to wonder these days? How many dunks will make the sports show’s Top 10? Why the Monday Night Football highlights weren’t the lead story last night? Whether soccer will get a mention on SportsCenter?

Are we better off for knowing all the intimate details of how Latrell Sprewell choked his coach? For hearing Allen Iverson complain about practice? For having the sports highlight shows seem more like police blotters? Or for reading about Tiger’s philandering?

Does this extra knowledge actually add to our game-watching experience? Some people could argue that knowing more about the players helps us to identify with them. It helps us feel closer to our favorite players and therefore be more interested in buying game tickets and merchandise.

But what we end up with is subtraction by addition. By knowing all of this additional, real-time information, we lose the ability to idolize these players without a nagging feeling that someday it will be their name on the front page of the paper tomorrow. How do fathers look their sons in the eye and say “there is a man you can emulate” when they aren’t truly sure if that player is clean. The athlete could be taking performance-enhancing drugs, driving drunk, carrying around illegally concealed weapons, or cheating on their wives – and sooner or later we’ll know about it.

What I do know are the attributes that draw me to sports: the competition, passion, athleticism and skill that athletes display on their chosen field. They don’t have to be perfect husbands, drivers, or moral-compasses to thrill fans.

For now, besides the athlete’s pocketbook, the coprorate sponsors are the biggest losers. Marketing executives have to be shivering in their shoes when they sign contracts from here on out. Tiger was untouchable. Other than his infamous swearing on the course, he was the closest thing we had to ‘clean.’ This incident will go to show companies that no endorsement is safe. All of them have inherent risks because their products are endorsed by humans, and humans make mistakes.

I for one will long for the days when we knew a little less about our sports stars, so that we could enjoy them a little more.

This year, the agenda (PDF) features over 60 speakers across 11 different panel discussions. Visit www.sportssymposium.org for more information. I will be in attendance again this year, so please make sure to say hello if you’re there. Looking forward to meeting some of you on Friday!

——————–

2009 Princeton Sports Symposium sponsored by Leverage Agency
Friday, December 4 from 10am-6pm
Friend Center, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

You can register at www.sportssymposium.org. Space is limited. The registration fee for non-students is $50, and includes continental breakfast, lunch and reception. Please email info@sportssymposium.org with any questions you may have. You can also connect with the symposium on Twitter (twitter.com/sportssymposium) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/sportssymposium).

1. A very poor product on the court, arguably the worst in the league
2. Operating in a very crowded market with many sports and entertainment alternatives
3. A weak mass transit system that doesn’t let them tap into the New York audience
4. The fact that the team is moving to a new building in a new city in the near future
5. A complete shift in management as Bruce Ratner sells the team to Mikhail Prokhorov

With these hurdles standing in their way, what can the Nets do to keep the business moving forward while the team performance does not cooperate?  Here are a few ideas, some of which the team has already implemented.

• Market basketball and the NBA without focusing on the Nets – The team has already done this with one of their earlier ticket package incentives that gave buyers reversible jerseys featuring players on the other teams. They can take this further by openly promoting the best opponents that are coming in to town over the coming weeks.
• Focus on specific games instead of the entire season – If you think about trying to sell all of the remaining games, it can be quite an overwhelming tasks. So focus on specific games and opponents that give you the best chance to succeed and concentrate your sales efforts on those dates.
• Discounted pricing – While cutting prices doesn’t fix the underlying problems, it does open the product up to a wider audience. Since the team isn’t a draw, the buying decision for consumers comes down to what form of entertainment they want to see. In order to compete with options like going to the movies, the price need to be comparable. This approach can also be achieved through special “family packs” that combine tickets with food and merchandise for a fixed low price.
• Connect with season ticket holders – The worst potential impact of the team performance is the eventual loss of season ticket holders. Every effort needs to be made to maintain relationships with these customers through this tough time, as they are still the biggest source of ticket revenue. Give them additional free tickets to share with friends, reward them for referrals and let them take part in game experiences so that they still get the most value and enjoyment out of their season tickets.

If you were in charge of sales and marketing for the Nets, what would you do right now?

Last weekend, Wigan Athletic suffered a horrifying 9 – 1 loss at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur. Hundreds of Wigan fans had made the trip to see their team play, only to watch them concede eight second-half goals. In an almost unprecedented move, the Wigan players have offered to reimburse any Wigan fans who purchased a ticket at the stadium that day.

With player salaries in the English Premier League being well above those in Major League Soccer, no one should worry about the Wigan players going hungry. The gesture, however, is one to take note of. These are professional players who realize that they did not do their job, and that their ‘bad day at the office’ cost hard-working people money that in this recession, isn’t easily parted with. It is refreshing to see a group of professional athlete take their responsibility seriously.

Their captain Mario Melchiot was quoted as saying “We feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters yesterday (Sunday), and this is a gesture we have to make and pay them back for their tremendous loyalty.” Now, no one gets to choose whether they see Kobe’s 81-point game or Kevin Garnett’s 14-point one (I personally attended the latter), but the recognition by these players that the fans loyalty should not be taken lightly is a lesson that should be learned by all sports business professionals, especially in this economic climate.

We saw a whiff of this last month when wide receiver Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals teamed up with Motorola to purchase the remaining 1,200 tickets to his teams’ home game against the Houston Texans. If those tickets hadn’t been sold, the game would have been blacked out in the Cincinnati area  and many die-hard Bengals fans wouldn’t have been able to see their team play. In these especially hard times, it seems especially important to find a way to make sure fans stay connected to their favorite teams, even if they can’t afford to go to the games. Black-outs are just about the exact opposite of that philosophy, as it removes an important touch-point between fans and their team.

So, what can teams do? Well, here’s an example of what NOT to do. Don’t sue your season ticket holders who have legitimate hardships. The Washington Redskins opened up a huge flap by suing season ticket holders who asked to get out of their contracts. Instead of working out a payment plan, offering to try to re-sell the tickets, or just excusing the fans from their contracts, the Redskins filed lawsuits. Lifelong fans not only lost their coveted tickets, but lost faith in their team.

In these tough times, teams need to continually be on the lookout as to how they can provide better service to their fans. Refunding them after a particularly brutal loss might not be the way to go, but there are certainly opportunities for teams to make their fans feel appreciated. Preventing black-outs, making affordable tickets available, and offering free access to select team events are just a few ways to keep fans connected and ultimately generate greater lifetime value and fan loyalty.

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By now we have all realized that the current economy has put a damper on ticket sales. People that bought premium inventory may have downgraded to cheaper seats, and some of the regular ticket buyers aren’t buying at all. However, with the winter holidays (and Black Friday) right around the corner, there is a definite opportunity to pick up some revenue momentum.

Even though many families have cut back on their discretionary spending, there is a good chance that they’ve still put aside money for the holidays. People are still going to buy gifts for dad, the kids, family, and friends. The challenge is to communicate to your customers the idea of buying tickets and merchandise for their holiday gifts. It doesn’t matter whether your sport is in season or not. Make sure your fans know that the best gift they can give is the gift of sports. Here is a great commercial from the NHL that relays this message (with a nice touch of humor):

There was another one from NFL Shop I really liked, but I cannot seem to find it online anywhere. It is also important to integrate the holiday elements into your email marketing, like the example seen here from the Orlando Magic.

Here are a few examples of teams that have put together holiday packages to really take advantage of this seasonal selling opportunity:

• MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks Holiday 6-Packs
• NBA: Indiana Pacers Holiday Pack (complete with a Holiday eCard)
• NHL: Philadelphia Flyers Santa Sacks (includes tickets, merchandise, and more!)
• NCAA: Xavier Men’s Basketball Holiday Ticket Pack

I think the most effective holiday products will be packages that combine a physical gift (merchandise or collectibles) along with tickets. Any sports fan would love to receive that type of present. Teams need to make sure they are position to offer some type of holiday package to take advantage of the gift-giving season. It may be the one time this year when people are willing to spend money! And on that note, don’t forget to put together a Black Friday offer either, whether its a in-arena/in-store offer or simply an email-based promotion. People are going to spend money on Black Friday – make sure that they have a good option to spend it on your team!

• From the Twitter Re-tweets: Forechecker
• From the Blog Comments: Ilana
• From the Facebook Fan Page: Laura High

Congratulations to each of our winners. Please use the Contact Us page to send me your mailing address so I can send you each a copy of Donald Dell’s latest book, “Never Make the First Offer (Unless You Have To).” In total, we had thirty entries across the three different entry methods. Thank you to everyone that participated, and if you didn’t win, you can still pick up a copy of the book at www.donalddell.com.

Meanwhile, if you have a product to promote and you are interested in sharing something with our readers, please use the Contact Us form to send me your information, and hopefully we can put together something that everyone will enjoy.

This same situation has happened in multiple major sporting events over the past few months, including several prominent errors in the MLB playoffs, but for the most part, the governing bodies for these organizations prefer to stand by and depend on their “traditional” means for making all in-game decisions. This system may have made sense was professional sports was more of a casual pastime, but now it is a multi-billion dollar global industry, and each one of these incorrect decisions can have serious repercussions. A team that misses the next round of playoffs because of a bad call loses out on millions in ticket revenue. A player that is invalidly judged by an official’s decision can lose the chance at significant endorsement money. An entire league can suffer (or benefit) because of an officiating decision that impacts what teams are playing and the television ratings that come with those teams.

Meanwhile, sports organizations have embraced technology in almost every other form, from evaluating the players statistically to refining their business processes. Clearly everyone recognizes the importance of technology as sports have evolved, but yet for some reason, they refuse to let the technology onto the field in the form of instant replay. Would any other industry operate in this manner? Can you imagine if Walmart decided that they needed to use a more “traditional” way to run their checkout lines and made the staff type in each number, because “that’s how they’ve always done it.” The errors that would occur would ultimately have a significant impact on their business, ruining their other technological advantages that they’ve developed in their inventory management processes.

I understand that trying to add instant replay into sports is a complicated process with many potential pitfalls. This is why I give a lot of credit to the NFL for their work in this area. They acknowledged the problem, created a replay system, and constantly work to refine it based on the needs of the sport. I would hope that more sports, like soccer and baseball for example, eventually decide to follow the NFL’s lead and develop their own comparable systems. Putting aside the game for a moment, there is simply too much money riding on what happens on the field for everyone to overlook these issues.

Just a few days ago, that all changed. The golfer who has raked in approximately $50 million in endorsements from the likes of Nike and Sony finally cashed the kind of check she’s been chasing all these years. For someone who turned pro just days before her 16th birthday and played her first LPGA event at the age of 12, the pressure to win must have been enormous. She faced down that pressure, both internal and external, to grab the two-stroke win with an up-and-down from a green-side bunker.

For her endorsers, this win was a long time coming. Nike was prominently displayed on her clothes and hat after sticking with her since day one. Sony, on the other hand, may be kicking themselves. They dropped Wie from her $5 million a year contract back in April.

For the embattled LPGA, this win couldn’t have come at a better time. In July, commisioner Carolyn Bivens resigned amid growing concerns about the LPGA’s viability in this difficult economy. At the end of October, former marketing executive Michael Whan came on board to re-establish broken ties with sponsors, and win back the trust of the players. With one eight-inch putt, Michelle Wie put the LPGA on the front pages of newspapers and splashed across countless sports sites and blogs.

Does Wie’s win ’save’ the LPGA? Not necessarily, and she’s not yet up to Tiger Woods’ standards, but the trophy does give the struggling tour a much-needed boost. It was extremely gratuitous that the win came just days before the LPGA announced their 2010 schedule which includes 24 events in 10 countries. Just 17 of those events have sponsors though, down from 34 in 2008. So having one of the most recognizable faces on tour win her first tournament certainly perked up the LPGA brass and Wie being in contention affected more than just her trophy case. According to Bloomberg.com, page views for LPGA.com rose 84% over 2008 and numbers for the final round doubled the numbers of the two previous days.

In the past, Wie was known for trying to compete against the men. She has missed eight cuts on the PGA tour and just joined the LPGA full-time this season. After winning the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, Wie said “I’m motivated to practice harder and play better and win more.” Those words must be music to the ears of executives and sponsors of the LPGA tour. After all, they’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time.

Donald has graciously provided an excerpt from the book below, and we’ve put together a contest to celebrate the book release. We are giving away three copies of his book, and there are three different ways to win. You can…

• Add a comment on this post (and make it relevant – unrelated comments will be deleted)
• Tweet this post clicking the “retweet” button at the top left
• Leave a comment on The Business of Sports Facebook Fan Page regarding this post

One lucky winner will be randomly chosen from each of the three different audiences, and you can enter via all three methods (only one entry per person will count for each method of entry). The contest will run from now until Sunday at 12pm EST. Good luck, and enjoy the book excerpt!

Look at the Big Picture

The biggest problem with accurately reading situations is to understand that you are part of the problem. In other words, since you are inside the situation yourself, it is hard to look at it purely objectively. Sometimes it can be really helpful to take a moment to step back and look at the big picture. How are you progressing in terms of reaching your objectives? What is standing in the way? What is your part in it? What can you do about it?

Even though this anecdote isn’t strictly about business, I want to tell a story that illustrates this point of looking past the minutiae at the larger picture. In fact, I want to tell it because, first, many of the lessons in this book can and should be applied to personal as well as professional matters, and, second, it has never been told before. Had it come out when it took place, twenty-five years ago, it would have made front-page headlines all over the world and probably gotten Bill Talbert and me ostracized from tennis. It is the story of how I helped to salvage the finals of the 1983 U.S. Open in a match between Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors.

During practice on the day before the finals, Connors ended up with a giant blood blister between two of his toes. It was like a stone bruise – really big and really painful. On the morning of the match Jimmy tried to practice, but not only couldn’t he run, he could barely walk. Shortly thereafter I got a call from Jimmy’s mother, Gloria, who said, “Jimbo can’t play. Default him. He’s out.”

When I heard this, I thought: “Jimmy’s thirty-two years old. He may never get this opportunity again. CBS and the USTA are going to go ballistic (not to mention the tennis public) if the U.S. Open finals doesn’t happen.” The growth of tennis had started to plateau, and I could see this non-final really hurting the game. Once I stepped back and considered all the options, I felt I had to do something.

Through a friend I got in touch with the New York Jets’ team trainer, told him the situation, and asked him if there was anything he could do to relieve the pain. “Sure,” he said. “I could shoot him up with Xylocaine,” which is like a souped-up version of novocaine. This would mean Jimmy wouldn’t be able to feel the toes that were in pain.

So I asked my Jets trainer friend, “How would you like to attend the finals of the U.S. Open?”

Now I had to persuade Jimmy to go along with the plan. I walked into the locker room. There were about five people surrounding Jimmy – including his wife, Patti, his bodyguard, and one of our agents – but fortunately, not his mother. I said, “Give me a few minutes alone with Jimmy.”

Once we were alone, I said, “What’s the story?”

“I can’t play,” he said. “I’ve got to default. Even if I could limp around, I’d rather not play than have Lendl beat me.”

“What if we could fix your foot so you could play?” I said, and then I told him about the trainer for the Jets.

He was still unsure, so I said, “Let’s be honest here, Jimmy. You’re thirty-two years old, and you have a shot at winning your fifth Open. I know you think you’ll be back, but we both know there’s a good chance you may never get to the finals again.”

He said, “Well . . . if you handle my mother . . . ”

I said, “I’ll get the trainer.”

The trainer told us the shot would last about an hour and a half, so I thought, “Damn. I’m going to have to find some way to pull Jimmy off the court in the middle of the match so the doctor can shoot his foot up again.”

I then went to the tournament chairman, Bill Talbert, and told him what was going on. “I can’t authorize that,” he said.

I said, “Well, you have two choices. You can let me fix his foot, or he’ll default and you’ll have no tournament final.”

Talbert said, “I never heard about this.”

Under the tournament rules, each player can leave the court once at any time for a bathroom break, so I went to the tournament supervisor and told him, “I’m going to take Connors off the court at some point for a bathroom break. I don’t want any interference. I don’t want anyone bothering him. I also want the biggest policeman you can find sitting in a chair right out front of that bathroom door. And when Jimmy goes in, I want that cop to block the door so no one can get in there.”

He wasn’t too happy about this, but Talbert was standing right there, so he nodded.

This was in the old stadium, the Louis Armstrong. One of the bathrooms is located directly across the court, slightly to the left. I told the trainer I’d give him a hand signal when it was time for him to go into the bathroom . . . and hide.

Finally the match started, and I began to wonder, “If this goes more than three hours, we’re dead.” Jimmy won the first set 6–3 but promptly lost the second set 6–7.

Now the score was 2–1 in the third, and Jimmy had started to limp noticeably. I signaled the trainer.

Jimmy called for a bathroom break and started to walk across the court. Meanwhile, Ivan Lendl, who is very smart and very cagey, was the only one in the stadium who figured it out. He started screaming to the tournament supervisor, “Watch his foot! Don’t let anyone touch his foot! Don’t let him out of your sight!” But no one paid any attention— or, more likely, the officials decided to ignore him. If they chose somebody to accompany Jimmy into the bathroom, we’d be out of luck.

Connors came back to win the third set and the fourth, and made tennis history by becoming the only man at that time to have won the U.S. Open five times. (Pete Sampras would later repeat the feat.)

Afterward the official doctor for the Open, Dr. Irving Glick, came up to me and said, “Donald, I don’t know what you did, and I don’t want to know.”

I said, “If that’s the way you feel, fine. But I can live with what I did.”

At the press conference later, the first question to Jimmy was, “Why did you have to leave the court?”

“I had a horrible attack of diarrhea,” Jimmy said, and that became the official story that appeared the next day in the New York Times and the Washington Post and was told on The Late Show with David Letterman.

The 11th Annual FSA Sports Media & Technology conference

Here is a live stream of all of today’s conference tweets. Enjoy!

If the only sports radio you listen to is ‘Jim Rome is Burning,’ you might think professional soccer in the United States is hearing its death knell. To the contrary, skeptics and fans alike can see the growth in popularity of the game, with the most obvious sign being the enormous success of the Seattle Sounders. The Sounders are Major League Soccer’s newest franchise, the 15th in the still-growing league.

While the Sounders inaugural season ended in heartbreak after an overtime loss to the Houston Dynamo on Sunday, they have an enormous amount to be proud of. A few of their 2009 highlights include:

• Having more season ticket holders than any team in MLS’ 13-year existence
• Becoming the first expansion team since the Chicago Fire in 1998 to make the MLS Playoffs
• Winning the 2009 U.S. Open Cup
• Setting a league record for average attendance at 30,943 fans

The Sounders also single-handedly kept MLS attendance numbers from taking a huge hit due to the recession. Without Seattle, Major League Soccer would have seen a 9.5% decline at the gate but instead had only a 3.3% decline (courtesy of SBJ). That number was less than half of the decline that Major League Baseball saw in 2009.

One of the aces up Seattle’s sleeve was popular comedian Drew Carey. Carey fought hard to give Sounders fans a serious voice. Every season ticket holder gets to vote on the direction of the club. If they are not happy with how the front office is being run, they can vote the general manager out, and the owners will need to choose a new one. This gives the fans an enormous amount of buy-in to a team. In most markets, if the team started doing poorly, the fans might feel disenfranchised and walk away, but in Seattle, they have a valid reason to stick out the hard times.

All signs point to 2010 being a year where soccer in the United States is raised to an entirely new level. The World Cup will be held in South Africa and the U.S. has qualified for the sixth consecutive time. While other American teams are used to dominating their sport, the U.S. Men’s National Team didn’t qualify for the World Cup for forty years (1950-1990).

Also in 2010, MLS will welcome its 16th team as the Philadelphia Union begins play, while Vancouver and Portland anxiously await their inaugural matches in 2011. Viewership of MLS games increased on both the ESPN family of channels as well as Fox Soccer Channel (courtesy of SBJ). With the success of the Sounders, the brilliant run of the U.S. Men’s National Team into the finals of the Confederations Cup , and the beginning of U.S. Soccer’s bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, soccer has been in the collective consciousness throughout the year.

So, what do you think? Is all this just sound and fury? Is soccer really becoming more popular in the United States? Are the Seattle Sounders an anomaly, or can other teams copy their success? Will soccer continue to make the Top 10 highlights on SportsCenter even when it’s not a run-up year to the World Cup?

Now in all seriousness, this “statistic” about a 5% growth in GDP during the year after a Yankees victory is just a correlation. And as any statistician will tell you, a correlation does not tell you anything about causation (another famous example of this is the statistical correlation between the results of the final Washington Redskins game of the year and the U.S. presidential election). Thus, even if this growth has been seen in the past after Yankees’ championships, there’s no evidence to say the victory itself has a direct impact on economic improvement.

This isn’t to say there will not be some impact from the victory – it just won’t be on the scale of the national GDP. Here are some results that you can expect to see:

• Merchandise Sales: The Yankees are still the most prominent and popular brand in baseball, and New York is the largest market in the country. Combine this with nearly a decade between titles, and you can probably expect the largest World Series merchandise sales numbers since the first Boston Red Sox title in 2004.
• 2010 Ticket Sales and Prices: The Yankees had to overcome some bad publicity and poor initial sales with their original premium seat ticket prices, leading to an early-season price cut. Even with this victory, I’d be surprised to see anything beyond a basic 3-5% annual increase to the adjusted prices, and in turn, I think the team will see a nice uptick in these premium locations next year (especially if the economy does improve by 5%!)
• Postseason Secondary Market: The secondary market started off a little slow this postseason, with several weather-related issues keeping prices on the low side. However, having the World Series in New York and Philadelphia ended up being a big boon to StubHub and other ticket resellers, with tickets being sold for 5x to 20x the face value. In fact, since less tickets were available for resale in Philadelphia than New York, prices for games 3-5 were driven even higher than games 1-2.
• Team Spending: After a few years of “relative” struggle, the Yankees have proven that a large payroll can lead to the title. Will other teams try to up the ante next year to compete with the Yankees? Baseball experts have written that this year’s free agent list is one of the weakest in a while. In addition, the Yankees themselves have a few key players that could test the market. If the economy really is on the upswing, maybe team payroll could increase again next year.

Again, congratulations to the Yankees. I already can’t wait for the 2010 season to get here!

Update: I also just saw this article on Bloomberg.com that reports the Yankees postseason run generated almost $60 million of economic impact for the city of New York, primarily based on increased spending at local business by out-of-town residents.

In case you weren’t following baseball, the Phillies are currently down three games to two in the World Series, and in fact, they were down 3-1 when this ad actually ran. While I like the idea of having confidence in your team, I think this is taking it a bit too far. The newspaper has since apologized for running the ad. In situations like this, I’m a big proponent of trying to turn a mistake into a gain, so maybe Macy’s can offer a special discount on other Phillies merchandise for anyone that brings in a copy of the unfortunate advertisement. They could gain some goodwill for the mistake and generate some new sales. Do you think this would work?

This got me thinking a bit about the connection between a particular industry segment and the available sponsor inventory at sporting events. Is it possible that because certain companies use the same type of signage across multiple locations that the inventory itself becomes associated with that specific industry segment? In the case of American Family Insurance, do they get more value out of being on the netting because of how much people are used to seeing Allstate in that location? In fact, maybe this is a play to try and gain share from Allstate.

Another example could be the coach’s headset on the sideline. For a long time, you almost always saw Motorola on earpieces, but now you will see other wireless-related companies like AT&T in this location. However, this is also a situation where the industry (telecommunications) is directly related to the inventory, whereas there isn’t anything specifically connecting insurance to field goal netting.

So, if you are an insurance company, and you have the opportunity to get placement on field goal netting, will you ultimately benefit more because of the association that already exists between insurance and this inventory? Or will you not benefit as much because viewers are so used to seeing Allstate that they won’t notice something different? I think this could make an interesting research topic, if anyone wants to look into it more!

Time for this week’s edition of Sports Careers Saturday, one day early!

Career Tip from Mark Tudi: Commitment and Follow-Up – Simple Words, Simple Meanings

I have attended a number of trade show and career fairs across the country where I have met hundreds of people who desired employment in the sports industry. I appreciated their enthusiasm and desire. All of them told me that either they were going to call or send their resume to me. Few individuals followed through.

There are many reasons for this kind of behavior. One may be that they found a job. Others probably deal with being timid, thinking that they don’t want to bother the individual. Or my favorite ” I forgot to write down their information.” Then the most common, procrastination; taking too long to do something and allowing the moment or opportunity to pass.

The best way to deal with the excuse of forgetting is to make sure that you write it down in your calendar and then complete the task. There are hundreds of reasons why we procrastinate. Whatever the reason, the person who we didn’t follow through with has formed an opinion of us. That opinion is usually a negative one.

Human behavior is such that we do the things that immediately give us the highest amount of satisfaction. That’s why calling a friend to setup a golf game gets done before finishing that 24-page school report. To overcome this behavior we need to decide which event, in the long run, provides us with the most satisfaction or moves us closer to accomplishing our goals. Being committed, doing what you say your going to, is just that. You see the end in mind of what really matters most to you.

The next time you tell somebody that you are going to do something, write it down and follow through in a timely manner. With follow-up like this, not only will you surprise a lot of people but ultimately you will achieve what matters most to you.

Four Hot Jobs of the Week:

• Technical Project Manager – Mobile – MLB Advanced Media (New York, NY) -The Technical Project Manager will be responsible for managing the development and maintenance of text messaging, mobile web, iPhone, and other mobile platform applications.
• Regional Manager – United States Bowling Congress (Arlington, TX) – As bowling increases in popularity, we seek enthusiastic candidates to join our team at the national headquarters for the organized sport of bowling, located in Arlington, Texas. We are currently looking for qualified Regional Managers to work with our Associations Development Team!
• Strategic Planner – NIKE Inc. (Costa Mesa, CA) – Work with executive leadership team in the development of the company’s strategic planning function through the execution of strategic business initiatives, business planning/reporting, internal strategy consulting, and new business development.
• Technical Director – PGA, Sports & Entertainment – Turner Broadcasting (Atlanta, GA) – Responsible for work that will be executed by cross functional teams and organized according to a balance of business priorities and technology needs for the PGA and PGA Tour web sites.

Sports Careers offers weekly, monthly or yearly subscriptions that provide full access to their career resources and job listings. Visit www.sportscareers.com for more information.

Today’s guest post is courtesy of Christopher Byrne of The Cayuga Group. This post was in response to a discussion on The Business of Sports LinkedIn group regarding examples of current social media practices in sports.

Sometimes I think it is easier to say what teams, leagues and organizations are doing wrong. I do not know if it is intentional or the appearance that they do have a clue on what the world of social networking and social media is all about: collaboration and sharing.

I do not know if you remember Goofus and Gallant from Highlights Magazine or not (to summarize using the picture, Goofus is mean and doesn’t share while Gallant is nice to his friends and shares with others), but I will use their names and characters as an example.

• Goofus wants to manage all content, so his Facebook page does not allow people to share their ideas in the main wall thread.
• Gallant wants to engage people and build a community, so he allows people to post to the wall and interact with the larger member community, as long as they do it within the acceptable rules of conduct.

• Goofus deletes comments that they do not like (and I am not talking about profanity).
• Gallant realizes that people want honest, frank discussion, and that by allowing non-spun content actually helps build the page owners brand as a true social media/social networking participant/sponsor.

• Goofus wants everybody on the world to follow them on Twitter, but does not follow them in return. So he has no idea what they are saying about their organization. And because they are not followed, they cannot send feedback via direct messages.
• Gallant knows that the exchange needs to be two-way. First to get information out there, and second to receive feedback and monitor the conversation.

• Goofus wants all traffic to go to his web site, so he does not allow the embedding of any video from his site.
• Gallant knows that he will actually build up more goodwill AND increase traffic to their site by allowing people to embed video content from that site. He also knows that if he does not do it, people have no incentive to direct traffic to his site and that the risk of unauthorized pirating and distribution of the content goes up.

• Goofus thinks blogs are one way conversations and don’t allow comments of any kind for reasons that include corporate embarrassment.
• Gallant realizes that having a truly interactive blog is a way to not only engage people in community type dialog, but also a way to get unrestrained feedback from people.

So who are the Goofuses and the Gallants out there? Join the conversation on LinkedIn or leave your comments here.

Christopher Byrne is the managing partner of The Cayuga Group, LLC, a consulting firm focused on the development, deployment, management, and administration of information/collaboration systems including social networking tools. He writes about information technology and business process controls at the Business Controls Caddy, and sports media issues and opportunities at Eye on Sports Media.

While I completely agree with this approach, I just saw an interesting report from Marketing Sherpa on the most common ways that people share links with friends and family. Take a look at the chart below:

The primary link sharing method of choice is clearly still email.  This is about 3.5x the number of percentage of people that share links via social media. Unfortunately I do not have a chart that shows the results of this question over time, but I’m sure that the social media percentage has increased as Twitter and Facebook grow in popularity.  In spite of this, for the time being email is still the king of link sharing. So don’t forget to include an “Email to a Friend” link with the rest of your sharing options and encourage your fans to email your links to others – they will probably be more likely to respond.

The website displays a 3D rotation of different videos, including game actions clips, interviews with the team (some of which are VERY funny), and placeholders for user-generated videos. Some of the videos are grayed out and will be activated over time, giving fans reason to keep visiting the site. Everything is tied together through a contest, which you can learn about through the links at the bottom of the site. There are prizes based on accumulating points, and you can gain points by creating an account, uploading videos, finding a hidden video, sharing with friends via email or social networking (Twitter and Facebook), and purchasing a ticket package.

I’m not a Marquette fan (I’m actually an alumnus of a rival Big East school), but I’ve already visited the site multiple times to see the different types of videos that they’ve created. I’m sure that the school’s fans will really respond to this promotion. I love the interactive elements and how they encourage and reward the site visitors to share the link with others. This is a great alternative to a typical online ticket sales or marketing campaign.

Social Media and Sponsorship Join Forces for Marquette Basketball

This past week, Marquette University started posting from a Pepsi-sponsored Twitter account focusing on the home opener for its men’s basketball team. This development is unique in that very few (successful) forays have been made into the world of sponsored social media.

So far, the only evidence of Pepsi involvement is a Pepsi logo and the text “Pepsi Season Opener” on the Twitter page. There have been no tweets or links posted regarding Pepsi or the sponsorship and the posts have largely focused on information aimed at building excitement around opening night. If the user’s window is not maximized, the Pepsi logo and blurb receives little visibility, as it is mostly shrouded by text display.

The account has amassed just over 100 followers at the time of this post, but its posts are retweeted through the Marquette Athletics account.

I think this minimalistic approach of the lowest possible integration (no influence on tweets) is a great start. By keeping the sponsorship transparent and the content sterile, the account does not have a detrimental effort on the actual sponsorship of the athletic department and if anything, only adds to it.

If Pepsi ever does make it into the subject matter of tweets, it should not be in the form of just marketing messages. Instead, the best way to integrate the overarching Season Opener sponsorship into this sponsored Twitter page is to provide actual useful content or promotions. For example, if Pepsi were to give away tickets or create a highlight video, that would be relevant content to relay to the account’s followers. However, simply stating there is a sale on Pepsi at the local grocer would not be relevant.

Essentially, this Twitter account is just an activation extension of Pepsi’s sponsorship of Marquette Athletics and is not the sole focus of the sponsorship. I think placing the Twitter account in the supporting role of the much larger sponsorship makes the sponsored page feel much more organic than if the sponsored Twitter account were the primary focus.

It would be interesting to know if Pepsi requested the Twitter tie-in or whether Marquette’s athletic department took the initiative in its creation.

(Editor’s Note: I love to see experimentation like this in the social media space. I believe the first sports-related Twitter sponsor to get involved was Tissot on Danica Patrick’s page. Social media allows for a wide array of value-added activation, which is so important now as companies look to gain more value from their sponsorships without increasing their spend.)

Today, I’m sharing a post I wrote last year on making marching bands part of the professional sports experience. The reason I thought back to this post was because of last night’s ESPN30 for 30 documentary on the old Baltimore Colts marching band called “The Band That Wouldn’t Die.” The film did an excellent job talking about the Colts’ late night move from Baltimore to Indianapolis, and how the team’s marching band continued to play on for over a decade until finally the Ravens brought football back to Baltimore.

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I will admit right up front that I am biased, since I was part of the marching and pep bands while in college, but having a live marching band and pep band at college sporting events is a valuable part of the game-day experience. This includes pregame shows (think of the tuba player dotting the “i” in the Ohio State pregame), halftime shows (some southern schools have very elaborate and impressive performances), and timeout performances during both football and basketball games. I am a firm believer that a live band can generate as much if not more enthusiasm from the fans than any canned music can.

On that note, I wanted to mention two professional teams that make use of a live band, the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Ravens. Here are a couple of clips (note – the audio quality is not that great, since these are fan recordings):

Social Media, Crowd Management & Security at Stadiums Empower the Fans

The real action of the sports business occurs in the front and back of house operations for the event at a stadium. The action on the field is the entertainment for the fans with the players being the gladiators engaged in the competition of the game. When you pack a venue with 60,000 plus fans, the ability to control and react to an incident is critical. Social media is fast becoming an added event staff member at venues.

We are seeing another transformation and evolution in crowd management at venues. The hand radio and cellular technologies had an impact on venue operations, but social media will impact the front and back of house operations in ways we could not have imagined in the past.

Social media is allowing fans not only to experience the game on the field; the technology is allowing the fans to control their environment in their specific sections in the seats. Fans can simply send a tweet or text message to the venue command center to allow the event security staff to take effective action. The NFL used a text messaging system during the Super Bowl this past year to report fan behavior issues, allowing security to address the problem at an early stage for quick response.

Crowd management and security at venues will see vast technology breakthroughs with social media playing a vital role. The Human-Robot Interaction project that allows robotic-type technology to mimic some human behaviors underway at Bristol Robotics Laboratory in England has huge implications, such as safety, crowd flow, manpower analysis, design and construction cost. Just think of an eye-tracking system employed at venues that allows robotic-type sensors to estimate the gaze of its human fans and infer their “state of mind,” like intention and focus, and instantly alert the command center for “correct” action by security or event management.

Moreover, such technology can be employed to scan crowds and provide warnings when those crowds reach critical-mass levels. This could create safer venues and transform crowd-management activities. Improving business processes and increasing revenues, such the ability to instantly place a message on the scoreboard or send a Twitter message to increase food and merchandise per caps, will be a real-time social media activity.

To survive and be competitive in the sports business environment, organizations have to make innovation a top action priority. For breakthrough business solutions to be found, you will need to “get out of the box” and be a problem solver. The simplest and most powerful way to awaken the creative part of your brain is to imagine how social media can be more than just a marketing force. Imagining can create a new reality with social media in extraordinary ways, driving revenue, improving business processes, empowering the fans and mitigating risks at sports venues.

Steve Koss has an extensive venue and sports background improving business processes and delivering innovative solutions that drive front and back of house business results. You can follow him on Twitter at @SteveKoss.

Time for this week’s edition of Sports Careers Saturday!

Career Tip: Preparing for the Interview

They want to see if you have the right stuff. It’s okay to have butterflies. Most people do, even if they don’t admit it. What you do to get ready at this point is crucial to increasing your chances of success.

I’m talking about the interview and how to best prepare for it. Most people don’t like the stress that interviews cause. However, this is part of the game. If you know what you’re trying to sell, you will already be holding some of the cards.

Your goal is to be clear, concise and to the point. When they ask questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” don’t start rambling and giving too much information. What the employer is looking for is what you can bring to the table.

A better way to answer this would be give them four words that accurately describe what they are looking for such as, hardworking, loyal, trustworthy and enthusiastic. You will need to have explanations to go with the descriptions.

The reason you need stories is it make the information come alive. They have already read your resume so now they want to know the real insight into you. Think of stories that will make you stand out in an employer’s mind so you can give yourself a step up in getting into the big leagues!

Five Hot Jobs of the Week:

• Director Ad Sales, Technology – ESPN (New York, NY) – Responsible for partnering with our ad sales and production teams to ensure that our site is delivering innovative ad solutions that adhere to our technology guidelines.
• General Manager – North Adams SteepleCats (North Adams, MA) - The position will be responsible for coordinating all facets of operating a summer baseball organization.
• Sports Writer – Texarkana Gazette (Texarkana, TX) - Responsibilities are covering local high school sports, although some college and pro coverage is possible. Opportunities in sports coverage, including sports features, advances, statistical.
• Account Manager – ESPN (Seattle, WA) - Position will be responsible for generating, analyzing and communicating sales proposals to the sales organization for presentation to clients.
• Spring Training Operations Intern – Ripken Baseball, Inc. (Myrtle Beach, SC) - Join our team as an Operations Intern, where we are ‘Building Excellence One Player at a Time’.

Sports Careers offers weekly, monthly or yearly subscriptions that provide full access to their career resources and job listings. Visit www.sportscareers.com for more information.

1.  Favre attracts cable’s largest audience – People were expecting this week’s Monday Night Football match-up between Favre’s current and former team to draw a large audience, and they weren’t disappointed. A whopping 21.8 million viewers tuned in, setting a record for a cable television broadcast and creating a nice windfall for ESPN in this early season episode.

2.  Against All Odds, UFL Kicks Off Tonight – On the opposite end of the spectrum, the UFL officially launched their inaugural season last night when the Las Vegas Locomotives defeated the California Redwoods. The league started up with only four teams, so there won’t be a lot of UFL football this year, but they plan to add two more teams next year. Click on the link to read a quick interview between Darren Rovell of CNBC and Frank Vuono, the COO for the UFL.

3.  Why Olympic Sponsorships Aren’t Effective – This is an excellent guest blog post on the Harvard Business Blog by Kim Skildum-Reid of PowerSponsorship.com. She covers many different points, including the strategic and legal challenges from ambush marketing efforts, the struggle to enforce exclusivity, compliance with Olympic standards, lack of flexibility, and fan engagement.

4.  “Fans as Inputs” Series – The Sports Economist has written a couple of very interesting posts recently, discussing another way of looking at fans as part of the economic equation of the sports industry. The most straight forward way to look at fans is purely as consumers, since they are the people buying the product.  However, there is no arguing that fans also have an impact on the game itself, whether its creating a better (or worse) fan experience, impacting team performance through vocal support, or maybe even influencing referee decisions. As such, they also need to be looked at as an “input” into the sports product.

5.  Golf looking like it has less of a shot of making Olympics – Back in August, the IOC voted in favor of adding rugby and golf to the list of Olympics sports. However, it now seems like golf may be held back from the 2016 Games in Rio. There is concern that Rio is not the best location to debut golf, since it is not very common in Brazil. There will be a formal presentation today in Copenhagen, featuring PGA executives and athletes, which will be followed by a formal vote.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially announce that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil would host the 2016 Summer Olympics. This will be the first time that the Games will take place in South America, and it has been hailed as a tremendous achievement for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, there has been significant disappointment in the United States for Chicago’s failed bid to host 2016, which included the support of President Barack Obama.

I will be honest in that I didn’t follow this story very closely. I let my “U.S. bias” lead me to believe that Chicago was the likely favorite over Rio, Madrid and Tokyo.  However, along that line, Darren Rovell wrote an excellent post on how much additional revenue would be generated through media rights and sponsorships by hosting the games in Chicago.

With that said, my questions to all of you are:

• What city did you except to be named as the 2016 host city and why?
• What do you think hurt Chicago’s bid the most?
• What do you except from Rio as the first South American host city?

This post is completely designed for all of you to provide the content through the comments below. Please share your thoughts and let’s get a nice dialogue going.

If you watched even two minutes of football this weekend, you saw pink everywhere on the screen: jersey patches, helmet stickers, cleats, towels, gloves, wristbands, cheerleader uniforms and more (check out this photo gallery for some great pictures). The announcers constantly mentioned the league’s pink initiative and the link to www.nfl.com/pink was shown regularly throughout every game. In fact, right now the entire NFL.com website has a pink background. I like this integrated, multi-channel approach to maximize the impact of this campaign.

The pure value of the media exposure generated by this campaign has to be tremendous, in the hundreds of thousands if not more. All of this exposure goes a long way towards generating breast cancer awareness and encouraging annual screenings.

Major League Baseball also deserves a lot of credit for their own breast cancer awareness programs, which is highlighted every year by the use of pink bats by many high-profile players on Mothers Day. I would love to see similar league-wide campaigns from the NBA and NHL this year.

Update: If you are interested in supporting the NFL’s breast cancer awareness program, you can contribute by bidding on any of the authentic pink items from Sunday’s games that are being auctioned here. All profits will go to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Time for this week’s edition of Sports Careers Saturday!

Career Tip: The handshake can say a lot!

We have all heard that when shaking someone’s hand, you shouldn’t squeeze too hard, present a wet noodle or shake too long. But did you know that there are guidelines telling us how many pumps, length of time and the amount of firmness used, as well as the little known fact that artisans, doctors and musicians are exceptions to the rule(s).

According to Brian Yates, author of the “How to Knock em dead” series, handshakes shouldn’t last more than 30 seconds. Pumping the hands should last between three (3) to six (6) pumps. And when dealing with artisans, doctors and musicians, be courteous when squeezing, they rely on their hands for their occupations and shouldn’t be judged by the firmness with which they present themselves. So, the next time you are out with friends, bore them to death with your “useless” trivia; however, the next time your on an interview, make sure you’re ready for the handshake.

Five Hot Jobs of the Week:

Don’t forget that we have an internal posting for a virtual internship with this site. Click here for the details on the position and instructions on how to apply!

• Director, Remote Operations - The Golf Channel (Orlando, FL) - Oversee all technical aspects of the tournament and studio type remote productions and other special programming. Responsibilities involve pre-planning and managing all technical activities on location including site surveys, new technology applications, managing vendor relationships and coordinating with host broadcasters.
• Associate Athletic Director for Development - Utah State University (Logan, UT) - The Associate Director of Athletics for Development/Major Gifts is responsible for raising gifts to support the mission, vision and priorities of Athletics. The position will focus on the cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of identified athletics major gift donors.
• Assistant Women’s Golf Coach - San Diego State University (San Diego, CA) - Responsible for assisting in the direction of the Women’s Golf program, performing a variety of coaching functions related to the sport of Women’s Golf in the Athletic Department. Assist head coach in managing program within budget and assuring that program is effectively coordinated with training, equipment, and travel staff.
• Network Sales Manager - National Hockey League (New York, NY) - The Network Sales Manager is responsible for the procurement of advertising dollars from various revenue streams for LIVE event programming and original intrinsic programming on our Network.
• Sports Reporter - ASP Westward, L.P. (Houston, TX) - As a leader of community newspapers, we are seeking a community minded journalist for a Reporter position located in the Northwest Houston area. Under the direction of an editor, the reporter is responsible for gathering and analyzing information of newsworthy events in the community and writing stories for publications.

Sports Careers offers weekly, monthly or yearly subscriptions that provide full access to their career resources and job listings. Visit www.sportscareers.com for more information.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Tyler Tumminia, Vice President of Marketing and Operations for The Goldklang Group.

I was only able to get away for one day to attend the 7th annual Sports Business Journal Relay Worldwide Sports Sponsorship Symposium. It was worth just being there for the day to witness Mike Principe of BEST announce to us that we were being fed an exclusive and Nike was partnering with Michael Vick (the room went completely silent) only to find out the next morning that was not the case (he must have forgotten that Darren Rovell of CNBC and other countless reporters were in attendance). However, let that not overshadow the wonderful speakers of the event and wide range of topics discussed.

Of course we all expected to hear about the economic recession and the increased pressure to quantify ROI, but it was music to my ears to hear how major brands are focusing their attention to digital and social media. Dan McHugh, Vice President of Media Sponsorship for Anheuser-Busch talked about how digital media is playing a much bigger role in sponsorship and marketing and now more than ever, they are focusing how they can increase beer sales. He mentioned that they have decreased their exclusivities in team-based partnerships from 84% to 54%.

The audience was polled during a panel discussion on what our marketing budgets look like for next year and although I would refrain from sending in the clowns just yet- the survey showed 34% of attendees (major sports brands in the room) were anticipating slightly increased marketing budgets for ‘10. Flat budgets represented the second place response, and slightly down came in third.

Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CMO of Gatorade, gave a interactive and fun presentation of their new “G” campaign. She was very engaging and described their thought process on expanding their market base to include non-traditional athletes and how the G campaign was intentionally aimed at confusing the consumer first, to get them to engage with their company, and to find out what the message of their campaign was about. As a result, they experienced an unprecedented amount of attention and website traffic. As Sarah mentioned, they were successful in making younger consumers feel that it’s cool again to drink Gatorade and that it’s no longer your “grandfathers drink.” She also shared with us that Gatorade has shifted their focus on where they are spending marketing dollars, with 16% of the pie going to digital media this year, echoing the emphasis on digital media as a tool to market in 2010.

In general, the panel discussion emphasized that in the coming year marketing budgets need to engage the fan, and the experts feel the way to do that is through using digital media to seek more efficiency and direct communication with your fan base and consumers. The conference was helpful to marketers who perhaps are confronted with internal resistance from companies they represent. It armed us with assurance that digital media is not going away anytime soon, that apprehension to new avenues of communicating your brand message will only leave you scrambling when others are capitalizing. I would be more than happy to share other insights and observations regarding the conference. Feel free to connect with me anytime.

On a personal note, I got a chance to meet Walt “Clyde” Frazier. I asked to take a photo with him and commented on his sky blue suit and matching cowboy boots. I also mentioned that he had the best line of the conference thus far when he said in his speech that he dresses this way because he has “disdain for the mundane.” Believe it!