The following article was submitted by guest contributor Jamie Acks. Jamie, a student in the Ohio University MBA/MSA program, spent this past summer interning at Turnkey Sports and Entertainment. Her primary responsibility was executing the following study, which attempted to identify what, if any, relationship truly exists between game attendees’ at-event satisfaction and teams’ performance on the field.

Winning’s Effect on Attendee Satisfaction: A data-driven look inside the relationship between fan satisfaction and teams’ on-field performance

We’ve all heard the phrase “Hot dogs taste better when you win”, but to what extent does a team’s on-field performance truly affect fan satisfaction? This study was executed to delve into the relationship between winning and attendee satisfaction, and what we found may surprise you.

Key Findings:

- Winning has sizeable impact on satisfaction, but the relationship is less significant than was initially expected. Across all leagues, as winning percentage increased, a positive relationship emerged between both winning and season ticket holder experience satisfaction and winning and gameday experience satisfaction. Winning percentage accounted for 29% of the variation in season ticket holder experience satisfaction; however, it accounted for just 18% of the variance in overall gameday satisfaction among single game buyers and 4% of variation in overall gameday satisfaction among season ticket holders

- Overall, single game buyers from all leagues expect MLS were more satisfied with the gameday experience than season ticket holders.

- Gameday satisfaction was high across the board, coming in at an average of 3.92 on a 5-point likert scale (5 being “Extremely Satisfied”; 1 being “Extremely Dissatisfied”).

- A positive linear relationship between wins and satisfaction existed in the NFL and MLB.

- Fan satisfaction was seemingly unrelated to the number of games played.

- There existed a steady decline in satisfaction levels among all attendee groups beginning in 2006, implying that the economy may have had an impact on gameday satisfaction.

After completing this study, it was clear that a relationship between a team’s record and game attendee satisfaction does exist. However, other elements contribute significantly to attendee satisfaction as well, including the economy, ticket holder tenure, usage of tickets, team history, players, facility, weather, and more.

To view the full report associated with this study, please click here.

For more information, please contact Jamie Acks at jamieacks@gmail.com or via twitter (@jdacks), or email Emily Huddell at EmilyHuddell@turnkeyse.com.

Jason Peck had a great idea for a series of blog posts based around “Why We Should Care” about social media. The “We” refers to everyone from fans to teams to athletes to agencies and more. I was very pleased that Jason asked me to contribute to this series, and you should visit his site (www.jasonfpeck.com) to read what all of his great contributors had to say. In the meantime, here are some of my opinions on the subject.

Why Fans Should Care – Fans are always looking for ways to interact with their team and feel a deeper connection to the teams and players that they live and die for. Social media can give the fans a new level personal interaction that they are looking for. In addition, as most teams increase their own social media presence, these tools can be used to share opinions and feedback that can eventually lead to a better fan experience.

Why Teams Should Care – Teams should care because fans care. Their most active, passionate and vocal advocates are participating in the social media landscape, regardless of whether the teams are there or not. So really, teams have two options: ignore the conversation and stick to old-fashioned, one-way marketing, or join the conversation and engage with their fans. I think the answer here is obvious.

Why Athletes Should Care – In the age of free agency and big contracts, the most important thing that a player has outside of their contract is their brand. They need to care about social media because it gives them a direct-to-consumer communication channel that has more influence over their brand image than any jersey or team logo does. Because of the power that this medium has, players need to have a great balance of being genuine and being self-aware.  They should let that fun personality shine through while remembering that once they click “Submit”, there’s no going back. They need to better understand the pros and cons of the instantaneous nature of social media.

Why Agents Should Care – Agents should care for the same reason that athletes need to care. If an agent is going to best represent their client’s interests, they need to be just as aware, if not more aware of the impact that social media has on their client’s brand. How their clients interact with fans on social media can affect everything from player contract negotiations to maximizing the athlete’s endorsement and marketing opportunities.

Why Colleges Should Care – College should care for the same reasons as teams, with the added focus that one of their key audiences, their students, are some of the most active and ultimately influential social media users out there. Even if they don’t currently represent the same monetary value of alumni and donors, the student of today become the donors of tomorrow, so social media can help build an even deeper loyalty and affinity now while they are in school.

Why Agencies Should Care – Agencies should care because social media needs to be a part of any company’s marketing mix, and this includes the events and properties that they represent. Their corporate clients are ultimately looking to increase revenue and improve their brand value, and actively engaging the fans through their sponsorships is an important part of that process. Outside of the actual gameday experience, social media is the most “active” and engaging communication option they can leverage.

September is a great month to connect with your fellow sports business peers.  Following up on another successful New York networking event, we have THREE more events scheduled for this month:

Atlanta – Tuesday, September 7 from 5:30 to 8:00 PM at Buckhead Bottle Bar (268 E Paces Ferry Road)

Phoenix – Thursday, September 16 from 5:30 to 8:00 PM at Macayo’s Depot Cantina (300 South Ash Avenue, Tempe)

Philadelphia – Thursday, September 30 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM at The Field House (1150 Filbert Street)

Click on one of the links above for full event details and to RSVP.

In addition, Pat Coyle has two upcoming Sports 2.0 Summits. According to his site, “These events are built for executives working in the digital, sports and media business. We cover a broad spectrum of topics from digital strategy, to social media to mobile, always honing in on the most practical ways to drive fan engagement and revenue.” I’ve heard great things about these summits. The first one is September 21 in San Francisco and the other is October 21 in Atlanta.  The registration fee is $250, but if you follow @sports20 on Twitter, you may stumble upon the occasional discount or ticket giveaway.

That’s five more ways to learn, build your network and advance your career. If you’re near one of these locations, I hope you can attend, and please pass the word along to your friends and colleagues. Thanks!

Earlier this week, I celebrated one of those larger, round-numbered birthdays (hint – I’m officially “old” now). As expected, I received a few email birthday wishes from the various team and league newsletters that I’ve opted to receive, which is always a nice touch. A birthday email program is easy to operate and can create a very nice touchpoint between your company and the customer at minimal cost.

Some birthday emails are just that – a simple happy birthday message with no added value. These can deliver a quick smile, but probably get discarded with a fast click of the delete button. In my opinion, sending an email without some form of a “call-to-action” is a lost opportunity. If you get your fans or customers to open the email, there should be some available action to further engage the fan. This doesn’t always need to be a sale-related action either. How about creating a “Happy Birthday” video that they can click and watch. You can even get fancy and integrate their name into the video message, a popular trend with e-marketing initiatives.

Other emails I received had promo codes for either a ticket or merchandise offer, as a way to “treat myself” on my birthday. This can be a very effective tactic, providing value to the customer and incremental sales to the organization. However, if you take this approach, you really need to position the offer well so that it comes across more as a gift than a sales pitch. Make sure the discount is substantial enough to matter (5 to 10% off doesn’t feel like much of a gift to me), and start with the “Happy Birthday” message before you encourage them to make a purchase.

Finally, you can take the approach that ESPN did and provide a low-cost, free gift. The email they sent offered a free ringtone download of the ESPN SportsCenter jingle. With this approach, I’m not spending a dollar, I can get something of value (ringtones normally cost $1-2) and if I really am a fan of ESPN (which I am), this is a pretty cool little treat. Plus, ESPN gets extra exposure every time someone downloads and starts using their free ringtone. Companies can try this tactic with ringtones, highlight videos, screensavers, iPhone or Blackberry apps and more.

The leaking of multiple MLB team financial documents to Deadspin this week has been a big story in the industry. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here are some quick links to catch up to speed:

• Deadspin Part 1 – Financial statements from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Marlins and Los Angeles Angels
• Deadspin Part 2 – Financial statements from the Seattle Mariners
• Deadspin Part 3 – Financial statements from the Texas Rangers
• Darren Rovell’s post – “Why MLB Financial Leak Matters”
• Analysis from Maury Brown at BizOfBaseball.com

I wish I had time right now to dig into the details of the statements (brush off those MBA accounting and finance brain cells), but Maury Brown is doing an excellent job of that over on BizOfBaseball.com. I highly suggest reading up on the multiple posts he’s written (and is continuing to write) over there.

My quick focus in this post is on the choice to run a successful business vs. running a successful team. One of the biggest takeaways from these leaks is demonstrating how a small market team that is not very competitive (yes, I’m talking about the Pirates) can be very successful financially without creating a quality product because of the revenue sharing money provided by teams that are spending money and resources to provide a top-tier baseball team. From a purely business perspective, there isn’t anything actually wrong with this. The team owners have a business to run and are entitled to generate a profit for their work. They have identified a system that works for them and does not violate any agreements that the team has with Major League Baseball. Any customers/fans that have a problem with this approach can demonstrate their displeasure by simply ending their relationship with the team (stop buying tickets or merchandise, stop watching games on TV, etc.). However, if this doesn’t significantly alter the team’s current revenue streams (the majority of which are league-generated), it might not change anything.

The biggest problem with this approach is that there are making their business overdependent on a source of revenue that could change. One of the red flags I was taught to look for when analyzing a company’s financial well-being was generating revenue from a single item or service. If anything in the business environment changes that impacts the company’s ability to show a profit via that single item or service, their entire business model can collapse.  While the Pirates do generate revenue via multiple channels, you can argue that their profitability is very dependent on the current revenue sharing model. In light of these leaks, if MLB changes the “business environment” surrounding revenue sharing in a future CBA, the Pirates and other small-market teams that aren’t successful “on-the-field” could easily be in trouble.

The question now is, will anything change because of these leaks? Will MLB want to add a salary floor (a minimum amount of money a team has to spend on player salaries)? Will higher-revenue teams make a push to adjust the revenue sharing system, knowing that their funds could be going into other owners’ pockets instead of supporting the best interests of the game itself? Will fans stop supporting a team that they know isn’t spending money to create a successful on-field product? These documents definitely open up a lot of possibilities.

Fantasy Football is here, hallelujah! I’m playing in two leagues this year (both all females) and the first of my two fantasy league drafts took place this past Sunday. Before we were accepted into the league, we had to agree to post at least three times a week on the message board, talk trash, and not be offended by anything anyone else might write. Um, ok! Sign me up!

Last year my team was pitiful… 3-10-0 and 11th out of 12 teams to be exact. I’m feeling a lot more confident this year, especially with Peyton Manning as my quarterback, Randy Moss at wide receiver, and the Ravens defense/special teams.  It’s estimated over $435 million is lost by businesses whose employees play fantasy football. I’ll do my best not to take time out of work to set my team, do research, or trash-talk.

Fantasy football is an amazing boon to both the NFL and the media outlets that cover the league. Countless hours are spent on web sites (with appropriate ads across the top, sides and bottom of pages), and reading sports magazines, trying to figure out who to draft and start for your team. Also, I’d guess that with each fantasy league team ‘owned,’ a person’s overall viewership of NFL games increases. Fantasy football has a way of making games that your favorite team isn’t playing in more interesting. Also, if your favorite team is having a down year (like my Buffalo Bills are almost assured of), there is still a reason to pay attention to the NFL.

All that means increased interest in the NFL, which means more television ads can be sold during their games, more people buy the ‘Sunday Ticket,’ and more channels can be created to exploit that interest (NFL Red Zone anyone?). That revenue flows straight into the NFL coffers and simultaneously creates more avid, engaged fans. Us marketers know that having avid, engaged fans makes you a more attractive target for potential sponsors.

What other ways do you think fantasy leagues have affected sports business? What is the best ‘real-world’ promotion you’ve seen that incorporates fantasy football? Who’s the best player on your fantasy team?

I don’t write much about tennis here, so when a friend of mine sent me a press release about a tennis partnership that combines a major sporting event (US Open), a top athlete (Venus Williams), cool technology (a virtual interactive clinic), a top fashion line (Polo Ralph Lauren), a premium sponsor (Mercedes-Benz) and fundraising (Women’s Sports Foundation), I thought I would share some of the release with you. This is the type of partnership-driven event that really creates value for every party and brand involved, from the sponsors to the consumers.

POLO RALPH LAUREN PRESENTS THE LEGENDS CLINIC FEATURING VENUS WILLIAMS

In celebration of its sixth year as the Official Apparel Sponsor of the US Open Tennis Championships, Polo Ralph Lauren presents the Legends Clinic with Venus Williams, a live interactive virtual tennis clinic produced in partnership with Mercedes-Benz at New York’s SPORTIME Tennis Center on Randall’s Island on August 26 at 2:00PM EST. Tennis enthusiasts around the world will tune in as seven-time Grand Slam Champion Venus Williams answers questions, demonstrates technique and offers hints and tips on how to improve your game during this live one-hour interactive clinic. The clinic will reach a global audience as it will be streamed live online exclusively at RalphLauren.com and accessible on mobile devices at m.ralphlauren.com/USOpen.

“The Legends Clinic is ground-breaking. This is a dynamic way of connecting fashion, technology and sports in a way that has never been done before,” said David Lauren, Senior Vice President of Advertising, Marketing and Corporate Communications. “We are providing our customers around the world a unique experience to personally connect with one of the world’s premier tennis legends while she is engaged in her sport.”

Ralph Lauren will design a limited-edition dress in partnership with Eleven to be worn by Venus Williams during the Legends Clinic as well as a special limited-edition US Open polo shirt to accompany the collection. Both the Ralph Lauren designed limited-edition dress and polo shirt will be available on-site at the US Open Polo Ralph Lauren shop and online at RalphLauren.com. Additionally, the limited-edition US Open polo shirt will be exclusively available at Macy’s Herald Square in New York. Fifteen percent of sales will be donated to the Women’s Sports Foundation, dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sport and physical activity.

“It is truly exciting to partner with Polo Ralph Lauren in this unique endeavor and to bring my professional expertise and personal experiences to tennis fans around the world,” said Venus Williams.

The Ralph Lauren US Open collection is available on-site at the US Open Polo Ralph Lauren shop open for the duration of the tournament. The store also features a wide selection of items such as tote bags, tennis dresses, skirts, sweaters, commemorative caps, classic Polo shirts for men and women. The collection will also be available at select Ralph Lauren stores, department stores and online at Ralphlauren.com.

As part of the Legends Clinic, Mercedes-Benz, the official vehicle of the US Open Tennis Championship and presenting sponsor of the Men’s Single Championship, will highlight its new SLS AMG supercar that draws inspiration from the 1954 300SL Gullwing, a legendary car known for its iconic style and innovation.

This announcement reinforces Polo Ralph Lauren’s leadership in major sporting initiatives. The company also serves as the Official Outfitter of the Wimbledon Championships and will be the Proud Outfitter for the US Olympic and Paralympic Teams at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Polo Ralph Lauren also sponsors an elite roster of professional golfers, as well as the Blackwatch Polo Team.

It’s time for the SportsBiz Candidate of the Week. Instead of featuring a top job posting, I like to feature a qualified industry professional who it looking for their next opportunity. If you are interested in being a future SportsBiz Candidate of the Week, you can apply here.

Now it’s time to introduce our next candidate, Brendan Wilhide! Let’s learn more about him.

Goal: My goal is to represent and assist in the growth of a major brand in social media.

Experience:

• Sportsin140.com, 2009-Present
  • Maintain working relationships with the NFL, NHL, PGA Tour and other organizations to authenticate, publicize and study their social media presence
  • Interview sports industry leaders about how their organizations use social media and the future of social media in sports
  • Independently validate athletes on Twitter
  • Work featured on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” on Sports Illustrated’s website and in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and Toronto Globe and Mail
• Contributing writer for Macworld.com, 2009-Present
  • Review iPhone applications, especially sports applications and interact with app developers, especially to learn how sports apps integrate with existing social media strategies
• Public Relations Coordinator for Ripken Baseball, 2006-2007
  • Wrote and edited press releases, game notes, game recaps and feature content for game day program, team website and press materials
  • Served as liaison and primary contact for all team related media inquiries
  • Helped plan and implement the 2006 New York-Penn League All-Star Game at Ripken Stadium

Education:  I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Professional Writing and a concentration in Sports Management from York College of Pennsylvania in May, 2005. While attending York I worked in the Sports Information Office for four years and served as sports editor of the college newspaper for one year.

Greatest Accomplishments: My greatest professional accomplishment has been Sportsin140.com. I launched the site in March, 2009. It began as an idea I had in the middle of the night and grew from there. In the last year and a half my work covering sports and social media has been featured on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” on Sports Illustrated’s website and in the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe and Toronto Globe and Mail. I have built relationships with major leagues like the NFL and NHL and the PGA Tour through my work on my site. I interact with these leagues on a frequent basis to confirm official social media accounts, publicize social media efforts and occasionally provide suggestions for improving social media strategy. It is a true labor of love for me and combines my passion for sports and social media. I view the site has my greatest accomplishment because I took it from an idea I had to a nationally recognized resource on social media in the sports industry.

Sell Yourself in 3 Sentences or Less: I’m a self starter with a passion for sports and social media, as evidenced by my work in developing Sportsin140.com, a site my colleagues in the industry have called an “indispensable resource” and “ahead of the curve.” My public relations and journalism background allow me to integrate traditional public relations strategies in social media and other emerging media. I’d love to connect with anyone interested in social media and further explain how I’m the right person to help grow your brand via social media.

You can connect with Brendan at Sportsin140.com, on Twitter (@brendanwilhide), through his LinkedIn page or by email at bwilhide@gmail.com. If you have an open opportunity with your organization or know of another company that can benefit from Brendan’s experience, please reach out to him. I want to see this weekly feature really help some great people places into the industry positions they deserve.

Previous Candidates of the Week:

• Mario Prosperino
• Add your name to this list!

When I checked my mailbox yesterday, I saw that I had received a direct mail piece from a professional sports team, advertising their 2010 ticket packages. There were some very nice aspects to this mailing, and unfortunately, two problems that could have been avoided. The name of the team has been removed to protect the innocent.

First, here is what I liked:

• Nice-sized, quad-fold piece, but not too bulky (keeps printing/mailing costs reasonable)
• Full color with attention grabbing photos
• Two calls to action right on the outside: “Free Poster Inside!” and a text-to-win free season tickets contest (great opt-in offer)
• Highlights the website right on the front and shows multiple low-price ticket options (important for a bulk mailer when you’re probably dealing with mixed-quality leads)
• Inside page shows feature lists for general seating, luxury seating, group seating and their free fan club (another nice opt-in)
• A good quality, decent-sized poster of a top, young player with the team’s schedule when the mailer is completely unfolded

Now, here are the two big problems with the mailer:

1.  As good a job as the piece did in featuring the website and opt-in programs, the phone number for the ticket office was only printed once, on the inside, and not in particularly large print. Most significant sports tickets purchases still take place over the phone with your sales staff, so this needs to be featured much more prominently. In fact, I would have included the phone number and website on the bottom of the poster itself to increase the chance for multiple views.

2.  The biggest problem with this piece is… I live over 1,000 miles away from where this team plays! Now, this is a bit misleading, as I did sign up for this team’s email club (I’m signed up for a LOT of teams’ emails so I can see what strategies teams use). However, this is the only team from outside my local market that sent me a mailer, probably because its very ineffective to spend money on direct mail for anyone outside your local radius. Now, if I had been a member of the email club AND previously purchased tickets, it would be a different story. Then I might look like an out-of-market fan who still comes back for games. But I have never purchased a ticket from this team, so there really is no reason to send this to me.

From other examples I’ve seen, almost 40% of fans that join an email newsletter or online fan-club live outside of that team’s local market. It’s a great way for fans to stay connected to their team when they have to travel or move. Because of that, teams need to be more selective on how they use these programs to try and sell tickets. It’s much easier to sell a jersey to fans who live thousands of miles away than it is to sell them season tickets!

I hope you all enjoy my first video blog post. I will mix these in occasionally with our traditional text posts for a quick change-of-pace. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1apHmY7NkM

I’m excited to introduce a new weekly segment on the site called the SportsBiz Candidate of the Week. Instead of featuring a top job posting, I’d rather take the time to feature a qualified industry professional who it looking for their next opportunity. If you are interested in being a future SportsBiz Candidate of the Week, you can apply here.

Now it’s time to introduce our first weekly profile, Mario Prosperino! Let’s learn more about him.

Goals: To become a difference maker within an organization, developing marketing strategies and revenue streams to forge long term business partner relationships.

Experience:

Getty Images, New York, NY – Business Development Manager April 1998 – June 2010

• Lucratively launched the Getty Images NASCAR and IRL ‘b to b’ business in 2000, negotiating six figure photography assignment agreements through 2004 with automobile manufactures, corporate sponsors and racing teams.
• Appointed as the National Football League brand manager for Getty Images in 2004, responsible for generating and overseeing $18M in editorial and commercial still image licensing revenue through 2009.
• Collaborated with the NFL business development and new media departments to create innovative revenue streams for the NFL & Getty Images photography partnership.
• Through pro-active relationships built with representation agencies, secured and monetized exclusive “day in the life of“ athlete portraiture photo shoots.

Education:  Fordham University, Bachelor of Science Business Administration, Finance, 1996

Greatest Accomplishments:

• Leading and launching Getty Images mainstream into the business of NASCAR in 2000 with increased editorial photography coverage of its circuits, resulting into new and prosperous business relationships with top manufactures and corporate sponsors.
• Launching and managing Getty Images ‘Faces of the NFL’ in 2006 – securing and producing intimate portrait photo shoots with some of the biggest names in the NFL, increasing athlete brand awareness and delivering unique photography content into the market place.

Sell Yourself in 3 Sentences or Less: Versatile and creative with 14 years of experience in the digital media, sports, and entertainment field, with the ability to qualify opportunities and generate revenue with appropriate decision makers. An individual who’s passion for the sports and entertainment industry is exemplified in his results.

You can connect with Mario via Twitter (@mario_prosp), through his LinkedIn page or by email at marioprosperino@hotmail.com. If you have an open opportunity with your organization or know of another company that can benefit from Mario’s experience, please reach out to him. I want to see this weekly feature really help some great people places into the industry positions they deserve.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Tariq Ahmad.

In my first post, I talked about how UFC fighters aren’t making as much money as they should, even though the UFC has enough money to share with the fighters. This article provides a counterpoint as to how fighters make money and can afford to live, eat, train, and run camp for upcoming fights.

In essence, the main way UFC fighters earn money are through sponsorships. Companies that fighters have partnered up with not only provide merchandise and advertising, but are paid money as well. During post-fight interviews, you’ll typically hear fighters say “I’d like to say thank you to all my sponsors” and start listing all their sponsors. Patches of sponsors are also on the fighter’s shorts. The reason for this is because these companies essentially pay for fighters to train full time without them having to find additional work.

Shane Carwin’s salary was mentioned in the last article. For his fight at UFC 116 v. Brock Lesnar, Carwin earned a $40,000 payday from the UFC. Carwin, according to his Twitter page (@shanecarwin) is sponsored by Performance MMA, HeadBlade, MaxMuscle Sports Nutrition, and at least 13 other sponsors. The amount of money he earns from these sponsors is undisclosed, but Carwin can probably afford to live off these sponsorships. In addition, he is one of the few fighters who does not fight full time, as he is a mechanical engineer with the Weld County (Colorado) Water District, located approximately 50 miles north of Denver.

Another way that fighters can earn bigger base salary paydays (although not guaranteed) is to negotiate better salaries with the UFC. After all, the fighters are making the said amount for the fight because they have signed the contract to fight for a certain amount of money. UFC contracts are based heavily on incentives, which include a win bonus (generally equal to the amount of the fight salary), Knockout of the Night, Fight of the Night, and Submission of the Night. In addition to a win bonus, a fighter can earn one or a combination of two of these bonuses.

Let’s go back to Carwin. The general bonus payout is $65,000. If Carwin would have beaten Lesnar via knockout, and assuming it was good enough to win Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night, Carwin’s payday for the fight would have been $210,000 ($40K fight salary, $40K win bonus, $65K Knockout of the Night bonus, $65K Fight of the Night bonus). Carwin’s payday would have increased five-fold with maximum incentives attached to it.

Probably the best story of a fighter capitalizing on incentives happened to heavyweight fighter Pat Barry at UFC 104 in October 2009. Barry had lost nearly all the money in his savings account the week of the fight after an investment went bad. Barry was living on white rice and ketchup leading up to the fight. Barry knocked out his former training partner Antoni Hardonk in the first round, and provided an emotional post-fight interview. His salary for the fight was $7,000. In addition to the $7,000 win bonus, he also earned Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night, each carrying a $60,000 payout. In the end, Barry’s original $7,000 payout turned into $134,000.

For a fighter to earn bigger paydays, it is in their best interest to win convincingly enough to earn bonuses. Although the amount of money fighters earn may be low, their ability to win should always be high. The more fights they win persuasively, the better off they may be financially.

Tariq Ahmad is a doctorate student in Sport Administration. His research and career interests lie in sports business and the intersection of sport and social media.

Hopefully if you’re reading this, you are a member of The Business of Sports LinkedIn group… if not, what are you waiting for? A few days ago, Deandra Duggans (a previous guest blogger and author for www.sportsandalatte.com) shared a great article with the LinkedIn group regarding how the Pac-10 has rebranded their image (“Led by savvy commissioner Larry Scott, Pac-10 rebrands its image”, sportsillustrated.cnn.com). She picked a great topic, because a few of the other group members started a nice conversation about the conference’s efforts. I want to share that conversation with you here in case you missed it.

Dallon Christensen CMA, MBA, CPA/CITP:

Larry Scott is an absolute visionary. His idea of how to create a complete brand image of the Pac-10 is a model for any organization (not just sports organizations) looking to create a clear image in the minds of consumers. I’m sure that the Pac 10 will eventually create their own TV network, so building this integrated brand will do wonders for their image. As a Midwest native and a Big 10 fan, I see a lot of similarities between the two conferences in terms of academic and athletic balance as well as geographic spread. Scott’s efforts to capture an image are important.  I love the new logo. It reminds me a lot of the traditional shield logos I see on European soccer jerseys. It’s very catchy.

AJ Maestas:

The Pac-10 is going to have a tough time replicating the revenue generated by the Big 10 through media rights — even after creating its own network — because the Pac-10’s fan base, in terms of both reach and affinity, can’t quite match the Big 10. Our firm’s research suggests the Pac-10 should eventually get about $14.5 million per school per year, which is obviously short of the Big 10’s $21 million per school per year.

However, if Scott can continue generating buzz for his conference, and if he can keep alive the idea that a 16-team super conference is still a future possibility, he could very well generate a bidding war in upcoming media rights negotiations and drive that number up. There are more interested parties than ever (Fox, Turner, Comcast, etc.) and Scott could use that to his advantage.

We still don’t think the Pac-10 can reach Big 10 revenue numbers, but maybe it can approach the SEC’s $17 million per school per year, which would be remarkable considering where the Pac-10 used to be.

Alan LaFleur:

Pac-10 can certainly get there given enough time. They have markets ranging from LA to Denver and then all the way up to Seattle. That is a lot of population. The problem they will face is that their demographics are not as sport-driven as the Big 10 demographics or even the SEC demos. It will be interesting to see what the PAC-10 can do.

Kathy Deboer:

Scott’s ideas for reaching out to Asia are innovative and his conference is perfectly situated to be a leader in this area. Look at all the IMG investment in sports in Asia in the last couple of years. Obviously some of the folks in the business sector think college sports and global expansion is the next growth marketplace. Asia outreach will also be a major boost for volleyball, which the Pac 10 plays pretty well. The sport is huge in China, Japan, and Korea, in terms of both participation and media interest.

Dallon Christensen CMA, MBA, CPA/CITP:

AJ, what kind of population growth projections did you factor into your analysis? I’m curious because the American population continues to move away from the Midwest and Northeast (Big 10 country) and toward the south and west (SEC, ACC, and Pac 10 country). In fact, there were rumors flying about the Big 10 attempting to lure ACC schools like Georgia Tech and Virginia to move toward the southeast. While I agree the Pac 10 probably will not reach Big 10 or SEC revenue levels in this contract, I think the chances are high they could reach those levels in 10 years because of the population shifts in this country (same holds for the SEC).

Soccer and baseball are also very popular in the Asian countries, and the Pac-10 is extremely strong in those sports as well as volleyball. In fact, Scott’s vision in seeing the Olympic sports as a gateway to the Asian sports market is the most remarkable thing I’ve taken from this story.

This is the type of engaging sports business discussion I love to see on the blog and in the LinkedIn group. There are so many great industry professionals that are a part of the group and willing to share their opinions that all of us can benefit from their knowledge and insight. If you haven’t already, join the group today and join the discussions!

I’m happy to announce that we’ve scheduled our next The Business Of Sports – New York Networking event! It is taking place on Wednesday, August 18 from 6:30 to 9:30PM at Slattery’s Midtown Pub (8 East 36th St). As always, the event is completely free to attend.  You can click here to complete the RSVP form.

Here is what some previous attendees had to say about our events:`

• From @Isatten – “Every event has high-caliber representation from across the sports industry. I always walkaway having made new, meaningful connections.”
• From @gosam – “Russell’s events provide the best opportunity for NYC sports industry professionals to step away from the computer & network face-to-face.”
• From @JCingari – “The events are a great way to connect with people from all sides of the sports business industry. The best part: the ‘no resumes’ rule.”
• From @CMarzi84 – “SportsBiz NYC events – definitely worth checking out, fun event full of sports pros from great organizations.”
• From @SponsorPitch – “Great way to network with other sports biz pros in a relaxed atmosphere. I always come away with at least one new connection.”
• From @peteraiello – “An NYC Sportsbiz Networking Event is THE place to go to make real sports industry contacts.”

Please pass this along to any friends and colleagues who would also be interested in attending. Each event has been bigger and more successful than the last, and we want to keep it going!

In addition, we are always looking for opportunities to launch networking events in new areas. Below you will find a list of spots that we’re either working on, or hope to get to soon. If you see a city near you and you can assist with local event logistics, please leave a comment:

• Phoenix – Working on the details for our 2nd event
• Atlanta – Hope to have a 4th event announced soon
• Philadelphia – Had one there before, but need some local help
• Boston – Also had one there before, but need some local help
• Charlotte – Wishlist city, looking for volunteers
• Los Angeles -  Wishlist city, looking for volunteers
• San Francisco/Northern CA – Wishlist city, looking for volunteers
• Miami – Wishlist city, looking for volunteers
• Chicago – Wishlist city, looking for volunteers (also check out the Painless Networking group here)
• Baltimore/DC – Wishlist city, looking for volunteers

Thanks for your support and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you in New York on the 18th!

(Special thanks to Joshua Duboff from The Sports Business Exchange. These events wouldn’t happen without all of his hard work.)

Earlier today, I received a sponsorship solicitation email, which in itself is not unusual. I get all sorts of different requests and proposals through the site. However, there were some things about this particular email I felt should be addressed in a post. First, take a look at the edited version of the email below – all identifying content has been removed (substitute content in CAPS) to protect the innocent:

From:      FULL NAME <SALES REP EMAIL ADDRESS>
To:            <SALES REP EMAIL ADDRESS>
Date:        Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at ##:##
Subject:  SPORT Sponsorship Opportunity

Hello,

My name is REP NAME, and I am a TITLE of a sports agency located in CITY called COMPANY-HAME-HERE (www.WEBSITE.com). I am writing this email on behalf of our affiliate agency, OTHER-COMPANY-NAME (www.OTHERWEBSITE.com). I noticed you are in a sports related business, so I wanted to offer a sponsorship opportunity. We represent numerous ATHLETES. THIS SPORT is the fastest growing sport across the world. We are offering you the opportunity to sponsor these ATHLETES.  Sponsorships include your logo on ITEM 1, ITEM 2 and ITEMS 3 AND 4. Please see the attached Power Point for more details.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please contact me via email at EMAIL-ADDRESS or cell phone at PHONE #. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

FIRST-NAME
CONTACT INFORMATION

So, what problems did you notice? Here are just a few that immediately jump off the page:

1. “Hello,” is not an acceptable greeting. The person sending this didn’t even take the time to type in my first and/or last name. If they have my email address and are sending this to me, they better know my name.
2. Look at the email header. The “From” and “To” address were the same, meaning that I was BCC’d (blind carbon copied). That tells me this same exact email was sent to who knows how many people at the same time. Not exactly a personalized sales pitch. And if you can’t take the time to write me a personalized email, what does that say about how I matter as a prospect, let alone an actual client?
3. No where in the entire email is there any reference to my company name or what we do, other than being a “sports related business.” If you have no idea who I work for or what I do, and how can you demonstrate a fit with your property and how will you generate any interest?
4. The sender is rattling off inventory option in the very first email sent. Before you start to discuss any sponsorship details, you need to assess what value you can provide for the sponsoring company, and then tailor your package accordingly. Just sticking my logo on different things does not provide value.
5. We know this sport is “fast growing,” but that doesn’t mean anything without context or fit. This sport may be growing exponentially, but if your property doesn’t reach my target audience, that size and growth is useless.
6. This particular person isn’t just representing their own agency, but a larger affiliate agency as well. Now any problems with this approach reflect poorly on both organizations.
7. The attached Powerpoint file (not shared here) was actually pretty good and had some nice data in it (albeit not personalized at all). However, the odds of someone opening the attachment from this email are minimal at best.

For the record, I replied back to the sender. He seemed very apologetic for the mistakes and interested in learning what he can do better next time, so I am writing this post as a tip for him and anyone else out there trying to drum up business. What other problems do you see in this approach and what tips can you share with other readers?

Today’s post is courtesy of Brian Gainor, Founding Editor of PartnershipActivation.com. This article was featured in the July 2010 Partnership Activation monthly newsletter. I highly encourage everyone to sign up for it – always a great source of sponsorship news and marketing best practices.

Are You Providing Truly Exclusive Experiences for Fans?

Miller Lite and the Tampa Bay Rays recently teamed up to execute a “Ray for a Day” promotion that truly offered one (1) lucky winner the ultimate Rays game day experience. Miller Lite called on agent Drew Rosenhaus to host the winner, Andrew Marante, and represent him in negotiations with Rays SVP Mark Fernandez, President Matt Silverman, and GM Andrew Friedman that officially made him a “Ray for a Day”.

Following the negotiations and official press conference, Marante was presented with a collection of prizes, which included a one-year supply of Miller Lite, a one-day rookie salary, an authentic, customized Rays jersey and hat, (4) pre-game field passes to watch batting practice, (4) game tickets in Row 1 – directly behind the Rays dugout, an on-field meet & greet with Rays Manager Joe Maddon, a box of authentic Miller Lite-branded Rawlings baseballs, a Miller Lite/Rays neon sign, a Miller Lite beer fridge, a commemorative press release issued by the Rays, and the opportunity to throw out the first pitch prior to the game.

The promotion, managed by GMR Marketing from ideation to execution, was picked up by a host of media outlets and the Rays organization featured a (1) minute clip of the press conference on the jumbotron during pre-game warm-ups and at the bottom of the 4th inning.

Miller Lite leveraged relationships with several retail partners (Publix, Total Wine and More, Buffalo Wild Wings, Winn-Dixie, ABC Liquor, Hess, and Beef O’Brady’s) to execute the Ray for a Day sweepstakes, which tasked consumers ages 21+ with filling out entry forms between May 1– June 6 for a chance to win.

Editor’s Note: This type of ultimate fan experience provides the best level of exposure and activation for a team sponsor. This particular program was able to combine point-of-sale messaging, customer data collection, prime in-venue activation and media exposure, not to mention providing this lucky Rays fan the experience of his life. Great job between the team, agency and sponsor in executing all of the elements involved in this promotion.  ~RS

Banking and credit card sponsors are a standard part of the industry, and one that makes a lot of sense. Sporting events provide a great opportunity to reach a large, passionate audience, and affinity-based credit cards that feature a favorite teams logo and offer special team rewards can be a easy sell to these fans. However, what about sports outside of the typical big four (or five, if you include soccer)? There are opportunities for sponsors to connect with the same type of passion and affinity through participation sports on the local level.

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and Nationwide Bank have done just that with the largest, most popular participation sport in the country. Yes, bowling is that huge, with over 69 million bowlers and a $10 billion annual impact on the economy (I don’t know about you, but I was shocked when I saw those numbers).

Using the same logic as the traditional team/league affinity credit card programs, Nationwide’s partnership with USBC will provide card holders a credit on their membership renewal (which can be set to automatically renew, helping USBC’s membership efforts) and bonus rewards from USBC-related merchants and purchases. USBC members will benefit from these card features, while Nationwide will benefit from the expected increase in card owners, related revenue and increased brand value. Based on that large number of bowlers in this country and their increasing level of participation (up 4% from last year), this is a great audience for Nationwide to connect with.

This same model can easily be applied to other participation sports and with sponsors in various industry segments. I enjoy seeing all the ways that these types of corporate partnerships can be positive for everyone involved, from the partner to the property and down to the individual consumers.

Last week, LeBron James filled us in on “The Decision.” Well today, I’m filling you in on “My Decision.” Before I reveal “My Decision” let me tell you about the remarkable parallels in our stories:

• Young boy/girl growing up in a challenging, snowy climate (LBJ: Akron, Ohio, Me: Rochester, NY)
• Athletic talent obvious from an early age (LBJ: averaged 21ppg/6rpg in his freshman year of high school basketball. Me: was told by my coach as a junior ‘You can be on the varsity volleyball team, but you’ll never play.’ Decided to stick it out. Never played. [Note: please excuse the horrible eyebrows and braces in the picture at right])
• Made a ton of money soon after graduating from high school (LBJ: millions in the NBA. Me: waitress at Cracker Barrel during the ‘96 Summer Olympics = an average tip of $1 per person PER TABLE!)
• Finding themselves at a crossroads in the summer of 2010 (LBJ: which team do I sign for? Me: which industry do I work in?)

Which brings us to “My Decision.” Well, we’ve got a few minutes here, so let me hold off on that and revisit LeBron’s decision. Did he handle the revealing of that decision well? In a word, no. LeBron was one of the few athletes who had escaped (until now) the stereotype of being snobby, pretentious, and an overcoddled baby. He had a great smile, and people looked at him as a friendly teddy bear, albeit one with a paycheck that had three more zeros than the average Joe.

But in one fell swoop, LeBron showed us he is just like 99% of other athletes… it’s all about him. It wasn’t enough to issue a press release and say ‘I’m going to play for the Miami Heat.’ It wasn’t enough even to have a press conference that would have been held live across the country to announce his new team. No, LeBron had to have a one-hour long special dedicated to he, himself and his majesty. It took him approximately five seconds to utter the words “This fall…I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat” so it seems the other 59 minutes and 55 seconds were just a glorified ego boost.

It will take awhile to assess the damage he has done to his reputation and brand. He dragged his former team and home town through unspeakable torture, making his announcement in Ohio even though he was heading to Florida. Last night at the ESPYs, the crowd boo’ed every time his name was mentioned. His best bet to clean up his tarnished image? Win a championship for the Heat. Better yet, win two or three. With LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh essentially playing 3-on-5, it may be more difficult than it seems.

So finally, we’ve come to “My Decision.” My crossroads was not a choice between taking $20.83 million to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. $19 million to play for someone else. It was a choice between almost ’starting over’ again in the sports industry or advancing my career in another industry. You can quote me here… “This summer… I have chosen to take my talents to Tempe, Arizona, and join the staff of Arizona State University.” Ok, maybe not as dramatic, but it’s big news in my world!

I am leaving the sports industry for several reasons. To get to where I want to be, I need more traditional marketing experience, I need more managerial experience, and I want to feel respected and appreciated. ASU is giving me the opportunity to do all three of those things. Don’t worry TheBusinessOfSports.com fans, I’ll be back from time-to-time, but for for the foreseeable future, that will be as a ‘guest poster.’ I’ve appreciated all your encouragement over the last 1+ years. I’ll leave you with a quote, and wish you many happy ‘accidents.’

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.  ~Sidney Lumet

Editor’s note: I want to take a moment to thank Amanda for all of her valuable contributions to this website over the past few months. Her knowledge, opinions and expertise have been a tremendous asset for all of the readers, including myself. I wish her nothing but the best in her career, both in and out of sports. Thanks again!  ~RS

If you feel a little extra gloomy or tired today, there’s a good reason for it. Today is historically the most boring days of the sports year (in the U.S. at least). It’s the last day of the all-star break, so no baseball games. Hockey, basketball and football are out of season. Normally there aren’t even any soccer games, although there is one lone MLS game tonight. There’s technically a tennis tournament going on, but most top players take this month off.

Recognizing that there’s nothing on the schedule today, this means there is an opportunity for some sports-entity to step forward and get attention that they might not be able to get on another day of the year. There are so many sports-crazed consumers in this country, that it almost doesn’t matter what sport is involved. With no other options available, there will be interest.

Here are a couple of off-the-cuff ideas:

• A non-PPV UFC or other MMA event with a couple of top-tier fighters involved
• A made-for-TV, one-day action sports competition
• A soccer “friendly” featuring the U.S. national team (tough in World Cup years)
• The debut of this year’s 2010 World Series of Poker TV coverage (currently finishing up in Las Vegas)
• A one-hour special featuring a top free agent’s contract decision (relax, I’m kidding!)

The point is, there is this wide-open day on the calendar for some entity to get a lot of unhindered attention. Who’s going to step up and fill our empty sports day? If you have an idea, leave a comment below!

Thanks to Sean O’Hara for reminding me of this opportunity in his LinkedIn update from this morning (“ Special day in sports today as it comes and goes so quickly each year. Surprised no brand/sport has tried to capitalize on it.”)

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Tariq Ahmad.

On Saturday July 3, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hosted a heavyweight championship bout in Las Vegas pitting Shane Carwin against current champion (and former WWE star) Brock Lesnar. Fans were treated to a great fight, as Lesnar won by submission in the second round.

Lesnar, arguably the UFC’s biggest draw, was paid a $400,000 base salary for one of the biggest fights in UFC history.

Why does the top fighter in the organization make a minuscule amount of money compared to top athletes in other sports? Let’s take a look at where all the money goes.

Revenues:

Pay-per-view (PPV) buys: Early estimates show 1.15M PPV buys (we’ll estimate conservatively at 1M buys) * $44.99 purchase price (round up to $45) = $45,000,000

Gate revenue (in-person attendance): Exact figures not released to date, but a UFC event one month before in the same location generated $3.9M in gate revenue with no title fights, so for this event, we’ll again estimate conservatively at $4M (although this figure is probably over $5M).

Total estimated revenue (not all factors included): $49,000,000

Costs:

Total fighter payouts (22 fighters total): $923,000 (including $400,000 to Lesnar). Amounts reflect a win bonus for the winner of the fight, which is equal to the payout for the fight (e.g. fight payout of $26,000, plus $26,000 win bonus, earning a total of $52,000. Lesnar was awarded a flat payout of $400,000 with no win bonus).

Total bonuses paid out: $450,000 (includes Fight of the Night [which was granted for two fights], Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night). Each payout was $75,000. Fight of the night recipients (four fighters, includes winners and losers) each earned bonuses, while one person each earned Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night. Lesnar earned submission of the night, making his total payday $475,000.

Total money paid out to fighters: $1,373,000

As you can see, less than three percent of the conservatively estimated revenues went to the fighters. In any organization, salary is the highest cost incurred. Would a company’s payroll ever be less than three percent?

Where is all the money going? It’s obviously not going to the fighters.

The UFC, like any organization, will have event costs (staff payroll, facility rental, marketing, event staff, etc). Even if that accounts for 50 percent of revenues (which it will never come close to that amount), that still leaves over $20M the UFC profits. And this is just for one event. And the UFC runs 12-15 PPV events per year.

Like any sport, your better and more marketable athletes will tend to make more money. Would Floyd Mayweather put his title on the line for less than five million dollars, let alone $500,000?

Lesnar received the top base payout the UFC provides. Carwin earned one-tenth that amount. You read that correctly: $40,000 to fight for the UFC heavyweight title. Even if Carwin won the fight (earning him a $40,000 win bonus) and earned an additional $75,000 for Fight, Knockout or Submission of the Night, his total would have been only $155,000.

The UFC should follow a payscale for its championship fights similar to tennis: the loser earns half of what the winner earns. Lesnar earned $400,000, Carwin should have earned $200,000 for the loss. After all, the UFC has the money to go around.

In one of the most physically demanding sports in the world, these fighters are laying their lives on the line for such a small amount of money. Isn’t it time these guys started earning bigger paydays?

Tariq Ahmad is a doctorate student in Sport Administration. His research and career interests lie in sports business and the intersection of sport and social media.

Rather than just presenting my individual opinion on Dan Gilbert’s letter to Cavaliers fans (I’m actually quite torn on it), I decided to go to some of the sports business and PR professionals on Twitter for their take. Here’s what they had to say on the subject:

From SternalPR: I get why Gilbert wrote the letter, but you can defend your city and instill confidence in a more tactful way & avoid silly promises

From ChrisFreet: Agree or disagree with Dan Gilbert’s open letter, there is no disagreeing with his honesty. It’s interesting that some media are bashing Gilbert. Media want honesty, not PR spun letter, yet they are still hammering him

From KyleJudah: A little petulant move but so was Lebron’s. Cavs fans I know seem to use it as a rallying point, so got the job done. Very ballsy.

From MarcusAHall: Whether or not you agree with his comments is one thing but I commend him for taking a stance and making a statement.

From PUBLISIDE: Gilbert should have slept on the language. Even if he was still that angry in the a.m., he may have rethought and crafted the letter with less venom. He will likely regret the tone for fans’ sake.

From mmahoney13: Gilbert’s passion was the right tone for partners and season ticket holders but he went a little over the top with cowardly.

From MarcIsenberg: Way to take the high road, Dan Gilbert. Abe Lincoln waited 48 hrs before sending because he didn’t want to write emotionally.

From Aharris101: I understand Gilbert was upset, but still think he should have handle it more in a professional way….he should’ve slept through

From AmandaRykoff: If I didn’t know that letter from Dan Gilbert was real, I’d think it was a joke. Of epic proportions.

From IsaacBearg: Cavs fans were pissed and I imagine wanted their owner to show he knows how they feel… it was a bit much but I don’t mind it

I’ll continue to update this with additional tweets as they come in. In the meantime, please share your own take on the letter in the comments!

Earlier today, Jonathan Goldberg (@JRGoldberg on Twitter) pointed out a promotion that the Florida Panthers just launched. Take a look at the screenshot below:

While the team can’t actually use LeBron James to sell hockey tickets, the references are obvious and offer a creative way to try to leverage the buzz of LeBron’s potential move to Florida to sell hockey tickets.  Panthers President and COO Michael Yormark said “Based on the hype surrounding rumors of a new King headed to South Florida, we wanted to remind our fans that we want them to feel like royalty. Certainly, it’s an exciting time to be part of the South Florida sports industry.” (ESPN.com)

What do you think of this type of promotion? Some people would call it creative and outside-the-box, while others like @JRGoldberg call it “tacky” and says “This makes them look minor league, desperate and silly.” Share your thoughts in the comments (after you watch LeBron’s special of course, which is on in 10 minutes!)

It started with one, small, under-140-character sentence…

“Hello World, the Real King James is in the Building “Finally”. My Brother @oneandonlycp3 gas’d me up to jump on board so I’m here. Haaaa”

Well, actually it started several hours before that, when the word got out that twitter.com/KingJames was the official Twitter account for LeBron James. News spread of this account like wildfire, both through traditional and social media outlets. As a result, the account had close to 100,000 followers before anything was ever posted. As of 9:45PM Tuesday, that number was up to over 170,000 with still just the one tweet on the record (Update: Two tweets and 222,292 followers as of 10AM Wednesday). Darren Rovell tweeted several updates throughout the day, highlighting the account’s incredible growth rate. So now that this account exists, there are two big questions (besides what team will he sign with).

1. What will LeBron do with his Twitter account?
2. What should LeBron do with his Twitter account?

Here are a couple of Dos and Don’ts to help him with his new-found interest in tweeting:

• Do update multiple times per day, even if that means getting some help from your camp. With all the buzz right now, there is no better time to really leverage your social media presence.
• Don’t tweet just for the sake of tweeting. We’re all tuned in, but if it becomes noise, we’ll also tune out.
• Do have some fun surrounding the pending contract announcement. Feel free to tweet and joke with other players and build the suspense.
• Don’t actually give any of the real news away or announce your decision on Twitter first (although with the TV special announcement, you seem to already know this)
• Do be personal! Let your charisma shine through. This was a great approach for Shaq and Ocho Cinco.
• Don’t go over the line. Shaq and Ocho Cinco can also go too far (being critical of others, being honest to a fault). You want to be the Global Icon, so nothing that can damage the brand.
• Do reply to fans occasionally. The impact you’ll make on those fans cannot be measured.
• Don’t feel obligated to reply too much. It will take the fun out of Twitter, and we want to make sure you hang around.

While we’re talking LeBron, here are some other interesting links to read through:

• What the Knicks Told LeBron: Come to New York and Make $1 Billion from Forbes.com SportsMoney (in particular, make sure to check out the presentation from Interbrand – interesting stuff. I’d really like to see more of how they calculated those numbers!)
• LeBron James is Twitter’s Latest Sponsored Trending Topic from Mashable.com
• LeBron Decision Thursday on ESPN.com

For the record, I think they’re going with the scheduled TV announcement for two reasons. The fun reason is that he recognizes the level of interest in this decision and found a way to go something positive with it (raising money for the Boys and Girls Club of America). The business reason is (and this is pure speculation), I think it’s down to the Cavaliers and one other team, but he’s waiting for some action from one of those two clubs. What better way to take control of the situation than through the pressure of a public time deadline. I bet there’s a lot of moving and shaking going on behind the scenes today!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Dr. Don Sandusky of Primo Sport Inc.

It’s a tough call, but Adidas’ new match ball just might beat out the Vuvuzuela horns as the most polarizing thing on South Africa’s World Cup pitch. The Jabulani ball — translated as “Celebration” — has been criticized for its unpredictable movement, called cheap and been implicated in botched plays. The new ball is heat molded rather than hand stitched, which makes it feel a little more like a toy ball and makes it fly a little less true. FIFA plans to address the ball after world cup. If their approach toward considering public uproar and goal-line technology is any indication, meaningful change may come soon. And although this ball has been named a “nightmare,” its impact extends far beyond the pitch and into a globally-devastating territory.

The center of the soccer ball universe is shifting from the skilled trades of Pakistan to the mass production of China. For decades, Sialkot, Pakistan has been home to the ubiquitous cottage industry of hand-stitched soccer balls. The skilled trades need hand strength and experience but most importantly, technique which is passed-along in a very personal way. The range of expertise in this field causes fierce competition for the most highly skilled workers. In the search for technical competitive advantage Adidas executed a well thought-out plan to innovate away from hand stitching to mass production, protected by a patented monopoly. After getting FIFA on board, their new thermal molded soccer balls started being produced on automated equipment which requires skilled operators rather than skilled trades. The process also requires reliable infrastructure and supply continuity so the assets were deployed in China rather than Pakistan. By all accounts, the thermal molded ball strategy is working well for FIFA, Adidas and their manufacturing partners.

But what about the Pakistani stitchers? Everyone knows that Pakistan is caught-up in chaos. Newsweek recently reported that for 2009, Pakistan surpassed war-torn African nations in the number of newly displaced people. And although two-thirds of the displaced have returned home, most have returned to “grim futures,” facing destroyed homes, livelihoods, families, schools and hospitals. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs supports anecdotes that regular Sialkot residents are focused on basic stuff. But, with the trend away from hand stitched soccer balls toward mass produced thermal molded, skilled tradesmen are losing work to the ever expanding Chinese factory. This may be an unfortunate time to export this kind of work from Sialkot.

So yes, the trend to molded balls has distressed soccer players and coaches across the globe. Molded balls are polarizing but a missed goal is usually not a tragedy. What’s devastating is that the trend to molded balls is undermining the basic needs of the poor folks in Sialkot, Pakistan, whose livelihoods have always depended on work outsourced by the soccer Futball universe. At Primo Sport Inc., we apply our Nitroblock® latex bladder technology exclusively to 32-panel hand stitched soccer balls, made in Pakistan. We can’t castigate FIFA or the makers of molded balls (like the Jabulani). In fact, we’re all about technological innovation. But we can say this: when we talk to our Pakistani vendors, they keep a stiff upper lip and say the best thing we can do for them is to make more ball orders and to keep their people busy. And we believe them, so we will.

Don Sandusky is a Ph.D. Engineer who cut his teeth in the R&D labs at NASA, then hired-on with DuPont. He worked his way up through the ranks for 10 years before setting off on his own to start Primo Sport, Inc, where he invented the Neverflat® technology, which is licensed to Spalding and continues to be the #1 basketball. He enjoys getting his head around a big idea, putting the pieces together and helping a team build a brand. In addition to heading Primo Sport, he works with other entrepreneurs to help structure start-up’s, derive workable commercial transactions and building teams with every reason to overachieve.

We are days away from arguably the most important and historic free agency period in NBA history. The biggest question is, where will LeBron James sign? Stay at home in Cleveland? Hit the Big Apple? What about Chicago? The sports media cannot stop talking about this question, with everyone spouting their own theories and “insider” information. The same story goes for Wade, Bosh, Stoudemire, Johnson and others, although not quite on the same scale.

While all NBA teams need to wait until July 1 to start officially pursuing these free agents and July 8 to actually sign any of them, there is an incredible “signing” opportunity sitting out there right now that no one has taken advantage of yet. No need to wait until July!

Why hasn’t a single company stepped up and “signed” LeBron to a new endorsement deal during this pre-free agency buzz? Why haven’t we seen articles, press releases, tweets and more with the huge headline of “LeBron James Signs New Deal”? This seems like such a no-brainer for any company looking to make a big endorsement splash during a period of huge offseason media attention.

Remember how much buzz State Farm got for the fake LeBron James / Cleveland Browns signing campaign that they ran in 2009? That seemed to have been a very effective campaign for them in an industry that doesn’t generally sign athletes to endorsement deals (most insurance companies concentrate on team and league sponsorships). Imagine how big a LeBron James signing campaign could have been…and could still be?

I know companies want to know what team and market an athlete will be playing in before committing a large amount of money to an athlete, but seriously, we’re talking about LeBron James, currently the most iconic figure in professional basketball. The team almost doesn’t matter, so why hasn’t this happened?

Attention Corporate America – time is running out! Have your people call his people right away. And if LeBron’s people are reading this right now, I’d be happy to sign him right now, as long as he’d do it for free! The buzz would be huge…call me (973-498-TBOS)!

After a hectic couple of weeks, I need to ramp up my writing again. So let’s get it started today with some links and recaps of some interesting sports business stories from the past couple of days.

Brits May Challenge Visa’s 2010 Olympics Exclusivity – Marc Perton, The Consumerist (thanks to @khuda1 for the link)

As one the highest level sponsors of the Olympics, Visa has benefited not only from the traditional sponsorship elements, but also complete exclusivity for any credit card purchases made at the Games. The Office of Fair Trading in Great Britain has some issues with this, as it restricts commerce and hinders open competition in the marketplace. This reminds me a bit of beer and beverage sponsorships here in the United States. In order to not restrict competition, the pouring rights for a particular stadium cannot be directly tied to a sponsorship for that company. This is definitely a story to watch for the 2010 (and future) Olympics. If this aspect of the sponsorship is overturned, does the sponsorship hold the same value to Visa? And would they still be required to pay the full cost of their deal?

How Much Will Hayward Cost the Pacers? – Darren Rovell, CNBC

It was almost the “perfect” scenario for the Indiana Pacers. They were one pick away from being able to take their hometown hero Gordon Hayward in the 2010 NBA Draft, until the Jazz swooped in and selected him. This could have been one of those unique opportunities where a team could have made a draft decision (outside of the top 2-3 picks) that fits the team on the court and would provide an immediate lift to ticket sales off the court. Darren Rovell reminds us of other past situations where some teams have made picks with too much focus on the revenue side (the Charlotte Bobcats picking two UNC players in 2005) and where other teams looked past the short-term revenue lift and stuck to their on-field preferences (Houston Texans passing over Vince Young and the same Pacers selecting Reggie Miller over Steve Alford).

Old Navy co-sponsors Coney Island hot-dog contest – Adrianne Pasquarelli, Crain’s New York

Hot dog eating may not be viewed as a sport, but competitive eating has grown in popularity over the past few years, with more media coverage, attendees, and revenue. The Coney Island competition is the biggest event that Major League Eating runs, and through their partnership with Old Navy, they have created two new revenue streams: the sponsorship itself and jersey sales. That’s right, you can buy an official jersey for a hot-dog eating competition. But don’t laugh – as the article points out, over  1 million people tuned in to watch last year’s event, with another 35,000 people attending it live.

By now, you’ve heard about the United States’ Men’s Soccer team’s win over Algeria. If you live under a rock or have no friends, the short story is that even though they had a valid goal disallowed, and Algeria had many solid chances, the U.S.  pulled out a win when Landon Donovan (right) buried a rebound in the 1st minute of stoppage time. This goal not only continued the Yanks’ World Cup hopes, but also had executives for ESPN breathing a sigh of relief.

As a soccer fan, I’d like to commend ESPN for going ‘all-in’ (to use a poker term) for this year’s World Cup. In the past, U.S. games might be shown, but many of the other games were nothing but afterthoughts. This year, every single match (all 64) will be shown on one of the many ESPN/ABC networks. They have been rewarded for their support, with the US/Slovenia match garnering the largest ever audience for an ESPN-televised soccer match (just under 4.7 million viewers) and the U.S./England match, the second-most watched U.S. soccer match of all time behind a U.S./Brazil match in 1994, garnering over 13 million viewers.

If you average all of the games through this past Sunday, you get just over 2.1 million viewers per game. That means that the U.S. playing in a game increased viewership by more than 300%. With higher stakes (single elimination) and the flood of press that Wednesday’s game will bring, I’d guess final numbers will well exceed the U.S./England match.

To put these numbers in some perspective, the 13 million that watched the U.S./England game exceeded the number of viewers for every single game in the NBA Finals except for game 7. The U.S. will be taking on Ghana in a rematch of a first-round tie in 2006. That game also ended in controversy, with Ghana winning 2-1 on a dubious penalty kick.

Add up all the story lines:

• The United States winning their group for the first time since 1930
• The U.S. advancing into the round of 16
• The U.S. taking on Ghana in a revenge match
• Record-breaking ratings for previous matches
• Prime Saturday afternoon (EDT)/morning (PDT) time slot

This adds up to be a great day for ABC/ESPN execs. They took a chance by signing a $100 million deal in 2005 to show six FIFA-sanctioned tournaments. Not including the advertising revenue they’ll rake in for this Saturday, the networks also stand to gain an increased following from soccer-mad Americans who are grateful that their sport is finally getting the coverage it deserves. I know this soccer fan will remember what network brought all this excitement into her living room, and in HD no less.

So congratulations to the U.S. Men’s National Team. Today they made the country proud, and saved a few jobs over in Bristol, CT.

According to Wikipedia, ‘Ambush marketing’ is defined as ‘a marketing campaign that takes place around an event but does not involve payment of a sponsorship fee to this event.’ In South Africa, ambush marketing is a crime. Or more specifically one can violate the ‘Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act.’

On Monday, Denmark and the Netherlands squared off in the World Cup, with the Dutch taking a 2-0 win. Prior to the game, a group of 30+ women entered the game with red and white outfits… skirts, sweaters and scarves. Not long after getting to their seats, they started disrobing, until all 30+ ended up with the same orange dress on, bearing the name of a Dutch brewery – Bavaria. All the women were rounded up and questioned, with two being charged and arrested.

Budweiser is the official FIFA sponsor, but in protecting its marks, did they just draw MORE attention to this marketing stunt? My initial thought was that this was an independent group of women that just wanted to show their bodies team loyalty, but when I saw the video of what they wore into the game, I started to become suspicious that they knew they might not have gotten if they were just wearing the orange dresses. Bavaria is said to be helping the women, insisting that these were promotional items that many other women wore that day.

Ambush marketing is a continuing concern for many large sports events. We heard much about the USOCs many rules for athletes and their non-Olympic sponsors. FIFA is no different. They alledgedly sent out hundreds of letters to Federations, governmental organizations and companies warning them about infringing on the rights of official sponsors of the World Cup. Whether or not Bavaria knowingly infringed on those rights, the fact remains that had FIFA not rounded up all the women, and had South African authorities not pressed charges, this would be a non-story.

Which brings me to my question. What is the best way for organizations to handle ambush marketing? Filing lawsuits and in this case removing ticket-holding fans from the game seems to be counter-productive. The offending brand has gotten more publicity than they would have gotten from 30+ orange-dress wearing fans. My guess is that less than 1,000 people would have seen the group, seen the logo on the dresses, AND remembered what the brand was. Now it is an international story.

My suggestion would be to gather information and evidence, but wait to file any lawsuits until well after the tournament is over. Right now, there is an enormous amount of media attention focused on South Africa. Little will go unnoticed there, so why not wait until after the Final, when journalists have returned to their home countries, the thousands of tourists have dispersed, and it’s possible that getting restitution would not become an international story.

What do you think? Did FIFA/South Africa handle this situation well? Was there anything they should have done differently? How should sporting events handle these issues in the future so as not to bring even more attention to suspected brands?

On a quick personal note, I just got married over the past weekend, which was the most incredible day of my life! With everything going on, I do not have time to blog this week, so here are two of posts “from the vault” that I really liked and wanted to share with you all again. Thanks, and I’ll see you all next week.

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BASIC ECONOMICS IN SPORTS TODAY (originally published on 11/17/2008)

I was thinking more about the economy of sports, so I decided to write about some of the basic concepts and apply them to the current situation. I know I am oversimplifying some of this, but I think its an interesting exercise nonetheless.

Law of Demand: As price increases, demand decreases.

• Result: Ticket prices have increased significantly over the past decade. This increase had been consistent with and driven by the demand, as seen in the high degree of sellouts across the major sports. However, price increases over the last two years have been met with a drop in attendance, meaning that sports has passed the equilibrium point.

Law of Supply: As price increases, supply increases.

• Result: Over the past decade, the actual number of sports and sporting events have increased along with prices (the only ways to increase supply are expand stadiums or host more events). This increase included extreme sports (X Games), niche sports (PBR), and international exhibitions (Olympic sports & soccer). Now with the drop in demand and ticket prices, we are seeing signs of the supply dropping (e.g. my previous post mentioned the cancellation of the Tour of Georgia).

Price Elasticity of Demand: Demand is “inelastic” when the quantity demanded decreases slowly relative to a price increase. Demand is “elastic” when the quantity demanded decreases faster relative to a price increase.

• Result: We have seen price elasticity in sports shift from fairly inelastic to more elastic over the past two years. There are several things that impact this shift, including substitute products (more sports and entertainment alternatives mean people will choose other options when prices increase), % of income (as ticket prices equate to a larger % of income, people become more resistant to price increases), and necessity (tickets are not a need while other needs have also increased in price, thus there is higher resistance to ticket price increases).

Again, I’m just looking at some very basic concepts, without considering the multitude of other important factors. While there are a lot of “negative” news items related to the economy, it really is not surprising when you drill down to the basics. Sports has overshot its economic equilibrium. Adjustments will have to be made across all of the different sports, starting with a basic reduction in price, supply, or both, until we get back to a more stable equilibrium.

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THE REAL ROI (originally published on 9/11/2008)

So your company just paid $1 million to become a sponsor of Team X for the calendar year. At the end of the year, you tally up the value of all the exposure you got from being a sponsor. The guaranteed television advertising, the press releases and news coverage, the radio spots, the website impressions, the signage viewers, etc. At the end of all your adding, you find out that you got $3 million worth of exposure for your $1 million sponsorship. Wow, that’s a 3 to 1 return on your investment, otherwise known as ROI.

Well, actually it isn’t. What you just calculated is the media value of your sponsorship. All this is telling you is that you got a great value on your purchase. You essentially saved 67% off the regular price – not bad at all. This value is easily confused with and mislabeled as ROI. The question is, how can you determine what your ROI actually is?

Without going into all the details, your ROI is your actual bottom-line, dollar return divided by your costs. So lets say that you can accurately determine that, because of your $1 million sponsorship, your sales increased by $5 million, compared to the previous year when you were not a sponsor. Does that mean your ROI is actually 5 to 1? No, but we’re getting closer. Your sales increased by $5 million – a substantial increase. But your profit margin is only 50%. The results is that your ACTUAL return on your investment is $2.5 million – an ROI of 2.5 to 1.

So what does all of this mean? Here are the key takeaways:

1. Do not be fooled by measurement labeled as ROI that are not ROI. ROI comes down to bottom-line impact on profits (not sales, profits!)
2. Calculating ROI can be difficult. You need to put systems in place that will accurately measure what profits can be directly attributed to a sponsorship. This is a challenge, but its not impossible.
3. With corporate budgets tightening every day, companies need to really focus on metrics like ROI. If your team or agency can help get to those numbers and demonstrate a real return on a company’s investment, you will keep them as a partner and a client.

Our next SportsBiz Live Chat is scheduled for today, Thursday, June 10 at 2:00pm EDT (11:00am PDT). The chat room will open at 1:45pm so we’ll be ready to go right at 2. The topic for today’s chat is college athletics and the various conference expansion scenarios, and the chat will be hosted by Amanda Miller. Enjoy!

I have a major announcement: The Business Of Sports is going to expand to a 16 blog network, complete with a championship blog-off (presenting sponsor TBD) and a 7-year, multi-billion dollar television contract with ESPN 3.

OK, so none of that is true, but it seems like every college sports conference out there has some form of expansion (or in other cases, survival) plan being pursued. Here’s a quick reference list by conference of where everything stands (from what I’ve been able to put together, with a little opinion thrown in).  Consider this a primer for tomorrow’s hour-long SportsBiz Live Chat on the topic of college athletics and conference expansion taking place right here on the blog at 2PM EDT (11AM PDT). Users can log in up to 15 minutes before the chat starts.

ACC

• Mode:  Survive – Already has a championship game, but is a rumored target of future SEC expansion.
• Targets:  None currently, may go after “former” Big East teams if they lose teams to the Big Ten.
• Outlook:  Fairly safe – Not so strong in football, but strong east coast presence and basketball backbone insure some security.

Big East

• Mode:  Survive – Already been pilfered once by ACC, currently targeted by Big Ten.
• Targets:  If they lose Rutgers, Pitt or others, they will probably try to target Conference USA or A-10 schools to fill out the gaps.
• Outlook:  Danger – Already considered the weakest of the “Big 6,” they are stuck playing the Big Ten waiting game to learn their fate.

Big Ten

• Mode:  Expand – Needs 1 team at a minimum to get a championship game, but wants to create a larger 14 or 16 team conference to generate more media revenue through the Big Ten Network.
• Targets:  Notre Dame, Texas, Missouri, Nebraska, Rutgers, Pittsburgh – maybe others.
• Outlook:  Growing – The Big Ten is going to expand – the only question is who and when. It would be very hard for any school offered a spot to turn down Big Ten Network money.

Big 12

• Mode:  Survive/Merge – Facing a “hostile takeover” by the Pac-10 on one end and Big Ten expansion efforts on the other.
• Targets:  None – best bet may be to negotiate a “merger” with Pac-10 if they feel that schools will abandon ship.
• Outlook:  Unknown – The Big 12 is a strong conference, but doesn’t generate the revenue of the Big Ten or Pac-10. Will their schools chase the money?

Pac-10

• Mode:  Expand – The big newsmaker of the past week, targeting almost half of the current Big 12 schools to try and make a 16 team power conference.
• Targets:  Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Colorado (maybe Baylor).
• Outlook:  Growing – The Pac-10 has taken the reigns in the expansion charge. They could be the biggest conference player in college sports from this.

SEC

• Mode:  Status Quo – For now, the SEC is sitting back and waiting. They have their 12 team conference with championship game. After the Pac-10 and Big Ten finish, they may decide to pluck 4 schools from the ACC or Big East.
• Targets:  None at this time. Potential future targets (if the Pac-10 and Big Ten do expand) would include any southeast ACC or Big East schools.
• Outlook:  Safe – The SEC is already the most powerful football conference in college sports. Whether that changes will depend on the Pac-10 and Big Ten.

MWC

• Mode:  Sit and Wait – Conference will survive, now that the Pac-10 has moved on to target Big 12 schools instead of Utah, Air Force and TCU.
• Targets:  None for now – Previously targeted Boise State when discussing their own expansion, which has been at least temporarily dismissed.
• Outlook:  Safe – The MWC looks to be fine, but if the power shifts even further to the top 4 or 6 conferences, they could have long term problems.

Conference USA

• Mode:  Survive – Not exactly a strong conference to start, they’ve already had one round of their top schools taken by the last Big East expansion.
• Targets:  None – A small chance they could bring in leftover schools from another conference that loses some, but its unlikely.
• Outlook:  Danger – While they may seem ok in the short term, they’re strongest schools could easily be plucked in a 2nd round of expansion.

In case you missed it, there was a big story last week about the University of Kansas box office ticket scalping scandal. As the story goes, some number of staff members sold at least $1 million worth of “comped” tickets secretly to local donors and ticket brokers, pocketing the money for themselves and not recording any revenue in the school’s ticketing system. A full audit of their sales records is taking place, with the belief that the scam could have involved up to $3 million worth of tickets.

This story is a wake-up call for any ticket selling organization. There are so many lessons to learn from the situation they went through.

Most importantly, a thorough, multi-tiered series of checks and balances is needed when it comes to managing comped tickets, and I mean more that just “my boss said it was ok.” Comped tickets may not seem like a big deal, but depending on how they’re being used, you can end up devaluing or even competing with your own product. These tickets are a valuable asset and should only be used for specific business purposes. Some examples include:

• To assist a salesperson in closing a larger deal
• Providing value to a current or potential sponsor
• Rewards for employees
• Giving back to the surrounding community

Regardless of which way they are being used, all comped tickets should be explicitly approved by a manager electronically or in writing (for record keeping purposes). Most CRM systems have easy-to-build manager approval workflows that can be used to streamline this process. Now in the case of Kansas, there was a manager involved in the scandal, so this wouldn’t have been enough. That is why, on a regular basis (weekly or bi-weekly), a game-by-game comped ticket report should go one or two steps further up the ladder to senior staff (Vice-President or Athletic Director level).  Again, CRM or ticketing system reports should make this a simple process, and any irregularities or unusual quantities of comped ticket usage will need to be justified, hopefully in a way that shows how those tickets have generated results (increased revenue, sponsor satisfaction, etc.).

Finally, every ticketing organization needs to develop an internal culture that stresses responsibility and integrity. According to the ESPN article, the report described these particular employees as “ice cream store” workers who seemed to “feel free to sample the wares without paying for them.” This shows how no one in the group took their responsibility seriously. The idea that these were “just free tickets” and didn’t hurt anyone was short-sighted and showed a lack of respect for their organization. Those ideas should have been stressed from the top down as part of the organizational culture from the very beginning.

Everyone in working in sports loves to be able to help friends or family out with tickets to events here and there, but without accountability and integrity, it can be a slippery slope when it comes to comped tickets.

A few weeks ago, we gave away an advance copy of “Delivering Happiness,” a book by the CEO of Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh (Congratulations Alan Cassinelli!). Today, the book officially goes on sale. If you’re anything like me, you appreciate finding out a little about a book before you buy it. Will it be worth your time to read? Will you be inspired by reading it? I hope these next few paragraphs answer those questions for you. (Note: all quotes are directly from the book unless otherwise noted)

DH is a book of stories. As it says on the back of the book jacket: “Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more.” This book will be useful to a person working in any industry and at any level of an organization. It will especially speak to entrepreneurs and those who already seek to positively benefit others through their choice of profession. It is a quick read (one afternoon by the pool, on the treadmill or in an airplane and you’ll have it finished) and packed full of snippets you’ll want to highlight and return to.

By all accounts, Hsieh has been a successful business man. He sold his first company for over $256 million to Yahoo! and his second (Zappos) for over $1 billion to Amazon. But the benefit of his wisdom is not in how to create traditional value in company by going public or raising capital. The entirety of DH is in how to be successful while also working towards a higher purpose than just making more money. At one point, Hsieh realizes “… experiences were much more important to me than material things.” (pg. 76) What a great point to remember when dealing with our customers, vendors and clients, especially in the sports industry where there can be so much passion among all of those audiences. While you may end up with the sales numbers or contract terms that you wanted, what usually sticks with you over the months and years is the overall experience you had dealing with the other party.

Another very interesting part of the book is how Hsieh uses lessons learned in poker and applies them to the business world. Everything from selecting the right table (industry) to bluffing to thinking long-term. Those are just a few, and the list of parallels is surprisingly long and relevant.

The overall gist, as the title suggests, is how delivering happiness to those around you, not just customers, but employees and vendors as well, is a recipe for success. An organization can actually increase their level of success using ‘delivering happiness’ as a strategy. Obviously, this isn’t a change that can happen overnight in most organizations, and for Zappos, the movement was very organic, but there are plenty of useful suggestions and interesting examples to ensure the time spent reading the book will be worthwhile. My guess is you’ll read it more than once, and keep it within arms reach going forward.

What do you think? Is ‘delivering happiness’ a strategy that can work in sports? In my last post, several readers shared their own sports-related examples that demonstrate this idea quite well. Have you read the book? If so, what part had the biggest impact on you?

The 3rd edition of the Blogs With Balls sports bloggers conference is taking place this weekend in Chicago. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get out there for the weekend, but you and I can both follow the conversations going on via the Twitter hashtag #bwb3 by scrolling through the list below.

I hope you find the tweets informative – at a minimum, they’ll definitely be entertaining!

In light of the “Non-Perfect Game” controversy from last night’s Detroit Tigers game (game recap here), I went back to the vault for this post on technology and instant replay that I wrote last November. I felt strongly about increasing the use of replay then, and it will be interesting to see if the fans’ reaction to last night’s events leads to any new action by MLB. I know that fans will continue to disagree about whether replay is “good for the game”, but how do you think those 17,000+ fans feel about being denied their chance to witness history? How does this impact their decision to attend future games? What about the fans that watched on television? Is their fan experience “good for the game?”

Putting aside the fan elements, my post below primarily focuses on how the business of sports really needs to be the influencing factor in how leagues increase their use of replay and technology in general.

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Normally, I don’t like talking about events that take place on the field, but today I’m going to make an exception. On Wednesday night, a World Cup qualifying soccer match was decided by one person who made a mistake that was easily identifiable by a simple video replay. However, because the sport was dependent on an archaic system of in-game governance that was developed decades if not centuries ago, the result of the game and any number of future events has been permanently altered.

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.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Joshua Boren.

As a soccer fanatic, having grown up both playing and watching the game, I have been overcome with excitement as we move closer and closer to kick off of FIFA’s 2010 World Cup in South Africa. However, while I am excited for the event itself and watching with great interest to see the Americans beat expectations, 2010 is the first time I have been more enticed by something else: the venues themselves.

There are a number of elements to consider – the design, beauty, inspiration, political maneuvering, local stories, expectations, etc. – but perhaps the most interesting question will be the one surrounding what to do with the stadiums come July 11th when the final match and FIFA’s closing ceremony is held. It is an issue we grapple with as industry, having seen the inefficient use of the Bird’s Nest post-Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games as a “Winter Wonderland”, but the question is always the same – how do we design these venues to accommodate the large-scale event that they are fabricated for while providing enough flexibility to ensure there is a sustainable economic and financial viability for the facilities’ legacy?

While the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) teams have done a remarkable job of creating venues that blend in with the natural settings of South Africa and do not compromise the historic context of the region, the primary Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg was renovated at a cost of approximately $430 million (R3.3 billion) alone. That is the cost of just one of ten venues selected to host games, including 5 major renovations and 5 brand new facilities. With such enormous expenditures heavily reliant on government and political contributions, the question of whether or not this is the best use of public funds will always loom. Honestly, we will not be able to make an accurate judgment until many years after the World Cup ends.

These venues are meant to serve a larger purpose than hosting the games – they are meant to accelerate the growth of emerging countries and generate significant economic return for those established hosts. In the case of South Africa, the development of venues like “Soccer City” is looked at as a driver of future growth and economic development in a region needing a “kick” start while uniting an entire continent in the duties of showcasing the world’s most popular sporting event. In the mean time though, the results to date have not been quite as positive as hoped. The Local Organizing Committee has had to deal with strikes from stadium workers, a negative reception from the impact of construction on local businesses, an outcry for better schools for those moved for stadium construction, etc. Additionally, major outlets like ESPN and Sports Illustrated have carried content about how hosting duties have yet to catch on as a continent wide celebration with ticket sales reportedly slow in countries outside of South Africa itself. If the locals are struggling to afford tickets, the ability to utilize these venues post-World Cup may prove difficult. At nearly 95,000 seats, even with legacy plans to downsize, “Soccer City” is going to be a tough stadium to fill on a consistent basis.

This is why ultimate flexibility and innovation is key. Take the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan for example (designed by Dan Meis, FAIA). It is the only building in the world capable of mechanically transforming from a 10,000 seat arena to a 35,000 seat stadium (learn more here). As such, while it permanently hosts a J-League soccer team, the facility addressed the long-term need to sustain financial and economic viability by offering the ability to host as many event days as possible via an extremely flexible configuration. The venue has also become part of the community by hosting swap meets and farmers markets when in the smaller arena mode, ingraining itself in the local culture of the region. Furthermore, the venue solved the issue of reducing costs by developing a facility that, while slightly more expensive than a standalone building, was still less expensive than developing two separate venues. While a unique example, the hope is that these venues specifically built for South Africa’s right to host the 2010 World Cup do help accelerate the transformation of the country. Only time will tell but, while rooting on your country, take a moment during the game to enjoy the architectural beauty and iconic nature of these structures.

Joshua A. Boren is the Business Development Manager for Aedas Sport, an architecture and design firm specializing in new and renovated sports and entertainment facilities. Joshua, a graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is responsible for leading the firm’s direction into new international business opportunities related to the sports and entertainment industry and establishment of the Aedas Sport brand. He can be contacted at joshua.boren@aedas.com, on Twitter (@AedasSport) or via LinkedIn (Joshua A. Boren).

I wanted to take a moment today to congratulate Brian Berger and the folks over at Sports Business Radio, who just broadcast their 500th episode this weekend.

Earlier this month, Sports Business Radio was selected for the Best Alternative Content award on this site for their excellent podcasts that provide and in-depth look at the business side of the industry. They have been hosting their show since April of 2004, well before this blog (and several other recent sports business sites) began their efforts to cover the industry. I’m happy to see the success that they’ve had, and only hope that six years from now, I’m still going as strong as they are…by that time, I’ll be congratulating them for the 1000th episode!

Again, congratulations!

Since you are sitting there reading this, I don’t need to tell you about the value of blogs (and sports blogs in particular) in the marketing and social media landscape. However, it seems as if that understanding is now reaching the large-scale consumer products industry. In particular, I’m referring to the recent announcement that Blogs With Balls 3 (BWB3), a sports bloggers conference that has only been around for about a year, just signed on Proctor & Gamble to be their presenting sponsor. In particular, P & G is specifically focusing on their “Official Locker Products of the NFL” brand and line of products in this event sponsorship.

I had the change to attend the first Blogs With Balls event in New York last June and came away very impressed. The panels deal with very important topics in sports media, including advertising, traditional vs. new media, branding, interactive content and more. While most of the attendees themselves are blog authors and publishers, I felt like anyone in the sports community (teams, leagues, media outlets, brands, etc.) would have learned a great deal from the event.

Several of the original sponsors are back again, including SB Nation, Bleacher Report and YardBarker, which makes sense considering the conference audience. However, I’m very pleased to see a company like P&G (not to mention Captain Morgan, Guinness, and Fox Sports among others) recognize the value in associating themselves with the sports blogging community through an event like this. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them further increase their involvement with the sports social media landscape after BWB3 is over.

For more information on Blogs With Balls 3 in Chicago, including details on how to attend, with www.blogswithballs.com.

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a post about how teams can take advantage of sponsor relationships to sell “discounted” playoff tickets without directly discounting their seats and in the process, devaluing their product. Well, the Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire has found an even more creative approach that brings the athletes themselves into the equation through their social media outlets.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, you can find the full article over on Mashable.com. The short version of the story is that Amar’e partnered with RazorGator and AtCost.com to offer “group” discounted tickets through the store tab on his Facebook page. I call them group tickets, because the more people that took advantage of the offer, the better discount everyone received, similar to how Groupon.com and AtCost.com are able to provide great discount offers by selling their offers to a large number of consumers. By the time the offer expired, two tickets that normally go for $600 total sold for more than 50% off, and the entire allotment of tickets for both games 3 and 4 sold out (the offer was posted separately for each game). In fact, there is now an offer up on his page directed towards Amar’e/Suns fans for game 5 in Los Angeles (as of writing this, the price for a pair of tickets was down to $435.97).

This may be one of the most effective social media sales tools that teams (or athletes) have implemented to date. Now in this situation, they were selling a fairly high-demand/high-value item, but the tactic should translate to all different types of ticket inventory and beyond – maybe we’ll see a merchandise offer next. Very cool promotion from Amar’e and all of his partners.

Last week, I found out about the new Sports Fan Graph tool that was developed by Coyle Media. The idea is pretty straightforward and effective.  Through their website, you can view social media rankings for most major sports leagues and teams based on their quantity of Twitter and Facebook followers. You can try out the service by visiting www.coylemedia.com/sportsfangraph.

To try and make the service even more valuable, you can apply filters based on the sport, league, conference or (coming soon) geographic location. All of the data is sortable by overall rank, team name, Twitter followers and Facebook followers, and it is refreshed regularly so everything is up to date. There are also quick links to view any specific organization’s official Twitter or Facebook page.

Now we all know there is a lot more to social media that the sheer quantity of fans and followers that an organization has, but this data is a good indicator of what organizations have made a strong commitment to social media and what brands have a deep, interactive connection to their fans. Besides just checking to see what your organization’s  “rank” is, this tool can be used to look up comparable teams (geography, market size, brand affinity, sport, etc), see how you compare, and then jump over to their actual Twitter and Facebook sites to look for specific tactics that have helped (or hurt) that team’s social media success. Overall, a very cool service by Coyle Media, and one I expect to see grow even more over time.

A friend of mine just passed along this interesting approach to a soccer jersey sponsorship. Please watch this video:

What a creative approach to a jersey sponsorship! They found a way to create positive brand value and a connection with Racing fans by pulling their logo out of the mix. The result was an organic response in support of the brand through other communication and social channels (along with potentially making other team sponsors and competitors look bad).

My question is, is this a sustainable approach? How long will the goodwill from fans last? Without the constant visibility on the jersey, will the sponsor be able to generate equivalent value for the cost of their “jersey sponsorship? What do you think?

Have you heard about Burgergate? Phil Mickelson has apparently been frequenting 5 Guys Burgers and Fries quite often recently, and the former In-N-Out diehard has now switched his allegiance. The skepticism comes with the knowledge that he owns the right to a Southern California 5 Guys franchise, causing one to wonder whether this sudden fascination with the burger joint is more about his wallet than his gullet. Either way, we know Phil likes his hamburgers.

So that got me thinking about other partnerships that would make perfect sense:

• LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) – King’s Dominion amusement parks
• Darnell McDonald (Boston Red Sox) - McDonald’s
• Bryan Namoff (DC United) – Goo Gone (Get it? Name. Off.)
• Nick Hennessey (Buffalo Bills) - Hennessy Cognac

Why don’t more athletes take advantage of these kinds of endorsements? They are better fits than one of your local MLB players shilling for a furniture warehouse or jewelry store. The key to a good celebrity/athlete endorsement is a realistic association between the two. For the brand/company, hiring an athlete to endorse their product or service creates a stronger awareness. People are more likely to pay attention to a TV commercial if one of their favorite players are talking, than they would be if the owner of the company was the star.

I think we can all remember Rod Tidwell shilling for Waterbed Warehouse in ‘Jerry Maguire.’  Not exactly the perfect match of celebrity to product/service. The key is to find a link between the two that is natural, either because the player truly patronizes that place of business – Chad Ocho Cinco and McDonald’s is a good example because he eats there all the time and constantly tweets about it – or because there is some other link such as similar names, where they are from, or an off-the-field incident (like Mickelson being photographed at Krispy Kreme). The link needs to be real and obvious enough that consumers can make the connection in just a few moments. Otherwise, the endorsement comes across as insincere and will not reach its full potential.

The allure of hiring a celebrity endorser can be strong, but before reaching out to the star player make sure of two things:

1. The association makes sense – Do people have to read the copy or listen to the whole commercial for them to understand why the athlete is endorsing the product? If so, it may not be a good fit.
2. The athlete can be trusted – We have numerous examples of athletes that have embarrassed the companies that they endorse. The largest and most recent is Tiger, but even mom-and-pop stores need to do their due diligence before they sign an endorser. Nike could sit back and weather the storm, but smaller companies might not be able to. So before they sign on the dotted line, a (thorough) background check might not be a bad idea.

What athlete endorsement did you think was the best fit? Was it a locally relevant one or an ad we saw on the national stage?

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Jenny Schmitt. It originally appeared on her website, CloudSpark.com.

We’ve been telling visual stories for nearly our entire careers. Why? Visual matters because most people are visual learners or can better recall a visual cue than a written one. When YouTube came around 5 years ago, a whole new opportunity came up to tell that story directly to an audience – no media required. We’ve been on board every since.

Now wait, if someone tells you they can make a viral video for you, stop there. You (or your agency) can’t make a video viral, you can make it great. Only your audience, your customers, your fans, can take it viral. No matter, even if you think you have a tough product or service, there is always a visual story.

We’re sharing this new branded YouTube page from The Coca-Cola Company. It’s a soon-to-be-classic example (created by Sapient Nitro – deep talent over there) of just where video can take a customer. Coca-Cola a global leader in the refreshment category has taken the World Cup ritual (the on-field celebrations) and asked fans to share their own celebrations if they were playing on the field. Here’s why we think Coca-Cola succeeds:

1. It lets people (the fans) participate directly: send in video, artwork, photography (branded or not)
2. The content is seemingly new, refreshed, all the time and it’s easy to share
3. Coca-Cola can tie-in the campaign with actual events (note the videos with the branded banner)
4. The music is universally appealing, borrowing beats, harmonies from different cultures
5. For a global brand, the World Cup is a near-perfect opportunity to showcase its near-universal appeal

What videos do you think stand out as examples of a great visual story? What would you add?

Jenny-Rebecca Schmitt is a veteran public relations and marketing professional, trainer and sought-after public speaker. Her 15-year marketing and communications career includes experience in the fields of sports marketing, nonprofit marketing, healthcare communications, and public relations, including work at the collegiate, amateur, Olympic and professional level of sports. You can follow her on Twitter as @cloudspark or visit her website at www.cloudspark.com.

After reading about Dallas Braden’s perfect game, which was also the 2nd no-hitter in Major League Baseball this year, I realized that this type of accomplishment could easily be associated with a sponsor in a positive way for the sponsor, the sport and the player involved. Think about it for a moment – we already have presenting/naming sponsors for several major awards (NBA MVP presented by Kia, the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year, etc.), but there are so many great individual accomplishments beyond awards that brands would benefit from associating with. Here are a few quick examples that I thought of:

• Baseball:  N0-hitters, hitting for the cycle, triple plays
• Basketball:  Triple-doubles, 40/50 point games
• Hockey:  Hat tricks
• Football:  Kickoff return TDs, 200 yards rushing/receiving, perfect passer rating

I think my baseball examples probably work the best for this idea. I know some people may feel that this tarnishes the purity of the game, but sponsors have been such a present part of the game for so long now, I believe that argument has lost it’s merit. Take Braden’s performance yesterday – how damaging would it be for the media broadcast to congratulate Braden on behalf of a premium brand like Lexus. Then in his next game, Lexus could present him with a brand new car to congratulate him for his “perfection”, an idea that Lexus would happily associate with their brand. Or at the end of the season, there could be a special event or ceremony hosted by Lexus to recognize all players that achieved the accomplishment. The sponsorship would be at a league level, and trickle down to all the teams. Since these events are rare, I’m sure other elements could be incorporated to provide more value in both directions.

So what do you think of my idea?

After much tough deliberation and discussions with other trusted peers, I’m excited to announce the winners for the inaugural The Business of Sports Awards.

Best Sports Business Blog

• Winner: SportsBiz with Darren Rovell – I think it goes without saying that Darren’s in-depth coverage and insight into the sports industry is an invaluable resource for all of us. A steady stream of information with a great balance of news, opinions and strategy across a wide range of sports business topics.
• Runner-up: Partnership Activation – Tremendous work by Brian Gainor in consistently seeking out and sharing the best practices in sports sponsorship, activation and marketing tactics. His site is a must-read for any sports marketer.

Best Sports Business Twitter Account

• Winner: Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert) – Kathleen consistently shares great ideas and valuable perspective with her use of Twitter, with a special focus on the social media side of the business. Her coverage of multiple conferences throughout the year allows us all to learn from those events as if we were there with her.
• Runner-up: Maury Brown (@bizballmaury) – Maury was one of the first to start sharing sports business content via social channels, specifically his blog network, and his Twitter account is a great extension of that, blending his personality with valuable sports business content, especially on the baseball side of the industry.

Best Sports Business Content – Company

• Winner: Sports Business Journal – Sports business is their business, and they do a great job of it. I love that they’ve expanded a lot into the social media space over the past year as a way to complement their pay product (the magazine and daily). Hopefully they will extend to more free content in the future.
• Runner-up: IEG – Their sponsorship blog always provides great perspective and in-depth expertise on that aspect of the industry, and their Twitter line-up is constantly contributing to and interacting with the online community.

Best Sports Business Up and Comer

• Winner: Peter V. Amador – I only discovered Peter’s work recently, but it’s clear he’s headed for great things. As a current sport management grad student, his blog is already providing tremendous perspective and insight. Definitely someone to keep an eye on!
• Runner-up: Ash Read – Also featured as a Rising Star by Partnership Activation, Ash regularly contributes great content on social media and fan interaction on multiple sites. Already a co-founder of a grassroots sports marketing company, Ash has a great road ahead of him.

Best Alternative Sports Business Content

• Winner: Sports Business Radio – Their weekly radio show and podcast consistently provides entertaining and educational content about a wide range of sports business topics. In particular, they bring in a steady stream of top-level executives as guests, giving us the opportunity to hear from people that know the industry the best.
• Runner-up: The Row Show – They’ve only been around for a year, but their content is outstanding, in both the content and production value. They are on top of the latest trends in how technology can be used for sales and marketing in the sports world, and they provide a great balance of discussing current events and sharing best practices and useful tips.

People’s Choice – Sports Business Social Media Contributor of the Year

• Winner: Lewis Howes – The people have spoken (433 total voters) and with 43% of the vote (185 votes), Lewis Howes is the winner of the People’s Choice – Sports Business Social Media Contributor of the Year. I can’t say I’m surprised – Lewis does a great job across several social media channels, particularly through his Sports Networker blog, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Runner-up: Brian Gainor – Also runner-up for Best Sports Business Blog, Brian consistently uses multiple social media channels (blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more) to share his industry knowledge with all of us. Brian came in 2nd with 28% of the vote (120 votes).

Thank you to everyone who sent in nominations and voted in the People’s Choice poll. This process was a lot tougher than I imagined it would be with so many great sports business contributors out there. And of course, congratulations to all of our winners. I will figure out some type of prize/certificate/something to send to all of you that you can keep and cherish forever!

Geolocation is definitely a hot topic in social media, and as such, is starting to make its ways into the sports marketing landscape. The idea that you can proactively target and communicate with people based on their exact or relative location is a very appealing thought. Right now, all sports organizations practice based forms of geo-targeting in their marketing campaigns. This can take several shape, such as:

• Delivering web advertisements only to visitors from within your DMA (designated market area)
• Sending direct mail pieces to certain towns and zip codes within your DMA
• Purchasing prospect lists based on a combination of zip and area code
• Placing billboards and running grassroots events locally

All of these measures are taken to another level when you break down your existing customer base to find out what zip codes you have the most success in and focus these campaigns to the areas with the best fan penetration.

VaynerMedia and the New Jersey Nets have taken the idea of geo-targeting in another direction with geolocation through social media. This live, interactive form of geo-targeting has some great potential for teams and leagues to interact with local fan segments in ways that can drive fan affinity and revenue. Take a look at the case study to see what they did with their recent promotion through Gowalla.

The guys at the Row Show also discussed this case study live with Sam Taggart from VaynerMedia. Check our their discussion below.

Today’s blog post will be a little different than most. For one, it includes a giveaway! As a blogger, I was privileged to receive an advanced copy of Tony Hsieh’s ‘Delivering Happiness‘ which won’t officially be released until June 7. To my surprise, when I got the package, it also included an extra book for me to give away. While I was reading it (in two days flat), I ran across many nuggets that would be relevant to sports franchises, brands and sponsors.

Tony is the CEO of Zappos.com, a company well-known for its ability to surprise and delight their customers. While I won’t give my full book report now (that will come the first week in June), I wanted to give all of TBOS’ faithful readers a chance to win the book. So, between now and Tuesday, May 4, post a comment to this blog entry and let us know how you currently deliver happiness to your fans/customers/readers/friends, or how you think you could do so in the future. We’ll pick the best entry and mail the book out to you!

The book has two main focuses: how to treat your employees, and how to treat your customers. I worked for a company once that openly stated they expected new employees to work there for two years, grow a little bit, then leave, because they wouldn’t be paid what they were worth. Now, that company is still in business, but I don’t know a single person who works there that isn’t miserable and counting down the days to their next job. You’d have to imagine that that attitude is in some way passed on to their customers. Zappos, on the other hand, fosters a culture that celebrates each person for who they are, and openly creates a pipeline of talent so that if someone does leave, they know that they have another skilled individual waiting in the wings. If you worked for Zappos, how amazing would it be to know that they not only wanted you to learn and grow, they expected it of you, AND they made resources available to you to get it done?!

On the other hand, Zappos actively tries to surprise their customers with exceptional service. This is relevant to sports teams and their fans in so many ways. It can take just one minute for a player to record a video and for it to be uploaded to Twitter or the team’s site. A sincere thank you email takes even less time to compose and send. This book will inspire you in so many ways, regardless of whether your customers are fans, vendors or teams.

Now, one word of warning, when you get done reading this book, you may very well want to quit your job, move to Las Vegas, and start working for Tony Hsieh. Neither myself nor TheBusinessOfSports.com can be held responsible for that phenomenon. Make sure you include your email address in your comments below so that we can contact the winner.

I wanted to remind everyone that the next The Business Of Sports – New York Networking event is just one week away, on Wednesday, May 5 from 6:30 to 9:30PM at Slattery’s Midtown Pub (8 East 36th St). As always, the event is completely free to attend. Our last event had over 150 attendees, and I’d love to see even more of you this time.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Jude Russo Caserta.

Originally every five years and now every ten each NCAA school must complete a self-study of their athletic department followed by an on-site visit from peer institutions to verify they are in compliance with Title IX. This hugely symbolic exercise is one of the largest time suckers known to mankind or because this author is female I should say womankind to satisfy the first prong, proportionality, of Title IX compliance. Here are the three prongs from www.ncaa.org:

The OCR’s three-part test for Title IX compliance involves the following options for providing participation opportunities:

• Male-female athletics participation that is proportional to the institution’s full-time undergraduate enrollment, or
• A history and continuing practice of expansion of athletics opportunities for the under-represented gender, or
• Accommodating the interests and abilities of the under-represented gender (Hosick, 2010)

In 2005 the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) said you only had to do internet or e-mail surveys to determine if you were accommodating interest of the under-represented gender. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy! The odds of this survey actually determining the interest were slim and the NCAA told its folks – not so fast – step away from prong three. As a result, proportionality remained the most quantitative way to comply.

I am here to say that proportionality has absolutely killed college football. Do you think this was an intended consequence when Congresswoman Patsy Mink wrote the law back in 1972? In my job as athletic business manager and as a former Senior Women’s Administrator I think of Title IX all of the time. When I build or manage budgets and work with the daily micro-transactions which support sport programs I am constantly aware of what goes to men and to women. Our athletic director supports a culture of fiscal integrity which I instill every day. We dropped football in 2002 along with Men’s and Women’s Tennis, Track & Field and Rifle. We picked up Men’s Swimming. This made an immediate impact on proportionality. Dropping sports is painful and challenges tradition.

Still, there are schools that do not apply the three prongs appropriately and do not offer the under-represented gender equal opportunity. Just last week OCR announced it is rescinding its 2005 clarification. For prong three, in addition to surveys there must be “1) unmet interest sufficient to sustain a varsity team in the sport(s) 2) sufficient ability to sustain an intercollegiate team in the sport(s) and 3) reasonable expectation of intercollegiate competition for a team in the sport(s) within the school’s normal competitive region.” (Rights, 2010) If a group of champion skiers wants to start a downhill ski team in Florida they would not be successful because of competitive region. You must fulfill all three things to start a sport.

Perhaps I should openly admit I have my job because of Title IX (actually from the 1995 time-robber self study) when it was determined our school did not actually have fiscal integrity. I was asked to write a job description which would cover all of the concerns of the peer review committee, decide how many hours it would take to complete these tasks and determine how much compensation would be appropriate. In other words, I wrote my own job description, determined my hours and decided my pay…good gig if you can get it!

Unspoken in this are the financial resources needed to sustain a sport. Do you drop a male sport to bring on a female sport? I think the greatest moral dilemma remains the balance between opportunity and what I believe are the unintended consequences of dropping sports.

I sincerely hope there is a day when girls are not aware of Title IX and just get to play.

Jude Russo Caserta is the Athletic Business Manager at Canisius College and helped the MAAC Conference create Agreed-Upon Procedures years before the NCAA. She has a B.S. in Accounting and M.S. in Sport Administration and, as president of Athletic Business Systems, wants to help institutional business offices partner with athletic departments to create a culture of fiscal integrity. You can read more from her at www.AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog, follow her on Twitter as @JudeCaserta, or email her at judi_caserta@athleticbudgetcoach.com.

Let me throw some numbers at you: 68 (teams), 14 (years), 10.8 (billion dollars).

The NCAA announced today that the 2011 Men’s basketball tournament will expand not to 96 teams, not to 80 teams, but to 68 teams, an increase of just three over the 2010 tournament. Last Friday, during our live chat here on this site, we had an in-depth discussion about what expansion might mean to March Madness. At the time, it seemed like 96 was going to be the magic number. There was a consensus that expansion on that large a scale was a huge mistake for the NCAA.

There were many issues with that kind of expansion: watering down of the competition, the perception that the NCAA was only concerned about money, and the increase in missed class time for the student athletes were the three major ones.

By only adding three additional bids, the NCAA seems to have found a win-win situation. They sign CBS and Turner Broadcasting to a new 14-year, $10.8 billion deal, appease a couple mid-major leagues who feel they deserve multiple bids, and keep their reputation as the guardians of student-athletes. Well-played by the team in Indianapolis, and I don’t mean Butler.

Think of it this way: the NCAA increased the field by less than 5%, but their TV deal went from being worth $545.45 million per year to $771.43 million. An increase of over 41%.

For many basketball fans, the best news out of all this is the fact that every single tournament game will be show live. Through a combination of channels – CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV – everyone will get to see the games they want to see. While March Madness On Demand served me well this year, I am already excited about being able to watch my alma mater next year in HD.

All-in-all, it seems that the NCAA avoided a public relations nightmare – did anyone read the transcript of John Feinstein’s back-and-forth with the NCAAs senior VP Greg Shaheen about missed class time for the student athletes? That is just a taste of what the NCAA would have had to fight if they had expanded to 96.

But in the end, it seems that 68 is the new magic number. Who do you think will be the first 17-seed ever?

So your team has made the playoffs – excellent! This is what your sales and marketing staff has been waiting for. Time to capitalize on it, sell those playoff tickets and rake in the cash. But wait a second…we’re not sold out? People aren’t knocking down the doors for seats? We sold out the upper-deck but still have good seats left? What do we do?

If this was the regular season, the easiest thing to do would be to discount the seats. Teams are always offering special promo codes and ticket offers to their fans through their website, email list or other communication channel. But in the playoffs, this can look really bad. This is a time when your product should be in demand and sell at a higher price point, so publicly discounting tickets has the effect of:

• Generating bad PR (makes it seem like your fans aren’t supporting the team)
• Angering existing buyers, especially season ticket holders that have already bought full playoff strips (i.e. tickets to all playoff games)
• Potentially flooding the secondary market, making it harder to sell your tickets directly

So how can you discount your playoff tickets without discounting your playoff tickets? I’ve seen two teams this year use a very successful strategy to move these tickets. It’s all about collaborating with your corporate partners. Compare these two scenarios:

1. Team X can’t sell out their playoff game, so they discount their tickets, creating all the negative effects described above.
2. Sponsor Y of Team X creates a special “Sponsor Y Playoff Pack” offer at a discounted price that the team and sponsor promote together.

In the 2nd scenario, you end up with the same results of getting lower-priced tickets in the marketplace to hopefully sell out your building, but instead of a negative perception for your team, the sponsor builds a positive perception my providing a service to fans of the team. Everyone wins with this plan: fans buy cheaper tickets, sponsor build brand affinity and the team has a sold out venue for the big game. This strategy can also be effective during the regular season as a way to “discount” premium inventory (suite and club seat) for low-interest games without devaluing your product.

I’m excited to announce the nominees for the 2010 The Business of Sports Awards! Every spring, we will take a look back to reward the best content and contributors from the sports business community over the past year. Unlike other sports business awards that recognize the people working within specific organizations, the goal for these awards is to recognize those individuals, companies and websites that create and share the best sports business content and provide the most benefit for the rest of the sports industry.

With that said, the nominees are…

Best Sports Business Blog

• Partnership Activation
• Power Sponsorship Blog
• SportsBiz with Darren Rovell
• Sports Agent Blog
• Sports Marketing and PR Roundup
• Sports Networker

Best Sports Business Twitter Account

• Gail Sideman (@PUBLISIDE)
• Jason Peck (@jasonpeck)
• J.W. Cannon (@khuda1)
• Kathleen Hessert (@kathleenhessert)
• Maury Brown (@bizballmaury)
• Mike Mahoney (@mmahoney13)
• Sponsor Park (@SponsorPark)
• Sports in 140 (@Sportsin140)

Best Sports Business Content – Company

• Dynasty Athlete Representation (SportsAgentBlog.com and Twitter with Darren Heitner and Jason Belzer)
• IEG (Sponsorship.com Blog and multiple Twitter contributors)
• SponsorPitch (Blog, LinkedIn group and Twitter account)
• Sponsorship Insights Group (Blog, LinkedIn Group, and newsletter)
• Sports Business Journal (Multiple Twitter accounts, both @SBJSBD and individual contributors, and LinkedIn group)

Best Sports Business Up and Comer (Note: I adjusted the time constraints on this category a bit. In future years, this will be the Best Newcomer, someone who only started contributing since the last year’s awards)

• Ash Read
• Christopher Lee
• Jon Kander
• Josh Feinberg
• Joshua Duboff
• Peter V. Amador
• Amanda Miller (nominated, but ineligible to win because of her work on this blog – sorry Amanda!)

Best Alternative Sports Business Content

• Sports Business Radio (Podcast)
• The Row Show (Weekly web video broadcast)
• Sports Marketing 2.0 (Social network)
• The Sports Business Exchange (Quarterly online journal)
• Power Sponsorship / Kim Skildum-Reid (Webinars, white papers, and tutorials)
• Be Your Own Fan TV / Goldklang Group (Bi-weekly web video)

People’s Choice – Sports Business Social Media Contributor of the Year

• Amy Martin
• Brian Gainor
• Dan Beeman
• Darren Rovell
• Kathleen Hessert
• Lewis Howes

The voting for the People’s Choice award (on the top right of the page) will run through the end of April. All of the winners will be announced at the beginning on May.

Update: I’ve had a few questions about how people can vote on these awards. For this year, the only award that you can vote on is the People’s Choice award. However, I encourage you all to leave comments about who you think should win in the other categories. These comments will be considered when deciding on the winners. Thanks!

Our next SportsBiz Live Chat is scheduled for today, Friday, April 16 at 1:00pm EDT (10:00am PDT). Jump into the live chat below!

View our archive of previous live chats below:

• Friday, February 26, 2010 – #SportsBiz Friday Chat
  
• Saturday, February 13, 2010 – NBA All-Star Saturday SportsBiz Chat
• Wednesday, February 10, 2010 – Snow Day #SportsBiz Chat

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Deandra Duggans and was originally published on her blog at sportsandalatte.wordpress.com.

You may or may not have seen “Logorama,” the short film that took home an Oscar earlier this year for “Best Animated Short Film.”  It’s a film that explores the way that logos are increasingly embedded in our existence.  While the movie discusses the ubiquity of branding and leaves one to ask is it too much?  Well I don’t think so.  Plus, that’s not my call and I think it’s completely subjective. What it did make me observe more carefully is the logo placement and corporate alignment as it relates to sports.

Of course corporate sponsorship runs rampant in the NBA and there’s no better time than now for presenting sponsors to align themselves with one of the most premier stages in all of sports: The NBA Playoffs.

Check out the presenting sponsors for some of the playoff contenders (note: most of these were splash page elements on the teams’ websites, so obviously there are some teams that are missing):

(Atlanta Hawks Playoffs Presented by Aarons)

(Cleveland Cavaliers Playoffs Presented by Cub Cadet)
Side note: I like that one athlete isn’t singled out…great concept of “teamwork”

(Boston Celtics Playoffs presented by Arbella Insurance)
Side note: this is my favorite piece of creative out of all of them. I appreciate how clean, yet intense it is.

(Charlotte Bobcats Playoffs “powered by” Budweiser, Kobalt, Presbyterian Hospital and McDonalds)

(Denver Nuggets Playoffs presented by KeyBank)

(Miami Heat Playoffs presented by Miccosukee Resort & Gaming)

(Phoenix Suns Playoffs presented by Casino Arizona)

(Spurs playoffs presented by HEB and Toyota)

Of course many of the presenting sponsors are also presenting sponsors of the team as a whole.  It’s just really interesting to see the amount of involvement by corporations and the partnerships they have with sports entities and how sports is a great platform to enhance brand awareness and brand image.

Deandra is currently working in the sports business industry as a Media & Marketing Specialist.  She is a graduate of Georgia State University’s M.S. Sports Business Management program and attended undergrad at NC State. Her previous work experience includes time spent with Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, GSU Athletics, NC State Athletics and the Women’s Sports Foundation. In her spare time, she does freelance graphic design (www.deandraduggans.com) and shares her talents with grassroots sports organizations. You can reach her via email at deandra@deandraduggans.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/SportsandaLatte.

I have a few quick announcements to share with our readers.

- Our next New York sports business networking event is scheduled for Wednesday, May 5 from 6:30 to 9:30 PM. As always, the event is free to attend. Our only rule is no resumes – bring plenty of business cards and good conversation. We had over 150 attendees at our last event, so you don’t want to miss it if you’re in the area. You can click here for all of the event details and to complete the RSVP form. Please share this with any friends or colleagues that would be interested in attending. We are still working on the final details for a Phoenix networking event and I’ll announce that here once it is all settled.

- We will bring back our SportsBiz Live Chat this Friday at 1PM EST (10AM PST). The chat will be right on the front page of the blog, so you can’t miss it! Thank you to Amanda Miller for her help in organizing and moderating this Friday’s chat.

- Nominations for the Inaugural “The Business of Sports” awards end on Thursday and the finalists will be announced on Friday. You can click here for the full list of categories and a link to the nomination form.

- I am still hoping to launch a weekly (or bi-weekly) email newsletter in the near future. Click here to make sure you’re on the list!

- Finally, I am in need of 1-2 virtual interns to help with some of the various marketing and social media initiatives that help keep the site going and growing. If you know someone that’s interested, please tell them to visit www.thebusinessofsports.com/extras/internships/ for all of the details.

Thank you for your continued support of the blog.

Whenever I can, I like to pass along information on events or special offers that I believe will benefit our blog readers, and this is definitely one of those cases. Kim Skildum-Reid, Director of Power Sponsorship (www.PowerSponsorship.com), is organizing two sponsorship workshops in the Los Angeles area next month.

• Tuesday, May 25 – Power Partnerships – Full-day workshop for sponsorship seekers. This workshop provides a very comprehensive approach to raising and retaining more sponsorship and effectively marketing your event. By the time you walk out of this workshop, you will have the mindset, skills, and confidence to make best-practice work for you and significantly elevate your results.

• Wednesday, May 26 – Amazing Sponsorship Results – Full-day workshop for corporate and government sponsors. This interactive course equips corporate and government sponsors with the skills, tools, and mindset to create powerful, cost-effective sponsorship programs that really deliver on objectives and create a major point of difference with competitors.

In addition, all participants receive a bonus coaching session from Kim (value US $700) for use any time in the next 12 months.

As a special bonus, as a reader of The Business of Sports, you can use the discount code sportsbiz to receive $50 off the cost of admission, and if you register before April 23, you will get the early-bird discount which is another $50 off.

For full details on these two events, click here to download the PDF brochure. Event registration links can be found at powersponsorship.eventbrite.com, and you can learn more about Kim and Power Sponsorship at www.powersponsorship.com.

Let’s take a look at two sports-related commercials that I saw for the first time yesterday and couldn’t be on more opposite ends of the sports advertising spectrum:

#1 – Tiger / Earl Woods and Nike Golf

At this point, I think everyone has seen this ad, and the reaction is all over the place from what I can tell. On the negative side, I’ve heard:

• Too soon for Tiger to be in any commercial
• Inappropriate to use his father’s voice, and a bit creepy
• Nike shouldn’t emphasize their relationship with Tiger right now
• Tiger still come off as unemotional just staring at the camera

On the positive side, I’ve heard:

• It’s the right way to re-introduce him to the market
• Creative way to acknowledge the scandal and start moving forward
• Honest, emotional and connects with the viewers
• Strong move to show Nike’s dedication and support of Tiger

Personally, I think this will end up being an effective approach, especially if Tiger can keep up his strong showing this weekend. Nike is so dependent on Tiger’s success for the health and growth of their golf line that they needed to do something in conjunction with his return, and if they tried to overlook the scandal to make a more traditional Tiger ad, it would have been a massive failure. Now the important question is, what did you think of the ad? Leave your opinion in the comments!

#2 – David Wright / “The Situation” and Vitamin Water

I don’t really have too much to say about this one, but I thought it was a particularly funny way to combine an athlete with a reality show/pop culture figure like “The Situation.” Vitamin Water continues to do well with their creative ad campaigns, and this is a perfect fit with their brand.

An interesting article from flipcollective.com by Paul Shirley (former NBA player) that I read earlier this week got me thinking about the differences between men’s and women’s basketball. Paul focused on the differences in athleticism and how enjoyable the games are, but I’ve been thinking more about the cold hard cash.

The men’s championship game drew 71,298 fans in an NFL stadium, while the women’s game (UConn over Stanford) drew ‘just’ 22,936 in the Alamodome. Beyond that, over 48 million people saw at least some part of Duke squeaking by Butler for their fourth national championship. According to an analysis of the 2008-09 championships, men’s basketball netted the NCAA $32 million, while the women’s championship cost over $7.5 million.

Geno Auriemma (UConn’s coach) hasn’t gotten a call from a men’s program about an open head coaching position in four years. He’s obviously coaching at a very high level: his team hasn’t lost in two years, and they are just 10 wins away from tying the hallowed wins record in all of college basketball – UCLA’s 88 in a row, yet for some reason, ADs aren’t looking at him as a candidate for their men’s teams.

So what does this mean from a business standpoint? There are obviously more fans for the men’s product then there are for the women’s, but are they all equally as invested? My gut tells me women’s fans have a stronger connection to their team… maybe not just the name on the front of the jerseys, but to the players wearing them.

This gives teams and their sponsors a unique opportunity to connect with fans. A sincere, distinctive ‘voice’ in social media goes a long way towards building a rapport with fans. Passionate fans are happy to provide feedback and ideas to those brands that ask. I wasn’t able to find an obvious Twitter account for either of the Stanford or UConn women’s basketball teams, so I’d suggest to them to capitalize on their recent success and get that started. Use players to guest tweet, guest blog, tape short videos, thank fans, and maybe show some behind the scenes footage of their trip to the Final Four.

Don’t get me wrong, the men’s teams can do these kinds of things too, but a lot of men’s Division I teams are doing just fine without those initiatives. Does anyone really think Duke’s team lost $2 million last year? Social media is an avenue where sponsors can utilize the popularity AND gender of the team they sponsor to make a better connection with fans. Better than that 3′ x 8′ banner hanging in the concourse, and better than the flyer they hand fans as they are walking out the door.

The Phoenix Mercury drew a lot of attention when they signed LifeLock as their front-of-jersey sponsor. They are the first major professional league to monetize that ad space, not counting soccer, where the practice is standard. The men’s leagues aren’t quite ready to go there… yet.

So, what do you think is the biggest opportunity out there for women’s sports? Am I wrong? Do men and women have the same opportunities here? Do their fans react to the same messages?

I’m excited to announce the inaugural The Business of Sports Awards! Every spring, we will take a look back to reward the best content and contributors from the sports business community over the past year. Unlike other sports business awards that recognize the  people working within specific organizations, the goal for these awards is to recognize those individuals, companies and websites that create and share the best sports business content and provide the most benefit for the rest of the sports industry.

For the first year’s awards, we have six main categories:

• Best Sports Business Blog – The overall best sports business blog
• Best Individual Sports Business Twitter Account - The best individual use of Twitter to help the sports business community
• Best Sports Business Content by a Company – The company that best uses social media platforms across their organization to create and share sports business content
• Best Alternative Sports Business Content - The best sports business content distributed via an alternative, non-blog format
• Best Up-and-Coming Sports Business Contributor – The best new contributor of sports business content (must have just started within the past 12 months)

The winners in these five categories will be selected by The Business of Sports with advice and feedback from other trusted members of the sports business community. The final award will be voted on by The Business of Sports readers…

• People’s Choice – Sports Business Contributor of the Year – Recognizing the individual that has made the greatest contribution to the sports business community through any and all communication channels (web, email, social media, etc).

Now, I need your help with the nominations process! I already have several ideas in mind for each of these categories, but your suggestions will help make sure that I do not accidentally overlook any of the many valuable sports business contributors out there.

Please click here now to send in your nominations for each of the six categories!

My goal is to announce the finalists (up to 5 per category) by the end of next week. Thank you for your help!

UPDATE: While I appreciate the sentiment from some of the recent nominations received, in order to keep things open and fair, neither myself nor thebusinessofsports.com is eligible for the awards. Thank you.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Jared Frank.

The vernacular of today is slowly evolving to include words and phrases like cap and trade, carbon footprint and LEED. What comes even slower is the understanding of these words and phrases. The conversation surrounding green initiatives is one filled with common sense and stewardship or rhetoric and agendas depending on the perspective. While campaigning for the merits of either side of the debate is futile and frustrating, venue development professionals can champion the middle ground by embracing a simple buzzword that appeals to both sides – Sustainability.

One thing we can all agree on, especially in the current economic state, is saving money is good. Obviously, we are still focused on generating new revenues, but there is an increasing acceptance of cost savings as a viable part of the mix. So simply stated, sustainability is a vein to a healthier bottom line and necessary to preserve our financial models that depend greatly on the continued profits produced by sports venues.

The Case for Sustainability

A little over 20 years ago, the era of new stadium construction began, forever changing the economic landscape of the sports business world. Many historians point to the opening of Camden Yards as the seminal event of this movement, but they do so erroneously. Before Camden Yards was the New Comiskey Park in Chicago, and before that was the Skydome in Toronto.

The price tag on the Skydome was nearly $600 million. Compare that 20 years later to the New Meadowlands Stadium and its $1.6 billion price tag. Noticeably, costs have gone up. For teams looking to build out in the near future, they are well served to accept that costs will continue to escalate. Venues must be scalable to maximize return on investment, and must be sustainable in order to ensure profits well beyond 20 years.

It is also worth pointing out that new builds are not primarily financed through public funds any longer. For those owners footing a larger portion of the bill, making their investment last is essential. And for those facilities still tapping into public coffers, if the design is environmentally efficient, taxpayers will know their contribution has gone to an eco-friendly effort that contributes to the entire community. It is almost a sense of charity, or source of civic pride in the least.

Clearly, this issue is not top of the mind just for the environmentally conscious anymore. We have all seen Avatar by now. It has taken time for technology and understanding to catch up to the idea, but now because eco-design and building principles and procedures are more refined and less arcane to architects and construction managers, upfront costs are competitive with similar plans simply built to standard code. Factor in the long term operational cost savings, and environmental responsibility and financial returns juxtapose.

Moving Forward

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is not perfect. It is currently a blanket rating system that does not take into account regional environmental differences. But you have to start somewhere. And many municipalities incentivize LEED construction with tax credits and exemptions, which sweetens the deal for owners, so we all have a stake in this ongoing movement.

Sustainable building concepts are still in their infancy, but certainly are crescendoing towards the status quo. Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals, became the first LEED Silver Certified professional sports stadium in 2008. Following suit, the two newest buildings in the industry due to open shortly, Target Field and New Meadowlands Stadium, both have incorporated green design elements.

The Minnesota Twins have taken things one step further by partnering with Pentair, a Minneapolis-based water solutions company, and establishing the first-ever eco-sponsorship in professional sports. Pentair’s Rain Water Recycle System (RWRS) will reduce Target Field’s municipal water needs by 50% by catching and reusing rain water. And saving water means saving money. While we should never view these savings as a means to monetize environmental ethics, saving, whether it be water or money, means sustaining the future of the sports facility marketplace.

Jared Frank is the editor of SEAT Magazine, published by the Association of Luxury Suite Directors (ALSD). You can follow Jared on Twitter (@SEAT_Editor), connect with him on LinkedIn and reach him via email at jared@alsd.com. Green initiatives and all other issues facing the premium seat and sports facility industry will be addressed at the 20th Annual ALSD Conference and Tradeshow in New York City, June 27-30, 2010.

On Tuesday night, I finally took in a New Jersey Devils game at the Prudential Center, which opened back in October of 2007. Having been to several Devils games at the older Continental Airlines Arena (now the Izod Center), I was looking forward to seeing what the new building had to offer. Here are some quick thoughts from the game, including some tweets that I sent during the game.

Stadium Environment

• Taking in the Devils/Bruins game at the Prudential Center. My 1st time here at “The Rock.” Definitely like it http://tweetphoto.com/16470860
• Prudential Center has a great open-back design on one end of the mezzanine seating/concourse area. Unique feel for http://tweetphoto.com/16475479
  • It almost had the same feeling I get when walking a baseball concourse, where you can still see the on-field action while you get to your seat.
• They’re doing Score-O (four fans try a shot from mid-ice with most of the net blocked off). I did Score-O back in high school and made it on the first shot! One of the sports highlights of my life.
  • I was 16 when I did this contest, so that means they’ve been doing it for at least 13 seasons now, and fans still seem to enjoy it, especially when the first guy made the shot.
• Fun video during the break of the Devils’ ushers dancing to the music. Crowd got into it too. http://tweetphoto.com/16480551
  • I love when the personality of the arena staff comes through like this.
• Guy not paying attention to the mascot’s t-shirt toss just got hit it the back of the head w/ a shirt. At least it wasn’t a puck!
• There was a “deck” in one lower corner of the arena where the Devils had some female dancers. The location was odd as only part of the arena could see them, and only some of their dances ended up on the center-hung scoreboard.
• They also featured jerseys of all New Jersey high school and college hockey teams hanging on the walls throughout the entire building.
• The food selection seemed pretty standard with typical prices. The one “extra” that I really noticed was the “Taste of Newark” section on the mezzanine concourse that featured food from popular local restaurants.
• The egress from the mezzanine level was a little rough. They could definitely benefit from additional escalators.

Sponsorship

• The permanent naming rights signage for Prudential Center is prominently featured everywhere inside and outside the building, and always includes both the company name and logo for full branding impact.
• PNC Bank has a strong presence, particularly in the PNC Tower, which is also where the box office is located (more visibility). You can’t miss PNC in the building – they also had frequent appearances on the scoreboard and LED.
• Frank’s Red Hot Sauce was just on the scoreboard and ribbon LED. Don’t think I’ve seen them in any other sports sponsorships.
• Great presence by Verizon at the Prudential Center. Phone demos, sales staff, free co-branded t-shirts, games and more http://tweetphoto.com/16477636
  • I cannot over-emphasize how effective this activation was. There was a “Text Battle” station where kids used Verizon phones to answer Devils trivia, a long line to get the free Devils/Verizon t-shirt (which also included a product demo), and Verizon sales/service staff answering questions and showing off new phones.
• The Belvedere Vodka Ice Lounge premium club seating. Looks very nice inside. http://tweetphoto.com/16477896
• @SeatGeek I walked past it (The Fire Lounge) on the other side. Can’t get into either tonight but they look great. Love the Fire and Ice theme between the two.

Sales

• My favorite Devils sales rep (@isatten) swung by and dropped off a season ticket flyer. And I’m actually contemplating it.
• The Devils have put together some creative season ticket offers, including a 12 month payment plan, guaranteed early purchase/renewal benefits, additional higher-end pay-in-full benefits, and 15 different top-tier prize drawings that all early-buyers are eligible for.
• The team also offers a $15 and $30 price point for select locations, which is a pretty affordable option for hockey tickets (and I firmly believe there is no such thing as a bad seat for a hockey game).

I have to say that I came away very impressed with the arena across the board. I’m sure the Devils are quite happy with it as well!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Mike Mahoney. Make sure to check out Part 1 from Monday.

What is it like to attend IEG’s annual sponsorship conference? Is it right for you?

IEG2010 was a perfect mix of presentations, Interactive roundtables, tradeshow booth visits, group networking, and 1 on 1 meetings facilitated by IEG. The conference started with sessions on Sunday afternoon and ran through Wednesday afternoon. The daily schedule was packed from 7:30 a.m. when the networking breakfasts would begin until the evening receptions ended. If there was food being served it meant there was the ability to network with colleagues in the room. IEG helps by setting up industry or category tables at which to break bread.

Before I went to Chicago, I heard from a few previous attendees that the return on the conference was not great because they did not close enough prospects from the event. If this is your only goal, it’s unlikely you’ll go back to the conference. I witnessed several large sponsors get hammered with business cards and proposals from property sellers after their sessions. I understand many properties never get this type of audience and they were determined to get in front of these sponsorship buyers. But to me, this is the wrong tact to take. These presenters just laid out how they buy sponsorships in their presentation. Take that information back, decide if you can create an offer to match what they are looking for and then re-connect. Next, use that information to take a strategic approach on ten other prospects that are already on your list back home. That is where your ROI will come from. If we cause sponsors to have a bad experience here by making them feel like bait in a shark tank, why will they come back and share how to get their business?

I arrived at the conference knowing direct sales were not my number one goal. I wanted to meet colleagues, learn best practices, and how to help measure their return on sponsorship (or as I learned at IEG2010 – return on activation). I believe I met this objective and the conference will have a significant ROI for my organization over the next 12 months. Let your ROI come from how you sell in your market, not at the conference. And as far as conference etiquette goes, when there are 250 people in a ballroom you should not ask a question where the answer will only be relevant to one person (i.e. you). I heard “Why don’t you sponsor my event?” and I heard it more than once. I am pretty sure the sponsor does not appreciate being put on the spot and I know 248 other folks don’t become raving fans either.

One of the great aspects of the conference was having IEG set up 1-on-1 meetings, or speed sponsor dating. Properties could request a sponsor category and then IEG would match you up with one of their “Sponsors in Residence” who was attending. My scheduled appointment was with a sponsor that my company just started purchasing IT products from. I took an email from my IT director saying how we loved their service and how much he planned to buy. I thought this would be a great starting part of discussion. I also did not want to present to the client but get to know them for future conversations. It turns out my contact took ill, but IEG found me another open appointment with a sponsor so I took that meeting instead.

So if you want to learn best practices from other great sponsorship professionals and see the real research and case studies that explain where the sponsorship industry is headed, IEG’s next conference will be for you. Make friends while you are there, and make sales calls when you get back to the office.

Mike Mahoney is a sponsorship sales executive based out of Charlotte, NC with 5+ years of sponsorship sales experience. Prior to selling in the sports world he worked in major account sales at FedEx and SAP. Mike believes in the power of CRM and loves social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@mmahoney13) or find him on LinkedIn.

Normally I don’t like to just directly publish press releases that I receive (I’m on several lists now), but this one caught my attention, and I think you will all find it quite interesting. It came from Robert Passikoff, Founder and President of Brand Keys, Inc.

“After years in the #2 spot, Major League Baseball is now tied with the National Football League with the “most loyal fans,” according to the 15th annual 2010 Brand Keys Sports Loyalty Index,® a survey which helps professional sports teams increase broadcast, ticket and merchandise revenues by providing loyalty rankings and fan diagnostics in their home and national markets.

2010 League Rankings

1. NFL/MLB
2. NBA
3. NHL

“The Sports Loyalty Engagement Index gives an apples-to-apples comparison of the intensity with which fans support professional sport leagues and their home team vs. the corresponding values for the fans of other teams in the market,” said Robert Passikoff, president of New York-based Brand Keys, Inc. a leading brand and customer loyalty consultancy.

“These insights allow leagues and teams to identify areas that need strategic reinforcement. Done correctly, an increase in broadcast viewership, merchandise purchase, and ticket revenue will follow, and happier fans. Everybody loves a winner, but it’s important to note that win/loss ratios do not entirely govern fan loyalty,” noted Brand Keys’ Passikoff.

Fan loyalty is driven in four ways:

• Pure Entertainment – How well a team does, but more importantly, how exciting is their play?
• Authenticity – How well they play as a team. New stadia can help on this driver. Oftentimes, so can a new Manager.
• Fan Bonding – Are players respected and admired?
• History and Tradition – Is the game and the team part of a fan’s and a community’s rituals, institutions and beliefs?

The top-5 teams in each league in terms of fan loyalty for 2010:

Top Gainers: Teams with the largest growth in fan loyalty include the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA (both up five positions), the New Orleans Saints (+6) and the Minnesota Vikings (+5) in the NFL, and the Colorado Rockies and Minnesota Twins in MLB, both up 4 positions. In the National Hockey League no team moved up more than one position, although many moved down as many as 4 rankings. A list of the bottom-5 teams with lowest fan loyalty in each league can be found at www.brandkeys.com/awards/sports.cfm

Methodology:  The Brand Keys Sports Fan Loyalty Index is an outgrowth of Brand Keys’ specialization in measuring customer loyalty that began with work for the National Football League in the mid-90’s. Interviews are conducted by telephone and in-person (to account for cell phone-only fans) includes 150+ local fans for each professional sports team in the four major leagues. Participants self- select a preference for a particular league and then indicate an allegiance to the local team being evaluated. The methodology identifies the four drivers of fan loyalty and rates each team on each of the drivers. The respondents are also asked to rate the sports leagues that they’re interested in on an overall basis.

“Since overall league and team rankings correlate very highly with TV viewership and sales of licensed merchandise, rankings can be influenced depending upon how loyalty drivers are addressed and managed,” said Passikoff. “It’s critical that marketers do accurate scouting regarding the strategic game they intend to play with their fans because today, when it comes to loyalty, there are no free-agent fans!”

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Mike Mahoney. Check back later this week for Part 2!

I attended IEG’s 2010 Sponsorship Conference Themed – “Unbound” last week, and Russell asked me for my key takeaways, especially ones that could not fit under 140 characters. This was my first time at IEG’s annual conference, and that was true for many I met this week. The theme was brought home in the keynote and across many sessions. “Unbound” really stood for being creative and thinking way outside the box. The best example of this is clearly Red Bull. Red Bull is a brand, yet they have become a property by creating their own events. They now have over 150 a year where they sponsor themselves which gives them total control of the consumer and brand experience. Red Bull wants to be inserted in the action, ex. Shaun White’s secret snow park and the content and press that spun off from that truly unique idea.

Theme two was measurement; this is IEG’s core competency. I walked away clearly feeling brands can and should measure the impact of sponsorship, but you need the objectives outlined and the measurement plan in place before you start. Feel free to take baby steps and measure only Business to Business sales or do basic surveys about your brand before during and after the sponsorship. Another great measurement comment was that you really measure activation, not sponsorship. Coke in conjunction with their sponsorship of the Houston Rodeo tried multiple activation strategies with the same sponsorship across five different retailers and found that one with grocery chain HEB was the most effective with a 288% increase in sales, year over year. I personally feel to measure sponsorship ROI, the real data will exist within the sponsor’s accounting system most of the time with sales lift or other measurements, but properties should help ensure the tactics used with sponsorship will help the bottom line of the customer.

Topic three was activation and the buzzword bingo word of the day was “integrated.” It really means a 360 degree view of all possible channels and platforms to get the sponsor’s message across. Great integrated sponsorship examples included Taco Bell’s, ‘Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” campaign ran by Inter-Sport. They used television, print, radio, PR and Internet to drive folks into Taco Bell for a free taco once a base was stolen in the World Series. QuickTrip, a convenience store chain, said all of their sponsorships must contain a digital component that will help build their database of customers they can market to in other ways and they are seeing those campaigns resulting in more in-store purchases by their “fans”.

The fourth focus of the event was really for properties and how to sell sponsorship in these economic times. I hosted a pair of roundtables entitled “Developing additional benefits to attract new sponsors.” These roundtables were attended by 20+ properties and offered an interactive discussion that I moderated. Great success stories of adding value to retain or gain new sponsors included the Redskins Powerboard (a digital content dashboard sponsored by Comcast) and Spevco’s Dallas Cowboys mobile Hall of Fame which can travel around to various Cowboys’ sponsors to drive store traffic. I am also proud to learn that nearly every property attending of every size is creating custom sponsorships. The Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsorships are going the way of the Apatosaurus.

Social media came up in quite a few sessions but it still seemed somewhat mysterious and I did not hear great success stories, but a promising session by Frito-Lay had to be cancelled at the last minute. There was a valuable roundtable on the legal issues of social media contests and promotions by Winston and Strawn LLP with a handbook takeaway that I will refer to many times over the next year. Perhaps I’ll have to submit our case study with Allen Tate and our first two Twitter/Digital promotions in 2009 for the 2011 conference.

Later this week in Part 2, I’ll have thoughts on how the conference ran, who should attend, suggestions for improvement and if I think I will be able to make the investment pay off for my company and how you should it expect to pay off for yours.

Mike Mahoney is a sponsorship sales executive based out of Charlotte, NC with 5+ years of sponsorship sales experience. Prior to selling in the sports world he worked in major account sales at FedEx and SAP. Mike believes in the power of CRM and loves social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@mmahoney13) or find him on LinkedIn.

Last week, Pro Football Talk reported that the Buffalo Bills were taking some heat from fans for a season ticket renewal flyer that featured their punter Brian Moorman kicking from his own endzone (you can see the picture here on Deadspin). Well since that story, I’ve seen two excellent marketing and community relations campaigns that the Bills have come out with, so let’s take a moment to highlight the good stuff.

First is the Jim Kelly Football Camp Scholarship Sweepstakes. I love to see items like this where organizations provide an opportunity for people to take part in unique experiences, especially for younger fans. This is one of the reasons I really love what the Arizona Diamondbacks do every year with their season ticket scholarship program. It doesn’t take much effort on the organization’s part to extend these types of offers, and the value they provide those who participate is immeasurable.

The other campaign currently running is their “Bills All-Time Draft Picks and Draft Day Challenge” contest and micro-site. You can check out the site at http://www.channel1media.com/billsdraft/. This is a great way to build excitement about the team in the month leading up to the  NFL draft. There is a nice montage video of past draft picks that does a good job building on the nostalgia of past Bills superstars, and the site lets fans rank the team’s 10 best draft picks. This look back then transitions nicely to the question of what future Bills star they will select with their first pick this year, which fans are encouraged to try and predict. Both elements of the site offer prizes tied to the team’s past and future draft picks. In addition the site also offers valuable sponsorship inventory, with the All-Time Picks presented by Bud Light and the Draft Day Challenge presented by M&T Bank.

Nice work by the Buffalo Bills on both campaigns.

Earlier this morning, I had the opportunity to be a guest speaker at Farleigh Dickinson University for an undergraduate business fundamentals class. This is an area that I am very passionate about (hence the reason for my blog, my Twitter usage, my LinkedIn profile, etc.) and I was excited to give a talk on the topic.

In my efforts to turn the presentation into an interactive example, I streamed it live through Ustream. The talk lasted almost 90 minutes, but I think there are some good nuggets of information throughout. So here is the video if you’d like to check it out. If you do watch, I would love your feedback on the presentation and suggestions for things I can do better next time. Thanks!

(NOTE: This was written prior to the airing of Monday evening’s “Dancing With the Stars” and therefore contains NO spoilers)

We all know Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco can make some serious moves on the football field. Tonight we’ll find out what he can do on the dance floor when he and partner Cheryl Burke perform the Cha Cha and Viennese Waltz on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’

He’s not the first athlete to trade in cleats for dancing shoes… five of the last seven DWTS winners are recognizable for their athletic achievements, and three more have been runners-up. Winners include the first athlete to take the crown, Emmitt Smith (NFL, season 3), followed in quick succession by Apolo Anton Ohno (Speedskating, season 4), Helio Castroneves (IndyCar, season 5), Kristi Yamaguchi (Figure skating, season 6), and Shawn Johnson (Gymnastics, season 8).

Does that mean Ochocinco has a leg up on the other 10 competitors? If his post-touchdown celebrations are any indication, he can definitely learn new steps on a week-to-week basis. He can improvise when needed, and has a sense of humor. Evan Lysacek, the gold-medal winning Olympic figure skater, may be Ochocinco’s toughest competition. He’s certainly got the dance background and the sense of balance. Let’s see how he does when he has to share the spotlight.

Back to Ochocinco: what remains to be seen is whether he’ll be able to keep his cool when he receives criticism from the judges and what this experience will mean to his personal brand. Ochocinco has over 800,000 twitter followers, and seems to be one of the most  transparent athletes out there when it comes to his use of social media (see also: Shaq, The Real).

So for a man that has spent so much time tweeting, live-streaming and updating his website (the OchoCinco News Network, or OCNN), tonight’s episode will give him a far larger audience than he ever sees on Sundays. His actions and reactions can go a long way towards earning him new fans. I doubt he could turn fans off unless he does something really over the top. Those that follow him regularly know that he pulls no punches (for example: telling Tiger Woods jokes) and is unashamedly honest about who he is.

The draw for someone who is a public figure, as athletes are, is the opportunity to both build their brand and stay ‘relevant’ in the public eye. This is a great complement to what Ochocinco is already doing with his online endeavors. He has been successful at gaining a large Twitter following and through DWTS will have the opportunity to garner new fans who may not have already found him online. Since he has merchandise available on his web site, his participation may end up making him money from the sale of such t-shirts as the ‘Girl/Boy You Trippin’ line. I wouldn’t be surprised if he found a way to slip in a little self-promotion at some point. This season, we’ll find out if dancing is one of his hidden talents.

Other reality shows that have featured athletes:
‘Shaq vs.’ – Enough said
‘Pros vs. Joes’ – Michael Irvin, Bo Jackson, Jose Canseco, Kordell Stewart, etc. show those every day wannabe pro athletes what its really like out there on the field.
‘The Surreal Life 5′ – Jose Canseco came out as one of the most level-headed people in the house on this particular season
‘Age of Love’ – Mark Philippoussis (tennis) attempts to find love, ‘The Bachelor’-style

For those that were unable to attend the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (and that includes me!), here is a video of the keynote address, featuring:

• Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Blind Side
• Mark Cuban, Owner of the Dallas Mavericks
• Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy on ESPN
• Daryl Morey, General Manager of the Houston Rockets
• Bill Polian, President of the Indianapolis Colts president
• Jonathan Kraft, President of the New England Patriots

Enjoy the video!

I wanted to share three emails that I recently received from a couple of professional sports franchises (I’m signed up for several team newsletters, so I can follow trends and best practices in email marketing).

Email 1 from the Houston Texans (right):

While a large percentage of male football fans consider cheerleaders to be a valuable part of the football experience, I imagine most of them have little use for a cheerleader tryouts email. Now I’m sure that some people on the list may have forwarded this to friends or family that might be interested, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a larger than normal number of people unsubscribed from the Texans’ newsletter because this just wasn’t relevant to them.

If you have a niche message like this that you want to share, you either need to find a more narrow, appropriate segment of your list to communicate with (which you could identify through a regular survey of your email newsletter members or via other web-based data collection methods), or you include this message as part of a larger newsletter that provides value to all readers.

Email 2 from the Los Angeles Lakers (below):

The subject line for this email was “Lakers Fans: Ready to “TOSS” Your Reading Glasses? Turn to the Assil Eye Institute” – and that was the only reference to the Lakers in this message (other than the use of yellow and purple text). Email marketing is a very important way in which a team can drive value for their sponsors, and with a team like the Lakers that have an easy time selling both tickets and sponsorship, this is one way they can easily generate additional revenue. However, they’re doing it at the expense of their email database, because even more so than the Texans’ email, this message could end up driving more unsubscribes than click-thrus. Plus, without more integration with the Lakers brand, the partner isn’t getting nearly as much value as they could be. Let’s take a look at a more effective example from the New York Yankees and H&R Block:

This is a much better approach to a corporate partner email. There is prominent co-branding so you never forget that this came from the Yankees, which connects their brand with H&R Block. There is a relevant connection to both the team and the sponsor product through the call to action (in this case, a contest). Finally, the partner gets the benefit of reaching Yankees fans in a way that both provides the fans value and limits the chance for opt-outs.

Your email database is an incredibly valuable tool in any team’s consumer and corporate marketing efforts. While the easy solution in situations may be to simply “blast the list,” this approach has damaging implications and will rarely generate more value that either a more targeted or strategic approach.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Matt Weinberger. Make sure to read Part 1 from last week!

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 10 things one MUST do to get into the sports industry and be successful.

5. Find out what your core competencies are – Core competencies often come up in talks about what a company or organization’s most significant value creating skills are. In essence, they are an organization’s areas of expertise. But here, you want to focus on YOUR core competencies. What kind of value can you add to an organization? What do you bring to the table? And, what is your personal brand?

6. Get Creative – Listen, this is the sports industry we are talking about. This isn’t rocket science, and don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. The sports industry is a fun, exciting, creative, and sometimes intense industry. As such you need to be on your toes at all times, but also never lose your creativity. Each day organizations throughout the industry are coming up with interesting, thought provoking and unique ways to generate business. Be creative at all times, find new avenues and ideas people in the industry aren’t talking about and own them!

7. Cover Letter and Resume – Too often this is an afterthought. Make sure your resume and cover letter are synchronized. When you apply for a job these two documents are your chief selling points, so make sure that’s exactly what they are – SELLING POINTS. For more reference, see this recently published NY Times article. Resumes and cover letters alone may not get you the job but they surely can lose you the job. There are many organizations in the sports industry (which shall remain nameless) who are notorious for throwing out resumes with even the slightest mistakes whether grammatical or stylistic. As such, take time to work on your resume and constantly update it.

TIP: Have at least three other sets of eyes look at your resume. You would be surprised the small mistakes that others may spot that you haven’t. In addition, don’t be afraid to hear others critiques/comments about your resume. While everyone has a different opinion on style for resumes, it is a positive step to hear comments from others and then use your own judgment as to whether you want to incorporate their suggestions into your resume.

8. Internships – Internships are a place to get into the industry for those who aren’t. While they often require you to work for free (or for school credit) they can provide invaluable experience and opportunity.

TIP: Websites like sportscareers.com, workinsports.com and teamworkonline.com provide a good starting point for seeing what internships are out there. You can also check team specific websites, agencies websites or league websites who all in some form or another have a job board where internships are posted. Another good place to start is in the minor leagues and college athletics. While professional sports teams are pretty limited in number, the amount of college athletic programs and minor league teams (specifically baseball) are in the hundreds. I assure you that almost all of these teams offer opportunities to get involved, check them out. It’s a great place to start you career on a small level and learn how things work in a grassroots type environment.

9. Who’s Got Your Back – This one is my favorite, so I saved it for last. Okay, so your finally in the industry. You are doing successful, working your way up the ladder into key decision making roles. But take a second to ask yourself. WHOSE GOT YOUR BACK? By this I don’t mean who is going to back you up in a fist fight. Rather, I mean who are you going to turn to when you need advice, help with personal decision making, or when you are at a crossroads in your career. Do you know three people who you can turn to at this critical time? If you don’t you might want to think long and hard about who those people CAN be. The professional “superman” myth and the going at-it-alone philosophy won’t work in the sports industry. Deep, trusted relationships will offer encouragements, feed back and concern when you need it most. Find people who will be open and candid with you, and won’t just say what you want to hear, those people often have your career best interests at heart.

Good Luck and enjoy the ride.

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.

There’s one March Madness juggernaut that no one has been talking about on sports talk radio. It’s not Kansas, or Syracuse, or even Duke… it’s Nike. The Nike basketball Twitter account announced just hours after the selection show that 49 of the 65 tournament teams would be wearing the swoosh, with three more sporting the Jordan brand. That means more than 75% of the teams are under the Nike umbrella.

Even more striking is the fact that every single team in the West Region is a Nike team, which assures the swoosh of at least one Final Four team. Here’s the breakdown by region (courtesy of @nikebasketball):  Midwest – 10 Nike, 1 Brand Jordan; West: 16 Nike; East: 12 Nike, 1 Brand Jordan; South: 11 Nike, 1 Brand Jordan.

Nike’s contract with each university varies widely. With the millions of dollars in payments, equipment and apparel that they are paying to these schools, the national TV exposure that they’ll garner this weekend is their payback. On Thursday and Friday, Nike teams will participate in over 48 hours of basketball. Every time there is a close-up of a player diving on the floor after a loose-ball or lingers on a player getting ready to shoot a foul-shot, Nike executives will be cheering. The prolonged exposure is why those deals are signed in the first place. This weekend, Nike and Brand Jordan will reap the rewards of those strategic contracts.

Tournament Expansion
This morning I listened to a prominent NCAA basketball coach talking about the prospect of the tournament expanding to 96 teams. He was very frank in his opinion (keeping the tournament at it’s current 65 teams), but was also honest about the fact that his opinion may be tainted by the fact that every one of his teams has made the tournament. If he missed a couple in a row, his vote might change.

I feel strongly that the tournament should NOT expand to 96 teams. How many of us out there can name 31 teams that didn’t make the tournament this year? Ok, several of us could do that, but now let’s think about 31 teams that we would want to see playing this weekend… that’s not quite as easy. Also, doesn’t it take a little bit of the cache away from making the tournament and devalue the regular season if all those the number of teams expands by almost 50%?

Brackets
Now, gambling on the NCAA tournament is illegal. Luckily, just filling out a bracket is not. Most likely I will fill out two brackets. One with my heart (with Syracuse winning), and one with my head (Kansas). Thursday and Friday are those two infamous days of the year where employers lose billions of dollars on lost productivity. While it’s not technically part of my job, I’ll be keeping an eye on the games and social media simultaneously, to see what teams and brands are activating using those platforms. So, who do you have winning your bracket?

Last Thursday, I has the chance to be a live guest on episode 20 of The Row Show.  We discussed several current sports business news topics, including:

• Verizon’s live “Red Zone” streaming deal with the NFL
• The announcement of the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl
• Snuggie Night with the Cleveland Cavaliers
• Collective bargaining in MLS
• New York Knicks advanced ticket sales
• Several current social media campaigns and tactics (Facebook, Nike, Cricket, Twackle)

Check out the video below or over at www.rowshow.com.

Just wanted to post a quick thank you to everyone that helped with this week’s networking events!

• 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.

I wanted to remind everyone that there are two sports business networking events scheduled for this week.

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.