NHL Online Content

The NHL continues to impress me with its integration of online content and media. Online game viewing, philanthropic tweeting, and new downloadable content make the NHL the league that is taking risks and finding new and interesting ways to use the Internet to connect with its fans. I wanted to highlight two recent examples by the Dallas Stars and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Dallas Stars: The Dallas Stars made their media guide, usually a sought after, but rarely mass released item, available for download in the Apple Store for ITouch, IPhone, and the IPAD. Here is the link. The "App" is downloadable for free, and offers great high resolution photos and detailed information. I think this is a tremendous idea to bring buzz to an underused item. The only change I would make is not advertise it as an "app" because that makes it sound interactive, where really it is an online publication.

Pittsburgh Penguins: The Penguins have begun releasing their Ice Time program an hour before each game begins. The program is then available from then on under the website link. Here is the website for the programs. Releasing the program right before game time allows fans watching the game at home to receive the information in the program, and more importantly for the team, the advertisements from sponsors, then allowing the team to charge more for program ads. I think this is a genius idea, and would love for more teams to jump on board.

Till next time!

How to work in Sports

Hey everybody,

With my graduation and entrance into the job market, I thought it would be beneficial to post some stuff that I do in preparation to enter the sports industry. While there are some essentials such as Networking, Internships, and having a passion for sports, these are some things that I find interesting and helpful to me. Hopefully, you may find them interesting as well, and please comment on the bottom with what you are doing!

A) Read

I don't specifically mean books with this, and in fact I am behind on my personal reading currently. This can be blogs, websites, etc. that I check into from time to time and learn interesting content from. Sports is so progressive that it's important to stay on top of what is going on. Here are some sites that I look at:

1) http://www.thebusinessofsports.com - Russell Scibetti, Senior CRM/Database Marketing Manager for the New York Jets, began a website called the Business of Sports {dot} com. The website has turned out to be extremely successful blog that has lots of viewers and networking events throughout the year. They also have a cool feature where they highlight different "free agents" in the sports world and try to help them get a job. The website is categorized, which makes it easy to find articles in your interest area.

2) http://www.partnershipactivation.com/ - I found this site through the previous site, and specifically through the categorized sites. Partnership Activation is an area I would like to go into, and therefore having a site that constantly lists new and interesting activation ideas is great. They even release a monthly newsletter, which I highlighted in a previous post.

3) Forbes - SportzMoney - This section of Forbes (which in itself is a great resource for business) breaks down a lot of the financial details in Sports. For instance, a current article breaks down the most overpaid NBA players. They also have cool feature items such as the PowerPoint that the New York Knicks showed to LeBron James during their pursuit of him this summer.

4) Twitter - While you have to be following the right people, the amount of link sharing on Twitter is incredible, and it often will lead you to something interesting or awesome. People I recommend - New York Times Technology Section, Forbes, Russell Scibetti, Bill Simmons.

B) Computer Skills

While some of the projects assigned in classes are mostly pointless, building a great PowerPoint is not. If the project makes you learn one more computer skill, then it was not a waste. PowerPoint, PhotoShop, Excel, Word, and other computer programs are used all the time, and need to be mastered. I currently am learning the basics of PhotoShop because I have seen its importance in Marketing and Partnership Activation. If I can present that proficiency in an interview, I will be that much more attractive.

C) Community Service

I definitely love doing community service, which is why I am involved in it. It can however, be a great thing in sports. Community Relations is an intriguing area right now, and they constantly ask other members of staff to help with their volunteering programs. Being able to show a consistent history of community work will look great to a future employer.



Now I understand this is all hypothetical, because I am not employed full-time in sports yet, but these are things that I truly believe will make a difference in during an interview. Be sure to share what you are doing to help yourself get a job!

Partnership Activation Newsletter Highlights

I always try to learn more about the areas that I hope to go into such as Marketing and Partnership Activation. A great website that I follow is http://www.partnershipactivation.com/. The man who runs it studies all team, league, and sport properties and reports on interesting activation techniques. Partnership Activation involves working with corporate partners and creating the brand strategy that the two will share, and then executing all of the events, promotions, and techniques promised to the partner in the contract. This website writes a monthly newsletter that highlights many different techniques. Here are some highlights from the latest issue:

Dallas Mavericks: The Mavs created their own YouTube channel where they post parodies, jumbotron videos, and funny videos that the team uses. Users can watch these videos, share them, and comment on them. Some of the videos are really off the wall, and funny to watch, and most have been aired during the games. I think this is a great idea by the Mavs and somewhat relates to the Adidas video I recently posted. Embracing a silly personality can be a relatable, effective way to reach fans.

New Jersey Devils: When the Devils opened their new arena in 2007, the team created a large hockey puck that they asked the fans to sign from that game. The puck is now displayed prominently in the arena, thanking fans for their support. These types of promotions are simple to do, only done once, but can create a great display for teams.

Nike: Nike continues to create great advertisements, (I will be addressing the LeBron Nike Ad soon), with their Write the Future videoboard. Whenever someone does something special, a news team sends a fake news headline for the next day's paper to a video board in the area, therefore estimating the "ripple effect" of the moment. This can be a great promotion for big time games, such as Championship match-ups. Here is the video

Next article: NHL Online Content

Unintended screen time for Adidas

Adidas recently came out with their "Fast Don't Lie" commercials featuring Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose. Although there are a couple of different ads, the main ones features a rich man playing basketball with Rose and Howard, while reiterating that "Fast Don't Lie". I am personally not a huge fan of the ads, but they are pretty effective with how off the wall and humorous they are.

I was looking up a YouTube subscription that I follow this morning, and found this ad has been "Songified". The group, the Gregory Brothers, take different TV shows, online clips, etc. and auto-tune them to create funny mash ups of different videos. Their most recent video is the "Fast Don't Lie" commericials. Here is the video.

The video is very funny, and I hope Adidas highlights it somehow. While the video is careful not to use the Adidas logo, it could still be a great way for Adidas to prove they are not a stuffy corporation, and that they want to interact with fans. It could even spark a contest of the best parody video for the "Fast Don't Lie" commercials. Companies that remain fun and reachable will have great responses from their fan base.

Improvements from Reebok, New Balance, and Under Armour

While Nike is, and will be the king of the athletic shoe market for some time, I have been impressed with recent advertisements from Reebok, New Balance, and Under Armour. Nike currently holds 47% of the footwear market for athletic apparel, but hopefully these ads push Nike to become more innovative with its ads.

New Balance:

Video

This might be my favorite ad of the three. The projection mapping technique used in the video allows the shoe to take on many different lights, colors, and animations. The video catches the eye because of the customization and fun atmosphere of the video. If New Balance is moving towards a more customizable, yet still athletically effective direction, they could have a very successful campaign.

Reebok:

Video

Reebok was extremely fortunate to get John Wall on its basketball side, considering they had just had Allen Iverson for quite some time. Considering how electric Wall has been thus far, it could be an excellent pick up for them. I am choosing to focus on the basketball side of Reebok because it has had a much more difficult time competing in the basketball market. With the introduction of the ZigTech shoes, which have been extremely successful thanks to endorsements by Peyton Manning, Chad Ochocinco, and Sidney Crosby, Reebok put together some great ads for them. The advertisements has a tremendous energy to it, which matches the high activity level that the shoe will use. Side Note: I love the quick appearance by Allen Iverson in the commercial, see if you can find it!

Under Armour:

Video

Under Armour finally launches into the basketball shoes market with some impressive looking shoes. The company secured Brandon Jennings to be its commercial athlete, which is a decent start for them. Jennings is not quite a superstar but a consistently exciting player. The commercial is an effective teaser ad which created a buzz around the shoes. Side Note: It seems like the ad uses the exact same music as Inception did.

Some very cool stuff, and hopefully there will be more to come. Let's go Nike, pick it up!

Spurs vs. Cavs End of game presentation

While this will be a quick post, I was really impressed by the music director for the San Antonio Spurs last night. I was watching the Cavs face the Spurs, and the Spurs were winning handily. Because I was watching on TV, I hadn't really been able to follow what the Spurs were doing in terms of game presentation.

Surprisingly and impressively, many of the fans stuck around to the end of the game, despite the 24 point lead the Spurs had. As the time was running towards zero, the song "All I do is win" started playing, which in itself was not surprising. It was the timing that was incredible. The lyric, "Everybody's hands go up"... occurred right as 0.0 happened, then a short pause, and all of the fans had their hands up. When the next lyric, "And they stay there!" occurred everyone within the camera view was dancing to the song. These small game presentation moves can make a huge difference, so well done to the Spurs.

Citi Field Review

For my weekly facility review, I decided to do the other New York Stadium, Citi Field. Here is the virtual slideshow.

Positives: First and foremost, I love the wider walkways. This allows for better fan traffic around concession stands, seating, and restrooms as well as decrease waiting times. The expanded fan fest area should give fans a lot to do during some of the below average baseball they have been seeing, as well as entertain younger kids during the game. Also, and this is a small but brilliant touch. The seats are both wider, and angled toward the infield so that there is no neck turning at any point during the game. Finally, they give access to all people to all restaurants and clubs during the game.

Negatives: With the access to the restaurants and clubs, the team will have to significantly increase season ticket holder benefits considering exclusivity is usually a big part of the reason to have the tickets. Secondly, 45,000 people could be considered a big number, especially with how wide the park is.

Overall, it looks like a great park, and should be one of the bright spots in the upcoming Mets season.

Philanthropic Tweeting

One thing, other than social media in general, that I have been extremely interested in recently has been how philanthropy is used with tweeting. Recently, the LA Kings had a really cool co-promotion with the Colorado Avalanche. Here is the website where I found it. By the way, this is a great website that I found recently to keep up to date with some cool business trends.

The general idea was that the Kings challenged the Avalanche fans to try to tweet more than the Kings fans. In every tweet, the fan had to have either a #Kings or #Avs hash tag. With every #Kings tweet, the Los Angeles Children's Hospital donated $1 to cancer cure research. During the game, the #Kings had 29, 374 tweets, therefore donating $30,000! Considering the only costs associated with this promotion is the creation of promotional materials, this may be one of the best promotions I have come across.

From a brand standpoint, not only does the philanthropic message look great, the Kings added 1,00 follower during the game! The only change I would make if this event happened again, would be to challenge the other team to also find a donating partner. That way both cities would benefit in facing the cost.

Either way, great idea by the LA Kings, and I hope to see teams improve this idea.

Forbes Article Response

Forbes, one of my favorite websites for business news, recently published an article discussing changes they would make to the National Football League. The author, John Tamny, effectively argues how the league could improve its already solid parody, readjust the draft selection, promote competition, and get rid of revenue sharing. If you would like to read the article before reading my itemized response, click here.

1) Tamny argues that because the NFL is a private league, it should use its power to fire owners who have shown a record of not competing. I have been in favor of a competition committee for a long time, and I really support this idea. The Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, and Jacksonville Jaguars could have been spared the past decade for their fans. The owners would have to be proactive, aware of their fans' requirements, and ready for anything. This would force the teams to intensely compete each other to create competitive rosters, and building the brand.

2) Personally, I have no problem with revenue sharing in the NFL. While it does allow free riders, if the previous step was followed, the assumption would be that the teams would all be somewhat competitive and there would be less free riders in the system, therefore eliminating the problem.

3) Finally, Tamny proposes that the NFL Draft adopt a lottery style draft system, but instead of having the worst team have the best chance at getting the first pick, have the best non-playoff team get the best chance for the pick. This would provide an incentive for teams to compete the entire league, and the situation of a team giving up would not be a smart option because the team would not get the exciting young prospect for their fan base.

Thanks for reading and comments are always welcome!

Yankee Stadium

In my usually weekly series of reviewing a stadium/arena/or ballpark, I decided this week to review possibly the biggest and most revered stadium just recently built, Yankee Stadium. While there was some resistance to building the new one because of the history of the old park, the facility was incredibly outdated, and was becoming dangerous with age.

The new Yankee Stadium definitely acknowledges the history of the New York Yankees, making the exterior look like the original Yankee Stadium. It also kept the exact same dimensions, the arches in left field, monument park, and practically looks exactly the same on the field as the old park.

Internally, the stadium has a full restaurant, steak house, museum, many conference rooms, lounges, and more to entertain fans year-round. The park, like Cowboys Stadium, hosts a number of different events throughout the year, and will be hosting the Army - Navy game in two weeks. Its versatility makes it an attractive venue for many different sporting contests, concerts, and other events.

An unusual part of the stadium is the wind factor. A construction and design flaw created a natural wind tunnel out to right field, which creates a tremendous number of home runs in the stadium. Yankee Stadium led the league the past two seasons in home runs, and it will be interesting to see if the contractors do anything about the wind tunnel.

NBA Technical Fouls

The 2010 NBA Finals was an amazing series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. It showcased some incredible talent, and many interesting personalities. It came down to seven hard fought games until the Lakers were able to come away with the series. Now, as a Boston fan, I expected the worst feeling about that series was going to be that the Celtics lost, but it was not. It was about the referees. Not just against Boston, but how they consistently watered down the series with their ridiculous touch and technical fouls which kept the best talent on the benches. Bleacher report wrote a great article about the horrible officiating in the Finals.

Going into the off-season, the biggest story in the sport was where LeBron James and the other big name free agents were going to land, and rightfully so. I was also watching how the league was going to respond to the horrible officiating in their sport's biggest stage. After the Tim Donaghy situation, and the miserable referee holdout that the league experienced, it did not need any more negative press about their officiating, so I expected some rule changes, and possibly a change in many of their staff.

Unfortunately, the league chose to do the worst possible thing, and give more power to the officials. Not different officials, the very same ones who almost ruined the Finals. Referees were instructed to call fouls on any "Overly emotional physical gesture, including a fist pump". These kinds of gestures happen on almost every play, and now the referees are instructed to take it away. If the officials actually follow this, the game will turn into a monotonous contest, where players never look like they care as they shoot three pointers during the games.

Here is an example of this year's ridiculousness: Grant Hill and Reggie Evans were both involved in a good, hard play. Grant Hill got up, gave Reggie a slap on the behind, Reggie did the same in return, and then clearly as a joke, Grant did it back. What did the referees do? Eject them both from the game!

If the league does not act quickly about these referees and the clearly miserable rules in place regarding their power, this is going to be a huge problem. Hopefully, in the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement, this will be resolved.

Next article: NFL Lockout

Hey everybody,

Now that I am intensely looking at which teams have job openings, I figured it would be fun to create a top 5 list for the three majors sports that, AS A FAN, I would love to work for. The teams are on the list if they are my hometown team, have a great stadium/arena, have a cool brand, a player I would love to market, or I have enjoyed working for them. I will put a * next to the team if I have worked for them previously, and a # for my hometown teams.

National Basketball Association:

Boston Celtics*#
Cleveland Cavaliers*
Orlando Magic
New Orleans Hornets
Chicago Bulls

National Football League:

New England Patriots#
San Diego Chargers
Philadelphia Eagles
Carolina Panthers
Baltimore Ravens

Major League Baseball:

Boston Red Sox#
Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Angels
St. Louis Cardinals
San Francisco Giants

Next Post: NBA Technical Fouls

NFL In-Game Experience

Besides the obvious issue of a possible work stoppage for the NFL, the league's biggest issue is how to improve the in-game experience for fans. The distance between fans and field is significantly farther in football than in indoor sports, like basketball. While Baseball has issues as well, the historical tradition has allowed the MLB to progress slower than the NFL. So what is the real issue here?

NFL pre-game is the best in business, both on television, and the tailgating before the game. Once the game begins however, fans are forced to sit through timeouts, huddles, challenges, and penalty calls. Limitations from weather, stadium size, and noise make it difficult to use the same in-game tactics as the NBA or the NHL. There is also the issue of casual fans being paired with intense fans. Intense fans usually do not mind the pauses in the game because they remain interested watching coaching decisions, talking to fellow fans, and analyzing the game in front of them. The casual fan is the one looking for constant entertainment, especially with how expensive NFL games are. Here are some possible solutions for the NFL:

1) Use the FanVision product. Although to an extent, owners do not want fans looking down, it is probably already happening with the continued popularity of smart phones, and the significant down time during games. If what is causing the fan to look down is still NFL related, is it really that bad? FanVision (outlined in an earlier post) allows teams to get further replays and stats. Smarter fans-- with the intelligence being football related, are more likely to consistently attend the games if they feel that they can follow and interact with the game.

2) Have the big screens stream other live games during timeouts. Fans get amped when the announcer informs them that the rival team is losing, so why not show video from it? Teams could have fans text in during the game to vote for which game they watch during certain timeouts. This would be especially effective during playoff elimination/ranking scenarios if the team that needs to lose is playing at the same time. The problem with this solution would be the lack of advertising time this would create, and the multiple channel rights that would need to be acquired.

3) Employ in game fan experience teams. These would somewhat rival the in-game crews that work for NBA and NHL teams. These people would roam the crowds with contests, prizes, and other giveaways. The teams would target certain sections during each time stoppage, allowing them to address less people, making it more effective.

Next post: Teams to Work for.

Cowboys Stadium Review

As with any stadium review I do, I always encourage to watch the virtual tour beforehand or after reading the post. Cowboys Stadium, as it will be called for some time because of the difficulty the Cowboys are having finding naming rights, is a truly amazing facility that will be studied by Facility experts for years. Built with the media in mind, Cowboys Stadium is designed for exclusive access, sight lines, and beauty. With a silver color matching the Cowboys colors, the Stadium seems to shine against the bright lights and flash bulbs of cameras.

Any and all areas in the Stadium can be rented out to special events, including the Cowboys locker room, the field, and the Miller Lite club. And did I mention the scoreboard? The video board is over 25,000 square feet, weighs 600 tons, is 180 feet wide, and 72 feet tall. To give some perspective, the largest blue whale ever found was 94 feet tall, and weighed 170+ tons. It also blocked a punt. These kinds of video boards are huge players in the debate of in-stadium experience vs. HD TV at home.

Another cool feature of the Stadium is its versatility with different events. Here is a picture from when the NBA All-Star game was hosted at Cowboys Stadium.

Next article: NFL In-game experience

NFL Lockout

While there are many interesting stories currently surrounding the NFL, such as Brett Favre possibly dying on the national stage, Randy Moss being waived from the Vikings, on-field game o, handheld devices, etc., the overriding issue in the league is whether the league will lockout or not. Due to the league's financial strength, and their ability to withstand financial hardship, there are many who believe that the lockout is a done deal. The NFL is the only league that does not rely on tickets as its highest revenue source, thanks to the massive television contracts they were willing to negotiate. By the way, those contracts are still owed to the league, even if there are no games.

The Sports Business Journal announced today that the NFL has been collecting a now $900 million dollar revenue pool to use in case there is a lockout. This pool has approximately $10 million from each team that is available because the teams do not have to pay player benefits next year due to the Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring. The other money comes from $18 million owed to the league from the teams, as well as savings from the National Football League. This money will go into paying interest on facility/stadium debt still owed to be paid, as well as other lockout and maintenance costs.

The Players Association has also announced it is collecting money, but as of last update, they were only up to around $200 millon. Whatever your thoughts on the lockout may be, it is certain that both sides see it as enough of a possibility that they are accumulating these funds in preparation. As a fan, I never want to see no NFL games on every Sunday, however as a hopeful employee the lockout may provide a way in to one of the teams. After enough time without games, employees may flee to other jobs and industries, leaving the young and hungry college graduates to take the spots.

I believe the lockout will not happen, and it will be resolved in time. I just cannot see how a league this healthy can shut down its product and afford to take this massive risk. It is something that I will be watching very closely, and I will be posting any and all updates I have on this blog.

Next article: Cowboys Stadium review

Concussions: A headache for the league?

Three Sundays ago, the National Football League was forced to deal with one of its most controversial issues, players receiving concussions due to helmet to helmet hits. Now, before I delve deeper into this issue, I wanted to explain why I am blogging about this when my topic is "Business of Sport". In business, every department needs to be aware of what the on-field product is up to. This helps during business, ticket, or event planning negotiations if the employee has a real understanding of what is going on on the field in order to market that to the customer or business partner.

Back to the issue, the NFL had previously tried to deal with this issue by making helmet to helmet hits a fifteen yard unnecessary roughness penalty. However, with four really hard helmet to helmet hits during that week, it was clear that further action was necessary. The league responded by ruling that any malicious helmet to helmet hit will result in an immediate suspension. While some argue that the ruling is ridiculous, I actually like the rule a lot.

While there is legitimacy that the ruling could be dangerous at first if players are actively thinking about not hitting with the helmet, over-time, players will be conditioned to it, and eventually dangerous hits like these will decrease out of habit. Although there will still be hard hits, it was great to see a change in hits like from Brandon Meriweather in Week 6 to Week 7. Sorry about the poor quality on the second video. If everyone pays attention to the league ruling as Brandon Meriweather did, the league should become a safer place.

Next article: NFL Lockout