AFL in '09

The Arena Football league founded in 1987 has suspended the 2009 season to retool for the following year. This will probably not be the last league to go through some major reorganization during these hard economic times. However, what are owners and players doing? The Mets and Yankees have asked New York for an additional $450 million in assistance. free agents are asking for even more money. The greed out there in the industry can quickly turn people away from sports. Yes, sport is a release and there will be fans. But with more companies slashing spending and their payrolls, sport better take a critical look at itself or it will make itself economically obsolete and alienate even more fans. Once burned or annoyed, will these fans ever come back?
Gil-

Bad Economy

The New Jersey Nets have announced a promotion to help those affected by the downturn in the economy. The team is offering up to four free tickets for select games to unemployed fans who submit their resume to the Nets Job Bank. Plus, these fans are invited to a career fair this Saturday at the Nets arena, and the team will distribute the submitted resumes to its various corporate sponsors. (Newark Star Ledger) Source from Veritix Sports Marketing Newsletter.

Interesting promotion

Red Sox Fan Sues Over Playoff Promotion
Tom Rotunno of CNBC Sports has reported that Boston Red Sox fan Gisela Levin has filed a class action law suit against Taunton, MA based furniture company Jordan's Furniture. She claims their promotion, which offers free furniture to anyone who purchased furniture during a promotional period if the Red Sox sweep the World Series, is an illegal lottery and therefore against the law in Massachusetts. Jordan's Furniture ran a similar promotion in 2007 when the Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies, resulting in them issuing between $20-$30 million worth of furniture to 24,000 Red Sox fans for free. Jordan's has announced that they do not expect the judge to rule against them as precedents have already been established in their favor.

From:
http://ventaboutsports.blogspot.com/2008/11/red-sox-fan-sues-over-playoff-promotion.html

Olympics 2012

Should England pull out of hosting the 2012 Olympics? Cost have tripled to date and one of the leading advocates and Olympic executives in England recently indicated that if they would have seen the economic collapse coming, they would not have bid to host the Olympics. Maybe we should put some limits on how much countries can spend on the Olympics. It is really nice to have a great and expensive party. However, if people are not receiving the health care and food they need, maybe we should spend less on the Olympics and more on ordinary people.Gil-

Jets ticket sale

The New Jersey Jets generated over $16 million in bids during an inaugural online auction of personal seat licenses. The sale was conducted through stubhub.com (owned by ebay) and allowed individuals to bid on specific seats. the winning bid allowed the bidder to have the PSL and pay $750 per game for the tickets. The highest bids were received at the auction kick-off dinner on October 16th at the Four Seasons in New York. The winning bid for a pair of 50-yard line tickets was $200,000. During the nine-day auction the average winning bid was $26,000. The highest bid was $82,000 followed by several other bids in the $60,000 range. the lowest bid was $10,500. The team initially was interested in selling 2,000 PSLs through the auction, but was only able to sell 620 of the seats.

This could create a new environment in the future where the choicest seats are put up for auction by teams/facilities and let the free market determine the true value.

NFL Europe

With a major game to be played in England, the NFL is interested in expanding throughout Europe. In an effort to help grow interest before the game the NFL has developed an educational web page, has stalked the stores with more NFL licensed, increased the seating capacity, and will air the game over additional broadcasting options such as BBC. The NFL hopes to play more games in Britain through 2010.

New Concession Company

If there were not enough sport concession companies out there (Levi's Aramark, DNC, Global-Spectrum, Centerplate, AEG, etc...) the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Yankees have entered into a partnership (with Goldman Sachs) called Legends Hospitality Management. The first clients will be the Yankees and the Cowboys with their new stadium. However, due to significant branding opportunities there could be a slew of additional new sites (such as minor league stadiums hosting Yankee affiliated teams) that could sign-up with the company. Legends has hired the former President of Pizza Hut and several other top industry officials to help run the company.

Death Sentence

A Beijing Olympic official was found guilty of corruption and paid the ultimate price. Beijing's Vice Mayor Liu Zhihua was fired from his job overseeing Olympic construction projects for allegedly accepting bribes. Liu was originally sentenced to death, but if he has good behaviour in prison over the next two years his sentence can be commuted to life in prison. This story was published in last week's Sports Illustrated.

Turmoil in sports

There is significant turmoil in the sports world right now, and the economy is the center hub of the turmoil. Businesses are being hit left and right and there will be more blood shed to come. One of the more visible signs of trouble was the recently announced layoff with the NBA front offices. Roughly 80 jobs (nine percent of the national staff) were cut, but those cuts would not affect international expansion efforts. Other teams also were starting to cut costs as they head into the new season. the Charlotte Bobcats recently layed off around 35 staff members who were not working on the basketball operations side. I think this is the beginning of the slashing, but the real trick will be with the players and if they will be willing to cut their salaries so owners can reduce costs and lower ticket prices. If players balk at lowering their contracts then the sport world can be in for a long and rough several years.
Gil-

Problems in China

With the recent uproar over tainted milk in China, there are still other products that are bringing down China's manufacturing reputation. Over the years products with lead paint, tainted dog food, and now the tainted milk have tarnished the proud image of China's manufacturing industry. Recently another product was recalled and it is 103,000 Chinese-made Razor PowerWing scooters. the scooters can cause cuts by a rider's heel and several riders have had stitches due to the sharp metal. While any product can possibly have a defect, China cannot afford too many "black eyes" in the mind of the consumers or they will have a hard time winning the confidence of global industries and consumers.
Gil-

Spending wild

While the economy is sputtering in the US, it seems from the outside that the economy is going strong in China, even if their stock market is in a nose dive. In China they are building the world's fastest train (236 miles per hour), they will spend $62 billion on 97 new airports to be completed by 2020, and building at least 3,107 miles of expressway this year which would make China second only to the US in terms of total highway miles. One of the unique new buildings is a 682 foot tall Ferris wheel that will open in 2010. The attraction in Beijing will cost $290 million and and dwarf the London eye which is only 443 feet. The devise will have 48 air conditioned capsules and on a good weather day (if that is possible in Beijing) there should be a nice view of the Great Wall.
Gil-

Post Olympics Glow

Have the Olympics hurt or helped China? My feeling after seeing all the changes and developments in China is that they have taken several steps forward. They are still developing and implementing new ideas so the end benefit might be several years away. However, the process is starting and I look forward to significant growth in the China sport market.

Chinese Clean-up

The efforts to make Beijing cleaner are underway and they seem to be making only a minimal impact on the "fog" that hangs over the city and the games. The Minister of Environmental Protection announced yesterday new regulations to close down additional factories, steel plants, and coal-fired power plants if the air quality does not improve. Further measures include taking more cars off the road and possibly stopping additional construction. While these efforts are needed, long-term solutions are the more important goal and as someone who has witnessed first hand the conditions in Beijing, I applaud any long-term strategies that can make the air and living conditions better for all the city residents.
Gil-

Beijing to allow protests

The director of security for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee has confirmed that demonstrations will be allowed at three parks around Beijing. Even though the protest areas will be several miles from most Olympic venues, this is nothing new. I am not talking about China, I am talking about pushing protests away from sport venues in the United States. Several years ago a women's group wanted to protest a major golf tournament and the city and police pushed them away to an area a mile from the club and in an area where no one could see them. A court later held that the rules adopted by the city purportedly to insure safety, were designed to limit free speech.
Gil-

Olympic Security

In order to help provide a safe Olympic games, the Chinese government has mobilized an anti-terrorism force of 100,000 to protect the games. This is in addition to 500,000 citizen volunteers who will be street corners monitoring activity and suspicious activity. The Chinese government has also offered a significant cash reward to anyone who tips the police about potential terrorist threats. Lets hope it will be a safe games.
Gil-

Freedom of Press?

While NBC was hoping for greater access, only time will tell how much freedom the press will have. With the Olympic just around the corner, we should get ready for significant changes to how the American viewing population has become accustomed to watching the games. In a recent article the Wall Street Journal highlighted that satellite application for western broadcasters have been denied for those wishing to broadcast live from non-Olympic venues. This move can minimize the potential for political opposition being broadcast, but could also lead to fewer feel good stories that the American viewing audience has grown to love. Such vignettes have been a great source of information for Americans to learn about other cultures/people.
Gil-
p.s. with Miller and Coors joining forces and having one shared office in Chicago they will spend less on sponsorship and GM just announced significant cuts in sponsorship spending, including Cutting spending on NASCAR. On July 17, AB executives told the Associated Press that sport spending will stay the same...and maybe even increase under the new ownership group.

AB-Bust

While Anheuser-Busch is considered an American company, it is now being acquired by inBev and will be part of a strong global conglomerate. Is this good or bad news for sports? My take is that it is bad news. The more competition the better for sports since companies will compete against each other for the best properties and to buy the best opportunities. While the beverage competition will decrease, the word on the street is that InBev will try to make its money through reducing costs and watching every penny. That can signal a major disaster for sports in the US. According to a USA Today article A-B spent $218 million on sport advertising in 2007 and an additional $300 million on sport sponsorship. When you add the total impact of A-B it is more than 1/2 a billion dollars. If that budget is cut in half over the next couple years (combined with a down economy), the entire sport industry could be left searching for another sugar daddy.
Gil-

NBA and CBA?

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has 100 employees in China and currently generates $150 million (25-30% of the league's international revenue) to the NBA coffers. NBA China was formed in January with five partners investing a total of $253 million. Long-term goals include developing an NBA branded, China-based league and such a league could be in conjunction with the Chinese Basketball Association. The NBA also inked a partnership with Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG built the Staples Center and numerous other sport facilities around the world) in May to build 12 stadiums throughout China. The NBA and AEG already collaborated to operate the 18,000 seat Beijing Olympic Basketball Arena.

Limited Naming Rights- is it a new trend?

The following was a recent article from Veritix Sport Marketing Newsletter (www.veritix.com) and it might be a new trend. If internationally companies do not know the value of naming rights, this could be a way to test drive the concept at a minimal cost.

Stadium naming rights in condensed form: The St. Paul Saints professional baseball team have announced that their ballpark, Midway Stadium, will be renamed Skinny Water Stadium for one week in August as part of a unique one-week stadium rights deal struck between Skinny Nutritional Corp. and the owners of the St. Paul Saints, The Goldklang Group. Skinny Water Stadium is set to be unveiled for the week of August 3-9. All facets of a typical stadium rights deal will be condensed into one week, with the addition of “multiple new and creative twists on the concept,” according to the team. The team will sport Skinny uniforms for their new stadium sponsor and the Skinny logo will be branded directly on the outfield, and around the pitcher’s mound and home plate. “Our group set out to create a truly unique opportunity for one of our corporate partners. Skinny Water asked us to develop a way to increase awareness of their product while simultaneously allowing them to promote their brand with a major splash,” says Tyler Tumminia, vice president of integrated marketing for The Goldklang Group. “Spawned from the recent and extremely fluid craze of naming rights within the industry, we developed a plan to condense such a deal into one homestand. Skinny will enjoy a ‘full throttle’ promotional and branding platform at their own stadium for the week, and shall have the ability to educate thousands of fans about their water.”

Urban planning for the Olympics

Sasaki Associates is a larger urban-design firms recently completed a student recreation center on our campus. That was not as great news as their efforts to revitalize and change the campus flow and look. What does this have to do with international sport management? Sasaki won an international competition (from among 90 firms) to create the master plan for Forest Park and the Olympic district in Beijing. The project was not just a project to build stadiums. In fact, the emphasis was on designing a sustainable community hub to last for years after the games. Sasaki designers created such an environment linking stadiums, housing, museums, hotels, conference center, retail stores, and Forest park-the largest park in Beijing. The designers have been able to create an open and welcoming environment and the citizen’s of Beijing will be able to enjoy the foresight for years to come.

Water Woes

While China is attempting to beautify Beijing to show its best face to the world. One potential problem has been identified by Probe International which highlighted that the games are adding about a five percent increase (200 million cubic meters) to normal water use as a result of the Olympics. This water usage covers everything from giant fountains to water used in sport facilities. Beijing is suffering from significant water problems, such as tapping underground water reserves, and needs to implement new and innovative water conservation strategies not just for the Olympics, but for the benefit of all its citizens.
Gil-

Ambush Marketing in Chian

In anticipation of potential ambush marketing during the Olympics, The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and the China Advertising Association jointly issued an anti ambush marketing proposals including:

• Giving priority to all prominent advertising sites between July 11th-Sept. 17th to official Olympic sponsors,
• Companies will be monitored for illegal advertising or unauthorized use of Olympic symbols and all violators will be harshly punished,
• Individual spectators will be barred from engaging in ambush marketing and tickets have a warning indicating that patrons can be removed if, for example, a group is seen wearing the same unofficial logos and sitting all together,
• Patrons will also not be able to bring in any drinks into Olympic venues and once inside the venues they only will be able to purchase Coke products, and
• From Aug 1-27 there can be no advertisements featuring participants in the Olympics and television stations are barred from showing advertisements from unofficial sponsors during any of the Olympic related programs they broadcast.

These are the first significant anti-ambush marketing laws/regulations I have seen that can be enforced. It will be interested to see if there are any attempts at ambush marketing, or if companies might shy away from the practice to avoid angering the Chinese government and possibly hurting their potential to tap the Chinese market in the future.
Gil-

New Chinese Sport Association formed

The World Eminence China Business Sports Industry Association was formed in Beijing in May. The association aims to upgrade the competitiveness of China's sport industry to be on par with the rest of the world. The group will be led by Zhang Faqiang, Vice-Chair of the Chinese Olympic Committee and former deputy sports minister. The organization will try to work with local and national organizations to increase their knowledge and competitiveness.

Change to Blog

After a recent trip to China I have modified the blog to have a greater focus on sports in China. The blog will try to help international companies understand what is going on in China and help communicate some of the strategies applied elsewhere in the world to sport executives working in China.

Some stories will be coming from Professor Houbin of Huazhong Normal University (a well regarded expert in Chinese sport business) and his students. Professor Houbin translated my Managing Sport Facilities text into Chinese and will be my partner in Ho-Fried Consulting serving various Chinese sport entities.

Gil-

Harvard's bad choice

Harvard University caved in to the demands of several Muslim women who wanted gym time just for women. The gym, one of the lessor used gyms on campus, will be closed several times a week so that women can exercise without their traditional religious outfits without feeling uncomfortable that men might watch them. While I am all for religious practices, there is a key issue when the religious rights of a few are used to diminish the rights of others. What would happen if these students then complained that they did not want to workout with Jewish women or African American women because they make them feel uncomfortable. Harvard has opened the door to significant criticism, and a large majority of the criticism is from women who feel the rule against men is sexist.
Gil-

Illegal contact for kids

A recent study published in the February issue of Injury Prevention highlighted that 98,000 injuries to high school athletes from 2005-2007 were directly related to actions that can be considered illegal or against the rules of the game. This represents 6.4% of all high school sport injuries and means that officials need to clamp down on such inappropriate conduct. The highest rate of these injuries occurred in girl's basketball, girl's soccer, and then boy's soccer. The largest percentage of these injuries occurred to the head/face.
Gil-

Golf Gone Wrong

When is a tradition something that needs to be changed? A Mass woman is suing the Town of Denni and two PUBLIC golf courses after she was denied the option to play with her father in a men's golf tournament. She had registered to play in a tournament with her father and she was a member of both the clubs participating in the tournament. She was not assigned a tee time and her father was told to find a male partner. The town administrator claimed that the rules were part of the clubs' "historic policy." The question is when should a historic policy be trumped by common sense and decency?
Gil-

Tennis match fixing?

Italian tennis player Giorgio Galimberti was found guilty of betting on tennis matched and was suspended for 100 days and fined $35,000. While there was no mention of whether he bet on his own matches. However, with all the scandals in the sport world, why would we think the positive? An NBA referee was busted for betting on games and then there is always Pete Rose. What area of sport is not tainted these days?
Gil-

How many will Die?

Chinese officials have for the first time indicated that several workers (six) have died in the consturction process of Olympic venues. This contrasts with a recent report in London that over 10 people have died just in building the "Bird's Nest" where the openning and closing ceremonies will be held. No matter what the number, building large facilities can be hazardous as seen by the at least 13 workers who died building facilities for the Athens Olympic Games. With the strong OHSA laws in the US deaths in large construction projects are significantly reduced. Other countries should adopt similar laws, but the tight time table for Olympic construction projects often requires government officials to look the other way so the buildings can be completed.
Gil-

Richest Contract in the NHL Still not Enough

One of the biggest sport contracts of all time was signed last week

when the Washington Capitals signed Alexander Ovechkin to a 13- year extension

worth $124 million. He is a playmaker like

Sidney Crosby; however the Capitals need a core of players that fans are

interested in seeing. Some players like Pavel Datsyuk, Ryan Smyth, Chris

Osgood, Brad Richards, Chris Pronger, Marty Turco, Ryan Miller would make the

team a stronger draw. I think this is too much money for one player to earn for a

team that doesn't have a fan base. The only way such an investment will pay off at

the turnstiles is if the team invests in other stars as well so that the Capitals have a

strong team rather than just a star. This same situation arose in the mid 1990s with

the Houston Rockets. They won the NBA title with Akeem Olajuwon, but they still

were not drawing enough fans. The owner went out and brought in Clyde Drexler

and with two star players the team was able to draw more fans and won it second

NBA title.

by Thomas Chieppo

Marion Jones

Is six months too little? That should be the question when you look at the sentencing of Marion Jones. While that is what the prosecutors suggested, the judge, Kenneth Karas, was thinking that more time would have sent a better message to other potential cheaters. Marion cheated more than just herself. She cheated fans and teammates. The judge felt that even after admitting to cheating and returning her Olympic medals, Jones was still not being truthful. Once someone cheats, they can make a thousand excuses or additional lies to make themselves believe that they did not do anything wrong. Here she did something wrong and the punishment still does not fit the crime.
Gil-

Vans/Buses deadly for sport participants

As you can tell from the story below, buses and vans carrying kids to/from games/events are very dangerous. I think professional transportation companies should always be used rather than parents or coaches. They are not professional drivers and no one should entrust their kids to such a transportation method.
Gil-

Seven HS basketball players killed in crash
Associated Press
Updated: January 12, 2008, 8:17 PM EST
A van carrying a Canadian high school boys' basketball team collided with a truck Saturday, killing seven students and the coach's wife on their way home from a game.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Derek Strong said the seven players - between the ages of 15 and 18 - were pronounced dead at the crash site after their van crossed the center line and hit the tractor-trailer shortly after midnight.
"The sudden loss of eight people in this unthinkable accident shocked the nation and all Canadians join you in mourning their passing," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a letter of condolence sent to the school's principal.
The accident occurred on Highway 11 as the team was making a three-hour return trip from Moncton in Canada's far eastern New Brunswick province after a storm dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain on much of the province.
The nine senior varsity players - accompanied by their coach, his wife and their daughter - were minutes from reuniting with their families when the team's coach lost control of the van.
Emily Cleland, whose brother Nathan Cleland was killed in the accident, said parents were waiting at a fast food restaurant to pick up their children when they got a call to go to the hospital.
"He was my best friend, my whole life," Cleland said of her brother. "He was always so protective of me."
Strong said most of the victims were ejected from the vehicle. The van was equipped with seat belts but investigators didn't know if they were used.
Lydia Dupere, a spokeswoman for the Acadie-Bathurst Health Authority, said three people were still in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A fourth person had been treated for injuries and released. The truck driver was not hurt.
"This is a whole community in mourning," Bathurst High School superintendent John McLaughlin said. "It's unthinkable what happened and everyone's trying to make some sense of it."

Security???

Major League Baseball (MLB) has instituted new rules to "prevent" drug issues such as not announcing in advance when testers are coming and logging in packages received by the club house. While this is well and good, does it go to the root of the problem? People want to cheat and they will cheat if they can get away from it.

If they were serious, they should have penalties built into the collective bargaining agreement that players have to repay their salaries (this will never happen since the union is too strong). Or we could have an honor system similar that I had in law school. If there was a disincentive to cheat it would be that others would be harmed. Players would turn in cheats if there would be a penalty for others. Thus, a system could be established where a percentage of team salaries are put into an escrow account. If someone cheats and the others do not turn them in, then the money is forfeited. However, if others turn in a colleague then their salary is safe. This works well with grades (i.e. if someone cheats you are motivated to turn them in since if they do well that means based on a strict grading curve that your grade decreases). Maybe it could work in sports?

What do you think?
Gil-

What were they thinking again

How could people say such stupid things?????


Golf Channel anchor says young golfers should 'lynch Tiger Woods'
By Roy S. Johnson
Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008 4:38 pm EST

What is it about Duke? Okay, maybe that's not fair. But it did make me scratch my head and wonder when I read what Kelly Tilghman, a former Blue Devil golfer, said on the Golf Channel last Friday during her gig as co-lead announcer for the network's telecast of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, the PGA Tour's inaugural event of the season.

I have not seen the clip, nor do I know the context of the remarks. This is what I know -- that Tilghman, who never played on the LPGA Tour, said golf's young players should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley."

Had Woods been white, to use the most heinous crime committed in this nation to illustrate God-knows-what point would have been egregious. But that he's not makes the remark unconscionable. And punishable.

It would be a travesty if Tilghman is allowed to broadcast the next event for the Golf Channel. (It speaks volumes already that she was allowed to sit on the air all day Saturday, as if nothing happened. She then offered an on-air apology on Sunday but still did the entire telecast.)
At minimum, a suspension is in order. Some will surely call for a firing. If the network does nothing -- just months after the Jena Six dominated the nation's airwaves -- it would make a significant statement about the network's tolerance of such actions. A statement that would hurt the sport of golf and rekindle memories of a racist history that Woods' success has helped it begin to move past.
Doing nothing would remind us of Fuzzy Zoeller
Doing nothing would remind us of Shoal Creek.
Doing nothing would not be smart.