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.