Loyalty in the National Basketball Association

by Sam Chan | August 27th, 2010 | View Comments

NBA All-Star Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat recently made headlines being quoted for saying that loyalty has no place in free agency. Bosh mentions that at a store, you’d go to a store that has the cheaper price for your item, so how is basketball any different? You go where it makes sense for you.

I admit I was a bit shocked by Bosh’s comments because I am a fan of Chris Bosh and I respect everything he does on and off the court. While his new teammate LeBron James was busy rubbing it in Cleveland’s face, Bosh chose the high road and thanked all his Toronto fans for his time there. However, in this case – I have to disagree with Bosh. Just because sports are a business does not mean loyalty should be “an added bonus” as he puts it.

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Recap: Social Media Basketball

by Sam Taggart | August 20th, 2010 | View Comments

A couple of months ago, NYC-based social media agency Carrot Creative challenged the agency I work for, VaynerMedia to a game of basketball. “Hey @vaynermedia,” they tweeted, “Since our comps are the 2 best Sports Social Media Shops It is time to battle it out on the Basketball court! #challenge.” Of course, we accepted the challenge and played the game. VaynerMedia won, 61-41.

The Website

Carrot created a fantastic microsite for the game, called SocialMediaBasketball.com. They included both teams’ starting rosters, complete with names, nicknames, and the ability to follow all of us on Twitter. Even cooler? Visitors had the ability to “like” the team they were rooting for / thought would win. Finally, a live feed featured anyone who tweeted about the game with the hashtag #CCvsVM.

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The Rise of Marucci Sports

by Tyler Johnson | August 10th, 2010 | View Comments

In 2002, two former LSU athletes were rehabbing their recent injuries with Jack Marucci back in Baton Rouge the topic of conversation turned towards Marucci’s recent hobby. This hobby eventually led Eduardo Perez of the St. Louis Cardinals to do something no one else had done yet in Major League Baseball. By taking a different approach to the business and providing a higher quality product to the market, Marucci helped create a whole new ballgame.

Jack Marucci, the Head Athletic Trainer at Louisiana State University first started perfecting the craft of hand-made wooden baseball bats as a hobby, originally making them for his son. As the two former LSU athletes, Kurt Ainsworth and Joe Lawrence, rehabbed, they spoke of what to do after their professional MLB careers. Marucci’s hand crafted bats became that future. By 2003, the focus on detail and quality craftsmanship to ensure every hand crafted bat was a ‘gamer’ brought them into ‘on deck’ circles and into the batter’s box.

Kurt Ainsworth was a former LSU All-American and 1st Round draft pick by the San Francisco Giants. He also played on the Gold Medal winning Olympic team in 2000. Joe Lawrence was a former USA Today high school All-American and played professionally for the Toronto Blue Jays. After 8 years in professional baseball Joe returned to LSU to play football.

In speaking with Kurt he recalled: “from my experiences in the big leagues, about half of the bats you’d order would not be what we call gamers,” ‘Gamers’ being a bat that is Major League ready and that the hitter is accustomed to. Kurt went on: “ the quality of service and in the bats just did not seem to be there.” As other bat companies operated their volume based business, Marucci bats intended on being a new alternative.

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Make the New Geek on the Web for You

by Tyler Johnson | July 1st, 2010 | View Comments

Last February on a return flight home from Colorado I picked up the in flight magazine and flipped through it. On page 54, I was introduced to Seat Geek with one lengthy teasing paragraph.

Earlier this month I was able to catch up with one of the co-founders Russ D’Souza and speak with him about SeatGeek.com which recently was also featured in TechCrunch, FastCompany, cnet, Venture Beat & the LA Times.

SeatGeek.com launched in September of 2009 and functions a bit like some of the websites developed for the travel industry, but for your favorite sports teams. Out of the frustration of being a Red Sox fan and always having to pay a premium for tickets, Russ & Jack Groetzinger came up with SeatGeek.com to rid them and other fans of that “I’ve been ripped off feeling.”

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Payroll to Results: Successful MLB Teams

by Matt Clark | June 14th, 2010 | View Comments

Did you ever wonder which teams in Major League Baseball really get the most bang for their buck? Sure the Yankees won the last World Series last year but weren’t they supposed to win when they had the highest payroll in baseball? Each year the Pittsburgh Pirates have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball so shouldn’t fans expect them to finish in the basement of their division each year?

I have calculated a formula called the “Payroll to Results Rating” that examines teams between the years of 2000-2009. I took into consideration their average payroll, total wins, and playoff success and ranked them from 1 to 32.

1. Florida Marlins

The fish have an average payroll of under $36,000 over the last 10 years and they were still able to scrape five 80 plus win seasons along with a World Series title. If this formula were calculating numbers over the past 15 years, their rating would be even higher.

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$8 Beers: The Stadium Food Service Business

by Reuven Fridmar | May 26th, 2010 | View Comments

If you are like me and you enjoy going to many different sporting events, you pay attention to many of the team’s revenue drivers: ticket sales, corporate sponsors, suits, naming rights, merchandise sales, and more. Concessions always seem to slip my mind. Maybe it’s because I used to view them as an overpriced and unappealing service. However, a recent talk with a former Aramark VP of Marketing is beginning to reshape my perception of the business.

Aramark is a leader in the stadium and arena food service industry. They also specialize in facilities management, premium event catering, and more. They can make money three different ways. In a “P+L” deal, the concessions collect money from the fans and pay the team 40% – 50% of the earnings. In a “Fee” deal, the client (the sports team) pays a flat management fee for Aramark’s services. In a “Split” deal, a combination of the two occurs. Does 40%-50% seem like a big chunk of money to pay the team? You bet! The fast food business operates on an average 30% markup. When you have to pay 40%-50% to the team and still make a profit, you find yourself charging $8 for a beer. For Aramark, Beer is great. It’s where they make their biggest margin. Here are some of their other initiatives:

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Does the future of sports media belong to ESPN?

by Sam Taggart | March 31st, 2010 | View Comments

For the last few decades, ESPN has been the unquestioned “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” What started as a Connecticut based, Connecticut focused, 24-hour sports network has now become more than ten popular channels across the world (including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, and ESPN Deportes) and a highly-trafficked website (ESPN.com) devoted to delivering the latest sports news all day, every day. ESPN also boasts a very popular, bi-weekly magazine.

In the short term (10-15 years), ESPN will continue to dominate for three simple reasons.

1. Distribution. ESPN’s reach is massive, on and offline. As mentioned, they have more than ten sports networks across the world, as well as ESPN.com (nearly 5 million unique visitors in the month of January), and a big-time magazine. ESPN has also delved into the world of social media, with more than a half million combined Facebook fans and Twitter followers. It’s hard to beat that kind of power.

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$ign of the Time$, Part 1

by Tyler Johnson | March 11th, 2010 | View Comments

Some call it a sign of the times or the new “Revenue Era” in baseball. All major sports teams are in search of revenue streams or new ways to maximize current ones. Without a salary cap, Major League Baseball teams have been thriving with activity.

One piece to the new revenue is puzzle has been the obvious recent economic woes. Some markets have been harder hit due to more significant local job loss and some due to their increased dependence on corporate revenue streams that soon became rougher waters.

No matter the team or the market everyone is in need of additional revenue. In the last few years another large piece in new era revenue puzzle is current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

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