Chicago Cubs

Even for the modest fan, few sports teams that resonate in your mind stronger than the Chicago Cubs. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to know that the Cubs are an iconic brand (Trust me, I’m from Milwaukee).

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Wally Hayward, the Cubs’ Chief Sales and Marketing Executive who was brought on by new owner Tom Ricketts to solve this burning question: how can a historic team make changes that will respect the character of the ballpark while providing new growth opportunities?

The answer to that question is outlined in these three main goals of the Cubs:

1) Build a Championship Team

I found it interesting when Hayward said that the Cubs want all of their employees to be the best at their prospective jobs. Yes, that means they strive to have the best security desk personnel, office assistant, and janitor in all of sports. Why? Because being the best is part of the unique culture the new ownership has. “This job was lucrative to me because the family culture has the brand’s best interest in mind for the long run” said Hayward. [click to continue…]

About Reuven Fridmar

Reuven is a fourth year student at Marquette University, earning degrees in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. He hopes to create sports marketing initiatives that drive value while focusing on charitable causes. Reuven lived in three countries and visited 13 total. He prides himself on being fluent in Hebrew, Russian, and English. People and idea lover. Connect with Reuven on Twitter @ReuvenFridmar

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It’s been a tough couple weeks in the sports world. Legendary NHL Coach Pat Burns and esteemed sportswriter Jim Kelley both passed away this November due to Cancer. Although it’s easy to get lost within a game either as a player, sports professional, or simply a fan, incidents such as this really remind us that there’s more to life than sports.

So this week, instead of running through the week’s posts, I wanted to do things a little differently. Fellow writer Bear Heiser requested if we could repost his piece on the late Ron Santo, a Chicago Cubs legend who also passed away this week due to a fight with cancer. Santo never quite got the respect he deserved from the Baseball Hall of Fame so the least I could do is to post Bear’s piece. Ron Santo was Bear’s favorite player. This one’s for you, Ron: [click to continue…]

About Sam Chan

Sam is the community manager of Sports Networker and the Sports Executive Association. He is passionate in all things sports, mobile, and social media. His dream is for the Vancouver Canucks to win a Stanley Cup in his lifetime, although so far, its looking kind of bleak. In the past, he worked with BlackBerry and helped relaunch their Business-to-Business network. With his experience there, he can probably help you change your ringtone, maybe. When he finds time (never), he also writes infrequently at his personal blog. If you would like to talk sports, write a guest post for us, or argue about why iPhone > BlackBerry, you can find him on Twitter, Facebook or email.

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One topic I’ve noticed coming up a lot over the past few weeks, especially over here in the UK as our football teams are preparing for the new season, is how social media can add to fan experience and encourage more fans down to stadiums.

We’ve all read posts about how social media will benefit sports teams, and the benefits of constantly engaging with and having a dialogue with fans, so I don’t want to cover that in this post, I’d like to look into a few of emerging tools and explore ways in which they could improve fan experience and encourage fans down to the stadium.
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About Ash Read

Ash is the co-founder of FundSport.com a grassroots sports community providing sports clubs and athletes from around the world with professional, easy-to-understand advice and articles on all aspects of grassroots sport including sponsorship, fundraising, the Internet, social media, club management, PR and marketing. As well as being passionate about the development of grassroots sport Ash also has a keen involvement in the sports social media industry. You can follow Ash on Twitter at @ashread14

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CSBP linkedinLast May I was kicking back with Lewis Howes at a Chicago Cubs game, not knowing in two weeks time I would be doing the same thing with another colleague, Jude LaRose.  Still digesting the LinkedIn knowledge Lewis dropped on me, Jude and I ended up not paying much attention to the play on the field and instead spent most of the time hatching a plan.

In working with LinkedIn, I have started to see the value in being a part of different groups and organizations that can benefit my career.  With a desire to become more actively involved, we decided to start a group in Chicago for sports professionals working in the area.

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About Tyler Johnson

Tyler Johnson is an innovative thinker inspired by the likes of Bill Veeck, Jon Spoelstra, Pat Williams & Brooks Boyer. Currently working for Kroenke Sports & Entertainment as a Group Sales Account Executive for the Denver Nuggets. Prior he worked as the New Business Development Executive with the Chicago White Sox. Tyler has also worked directly with the inventor and creator of Arena football and also for Mike Ditka’s former Chicago AFL franchise. As a former collegiate athlete and business sensed individual Tyler ventured to combine his passions to get into the business side of sports.

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