Life After Football: What comes next?

by Michelle Hill | February 24th, 2010 | View Comments

toniluca Super Bowl XLIV is a mere memory now. Faint echoes of “Who Dat” ring in our ears. We’ve seen a Brees blow through and we’ve seen the burning Bush. For fans, the season is over and we’re wondering what to do on Sunday afternoons. We could relive the season by watching games of our favorite teams on DVD but it just doesn’t hold the same magic. We could spend our days anticipating the draft or go on a hot wing fast in defiance of another season ending. We could turn our attention to other sports but football is football.

It’s a Numbers Game – Sports Vanity Toll Free Numbers

by Tim Evans | February 4th, 2010 | View Comments

Travis Nicholson! We all know there are numerous ways to brand your sports business. From a professionally designed and well optimized website, to having consistent social networking usernames across a variety of social media platforms, you are well on your way to promoting your brand.

With a passion for domain names over the years, I have been able to appreciate what it means to have a unique vanity toll-free number. With domain names, you can have a maximum of 64-characters (numbers and letter combinations) to create a domain name, but with a toll free number, you only have seven digits to work with. Because of this length limitation, at least at the level of a true 800#, there are no numbers left in the 800# database left that have been unused.

So how do you find an 800# to market your business? I’ve been using TollFreeNumbers.com over the years because it allows you to search for that perfect number and it lets you know if it is available.

For Iverson and the Sixers, the Answer is Social Media

by Sam Taggart | December 10th, 2009 | View Comments

For the record, I am a Sixers fan, and I love Allen Iverson.

The Background

Three years ago, yesterday, Allen Iverson asked for a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers. “As hard as it is to admit,” he said, “a change may be the best thing for everyone.” Eleven days later, Iverson was traded to the Denver Nuggets, seemingly having played his last game as a Sixer.

This September, Iverson signed with the Memphis Grizzlies. He played three games (starting none) and averaged 22 minutes, 12.3 points, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 rebounds. However, the veteran could not accept his role as a bench player, and his relationship with the Grizzlies quickly deteriorated. In early November, he left the team for personal reasons, and on November 25th, he announced his intentions to retire from the National Basketball Association.

Athlete Branding & Owning a Domain Name

by Tim Evans | December 8th, 2009 | View Comments

Why an athlete should care about their domain name and personal brand.

As long as domain names have been around, professional athlete domain names have been valued property by domain speculators (domainers), cyber squatters, and sports fans. If you do a whois search for most professional athletes, no matter what the sport, chances are that the domain is registered. Even college athletes who have a shot at the professional level as well as high school recruits who haven’t committed to a school are having their domain names registered.

Tiger Tales…This is No Children’s PR Story

by Gail Sideman | December 1st, 2009 | View Comments

tiger 01 Have you read and heard more than your share about Tiger Woods’ unfortunate meeting with a fire hydrant and a tree last Friday morning?

I think I have. But one last thing…and only because it’s the main, if not the biggest sports PR story this year, and is already leading Jay Leno’s monologue.

The quickie recap: World-famous professional golfer, Tiger Woods, decides to take a joy ride in his Cadillac Escalade at 2:30 Friday morning and upon leaving his driveway, tips a fire hydrant and makes contact with a neighbor’s tree. Upon hearing the ruckus, Woods’ wife Elin rushes out of the house and reportedly helps her husband. A neighbor calls 911 and tells the dispatcher that the victim is lying on the ground.

An Agents Guide To Athletes

by Darren Heitner | August 27th, 2009 | View Comments

Sports Agent Cartoon In roughly four months, Bob Ruxin and I will be releasing a new book: An Athlete’s Guide to Agents, 5^th Edition. The book will cover everything from NCAA rules and regulations to turning pro early…and it even discusses the agent selection process. That process is not a one-way street. The principal is the athlete, who has control over his agent; however, the agent also has to agree to represent the athlete.

Athletes are often asked, “What influenced you to pick the particular agent/agency you chose for contractual and/or marketing representation,” but a question that is rarely asked of an agent is, “Why did you choose to recruit that particular player to be your client?” Some agents, especially those first starting on their own, do not have the luxury of being picky. But once an agent has a firm client-base, he is not going to go after twenty players in all fifty states.

Endorsements 2 Point 0

by Darren Heitner | July 31st, 2009 | View Comments

Andy Roddick Most amateur athletes have recurring dreams about that future big payday. They assume that the money will start pouring in once they sign a contract with a professional organization in a large American sports league. For many, that day never comes. For those who do “go pro” they will quickly realize that the first contract does not pay much. The second and third contract will garner the big bucks. In all actuality, though, if an athlete wants to truly strike it rich, he will be the best at his trade, and command most of his earnings off of the field of play.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, LeBron James, and a host of other superstar athletes make more money per year in endorsements than in salary and winnings. An endorsement is simply an athlete giving approval, sanctioning, and support to a product or service. The product or service being endorsed hopes to benefit from a boost in image through the association with the athlete…with the intention of earning more profits in the end. The athlete receives compensation for endorsing the product or service.

In the past, endorsements included an athlete making public appearances, recording television commercials, and posing for billboards, often in exchange for an up-front payment. Times are changing.