The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards 

Sports Business

Baseball, Not Football, Has the Super Salaries

“Welker makes $2.5 million a year. That’s a great haul until you consider what a worker bee like Welker would make in a baseball uniform. There always has been a crazy salary disparity between America’s pastime (baseball) and America’s obsession (pro football). But it has become so insane that Indianapolis police should be on alert this week. NFL players need to buy drums, stop showering and pitch tents outside Lucas Oil Stadium. It’s time to Occupy the Super Bowl. The can’t-miss slogan: ‘We Are the 100 Percent That Makes Less Than Vernon Wells!’”

Palace of Auburn Hills May Eliminate Half of It’s Luxury Suite Suites

“After 11 home games this season, the struggling Pistons (4-18) are averaging 12,619 fans a game, worst in the 30-team National Basketball Association.”

Sports Networking

10 Pro Tips for Writers Using Social Media

“We recently covered 10 inspiring social networks for writers that can help you extend your influence and develop your content. But what about the mainstream networks? How do you successfully raise your profile and gain a following? Six well-known authors and writers, who are experts in this type of personal branding, share their methods and suggestions on how to use social media to push yourself forward in the writing industry. Whether you’ve been using social media for a while or you’re just starting out, you might learn something new.”

Managing Your Personal Brand Via Online Presence and Reputation

An interesting and fun graphic look at how you can boast and manage your person brand in four easy-to-follow bullet points.

Sports Marketing

Lucas Oil Gets Brand Boost From Super Bowl Venue

“Any company with its name attached to the Super Bowl is about to score one of its biggest marketing bounces of the year. And none will realize a bigger victory than California-based Lucas Oil Co.”

The Super Bowl’s Real ROI

“Each year, it seems the Super Bowl gets further hyped and inflated. Witness the 7,200 fans who paid $25 just to observe Super Bowl XLVI’s Media Day on Jan. 31—an event for which NFL Network provided “nearly five hours of coverage,” to cite USA Today. Through Sunday, host city Indianapolis expects to receive up to 150,000 celebrities, corporate executives, and well-to-do football fans, with an estimated economic impact of $150 million, according to the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Assn.”

Sports Sponsorship

Engaging Audiences Through Sports Sponsorship

“A brand will enter the world of sponsorship with an objective; typically – and in the most part historically – to raise awareness. Now however, sponsorship has the ability to deliver so much more; to enhance the reputation of a brand and bring positive association to the values and core DNA which defines that brand. This potential brings with it the importance to define ‘why’ – why a brand has associated itself with a specific event or initiative.”

It’s A Shame Nesbitt Has To Go Outside Canada for Key Sponsor

“When speed skater Christine Nesbitt competed at the world sprint championships last weekend, one of her more prominent sponsors was a Dutch telecom company, Galaxy Group.

You can see them displayed here over her heart and on her left shoulder.”

Sports Sales

Luxury Suites Rule In Professional Sports Revenue

“All 137 luxury suites at Lucas Oil Stadium were sold out months before the opening kick-off for Super Bowl XLVI, according to stadium officials in Indianapolis. With a minimum reported price of $80,000 per box, that kind of money has turned luxury-suite revenue into one of the most dominant forces in sports, analysts say.” - Makes you wonder if the Pistons best move is cutting their luxury suites in half to add a restaurant.

Why More Pro Athletes are Scoring Franchises After Sports Fame

“Jamal Mashburn had everything an athlete could dream of. During his 12 years in the NBA in the 1990s and early 2000s, ‘Monster Mash’ was instrumental in turning around the Dallas Mavericks; he also set several scoring records and was even selected for the All-Star Game while playing for the New Orleans Hornets. But despite all that success, he couldn’t stop thinking about briefcases.”

Sports Social Media

Super Bowl XLVI Just Became America’s Most Tweeted Sporting Event

“Super Bowl XLVI just became America’s most tweeted sporting event after the game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants hit a record average of 12,233 tweets per second (TPS), according to Twitter.”

Wolves Control Their Own Message With Twitter

“[Kevin] Love had chosen to announce the extension via Twitter, a move that’s become more popular among athletes in recent years but is still far from the norm. In 2010, Kevin Durant announced his extension with Oklahoma City on Twitter, and C.C. Sabathia tweeted to inform the world that he’d signed a new contract with the Yankees in October. Shaquille O’Neal even announced his retirement last June via the social media site.”

Sports Media

NBC Only Good, Not Super

“NBC didn’t have a bad Super Bowl. Not by any measurement. But it could have – and should have – been better. The networks all do such a good job of covering major events like Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI that our expectations are high. Some at the network level might say too high, but I don’t think so in this case.”

U.S. Shuts 16 Sports Piracy Websites Pre-Super Bowl

“Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, U.S. prosecutors said they seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.”

Sports Technology

ESPN: “Mobile is the Primary Way We Reach an Audience”

“After revolutionizing the way people receive their sports information with the 24-hour network ESPN and its sister stations, Michael Bayle, VP and general manager of ESPN mobile, seeks to change it all over again.  In a keynote address at the MediaPost’s Mobile Insider Summit in Key Largo, Florida, Bayle detailed how it now considers mobile the ‘first screen,’ as almost 150,000 people access its mobile offerings at any given time.  According to Bayle, mobile is the most effective way to reach an audience “from an international standpoint.”

How The Super Bowl Is Going High Tech in 2012

“Football isn’t a high-tech sport, though many great football video games have been made for those of us not built for the real thing. This year, however, the Superbowl is going high-tech. Advertisers are tapping into social media to help promote their ads and products. And the NFL is streaming the game live for the first time ever. Even the security at Superbowl XLVI is high-tech.”

Sports Jobs

More Sports, More Tourism, More Jobs?

“The Olympic Trials of 2008 in Eugene brought $28 million in local spending to the economy, so can that amount be multiplied? A local sports tourism group in Lane County wants to give that idea a running start.”

Athletics Outfielder Michael Taylor Has An Offseason Job

“This is pretty neat.  Not as neat as the fact that Richie Hebner used to work as a grave digger in the offseason, but neat in the sense that ballplayers never actually work real jobs anymore, so it’s cool to see one who does.” - The real story is told in the linked video.

Sports Events

Eli Manning Has Taught Us To Never Underestimate His Talents Again

“I still can’t get over that throw from Eli Manning to Mario Manningham. As much as I respect the catch (it will be the greatest of Manningham’s career, no matter how long he plays), I am in awe of the throw. How did Manning make that throw? Why make that throw? Why did he pick the target of the guy with a corner in coverage and a safety flying over to crush Manningham? The 38-yard throw — which began an 88-yard, Super Bowl-winning touchdown drive that Bill Belichick will see in his nightmares — is just one more reason to never, ever question how good Eli Manning is. He will have some crappy games the rest of his career, because two or three times a year he stinks. But I ask you: What quarterback alive do you want with the ball in his hands in the last two minutes of a big game? Thought so. Eli Manning.” - Note that Peter King, possibly the best and most respected NFL analyst around, wrote the Eli Manning ballad you just read. Safe to say the younger Manning proved something Sunday night.

Stanley Banishes PGA Tour Ghosts With First Win

“One week ago, Kyle Stanley was reduced to tears after a heartbreaking collapse saw him surrender a seven-shot lead in final round of the Farmers Insurance Open. On Sunday, the American was once again in tears. But this time they were tears of joy after Stanley benefited from a similarly dramatic meltdown from Spencer Levin to seal a one-stroke win at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, Arizona.”

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts about the Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

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The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards  

Sports Business

IMG Worldwide Squashes Rumors of Being Up For Sale

“I immediately contacted Jim Gallagher, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications at IMG Worldwide.  Gallagher quickly put the rumor to bed.  ”There aren’t ANY conversations going on with Lagardère, or any other company or individual for that matter, regarding a purchase of IMG,” said Gallagher.”

Nationals’ Negotiations With MASN Will Have Huge Impact on Franchise

“Television contracts and the money generated from media rights fees have become a crucial factor in how baseball teams are run. Along with ticket sales, they are a team’s primary form of income, and in recent years the fees across sports have skyrocketed. The Lerners have never had a say on their arrangement with MASN. Until now.”

Sports Networking

Sports Business Career Conference During The NFL Combine

“Participants will gain insight into careers in sports through presentations by successful sports executives, including GM’s, front office executives, Scouts, Sports Agents, player personnel, and well known media currently working in football. This event includes networking, information on breaking into the sports industry and advice on advancing your sports business career. College credit available for attending. ”

5 Tips to Turn Your Personal Profile Into A Professional Place

“Recently, Facebook introduced a few new features that will help someone who wants to use their personal profile for personal branding purposes. If you want to use the world’s most popular social network to promote what you do professionally, here are a few tips to get you started. ”

Sports Marketing

Marketer’s Best Best For Super Bowl? New York Giants vs. New England Patriots

“Game would have drama of rematch, fans who travel and the No. 1 TV market…When it comes Super Bowl participants, the best matchup for marketers doesn’t necessarily involve X’s and O’s, but rather dollars and cents.” NOTE: This article was written Thursday. The rich get richer.

2012 Super Bowl advertisers unveil a brand new, 40-year-old game plan

“Volkswagen will be airing a 60-second spot. So will their sister brand, Audi. Hyundai’s running a :60 just before the kickoff, on the assumption that that’s when they’ll have more of viewers’ undivided attention. (Of course, the fact that they’ll be paying only $200,000 to $4 million just before the game instead of around $6+ million during it may have had something to do with it.)”

Sports Sponsorship

Sports Sponsorship Moves Into The Fast Lane

“The cash it generated from sport sponsorship will soon overtake ticket sales, however brands now need to form commercial relationships and strategic partnerships on the basis of shared objectives rather than awareness.”

Sports Sponsorship Gets Its Own Indaba

“In recognition of the high power of sports sponsorship and marketing, the first fully focused Sports Sponsorship Indaba will take place on Friday, 27 January 2012, at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset, Cape Town. A main topic of discussion will be Government’s plan to ban alcohol marketing that will have an adverse effect on sports sponsorships such as the J&B Met.

Sports Sales

Liverpool’s Performance Didn’t Warrant Price, Adidas CEO Says

“Liverpool, which is also a five-time European champion, has replaced Adidas with a club record, 6-year, 25 million pound ($38.3 million) contract with Warrior Sports, a subsidiary of New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. The accord, Warrior’s first major soccer contract, begins next season and is worth almost double the current agreement with Adidas.”

Tiger Woods is Still Golf’s Biggest Draw

“‘He is a giant of the sport,’ says Giles Morgan, head of sponsorship at HSBC, as record crowds are expected at the National Course for Tiger Woods’ debut in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship…Around 40,000 people attended last year’s tournament, and the organizers are hoping to double that tally this time. While the Woods Effect may have different characteristics to its pre-2009 vintage, it is still a force.”

Sports Social Media

Four Action Sports Channels Hit YouTube

“During the past few months, most of the anticipatory hype has been lavished upon Tony Hawk’s Ride Channel, its producers now tasked with rolling out 22 shows. Teaming up with some of ‘the best people in the skate industry,’ Hawk says the channel will cover the gamut, from trick tips and tour clips to music and art.”

StatSmack Provides Legitimate Breakthrough in Sports Social Media

“StatSheet has launched something simple, and simply ingenious, to the sports social media public. Called StatSmack, and available online, through App Store and Android Market, the service allows sports fans to select their favorite team and an opponent from drop-down boxes, and access statistics that will make their tweets more relevant, edgier, and cutting.”

Sports Media

Lesley Visser Embraces Role As Sports Media Trailblazer

“Visser was the first woman on an NFL beat, the first woman to cover the NFL from the sidelines, the first to cover a World Series, the first woman to cover a Final Four as well as the first woman inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”

WSCR Changed The Landscape of Sports – For Better and Worse

“When WSCR first flipped the switch, five years after WFAN launched in New York in 1987, nobody could have anticipated how sports talk radio would transform coverage of the local teams and beyond. Sports talk radio stations, now numbering more than 500 in the country, gave sports fans a voice they never had before, often giving players, coaches and team executives a headache they never had before.”

Sports Technology

A Fantasy App Store? CBS Sports To Launch “First Open Platform” For Fantasy Sports

“Depending on your familiarity, it might come as a surprise that fantasy sports is a huge business. In fact, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association via Ad Week, its total market impact is upwards of $2 billion, with direct revenues spent on fantasy sports products and services at over $800 million…Yes, fantasy sports are much beloved not only by regular ole sports fans, but by data and numbers geeks, who eagerly ply sports with every known statistical algorithm or formula to get the best teams.”

Nike FuelBand Motivates People to Make It Count

“Nike has introduced its FuelBand, a wristband that measures a user’s daily physical activity by acting as a calorie-counter, clock or a pedometer. It’s designed for anyone who wants to be more active and measures movement to motivate people.”

Sports Jobs

UT Students to Gain Work Experience At Super Bowl XLVI

“A group of University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students and one faculty member will help prepare special events and conduct other behind-the-scenes work at this year’s NFL Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Indiana.”

McGarry: An Intern Is Born

“Not that it’s some stunning upset that life has more twists than a ballpark pretzel. But raise your hand if you’ve ever heard this one: One week you are home eating Thanksgiving dinner with the family. The next you are tossing footballs with Carson Palmer as part of your job. Meet John McGarry.”

Sports Events

Olympics to create ‘record’ wireless spectrum demand

“The London Olympic and Paralympic Games are likely to require up to 20,000 separate wireless frequency assignments, according to the communications regulator Ofcom.”

The Zone Defense Has Found Its Place In The NBA

“During the Western Conference finals two seasons ago, then-Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson derided, in his unique way, the Phoenix Suns’ use of the zone defense. Suns coach Alvin Gentry played along. ‘If we have to play our girlie zone, as somebody said, we’ll play our girlie zone,” he said. “We’re going to do whatever we have to do to win.’”

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts about the Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

Web | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | More Posts (187)

The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards 

Sports Business

Bankruptcy is ‘Wreckage’ From Years Of Drinking By Steinberg, The Real-life Jerry Maguire

“Leigh Steinberg calls them ‘checkout days,’ when he would drink vodka from morning until night, often straight from the bottle. Divorced and living alone for the first time, he’d drink while sitting on his balcony overlooking Newport Bay or while in bed, sometimes half-conscious.”

Snider Honored By Sports Business Journal

“Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider was today named to the Class of 2012 of Champions: Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business, an award from the Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal recognizing the architects and builders of sports.”

Sports Networking

Why Optimism is A Brand’s Best Friend

“How you choose to share about your challenge and difficulty defines your brand communication style. When you focus on the process you are going through and solutions, it has a better purpose and appeal. Several of my friends have dealt with health and career issues this year that they had no control over. Their poise, dignity and fear helped me and gave me tremendous respect for what they were going through and how they communicated it. They maintained a realistic, honest optimism about it all each and every day that I so appreciated.”

90% Of Us Should Come Out Of Our Shell

“Of a group of 8, you’ll have one or two loud people who dominate the conversation while the rest don’t talk nearly as much. The give-and-take among the entire group could be better but there’s too much of a constant stream of interaction between those select few. So the rest of the group shuts up and probably can’t wait to move away from the circle to get away from these constant talkers, if not leave the party altogether.”

Sports Marketing

Runner Sells Shoulder Ad Space For $11K

“Olympic athlete Nick Symmonds is the number one 800-meter runner in the country—and 6th in the world—but he had something else up his sleeve; he offered ad space on his shoulder to the highest bidder.”

Bwin Ordered To Halt Portugese Sports Advertising

“In Portugal, many local sports clubs and associations, as well as tournaments, have sponsorship deals with online gambling firms, as in some cases it’s the only way for them to generate the revenues they need to fund their activities. Bwin’s sponsorship deal of the Portuguese League Cup is worth a sizable €4 million, which means the tournament could potentially be in jeopardy if its main source funding was suddenly interrupted.”

Sports Sponsorship

McDonalds Commits to IOC Until 2020

“As expected, McDonald’s has extended its global sponsorship agreement with the International Olympic Committee until 2020. No precise financial details were immediately available but the deal will certainly be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Duracell Powermat To Help Power New-look MSG

“As well as in-arena signage and digital exposure, the partnership will see Duracell Powermat wireless charging systems placed throughout the famous MSG, which is currently undergoing a major multi-million dollar transformation.”

Sports Ticket Sales

FCC May End Sports Blackout Rule

“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday issued a formal request for public comment on a proposal to end its sports blackout rule. The rule, first adopted in 1975, prohibits cable and satellite providers from carrying a sports event if the game is blacked out on local broadcast television stations.”

Selig Confident the Dodgers Will Be Sold By April 30

“Terms of the settlement between MLB and team owner Frank McCourt filed last month stated that McCourt must sell the Dodgers and the stadium within that time frame. ‘I’m confident it will be completed by then,’ Selig told reporters at a fundraiser hosted by Beverly Hills businessman Dennis Gilbert, who is among the potential bidders for the Dodgers.”

Sports Social Media

Christian Laettner and YouTube Sports Therapy

“Among the many joyous distractions provided by YouTube, which John Seabrook writes about this week in the magazine, is its rich back catalog of sports footage. The site has done much to change the way that sports fans interact with the past; our happiest vicarious moments no longer live fuzzily in the mind, or in the yarns spun by old-timers about the greatness of some leather-helmeted football player from the thirties. Nor does anyone need to dig through collections of dusty VHS tapes to find a few lost gems. Instead, our favorite plays can be called up on demand, to great time-wasting and spirit-lifting effect.”

Social Media Contracts The New Frontier For Sponsors

“THE RAPID growth of social media means it is now possible for millions of people across the globe to communicate directly and instantaneously with their heroes. This has created new opportunities in sponsorship.”

Sports Media

NFL’s Most Indespesable Broadcasting Talents

“This is not a list of the best or most talented announcers or production people, but which people each network could least afford to lose and why. We each drafted a Top 10 list without consulting each other and our results are below. (Last week when I posed this question on Twitter, Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth and Mike Mayock received the most votes.) Feel free to disagree with our lists, as I know you will.”

Kevin Johnson, David Robinson, Doris Burke Among NCAA Silver Anniversary Award Winners

“[Kevin] Johnson, who played at the University of California and starred in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns, was rewarded Friday for his on- and off-the-court exploits as a Silver Anniversary award winner. The award recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their collegiate athletics careers. Other Silver Anniversary honorees were Sean Payton, David Robinson, Tim Brown, Doris Burke and Amy Perko.”

Sports Technology

Quicken Loans Arena Becomes First Sports Venue to Introduce “Wireless Touchscreen Concierge” Using SmartTouch Technology

“With just a touch of a fingertip, Quicken Loans Arena (“The Q”) suite holders are entering a new dimension of service excellence.  In partnership with ARAMARK, the arena’s exclusive food and beverage provider, The Q is introducing SmartTouchtechnology using Apple’s iPad into its 92 luxury suites to deliver guests a richer hospitality experience utilizing 100 percent wireless touch screens.  Convenience has never been so cool.”

PS3 Gets Some College Sports Apps

“It’s only been about 30 hours since we saw an all-Southeastern Conference national championship game, but the SEC isn’t content with just owning the college football world; they also want your game console.”

Sports Jobs

Win “The Ultimate Sports Social Media Job” With Xfinity

“Comcast’s Xfinity Service is launching a contest to hire an individual who will serve as the new voice of Xfinity in the sports social media space and go behind-the-scenes at some of the biggest nationwide sporting events in 2012, sharing exclusive insights and updates with fans.”

Sports Broadcaster Finds Online Audience

“Jon Wekkin is a sports broadcaster whose play-by-play accounts of Twin Cities high school and college sports aren’t carried on any TV channel, cable network or radio station. Instead, Wekkin and a team of professional announcers broadcast games at www.mnsportsnetwork.com where the menu includes live and archived hockey, football and basketball games, plus a smattering of wrestling and volleyball. Hundreds of viewers watch for free on nights when the website broadcasts multiple games simultaneously, most produced by a company crew on site.”

Sports Events

Brooklyn Awaits Nets, But Their Destination As A Team Is Unclear

“The question of where the Nets are headed as an organization and as a basketball team leads only to a host of potential destinations that range from exhilaration to dread, with an occasional detour into comic relief. Technically, and temporarily, the Nets are in Newark, on their way to a new home next season in downtown Brooklyn. By all other practical means of appraisal, their dateline should be limbo.”

Nadal Unmasks Rift With Federer

A good preview to the Australian Open built around the recent news of tennis’ two most recognizable figures being at odds.

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts about the Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

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In today’s digital world, the “old-school” ways of sourcing, pitching and securing sports sponsorship deals are quickly becoming a thing of the past.  Today, individuals, properties and sponsors are leveraging technology to find the right fit and share valuable industry information.

Kris Mathis started SponsorPitch in 2008 to address a core business problem he noticed while starting and working in the sponsorship division of a global marketing and PR agency. Kris represented Fortune 500 clients at Edelman sponsorship consulting division where he made sponsorship buying, activation and renewal decisions for brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough, 20th Century Fox, Wyeth and Siemens.

We caught up with Kris to get an update on SponsorPitch since his last interview with Lewis Howes back in December 2008

For more information on Kris and SponsorPitch visit:

• MLS Partner SponsorPitch Is A Game Changer (Sports Networker Article)
• Sign Up Here –> http://sponsorpitch.com/
• http://twitter.com/sponsorpitch
• http://linkedin.com/in/krismathis
• http://twitter.com/krismnyc

The Evolution Of SponsorPitch

In addition to the questions discussed in the video (transcript below), Kris and Trevor discussed the evolution of Sponsorpitch over the past few years.  Here is a summary of the key points regarding how SponsorPitch has listened their members and adjusted accordingly.

• In 2010, we did a very telling survey of SponsorPitch members (results can be found here), which we would ultimately use as a guidepost for relaunching SponsorPitch in 2011. Among the findings of this survey were these:
• The majority of respondents sent out 2-5 proposals each week.
• Nearly a third of sponsorship sales professionals said that 25-50% of their time at work is spent researching brands.
• 61% of serious sponsorship seekers were researching a brand for more than 2 hours just to determine whether it was a good fit for their opportunity prior to sending out a proposal.
• On average, sponsorship seekers spend $4,383 annually on sponsorship research resources.
• Not surprisingly, given the time and money survey respondents said they were spending on research, the survey uncovered that for every 1 member that was not willing to share information about their past experiences with sponsors, 13 members were willing to share with other members as long as they similarly benefited by receiving new targeted leads from other SponsorPitch members.
• We thought, based on these results, how can we re-engineer the SponsorPitch site to help solve some of these really big problems and pain points that our users are telling us they encounter every day. Why should you have to spend 2 hours and hundreds of dollars to qualify a lead when the reality is that someone else in the network probably just assembled the same research you’re looking for? At the time, there was no way to connect the dots so we thought how can we take some of the principles of social media that we see in consumer sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and apply them to make the business of sponsorship more social and in doing so, more efficient.
• The site was relaunched in May 2011 with a new homepage, profile interface and the SponsorPitch Sponsor Index, which is a real-time user generated database of nearly 1,600 brands. Professional members of the site can use the Sponsor Index to filter, research and connect with actively-spending sponsors in a targeted, cheaper and more time-efficient way.
• Paid subscriptions (Professional Membership) increased 800% over the course of 2011.
• We’re in the process of negotiating similar partnerships to the one we have with MLS with other companies and leagues.
• SponsorPitch is bootstrapped (no outside funding), but is in the process of raising an angel investment round from some prominent investors in the sports, entertainment and advertising space.

Kris Mathis – Sports Sponsorship Interview Transcript

Trevor

Hey everyone Trevor Turnbull here again from Sports Networker and I want to introduce you guys, or possibly reintroduce you, to Kris Mathis who is the founder of SponsorPitch. How’s it going Kris?

Kris

I’m good thanks. Thanks for having us back on Trevor.

Trevor

Yeah no problem. So Kris and I were talking about this a few minutes ago but I was actually doing my back research to learn a little bit more about SponsorPitch and realized that you and Lewis had done an interview back in December of 2008, so thats three years ago. Obviously a lot has changed since then so for those people not knowledgable about SponsorPitch maybe give them the once-over on “what is SponsorPitch”.

Kris

Sure it’s been a while since I did that interview with Lewis so I appreciate the opportunity to come back on and update you guys on what’s new.

So basically at its heart SponsorPitch is a professional network that allows a little over 6,000 members the opportunity to come on and connect and collaborate with their peers from across the world in a whole new different, real-time kind of way. As part of that, it’s for buyers, sellers, anyone activating a sponsorship, measuring sponsorships, looking for jobs, whatever your place is in the sponsorship industry we’ve got got a place for you on SponsorPitch and got something to offer for you. So that’s what SponsorPitch is kind of all about.

Trevor

Cool. So in 2008 you guys were going into beta at the time right? How have things evolved over time? To its core, as the name says, SponsorPitch is really about helping people understand the whole sponsorship world as it relates to the sports industry in general. How has it evolved over those three years? What kind of new things have you guys implemented over this time?

Kris

So we started out, like you said, in 2008 and the name SponsorPitch really started from the idea that in my old job I bought sponsorships for an agency and would constantly get pitched new opportunities. [I would] get proposals and quote calls and people would send me boxes of stuff, premiums and things like that, so I was constantly getting pitched these opportunities. So the original idea for the site started out as a way that sellers could come on and put all that information online in a coherent and indexed way so that buyers and agency people and brand marketers could go on and sort of sort through these different opportunities based on what they were looking for and find out the information they wanted to get before having a more formal discussion about what a sponsorship could do for them. So that was the original idea and that’s where the name SponsorPitch really came from.

Since that time we’ve gotten thousands and thousands of members and talked to people that are using the site and one of the things that we really found, and maybe underestimated at the launch, was the social aspect to it and the power that user generated data can provide to our members. So through that we started to understand that people didn’t want to just come onto our site and throw up a proposal and just go away. They understand that there’s no magic bullet to sponsorship to right? They understand that it takes work and that to be a part of a network that allows you to learn things like which sponsors are spending on which kinds of sponsorships, when they’re spending, who’s making the decisions for them, seeing what a business is all about and who their competitors are. You even talk to people within the network who have worked with a particular sponsor before; those are the types of things that are really important to our members, not necessarily just throwing up a proposal.

The social aspect to what we’re doing really caught our eye and made us realize we are onto something here and we have to restructure the network to make it more social and sort of optimize it to make it real-time and social and relevant so they we’re sending the most targeted and relevant information to our members that we can so they can take that information and go. They can sell a sponsorship, they can find an agency, they can find a job, they can find a sponsorship opportunity if they’re a marketer. Making it a lot more targeted and a lot more real-time; there’s nothing out there that we found that was really doing that at the time; so since 2008 we’ve done a lot of restructuring of the network to make it a lot more personalized to the user. That’s sort of the core of what we’ve done since I last talked to you.

Trevor

So you guys have really filled a need in the market as essentially the world has changed. I would imagine that the whole sponsorship industry over the years has evolved very slowly in the sense that the old school mentality might have been that “knowledge is power,” and you should keep it. But in today’s social world obviously that knowledge is power and people are willing to share it so you’re really giving them a platform to connect with other people that are looking to learn as well as share what they have experienced themselves over the years as professionals in the industry.

Kris

Correct. One of the interesting things is I went to grad school and came back to the industry around 2007 and it was amazing to me how people were still paying 400 bucks for a source book that was outdated a few months after it was published. People were still paying $1,500 to go to an annual conference once a year to network with a few hundred other people. There were all these things that we viewed as very sort of archaic practices and so one of the things we’ve tried to do at SponsorPitch is make it so we’re open, we’re easy to access, you can get into the network 24 hours a day and you can network with other people, you can get access to data that’s valuable to you 24 hours a day and make it sort of real-time and accessible and open to our members.

And to your point that information is power, I think what we’ve learned from our members and what I’ve learned from talking to people that sell sponsorships 10 hours per day, is starting your sponsorship search from scratch is a really, really tough thing right? So just coming to it and saying, “this is what I want to sell, how do I go about doing it” is a really, really tough task. So if someone can come to us and find that there’s 1,600 brands that have already been indexed by category, you can instantly find out, of these 30 brands in the airline category, what they’re spending on; what the trends are; what types of sponsorship opportunities they’re looking to partner with; when they typically sponsor; who makes the decisions for them. You can talk to other members who have worked with the sponsor in the past and find out what makes them tick and what makes them more interested in certain types of opportunities. If you can come to a place and rather than having to carry all that burden yourself are recreate the research wheel that everyone is doing throughout the industry, if you can come to a place and find that information in two minutes versus spending two hours [starting] from scratch to do it on your own thats a pretty valuable and compelling sort of value proposition that we can offer. And that’s sort of the power of a social media and what we’re putting together here. Not only does it help you do your job better but it’s just a faster, more efficient way to do it.

Trevor

Yeah. It’s great. I just signed up like a week ago so I’m just starting to dive around but I’m getting excited by all the things I’m seeing in there and looking forward to getting my hands into it a little bit more.

Let’s talk specifically about a client that you guys work with, or a partner I should say, in Major League Soccer. Maybe tell us a little bit about that partnership you have with those guys.

Kris

Sure. So anyone can come on and sign up for SponsorPitch as an individual professional and so kind of what we found based on our membership was that people from a lot of the same organizations kept signing up and getting active within the network. So what we’ve done recently is sort of partnered with a few different organizations and leagues to help them learn about SponsorPitch and make the resources available to their entire organization. So that’s sort of what we’re doing with Major League Soccer is try to make it more widely available to everyone within their organization and I applaud Major League Soccer for sort of taking the initiative and being forward thinking with something like this. So that’s sort of where that came from and as a part of that SponsorPitch is available to executives within the team front offices throughout the country.

Trevor

Nice. Well obviously a great success for you guys and just showing that you are growing and there are great things to come here in the future. I’m just looking at the dashboard right now Kris and I see there’s all kinds of stuff in here obviously. The ability to update your profile, there’s updated news to kind of have your finger on the pulse on whats going on, sponsor information, property information, connect with other people, there’s jobs inside here; it’s really evolved over the past few years.

Kris

Yeah, theres a lot going on. If you sign up the first page that you’ll get is what we call the dashboard which gives you a quick snapshot of the five or ten things that are happening today in the industry. What you can do from there is then follow the different brands that you’re either working with or want to be working with. You can follow other people in the network that you are working with or want to be working with. You can follow properties within the network that maybe you work with or you work at. So from that first page what we’re really trying to do is give you the information that is most important to you. So whatever you’re following within the network, the most recent updates from that will come directly to your dashboard.

So that when you log in Trevor, if you want to follow certain properties in Vancouver or you want to follow certain brands that are up there, what you’ll get when you sign in are updates based on those brands those properties and the people within your professional network. So that’s what that’s all about.

Trevor

Nice. Well I look forward to diving into this more. And Kris has actually agreed to do a Webinar with us here over the next couple of months, likely in February, so stay tuned for that we’re going to give you guys a heads up on that one. That would be for the members of our Sports Executives Association. We’ll really dive into all this stuff in more detail and show everybody the functionality and what you can do with it. In the meantime Kris tell everybody how they can go check out SponsorPitch and sign up.

Kris

Sure so all you have to do is go to SponsorPitch.com and the sign up takes probably less than 10 seconds so sign up and take it from there.

Trevor

Nice. Well thats very much for doing this Kris, really appreciate it and we’ll talk to you soon.

Kris

Thanks a lot Trevor.

Have you joined SponsorPitch yet?  If so, what has been your experience so far?  Let us know in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Trevor Turnbull

Trevor Turnbull is the COO of Sports Networker & the Sports Executives Association .

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The Sportsbiz Weekly buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards 

Sports Business

Mets, in Hiring Financial Firm, Insist It’s Not About Bankruptcy

“CRG Partners lists as its special talents financial advisory work, restructuring and reorganization, and turnaround management — polite descriptions of services needed by companies in distress. The firm’s Web site names a long list of clients, from Kmart to Popeyes Chicken to Sunbeam Products. As of this week, the firm’s client list formally includes the New York Mets.”

2012 – Business In Sports Will See Also-rans, Surprises

“This year’s only labor negotiation will be in the NHL, with the current CBA expiring on Sept. 15. There is way too much at stake for either side to even think about playing chicken, but a work stoppage is still a real possibility. With former MLBPA executive director Don Fehr now leading the NHLPA, owners won’t be able to dictate to the players as they did in the last negotiation.”

Sports Networking

How Diverse Are Women’s College Sports?

“Recently, the NCAA published the most recent school-year’s participation data, which includes breakdowns by sex, race, sport, division, and conference. Because this data set goes back to the 1999-2000 school year, I decided to use it to look for trends in racial diversity in women’s college athletics over the last decade. Several hours and few Excel spreadsheets later, I have the some questions and answers to report”

Sports Leagues Should Embrace Active “Employees” on Twitter

“The best brands invite engagement. They showcase authenticity and reply to criticism, instead of deleting it. They also harness the power of their most credible marketers – their employees. Because of social media, employees now have personal brands of their own and can be quite influential. When you think of the personal brands of professional athletes – ‘Employees’ and their leagues/teams – ‘Companies’, the influence is exponential.”

Sports Marketing

Digital Advertisements Sell Out For the Super Bowl

“Corporations have capitalized on NBC Sports’ decision to live-stream the NFL’s Super Bowl. Advertising packages are sold out for the live streaming broadcast of the Feb. 5 game, NBC Sports spokesman Chris McCloskey told the International Business Times Wednesday. Although the value of an advertising package wasn’t released, there were reports that the package prices ranged from six figures to the low sevens.”

Northwestern Mutual joins March Madness with sports marketing sponsorship

“A new advertising campaign featuring Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. will be unveiled during this year’s men’s Division I NCAA basketball tournament, kicking off the first national sports marketing sponsorship in company history.”

Sports Sponsorship

Growing Company Publicity Through Sports Sponsorship

“The usage of sporting activities intended for marketing has been employed for over one decade and it also has attained recognition because of the development in interest in the many types of sports activities and games. Entrepreneurs took the nice thing about the uniqueness of sporting activities. This is the sole enjoyment in which regardless of number of instances that you get back you can never foresee the results.”

The Relationship Between an Athlete and Your Brand

“Athletes and sports brands are like rhythm and melody. One rarely exists without the other. The symbiosis between the two creates a working relationship where one can benefit from the other and vice versa. It is important for owners of sports brand names to be aware of the relationship of their product and its ambassador.”

Sports Ticket Sales

LSU and Alabama ride money train to title matchup

“Two of the most profitable football programs in the country will ensure another BCS streak continues: National titles staying in the hands of mega-moneymakers.”

Lucky Few To Get 100m Final Tickets After Synchronized Swimming Was Overbooked By 10,000

“Around 200 people who thought their only experience of the London 2012 Olympic Games would be minor heats of synchronized swimming have received an unexpected upgrade to the men’s 100m final following an embarrassing ticketing mistake.”

Sports Social Media

Urban Meyer Bans Twitter for Ohio State Football Players, Sparking a Debate on…Twitter

“Newly hired Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is banning his players from using Twitter, according to Rob Oller of the Columbus Dispatch. ‘Urban Meyer bans Twitter for #Buckeyes players. Scarlet & Gray Matter, however, remains safely outside the #OhioState clutches.,’ Oller tweeted. The news sparked a bit of a debate, on Twitter of all places, among members of the media. CNBC’s sports business reporter Darren Rovell claims Meyers players will miss out on important ‘life skills not taught in the classroom’”

High school basketball video shows power of social media (VIDEO)

“Michael Christenson of Yakima said he was only trying to illustrate a point to a small group of Highland High School students and parents about the need for better basketball officials. To his surprise and dismay, however, the video he uploaded of several hard fouls during the Cowiche school’s boys game at Connell on Dec. 22 has gone viral, collecting more than 25,000 hits since the video was posted on YouTube on Dec. 28.”

Sports Media

Former Red Sox PR Pro Tells All

“Former Boston Red Sox PR pro Doug Bailey has penned a 4,400-word tell-all piece for Boston Magazine, an inside account that will no doubt roil his former clients and agency colleagues. But the piece is a valuable behind-the-scenes look at sports PR, in addition to a treasure trove for Sox fanatics.”

Turner Sports PR Veteran Pomeroy Tips Off Atlanta Shop

“Longtime Turner Sports veteran Jeff Pomeroy has left the programmer to open his own public relations shop.
Based in Atlanta, JDP Communications’ initial client roster comprises A & M Holding Group (AMHG), the owners and operators of Sadekar World Golf; All-American Games, the owners and producers of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl; and the Kenny Smith Entertainment Group. Additional clients are expected to be announced at a later date.”

Sports Technology

New Deal Will Bring WatchESPN App to Comcast Xfinity Subscribers

“We can now add Comcast TV subscribers to the list of TV providers with access to the WatchESPN family of mobile apps. Comcast and Disney (parent of ESPN) announced an agreement that (among a lot of other things) will open the door for Comcast Xfinity customers to access ESPN content on their iPhone, iPad and Android devices with the WatchESPN app.”

Football Failing to Use Technology on Offer

“Soccer is a business enterprise like no other. We are into the early weeks of a new soccer season and there have already been a volume of suspect and poor refereeing decisions. Today we are able to evaluate the incidents from multiple cameras; there are no longer grey areas for for spectators. The cameras reveal everything. We can watch matches on our televisions, our I-phones, our I-pads and other devices. There is no hiding place for on-field officials when they get things wrong.”

Sports Jobs

Sports Jobs “A Drug” for Top Executives

“The Miami Dolphins may have chauffeured a prospective coach and president in by chopper. But the team could probably have just handed the pair some cab chits. Where extravagant enticements are dangled before prospective titans in the “real” business world, major league sports organizations need only hang out a help-wanted sign to lure elite candidates.”

Notre Dame Announces Major Staff Shakeup

“On the eve of the Champs Sports Bowl, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly pronounced himself genuinely “excited” that he would be keep his coaching staff in place for 2012. Five days later, that’s not even close to the reality”

Sports Events

How the BCS Killed the Orange Bowl

“The Orange Bowl was once among the premier games in all of college football, but the BCS has squeezed all the life out of the Miami showdown.” – Great article, particularly after how bad this year’s Orange Bowl was. Disregard the prediction however; Samuel got the team right but no one could have predicted that score.

NHL’s Winter Classic: Its uniqueness fails to come across on TV

“The outdoor game between the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers at Citizens Bank Park has a compelling finish. But as a showcase experience, the Classic falls short.”

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts about the Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

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As New Year’s Day comes and goes the sports fan is reminded of an interesting truth – the home viewing experience of a sporting event is beginning to outweigh the experience of actually being there. From high definition to 3D to 80 inch screens, anyone can essentially bring the “at the game feel” to home without spending the money on tickets, souvenirs, food and beer. In fact, today the sports organizations are the ones who need to lure fans with gimmicks to draw them in.

FanCam technology is certainly no gimmick, and it is the next big reason why fans will get back to attending sporting events.

FanCam Brings Fans A Unique Chance to Interact

The FanCam, from Replay Photos out of Durham, NC, is a 360-degree high definition photo of a field or court that fans can find and “tag” themselves in and then share on Facebook, Twitter or Email. The photo is taken during player introductions and can be found online just 24 hours after the game was the played. The photo taken is 10 billion pixels and has a resolution so high that fans can zoom in on the section they sat in the night before and clearly see their face.

“It places the fan at the center of the event,” said Sue Harnett, founder of Replay Photos. “Fans in attendance may locate themselves at any location in the venue and share with friends via social media channels. Fans who are not able to attend may still participate by entering competitions, viewing premium content and experiencing the event long after its completion.” If you go to the site right now you can find events available from as early as January. The interaction occurs in allowing fans to do something like find all the team logos and win exclusive prizes. There are also unique videos on the site that bring the fan even more incredible content they likely haven’t seen before.

Fans will also be able to purchase their favorite FanCam photos after simply cropping it as a print or custom frame photo quickly and easily from Replay Photos. Whether you are the one going nuts or your crazy uncle is, the photo can be shipped anywhere in the United States to the fan of your choice.

With the FanCam Replay Photos is hoping to “provide fans a unique platform to put themselves at the center of the event while allowing teams and sponsors to interact with the most passionate of their fan base…those in attendance at their games,” according to Harnett, who is also a former All-American center at Duke.

The technology is beginning to expand it’s horizons as well. After taking photos at big games like the Knicks-Celtics Christmas Day game and the Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 3, FanCam will next take on the BCS National Championship that stacks Alabama against LSU to make sure all the SEC fans attending can prove they were there. And that’s not the the only progression the FanCam is making in the new year.

“The FanCam will continue to evolve around fan-centric capabilities,” says Harnett. “A mobile solution in the first half of 2012 will allow for in-venue fan engagement. Ultimately, the FanCam will become a communication and interactive platform for fans.”

In-venue fan engagement, taking photos of yourself at a game home and proving you were there. It’s needless to say the FanCam will bring the fan to the stadium. I just hope they can stop by my hometown so I can Google image myself.

Have you used FanCam and have your own opinion about it or Replay Sports? Start the conversation in the comments section below! Also please feel free to share this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Steve Richards

Steve is a recent graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Sports Journalism from the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. He is currently working as a marketing and PR intern for Sports Networker.

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The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards 

Sports Business

From Albert Pujols to LeBron James – Are Top Athletes Overpaid?

“But what, exactly, is the assertion behind “overpaid?” Most who say it simply mean that “athletes make too much money,” an understandable opinion. Eight-and-nine-figure paydays for top athletes may be too much for some of our comfort, but as far as being paid more than they’re due … most aren’t.”

Let’s Start Paying College Athletes

“With Emmert’s backing, the N.C.A.A.’s board of directors, composed of college and university presidents agreed to make it permissible for Division I schools to pay their athletes a $2,000 stipend. When I saw Emmert in November, shortly after the new rule went into effect, I told him that the stipend struck me as a form of payment to the players. He visibly stiffened. “If we move toward a pay-for-play model — if we were to convert our student athletes to employees of the university — that would be the death of college athletics,” Emmert retorted. “Then they are subcontractors. Why would you even want them to be students? Why would you care about their graduation rates? Why would you care about their behavior?” No, he insisted, the extra $2,000 was an effort to increase the value of the scholarships, which some studies estimate falls on average about $3,500 short of the full cost of attending college annually.”

Sports Networking

Top 5 Women’s Sports Events of 2011

“2011 was an intense year for women in sports. While we’re looking forward to more excitement in 2012 (including the Olympics!), let’s also take a look back on this year’s top five most memorable moments in women’s athletics, good and bad.”

What LeBron James Can Teach Us About Personal Branding

“The NBA season tipped off on Christmas day, which meant a return to the spotlight for LeBron James and the Miami Heat. As you probably know, LeBron James generated controversy–not to mention numerous headlines–last season with his decision to publicly jilt the Cleveland Cavaliers in favor of the Miami Heat. In the process, LeBron’s personal brand evolved substantially from a fan favorite, to a villain, to a gradually “rehabbed” image this off-season. There are a number of lessons that are relevant to business owners seeking to build a strong personal brand in 2012. Below are three of the most important.”

Sports Marketing

Loving the Online Era of Sports Marketing

“This week I have been telling you a little more about myself. Now comes the revelation of something that has been the cornerstone of many relationships throughout my life and has already been passed on to the next generation as well. I am a New York Giants fan. I bleed blue during the NFL season.  And while I can’t be at the game I can live many things I could never experience during the years of the pre-social media era. I “like” the Giants on Facebook and I was given this picture today through an update which got me pretty excited.”

Ducks New Uniforms Steal From Disney’s Day

At the Happiest Place on Earth, several hundred Oregon football fans had more than one reason to cheer Tuesday. Early Tuesday morning, Nike unveiled the newest — and, according to the company, the best — set of uniforms for the trend-setting Ducks, who will wear dark ‘Pro Combat’ gear for the Rose Bowl.”

Sports Sponsorship

The Reason Why Sports Sponsorship and Marketing has Started to Become Popular in Asia

“Asia has no doubt now become a marketing and advertising playground for worldwide brands and businesses to grow their market over and above common reach. Many companies have acknowledged that sports provide an amazing possibility to be changed into an influential and profitable marketing strategy for virtually any brand’s growth plus it absolutely outshines classic merchandising efforts by reaching a mass which far outnumbers the ones from other channels. ”

AirAsia Extends Sponsorship Deal with 1Malaysia Racing Team

“AirAsia Bhd is maintaining its presence in the Formula One racing scene and this has seen it extending its sponsorship agreement with 1Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd (Caterham F1) for another year, starting Jan 1, 2012.”

Sports Ticket Sales

News Flash: College Football is Run By Corporate America

“To fully understand the corporate greed of college football, just take a look at the names of the 35 bowl games that are currently being contested. Every single one of them has a corporate sponsor in its name. Even the self-described “Granddaddy of Them All,” the Rose Bowl, has a sponsor — The Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio. But that doesn’t even compare to some of the other corporations who will put their names on bowl games this holiday season.”

2,000 Students Expected at Music City Bowl

“Piling a bunch of people in a car and going to a famous destination is how a lot of great tales begin. For Mississippi State University students and recent graduates, bowl games represent the perfect excuse for that classic college road trip story. The Bulldogs program qualifying for back-to-back postseason berths has given college students two straight trips to experience another valuable memory of not only the finale of a college football season but also what is possibly the final trip of their academic careers.”

Sports Social Media

The 2011 Sports Social Media Superstars

“There’s no question that sports and social media are indelibly intertwined. Of course, you could say that for social media and just about anything in society these days. But while Facebook, Twitter and various other platforms have been around for a few years, 2011 seemed to be the tipping point. Beyond Twitter spats and among an ever-updating array of trending topics, social media has become a go-to source for breaking news as well as a forum where fans can celebrate, commiserate or connect with players and fellow and opposing fans. With all that in mind, @Page2 looks back at the biggest sports and social media moments of 2011.”

2011 Belonged to Twitter. So Does the Future of Sports Media

“Every morning starts the same way for me, I roll over and check Twitter on my iPhone. I check Twitter before I check my email, my text messages, or even get out of bed. My wife has even threatened to start her own Twitter account to remind me to take out the trash. I read all the news from the 170 or so people I follow and then I read every single thing y’all send my way. Put simply, I’m addicted to Twitter. Twitter is a media game-changer, the Cam Newton of Internet companies, and I’m going to tell you why”

Sports Media

Top Sports Media News Items of 2011

“It’s tradition that news organizations look at the top stories of the year as December winds down.  Why should we be any different?  Here are what we consider the top sports media news stories for 2011.”

Fox Sports Media Group EVP Doug Sellars Dies at 50

“Toronto native Sellars, who joined Fox Sports in 2000, was instrumental in the formation of Fox’s Speed (previously the Speed Channel). Since August, when he was promoted to his most recent position, Sellars had overseen studio and event production for Fox Sports Media Group’s numerous channels and entities, including Fox Sports, Speed, Fox Deportes, Fuel TV and FoxSports.com. He also served as an adviser to the Big Ten Network.”

Sports Technology

Mark Cuban is Dead Wrong About Smartphones at Sports Games

“A couple of days ago, Dallas Mavericks owner and all-around smart guy Mark Cuban blogged a passionate post about how he didn’t want smartphones at basketball games because he believes that every time you’re looking down at your device is a moment where he has failed to do his job of entertaining you. While I respect Cuban and this argument, I believe it is dead wrong and that smart teams will embrace mobile technology to enhance the sports-going experience in multiple ways.”

Game On: HD Streaming Site FilmOn Debuts NCAA Basketball, Football Channels

“FilmOn, the premium-content internet streaming site that met controversy earlier this year over lawsuits involving CBS, CNET, and copyright, is expanding its line up, adding two new sports channels for NCAA Basketball and NCAA Football. FilmOn says it will be offering the content in partnership with XOS Digital, a company that provides digital asset management services to college sports organizations.”

Sports Jobs

More Than 800 Unpaid Interns Hired at Arts and Sports Groups in Two Years

“Research by the Labour MP Luciana Berger shows that in the last two years 884 unpaid interns were employed by 34 organisations funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Some 467 were employed in 2010, dropping slightly to 417 in 2011.”

Jordan Juenemann Thrilled to Land Internship in Athletics

“Jordan Juenemann will be spending more time than usual in Allen Fieldhouse second semester.’I’ll be a working man — 8 (a.m.) to 3 (p.m.) until we practice, wearing a suit and tie,’ Juenemann, Kansas University’s 6-foot-3 senior walk-on basketball guard, said proudly. The exercise-science major, who minored in business the past four years at KU, has landed a 15-hour internship with KU’s Williams Fund to complete his undergraduate academic responsibilities.”

Sports Events

These 11 Figures Made Biggest NHL News in 2011

“There are dozens of headliners in the NHL every year, but many create stories that become big for a day, maybe two before they’re forgotten. There are those, however, that create headlines that are so big and newsworthy that their stories live on for days, weeks, months and in some cases even years. In 2011, there was no shortage of players, coaches, and executives that made news that shocked and rocked the hockey world. We’ve narrowed the list down to the 11 biggest newsmakers of the year.”

London 2012: Does Olympic Success Fill A Nation With Pride?

“As 2012 begins, the BBC has revealed the findings of a poll which asked people around the world about the influence of Olympic success on their national pride. Nearly half of those questioned in the UK said performance mattered ‘only a little’ whilst the majority of people in developing and middle-income countries said they got the greatest lift from Olympic achievement. BBC 2012 asked members of the public in London, Bristol, Edinburgh, Dumfries, Wrexham and Belfast for their views.”

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts about the Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

Web | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | More Posts (187)

The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards  

Sports Business

$20 Million Can Buy Quality Time with Mr. Met

“Of course, the owners of the Mets, who have spent the last four months trying to line up 10 or so minority partners, have some long-term upsides to sell: the $20 million would buy 4 percent of a New York City sports franchise that, history instructs, is likely to rise in value over time.”

10 Sports Business Stories to Watch in 2012

“For readers of sports business news, 2011 was spent first and foremost following labor negotiations in the NFL.  Lawyers and judges involved with the NFL lockout became well-known names among those that consume a steady diet of sports information…So what does the future hold for the sports business industry in 2012?  Here are 10 topics to follow.”

Sports Networking

High Profile Speakers at 5th World Conference on Women and Sport

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced the list of speakers at the 5th World Conference on Women and Sport to take place in Los Angeles, California, from 16-18 February, 2012. Under the theme ‘Together Stronger: the Future of Sport’, the three-day conference will bring together high-level speakers from a variety of backgrounds”

Five Personal Branding Tools Every Job Candidate Needs

“If you want to be taken seriously as a job candidate, and stand out as someone who really knows what they’re doing, and that you’re plugged in, you need to have a few personal branding tools.”

Sports Marketing

The Super Bowl to be Streamed Live in the U.S. for the First Time

“For the first time, Super Bowl, Pro Bowl and NBC’s Wild Card Saturday doubleheader will be available to fans on television, online and on select mobile phones, the NFL announced today.  NBC’s postseason games will be broadcast on NBC as well as streamed live on NFL.com and NBCSports.com, and will be available on NFL Mobile only from Verizon.  This marks the first time postseason games will be available in the U.S. via live online streaming and via a mobile app.”

Perform Buys Two German Sports Media Firms in €12.35m Deal

“Digital sports rights company Perform has acquired two German digital sports media companies in a deal worth up to €12.35m (£10.3m). Perform, which listed on the stock exchange earlier this year and whose largest shareholder is US billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, has acquired Spox Media and Mediasports Digital.”

Sports Sponsorship

Double Deal for Phoenix Suns

“Familia Camarena Tequila has renewed its sponsorship deal with the Phoenix Suns NBA team for another year. Following a successful first season with the franchise, the tequila brand will retain a presence on English and Spanish in-game radio broadcasts during the 2011-2012 regular season, as well as home game brand exposure.”

Boosting Brand Exposure by Using Sports Sponsorship

“The use of sporting events for advertising and marketing has been used for more than a decade and it has obtained acceptance because of the development in interest in the many kinds of sporting activities and games. Entrepreneurs took the benefit of the uniqueness of sports activities. This is the sole leisure in which no matter the volume of times you go back you can’t ever forecast the actual end result.”

Sports Ticket Sales

Coyotes’ COO Talks Ticket Sales, Team’s Future

“Coyotes chief operating officer Mike Nealy says ticket sales at Jobing.com Arena are up 25 percent from last year and 60 percent from two years ago.”

Olympic Ticket Sales Off to A Good Start

“President of the Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) Wellington Miller is pleased with how fast the tickets are being sold in the Bahamas, for next year’s Olympic Games, are moving. Miller said more than 60 percent of the tickets are sold, and he is expecting and increase in sales next year as the games approach.”

Sports Social Media

Great Examples of Social Media Marketing in Sports

“With 40% of US individuals utilizing second screen devices, it is tough to ignore the over-saturation of trending topics revolving around the big game, the star athlete, or the Twitter-revoked and tackle-taking cheerleaders with weeklong glory. Sports fans are verbal, they are passionate, and they are opinionated, which presents a unique opportunity for leagues and brands to create brilliant examples of social media campaigns, contests, case studies, and even now, on-field tangibles to leverage this enthusiasm. With that, I bring you some spectacular examples of social media implementation into the sporting world.”

Pro Team to Sport Twitter Handles Instead of Names on Jerseys

“Here’s a new twist on the intersection of social media and sports. The Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League    Latest from The Business Journals are replacing the names normally found on the back of players’ jerseys with their Twitter handles for the team’s Feb. 12 game.”

Sports Media

Penn State Saga Voted AP Story of the Year

“The ouster of one of America’s most revered coaches, Penn State’s Joe Paterno, after shocking child sex abuse charges against his former assistant was overwhelmingly voted the sports story of the year by members of The Associated Press.”

Anatomy of A Deal: How NBC Sports Landed in Stamford

“While the price was considered a bargain for a commercial property of that size, it was nonetheless perceived to be a bold risk in an uncertain economy. One commercial real estate expert opined that any new use would require considerable investment and ‘imaginative’ refurbishment.”

Sports Technology

Spurs First with Paperless Tickets

“In an age where you can now board an airplane by scanning a barcode on your smart phone, the San Antonio Spurs will lead the technology revolution in the sports world as they become the first franchise to offer paperless season tickets.”

Are You Watching This?! sports tracker for Android adds remote control for DirecTV, TiVo, Google TV

“The Are You Watching This?! app has a long history of making sure sports fans don’t miss the big games with its bookmarklets and apps that popped up notifications or emailed reminders. Now a new upgrade on Android, along with a few connected TV platforms, has taken things to the next level. In its newest iteration, the free app ties into DirecTV, TiVo or Google TV setups with IP control for one click switching to the appropriate channel — key when a game is coming down to the last play and you’re not sure where the remote is or which channel NBA / NFL / MLB etc. action is on.”

Sports Jobs

About Lewis Howes

Web | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | More Posts (187)

The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards

Sports Business

You Say Potato, Idaho Says Cha-Ching 

“Companies that sponsor these games are hoping you’ll be thinking about them when you turn on the TV or walk into the stadium. From pizza and fried chicken to auto parts and insurance, 35 companies jumped in to have their name plastered on this year’s bowl games. But what’s really in it for these businesses, who are shelling out hundreds of thousands of sponsorship dollars?”

Tim Tebow Joining LeBron and Tiger as Stars Moving the Sports Needle

“Clearly, the Broncos quarterback is moving the sports needle nationally. But by how much, and who else is doing likewise? To get an answer we sought advice from a number of sources, including those in sports marketing, television and research.”

Sports Networking

A Sports Pioneer for Women

“Jean Price is being remembered as a torchbearer for women in sports, someone who was living an active lifestyle decades before it became vogue.”

How Your Personal Brand Will Get You Hired 

“As Dan Schwabel has said before, ‘If a resume was the deciding factor in recruitment, there would never be a need for interviews.’ Here are some reasons how your personal brand can get you hired.”

Sports Marketing

EA Sports Creating Real-World Experiences

“EA Sports is no longer tethered to the virtual world. The brand, known for its celebrity-driven sports games like Madden and the Tiger Woods golf titles, is branching out into airports and cruise ships.”

Republican Rob Cornilles’ sports marketing company looms large in his race for Congress

“Tualatin businessman Rob Cornilles is putting his unusual career in sports marketing to a new purpose: selling himself to voters as the Republican candidate in Oregon’s 1st Congressional District. ”

Sports Sponsorship

GAC Dunks Logistics Deal with Houston Rockets

“The deal marks GAC’s first foray into basketball and its first sports sponsorship in the United States. Internationally, GAC is already a sponsor and supplier of logistics for sports like football, sailing, golf and motor racing.”

Playing in the Big Leagues

“Sports team and event sponsorship has become ubiquitous in the world of big corporate marketing, but until now has remained a closed shop to smaller companies. However, with the great power of sport to unite and excite people, it’s natural that businesses of all sizes would want a piece of the action for their brand marketing strategy. Enter VirtualSponsorship.com.”

Sports Ticket Sales

Ticket Sales are Slow for Virginia Tech’s Sugar Bowl Trip

“It hasn’t been easy for Virginia Tech to sell its allotment of 17,500 tickets for the Sugar Bowl. After nearly two weeks of sales, the school is nearing the 10,000 mark, with a final estimate only slightly higher.”

Business is Heating Up for 2012 PGA Championship

“The Aug. 6-12 event is projected to draw 210,000 spectators during its seven-day run. More than 50,000 of those will come from out-of-town, filling up hotels and restaurants across metro Charleston and stimulating the local economy at a time of year when the sultry temperatures tend to keep visitors off the streets and at the beach in the nation’s No. 1 tourist destination.”

Sports Social Media

Learning From the Sports Industry Can Help You Win on Twitter

“Twitter has done wonders for the world of sports in quite a few ways. It may seem like the world of sports is completely separate from Twitter strategies for businesses, but when you break it down, it turns out that the smart use of Twitter for sports is based on the same principals as the smart use of Twitter for businesses.”

Canadian Players Develop Own Social Media Policy

“Don Hay admits he’s not exactly a Twitter aficionado. In fact, the coach of the Canadian world junior hockey team doesn’t tweet, period. Texts, yes. Tweets, no. Still, social media plays a part in today’s hockey world, and Hay has some definite opinions on how the 22 Canadian players should conduct themselves over the next two weeks in the Twitterverse.”

Sports Media

Broadcasting Wins Big with NFL Deals

“The contract renewals of NBC, CBS and Fox preserve for another nine years the mutually prosperous relationship between pro football and TV broadcasting. The extensions send a wonderful message about broadcasting and the network-affiliate partnership at the heart of it. They say that broadcasting is here to stay and will continue to be the dominant television medium. And it’s all thanks to retransmission consent. Let’s hope the FCC doesn’t mess that up.”

Dana White Named Broadcasting & Cable Magazine 2011′s Top Sports TV Executive

“White has had quite a year, helping orchestrate the UFC’s seven-year deal with Fox which will see the MMA organization run four events on “big” Fox with secondary programming featuring live events and compilation programs spilling over to FX, Fuel TV and other Fox family outlets.”

Sports Technology

Microsoft and Nokia Pay Perform for A Mobile Soccer App

“Illustrating how rival platforms are keen to attract quality apps from iOS to their stores, Nokia and Microsoft are funding online sports broadcasting powerhouse Perform Group to build an app for their Windows Phone 7 and Symbian handsets. Perform is building an app in-house for Goal.com, the soccer website it acquired earlier this year, which already has iPhone andAndroid apps, built by Handmark.”

What is the Future for Sports Technology?

“In accordance with the constant natural selection of continual progress, old technologies will first have to adapt, and then gradually fade out to make way for new and better ones, as digital really is the future. As a way of connecting to favorite radio and video transmissions via your smartphone, laptop or desktop computer, many a web development company is producing useful website widgets.”

Sports Jobs

The Value of an MBA In the Sports Industry

“How valuable do sports industry professionals consider their MBA qualification to be in the sports industry?”

Tuiasosopo Steps Into New Role with Bruins

“Things didn’t work out the way they were supposed to for former University of Washington star Marques Tuiasosopo when he decided to come to UCLA.”

Sports Events

5 Bold Predictions for Christmas Day Games (VIDEO)

“This Christmas Day, basketball fans will receive the best gift ever in the form of five NBA games that signal the start of the lockout-shortened season.  The five matchups feature a new-look team, an NBA Finals rematch along with a rivalry game and two other great contests.”

Stanley Cup Riot: Precedence Points to Prison

“In court cases precedent is always important. Meaning if someone has previously received a certain sentence for a crime, then another person who commits the same crime under similar circumstances will get the same sentence. The 2011 Stanley Cup riot was nothing new to this fine city, as exactly the same thing happened in 1994. So what happened to those charged after the 1994 riot?”

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts about the Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

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The Sportsbiz Weekly Buzz is a collection of articles curated by Sports Networker’s Online Marketing Coordinator – Steve Richards

Sports Business

50 Most Influential People in Sports Business

“Media moves as well as labor harmony (or the lack thereof) shake up our annual list of the executives who set the agenda for North American sports.”

With Jose Reyes on Miami Marlins, Queens Economy Could Take Hit

“Come April, Jose Reyes will probably be the first home batter at the new Miami Marlins ballpark, ushering in a promising age for an up-and-coming team. But what of the team and borough he leaves behind?”

Sports Networking

Three Ways to Dominate Your Market Without Spending a Fortune

“It is important for business owners to find something that makes them stand out in their market — to differentiate themselves from their competition. And that is where personal branding comes into play. Personal branding is a proven method by which business owners can separate themselves from the rest of their market. A strong personal brand positions the business owner as an expert in his or her field — allowing him to attract more business without slashing prices.”

49ers Host Women in Sports Forum (VIDEO)

“The 49ers organization hosted a Women in Sports Forum to encourage the growth of women in sports-related careers.”

Sports Marketing

Under Armour Fashioning Sports Marketing Battle to Continue Assault on Nike, Adidas

“In the world of collegiate and professional sports, it’s usually difficult to take a 15-year-old very seriously. But athletic performance apparel and footwear company Under Armour, founded in 1996, has played the game tough in going up against the likes of Nike and Adidas.”

Red Sox Gear Up Marketing Pitch for Fenway’s 100th Anniversary

“Red Sox fans devastated by the September disaster might go so far as to make a New Year’s resolution to never give another nickel of their hard-earned money to that team — but they’ll have a hard time keeping that promise. In 2012, the bunting will adorn Fenway Park not just for Opening Day, but for the ballpark’s 100th anniversary, and diehard fans will find themselves tempted with hundreds of ways to spend cash on centennial souvenirs.”

Sports Sponsorship

Sponsorship to Take Over As Biggest Sports Industry Segment by 2014

“A new report examining the global sports market over the five years to 2015 predicts that sponsorship will show a compound annual growth rate of 5.3 percent between 2011 and 2015, in spite of the difficult prevailing economic circumstances.”

Mercury Insurance Shares Secrets of Sports Sponsorship Success

“Tonight you can see the Los Angeles Kings aim to repeat their Saturday victory over the Minnesota Wild when the team faces the arch rival Anaheim Ducks at STAPLES Center.  For an encore, you can see the Kings compete against the Ducks in Anaheim tomorrow night.  While you are there, you can also see how successful sports sponsorships work and find ways to benefit your own business.”

Sports Ticket Sales

Buy Madison Square Garden Shares and Own 4 Sports Teams

“It’s a sale like this past week’s ownership stake in the Green Bay Packers that reminds me of how unique an investment in Madison Square Garden (MSG) is. The company is publicly traded and, unlike the Green Bay Packers shares, rises and falls with the success of the teams it owns and how much money it earns in a year. It is the dream of any sports fan to own a professional sports team. While almost all sports fans never make it to the front office or full ownership stake, they have the option to participate in owning shares of publicly traded Madison Square Garden.”

NBA Reaching Out to Fans with Special Ticket Offers

“The Philadelphia 76ers reduced ticket fees by as much as 61%. For 13 home games in January, mezzanine tickets are $17.76 or less, with no online fees if bought through the team’s website. Before the lockout, the 76ers reduced ticket prices on nearly 9,000 seats. The club plans to send its season-ticket booklets within two weeks.”

Sports Social Media

Watch That Tweet! NCAA Colleges Wrestle with Social Media Recruiting Rules

“If a college sports fan makes a plea for a player via Facebook or Twitter, does that constitute a violation of N.C.A.A. rules? That’s one of the questions at the heart of an academic paper by Victor Broccoli, a 2010 graduate of Tulane University Law School and lawyer in Rutherfordton, N.C. In a paper titled “Policing the Digital Wild West: N.C.A.A. Recruiting Regulations in the Age of Facebook and Twitter,” Broccoli argues that the N.C.A.A. faces difficulties when it comes to recruiting regulations and social networking.”

NFL Stars: The Secrets to Their Facebook Success

“You won’t see Jeff Weiner prowling NFL sidelines while barking orders into a headset, and he’s never won a Super Bowl or coach of the year award. But Weiner, 28, does play a crucial coaching role for NFL players by helping them leverage social media to market themselves and connect with fans. His clients are known for engaging especially well with supporters, and stars like James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley of the Pittsburgh Steelers rank among the most popular NFL players on Facebook.”

Sports Media

Networks Jostle for Tebow Sweepstakes

“The network lobbied hard behind the scenes to keep next Sunday’s Broncos- Patriots clash as a late game in its Sunday doubleheader after NBC made a strong pitch to broadcast the contest as part of its Sunday night ‘flex’ schedule. This upcoming CBS broadcast, with Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, will be seen by 70 percent of the country.”

Dodgers Can Sell Media Rights to Help Exit Bankruptcy

“A bankruptcy judge says he will approve a process for the Los Angeles Dodgers to sell media rights for future games as part of the team’s plan to exit bankruptcy. The plan calls for the Dodgers to receive initial bids by January 13 and complete the sale by April 30.”

Death of the Sports Interview

A bonus link for our loyal followers! This article has been getting a lot of publicity this week and for good reason – It is a must read for anyone in or interested in the sports media field.

Sports Technology

Investors Pump $1.75 million Into Bypass Lane’s Mobile “Beer-Me” Application

“The Austin-based company announced today that it has raised $1.75 million in new venture capital with funds earmarked primarily for building a sales organization. Investors include former Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs, Wasserman Media Group chairman and CEO Casey Wasserman and business managers for bicyclist Lance Armstrong. The nine-person company selected the investors on the basis of their connections to the sporting world, and expects to be able to draw upon their expertise to better penetrate the live sporting market.”

Stereobank Seeks 3D Sports Footage

“Having recently passed a 1000+ clip milestone, Co-Founder of S3D stock footage company Stereobank Benjamin Carlu, tells 3D Focus the company would welcome more S3D sports footage from contributors with the London Olympics 2012 fast approaching.”

Sports Jobs

Seeking Edge, MLB Clubs Invest in Front Office Talent

“The likely upcoming nine-figure contracts for free agent first basemen Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder still drive wins and losses, fan interest and TV ratings. But don’t overlook the increasing value of facts, figures and other data — and the people who interpret them.”

MBA Program in Sports Mangement – What You Need to Know

“Sports management is a lucrative career option that has not experienced any slowdown even during the recent economic crunch. This can be one of the best fields for those interested in business and sports. Equipped with an MBA in Sports Management you will open up innumerable career options in sports related fields…What You Need To Know Before Enrolling into An MBA In Sports Management Program”

Sports Events

NFL Teams with Disney for Super Bowl XLVI

“The league’s working with Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Institute on a “Fans First” initiative to train the 20,000 executives and employees who’ll work Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, 2012 in Indianapolis, says Frank Supovitz, senior vice president of events.”

Big East Expansion: The NCAA Needs to Examine the State of Conferences

“The expansion is going to create a conference that spans coast to coast, something that basically defeats the purpose of a conference anyway.”

Is there anything we missed this week in the world of sports business? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and please feel free to share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

About Lewis Howes

Web | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | More Posts (187)