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.'”
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