Cindy Jarvis, Steve Buchan, Roy Englebrecht and Bill Shumard pose for a photo during the event.
Last night I wrapped up another Roundtable for the Long Beach State Sports Management program. This program is certainly unique in that it brings 10 sports related-businesses from Southern California into one venue to meet, greet and interview with the newsest learning team of graduate students. Each master’s candidate is required to work in an sports management internship in addition to traditional classes. New students have a minimum of 100 hours per semester and more advanced students work 200 hours or more per semester.
Here is a list of the companies that participated last night.
We generally try and rotate the businesses that attend and provide new opportunities each semester. Some of the other business that have joined in the roundtable include the Los Angeles Dodgers, theLos Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Clippers, UC Irvine, Fox Sports, the Big West Conference, The Rose Bowl and many other groups.
I thought it would be good to see as much as read. Here is a brief video I put together with a few additional photos from the event for you to see.
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The folks at ESPN also have these two sites to visit
In the next week, these 10 topics for the Super Bowl will discussed over and over for anyone and everyone to debate, celebrate and regurgitate.
1. The most talked about ankle in Football
No question by now you have seen, read or heard a news story about the Colts’ Dwight Freeney and his ankle injury (torn ligament) ahead of Sunday. Just about everyone has made it a topic of the Colts pass rush on Sunday and a key factor to stopping Drew Brees.
2. The Best and Worst Super Bowl Commercials
This is certainly a game day topic and water cooler fodder for all Monday morning fans. Which was the best, worst, and/or funniest commercials seen during the Super Bowl. There have been some classics over time including this one I really liked when Michael Jordan and Larry Bird played an outrageous game of h-o-r-s-e in a McDonald’s commercials from a past Super Bowl
3. First For New Orleans or Peyton’s Legacy?
Sentimental favorite is on the Saints side for obvious reasons. As for Manning, the guy who could not win the big one might own two championship rings within the next five days. Let the debate begin.
4. The score by quarters
This week, bosses may or may not know that productivity is going down, or, maybe they are part of it. Fans across the nation and around the world are filling in blank squares as Super Bowl football pools his their stride. True confessions. I have never won a dime in a Super Bowl pool, but usually play them every year. Why? We all want to have a vested interest in rooting for SOMETHING even if our favorite childhood team is not playing in the big game. What numbers do you own and how many squares did you initial?
5. Who is Playing at Halftime?!
The legendary rock and roll band, The Who, is scheduled to perform during halftime of Super Bowl XLIV. The talk is starting this week, will pick up into game time and be reviewed by anyone who saw the performance starting on Monday/
6. Classic Super Bowl Foods
I was visiting the farmer’s market in my neighborhood over the weekend and stopped at a particular farmer who sells avocados (que Pavlov’s dog cause my mouth is watering). I asked him how business would be this week, leading up to the Super Bowl His eyes got wide and said this is his biggest week of the year. No surprise. Need some off the wall Super Bowl trivia to throw at friends. try these food based factsI wrote about last year at this time.
7. Living Up to Expectations
Reggie Bush has proven, at times to be a dynamic, all-star caliber NFL player. Bush, the number two pick in the 2006 National Football League Draft, though has also vanished from other football games and has been called Mr. Kardashian by skeptics. It is certainly a below the belt shot and reference to girlfriend Kim Kardashian. Bush has three touchdowns during the playoffs and has the greatest chance to quiet the critics, once and for all with a big game.
8. Media Day
It has been called a circus-like atmosphere, which is disguised as Super Bowl Media Day. Hundreds of media descend on players, coaches, trainers and even fans looking for a unique angle or story to tell as reporters look to fill time on TV, radio, print and blogs until Sunday. I always enjoy the story about the idiot questions a few knucklehead reporters wind up asking. That said, there is no shortage of topics or story lines this week. The Colts are return to Miami where they defeated the Chicago Bears three years ago during a rain soaked Super Bowl. You have a few stories lines about Peyton Manning, the son of legendary Saints QB Archie who grew up in New Orleans. You have the city’s recovery from the Hurricane, the Saints First Ever Super Bowl appearance and on and on it will go…..
9. The Sentimental Favorites
The average fan is going to want the Saints to win. As mentioned above, having never won the big prize, plus the post-Hurricane impact favors the Saints. However, the Las Vegas odds-makers for the Super Bowl Think Otherwise. I heard on the radio, Los Angeles DJ’s mentioning the odds had started at 5 points in favor of the Colts and since have moved to six points. Are they right? We will have to see….
10. Oh Yeah, the Game
After all is said and done, it is about 60 minutes in the biggest game, on the largest stage for people in the United States and around the world to watch. Four hours of an actual game-day football presentation and even more hours of analyzing the pre- and post game make it a day that keeps millions of Americans glued to the TV. (Hint) If you enjoy shopping with no traffic, today is your day.
When I worked for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, now known as theAnaheim Ducks, part of my responsibilities included overseeing the community relations team for the hockey club.
The CR department had several goals but part of the responsibilities was overseeing special events and raising money for the foundation.
Recently, I spoke with a friend of mine who was planning a special event for her non profit group (non sports related) — you can see the background story atthesportscalendar blog . It made me think, how are these events valued, internally by a team and what can be done to help improve the results.
Here are a few brief thoughts that crossed my mind.
* Don’t just measure how much money was made. Also figure out if you are generating more interest in terms of attendance, exposure from media an other variables
* Are you meeting your overall business goals?
* Are you following up with participants post-event — this is easily done via a survey to find out what was good and what can be improved.
* Test new components or twists when doing the same event year over year
* Certainly check for conflicts with other events and which days of the week have events performed the best.
* Don’t settle that you must continue to do things the same way as they have been done in the past
December is here and the holiday rush to buy presents is on. In a related move, I recently posted a one question poll and asked, would you consider purchasing a comprehensive 2010 event schedule with a focus on sports? The overwhelming majority, 66% said, yes, there is an interest in this solution.
Since then, I have been hard at work creating something that would fit everyone’s need. You can visit it here at SportsCalendarPro.com
First, I created a master sports calendar. It has every major sports event in the United States. What did I include? In no particular order, here is a listing of just SOME of the events. The Super Bowl, The 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2010 World Cup, College Bowl Games, The Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500, the men’s and women’s college basketball NCAA tournament and Final Four, sports conferences for sports related events like the IEG Sponsorship Summit and the 2010 World Sports Congress. There are about 100 sports events in all.
As a sports executive and dedicated sports fan, I want and need to know what is happening and when it is happening. It would be nice to find everything in one place for the enter year. I am tired of searching for the Next event. It is also great for planning events. Not a sports fan, but you may be involved in major life events like getting married or you are just planning major events like fundraising dinners? Then this is ideal for you as well. I cannot remember how many times a major golf event or fundraising dinner collided with a major sports event and either a TV was wheeled in an event or continuous updates were given to keep people informed.
Belowis a snap shot of the calendar for two weeks in April. If you click on the image you can see it in a full screen view.
If you want additional details of the event itself, you can click on say The NCAA Frozen Four dates and you will see this
At SportsCalendarPro.com, I created the site where you can view it online via a gmail account and from there, you can easily download this or sync it with Outlook and iphone. I did it and it now runs as event dates on my master calendar.
The second option is to purchase the 2010 Master Calendar. This includes not only al of the sporting events, but also includes the 2010 Entertainment Calendar, the 2010 Technology Calendar and major U.S. holidays. For example, want to know when the 2010 Academy Awards take place or the ESPYs? Maybe you want to visit the Sundance Film Festival, CES in Las Vegas or Macworld? Then, this option is for you.
Last, which you won’t find on the home page but you will find on the ordering page, is the 2010 Custom Calendar. It includes all of the above and allows you to add four (total) sports team schedules to the mix. For example, say you live in New York or the Boston area. You can add the 2010 schedule for the Yankees, Mets, Nicks and Islanders in one place. Hate NY teams but love Boston sports? Then you can choose the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics schedules.
You write a sports related blog? This allows you to preview the event since you know what is coming up.
Okay, it is the first time I have blatently plugged a product in the year I have been writing this sports business blog, but it is my product and I really believe in it.
Please, visit the site, Re-Tweet and Post this onto facebook or Digg for others to see.
Consider purchasing this unique holiday gift for the sports fan or event planner in your life.
It may be November, but 2010 is just around the corner. Where does the time go this year?
My guess is, part of your energy has gone into finalizing schedules, planning budgets, checking on event availability and things like this. Even if you do not work in the sports industry and are planning an event for next year, you need to know what may conflict with your own agenda. Ever plan a fundraiser and it lands on….. a March Madness game? the World Series? Your home team’s biggest event of the year?
For that reason, I have developed a 2010 master calendar. The main focus is on sporting events things like College football bowl games, the Super Bowl, Wimbledon but also includes events like published sports conferences from a variety of groups. Additionally, there are a handful of non-sports events like The Sundance Festival, CES (technology trade show) the Academy Awards as well as general U.S. holidays. In all, there are more than 50 events so far and I am adding more as they are listed.
Here is the question of the day. It is simple and is one question only. I would sincerely welcome your feedback. Please take a moment to participate!
This week, we had our monthly board meeting at the Orange County Youth Sports Foundation (OCYSF). I have been apart of this 501c-3, non-profit group since my time with the (then) Mighty Ducks and I am proud to say the group has had a positive impact on on the lives of many.
First, some brief history…..OCYSF is a non-profit organization based in Southern California. The board is comprised of businessmen who are devoted to athletics and our county’s youth. The Foundation distributes scholarships and grants to young athletes in Orange County and provides assistance to tax-exempt, sports related organizations. The Foundation also assists individuals who have medical needs related to or associated with athletics.
It is a great group of folks that have fun and make an impact in the local community. Some of the members include former USC star and NFLer Mike Salmon, gold medal Olympic SwimmersJanet Evansand Brian Goodell, basketball coach Danny Rogers, former Major Leaguer and Angel Tom Murphy and of course one of the organization’s founders Paul Salata (USC , San Francisco 49ers but also well known for Irrelevant Week)
There are three areas where the group concentrates its time.
1)Youth Scholarships — Each year, we hand out scholarships to worthy high school student athletes that have excelled on and off the field. The awards include a scholarship dinner with parents and a check that helps, in a small way, to pay the growing expenses of college education.
2) Grants — OCYSF also provides dollars to local youth sports related organizations. For example, a Santa Ana Little League had no funds to replace threadbare uniforms and was seeing its dispirited participants prepare to disband. The struggling league was left out of the Southern California-wide disbursement of the surplus funds of the 1984 Olympic Games, funds earmarked to aid youth sports. Consequently, the league was losing its battle to remain self-sufficient. OCYSF stepped in to help bridge the gap.
3)Annual Banquet– This is where it all started. The history of the group began with an annual banquet in 1971 by honoring race car driver Dan Gurney. In those days no one was raising money, just having lots of fun. Today, it is all about making an impact for children. The list of past honorees is impressive: Peter Ueberroth, Tommy Lasorda, Jim Nance, Pete Carroll, Carson Palmer…. It goes on and on. The event is a smash hit which roasts the honoree. The banquet draws 500 during a tough economy and as many as 800 when times are good.
I got involved with this group because I always believed that senior sports management professionals needed to be attached to their community. With the Anaheim (then Mighty) Ducks, I always encouraged each leader to adopt one organization and sit on its board, serve as an honorary chairman or some sort of involvement that matched with our overall business and community goals.
I attended a sports industry trade event Wednesday evening and spoke with several people working on the business side of sports. Some were fully employed in this horrific economy yet showed up with resumes or business cards looking to make new connections. I applaud them for being proactive and having their resume up to date yet also told the same folks to be thankful that you had a job.
Saw more business downsizing recently with sports layoffs from the Jacksonville Jaguars (10%) and reports of only a portion of NFL front office employees taking the league offered buyouts.
The recruiting business also stinks right now. A different person told me Wednesday they applied for a college sports job and was informed 200+ applicants also applied for the same position.
With things rough, I thought today’s entry should be resources that I do not have a place for on my links.These include network opportunities when it comes to upcoming industry trade conferences. I know some can get expensive. At the very least, I felt you should know about options when it comes to learning, networking and other opportunities to climb the business ladder.
The following list includes select conferences from March and into July.These various events are also hosted in different cities around the country including New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, Miami, Greenville and Dallas.I have yet to find anything related for the West Coast (Los Angelesor San Francisco).
Two first period goals by the Chicago Blackhawks and one more in the second period was enough to hold off the Ducks tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim. First time I was back in the arena to watch an entire game since they were known as the Mighty Ducks.
Seats were in section 227. I still cannot watch a hockey game as a true fan. I always find myself evaluating the game presentation. From the tickets, to the parking lot, greeters, the food, events held in between period to entertain fans — you name it. Not much has changed since 2005. Same game presentation, music still upbeat and rock and roll. Men and women dressed for a show. Very friendly crowd.
Lots of new food vendors in the Honda Center since I used to call the building home. Oggies Pizza, Wiernerschnitzel, Rubios Fish Tacos had good concession stand branding.
Their front office management was not very visible. A few of the party suites were empty and for a sold out crowd there were pockets of empty seats in the upper levels. Overall though a good fan experience.
The hockey arena, which seats 17,174, does not cater for fans that like cheap tickets ~ though I must say the $55 per ticket for the lower bowl was not expensive by sport standards.
The NHL has more limited seating per event than NFL or MLB games so marketers in this sport will always have the challenge of selling more expensive seats than the other sports.
A brief background on both teams
Chicago Blackhawks
One of the original six, as I was reminded by a Boston Bruins fan sitting in my row from Boston tonight. Chicago was my team growing up. Stan Mikita, Esposito, Hull — I am dating myself but used to always listen to the games on a small radio near my bed. On November 17, 1926, the Chicago Blackhawks made their debut, defeating the Toronto St. Pat’s 4-1.
Anaheim Ducks
Captured first Stanley Cup title in team’s history during the 2006-07 campaign. Made it to the finals for the first time in 2002-03 under then head coach Mike Babcock. Team debuted at the Arrowhead Pond October 8, 1993 owned by The Walt Disney Company. Disneyland remains just down the street, but so much has changed since that first game.
One week to go before the Pittsburgh Steeler and the Arizona Cardinals clash in Super Bowl XLIII
Let the mayhem begin. Office pools, special Super Bowl TV commercials and good story lines (Former Steelers offensive coach Ken Whisenhunt returning to face his old team) will begin filling the air in office chatter, on sports radio, all over ESPN and in bars this week.
It is the one week where even non-football fans tune in to the TV for the commercials. The Los Angeles Times headline cried out last week that unemployment soared to a 15 year high in California, yet national advertisers like Coca Cola, Frito Lay, Go Daddy, Anheuser Busch and Cars.com will have no problem plopping down a cool $3 million per TV spot. It is hard to believe that it was just 1995 when the first Super Bowl Commercial reached seven figures. By 2000, the figure had more than doubled to $2.1 million per spot. ….and the price for a TV spot during Super Bowl I in 1967? $40,000. If you’d like a history of the rising cost of commercial spots during the biggest TV day of the year, Ad Age did a nice job with this chart. http://www.adweek.com/aw/custom-reports/superbowl/data-center.html It is actually part of a larger site but provides good data information
As for the game itself, the LA Times Odds list the Steelers as a seven point favorite with an over and under on the betting line at 46 1/2 points. The AFC had won four titles in a row until last year, when the New York Giants broke the streak with a victory over the then unbeaten New England Patriots. If I were a betting man, I would be betting that everyone stays glued to the commercials, regardless of the outcome of the game.
