The Sports Info Business

David Beckham

The 2012 London Olympic games are still more than a year away.

However, Samsung Electronics wasted little time capturing sponsorship attention when the company recently announced soccer icon David Beckham will become the company’s Olympic games ambassador.

Samsung nabbing of Beckham as its global brand ambassador is an exclusive deal for the electronics company.

According to company reports, Beckham will begin his ambassador role with immediate effect and will play a key part in raising awareness of Samsung’s sponsorship of London 2012 as a Worldwide Olympic Partner.

The collaboration will start with appearances in advertisements and public relations campaigns, covering various elements of Samsung’s London 2012 marketing program.

Beckham’s career began when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United, making his first-team debut in 1992 at age 17. During his time there, United won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice and the UEFA Champions League and the World Club Championship in 1999.

Samsung is one of 11 worldwide partners for the 2012 London Olympic games. The others, picture below, include: Coca Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, Dow, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, P&G and Visa.

2012 Olympic Worldwide Partners

Samsung, as a worldwide partner, is the a top tier sponsor. The next level of the Olympic Partnerships is the official partners level, which includes Adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF, and Lloyds.

There are additional levels which companies are classified including official supporters and official suppliers and providers. If you’d like to see the official site, you can click here.

The 21st Winter Olympics officially opened on Friday evening in Vancouver, British Columbia with a first class ceremony.

I have yet to attend an Olympics and it is certainly on my Bucket List.  Vancouver, a sea-side city in Northwest Canada, seems like the perfect setting to hold the games.  I had the privilege of visiting this international city just a couple of years ago, by my stay was oh too short.  So what does the headline of this blog entry mean “Olympics as a Life Lesson?”

Let’s take a 20,000 foot view on the event itself.  The Vancouver organizing committee spent years and billions of dollars to research, plan, pitch and eventually build all of the venues for these games.

Workers were hired, security plans made revamped and updated as the games got closer.  I am sure administrators of the games lost a lot of sleep preparing for two weeks to showcase the city, country and the Olympic spirit.

What we cannot forget however, is that no matter how great and perfect the plans were, events and life in general rarely turn out as planned.  Let me show you four brief examples about what I am speaking about as it relates to the Olympics.

1. Death of a Georgian Luger during practice run.

By now, you have certainly heard of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the 21-year-old men’s luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia who lost his life when his body jumped the track, struck a steel pole and died shortly after.  Though there have not been many deaths in the Winter Olympics, yet the tragic event should remind us of a few things:  a) There is risk in what these well-trained, amazing athletes make look easy b) Life is precious and we should not take it for granted.  Ever.  c) It never turns out how you would expect . The men’s Luge starting position on the track was moved to the women’s position and the women’s start was moved even lower.

2. Protesters

My best guess is that the organizer and the security folks knew there would be protests.  However, they probably did ot know the plans in detail and this could have let to additional issues and surprises.  During Friday, the protests were mainly peaceful but did turn a bit violent on Saturday. Planned?  probably not.

3. Olympic Flame

Canada’s moment could not have been brighter.  At the end of the opening ceremonies, you have NBA legend Steve Nash and the Great One Wayne Gretzky among other holding a small Olympic torch waiting to light the main flame.  The four distinguished guests suddenly freeze on world-wide TV, waiting for the mechanical instruments to move into place.  The fourth arm, as we later learned was trapped under a sliding door that would not open.  Late system failures happen.  Time to improvise.

4. Bad Weather

Snow one day and rain ben the next.  Even if the organizers could control 1,2 and three above, there is always mother nature.  No one controls mother nature.  Snow had to by trucked in to several sites and worse yet, at least four events have been delayed.

The balmy, almost spring-like weather has NBC and other broadcasters going to the Vancouver weather map more often than they probably planned.  One of the bright spots with the spotty weather favors USA skier Lindsey Vonn.  Recently featured on the Cover of Sports Illustrated (jinx?), Vonn’s injured shin has been given a couple of extra days to heal.

Sports can be reality TV at its best and almost always, unexpected.  It reminds me of the old Wide World of Sports tag The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  Defeat is never supposed to result in death but as a sports administrator, you always need to plan for a crisis.

When you think about it, its easy to use the Olympics as a life lesson.

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.