The Sports Info Business

Attended my first men’s college volleyball match in years on Saturday evening.  It pitted number one ranked Pepperdine University vs. number two ranked UC Irvine.

The match was UCI’s final regular-season home volleyball event against visiting Pepperdine.  In any sport, when No. 1 faces number No. 2, the fans came out in droves.  The 5,000 seat Bren Center had about 2,800 people on Saturday night and UCI (22-4, 17-3 in the MPSF) gave the home crowd something to cheer for with a 31-29, 30-24, 30-22 sweep over the Waves (19-3, 17-3).  If you want to see the stats from the match, click here or the full game story here

Attending a College sports event remains a fun and family friendly entertainment option.  While I am not a hard core volleyball fan, the event itself was very entertaining.  Took some quick notes on the Orange County-based sponsorship roster in the campus gym and noted the following sponsors.

Steelhead Brewery
Overnight Express
Epicor
UC irvine School Of Business
Syspro
Yellow Book
The District Shopping Center
Conexant 
U.S. Army
Soup plantation
OCTA – Orange COunty Transit Authority.
UC Irvine Medical Center
Wells Fargo
Pepsi
Mountain Dew
Aquafina

Only one really had national implications in Pepsi and Pepsi based products.  No surprise the soft drink had pouring rights in the building.  Also Army had some signage which was interesting. The military has been traditionally a big college recruiter.   Most of the list local restaurants or organizations somehow connected to the campus.  Wells Fargo listed but this is just for a local branch I am guessing.

The facility remains very clean and other than static signage, there are basic sponsor opportunities missed on the campus.  Did not see any real activation programs on this one night or in game promotions.

For those of you that are Volleyball Fans, here are a few stats and then background on the league.

* Pepperdine, which is/was ranked number one in the country, suffered its first match sweep this season.

* The loss also breaks a nine game win streak by the Waves

* UCI is no slouch when it comes to volleyball.  The OC based University won it all in 2007 and earned a trip the White House.

Background on The league

Both teams play in the The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) for volleyball.  The organization was established during the 1992-1993 academic year and serves the following conferences:  Pacific-10, Big West, Mountain West, Western Athletic and West Coast Conferences and other selected universities in the western United States.  The MPSF provides championship competition for Division I intercollegiate Olympic sports for select sports.  it is an interesting set up since it combines several conferences under one Federation.

According to the web site, the Federation serves as an “incubator” for emerging sports and as a safe harbor for sports impacted by conference realignments.  Besides volleyball others sports served by the Federation include Men’s Gymnastics, Women’s Gymnastics, Men’s Indoor Track & Field, Women’s Indoor Track & Field, Women’s Lacrosse, Men’s Soccer, Men’s Volleyball, Men’s Water Polo, Women’s Water Polo.

If you work in the world of sports, it is a close knit community where everyone seems knows each other.  If you are moving to a new team, city, everyone has a colleague, friend or buddy that they have worked with at a different destination.  Here are a few changes I learned about this morning which includes a new chief at the AVP, a long-time Dodgers executive retiring, catching up with an old boss, The Masters begins and The Sports Job of the Day.

AVP News

The Los Angeles Times is reporting today that AVP Pro Beach Volleyball chairman, chief executive and commissioner Leonard Armato has resigned for unknown reasons.  Sounds like big shoes to fill.  There have been changes at the home of the Crocs tour.  Industry friend Bruce Binkow, the AVP’s Chief Marketing Officer left a few years back and went into boxing with Golden Boy Productions.  According to yesterday’s y AVP Press release, Jason Hodell, the Tour’s current chief operating officer, will become the new chief executive of the AVP while Paul Tedeschi has been named Chief Marketing Officer.  Tedeschi was co-founder and CEO of Mr. Youth, a leading youth marketing agency based in New York.  Here is the news story with more information on the promotion of the two executives.

The AVP was founded  in 1983 and is comprised of the best men’s and women’s pro beach volleyball players in the U.S. and the world. On May 31, 2001 the AVP was reorganized with a new management team led by sports agent Armato and his company Management Plus.

Dodgers Make Change Too

Was reading the agate section of the LA Times Sports, yes, I still read a print edition as well as online news, and learned that long-time Dodgers employee Craig Callan has retired.  Callan was the team’s Vice President, Spring Training & Minor League Facilities.  I had the pleasure of working with Craig when he headed the spring training facility in Vero Beach.  The Dodgers’ press announcement said that Callan would retire and return to Vero Beach, Florida,  He served the O’Malley family and the team for the past 30 years.

Funny, I was in the car last night and heard my old boss Tommy Hawkins being interviewed on the radio.  It had been a few years since we spoke so I picked up the phone with the former NBA player and Vice President of Communications for the Dodgers and caught up.  That is the best part of working in the sports business.  The people.  Ken Gurnick, the MLB.com reporter on the Dodgers, filed this story about Callan.  The team also issued an official press release and the link is enclosed.

The Masters Begins

The Masters gets underway today and there is a Tiger Woods feeding frenzy in the media.  Nine months after surgery, I feel that you will be hearing a lot of news about golf from Augusta for the next four days.  Welcome back, Tiger.

Sports Job of the Day

Found this online.  DIRECTOR OF FACILITY OPERATIONS is open and if you are ready to work ay the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, here is a link to the job.  The listing has these job functions required.

Job Functions:

• Oversees overall daily operation and maintenance of the arena and all systems. This includes HVAC, sound, lighting, ice making, fire protection, life safety, workplace safety, communications, scoreboard, etc.
• Oversees the advancing and communicating event information to the appropriate departments and staff.
• Oversees Custodial services for entire facility.
• Negotiates and administers labor group contracts (Stagehands).
• Ultimately responsible for installation and maintenance of ice surfaces.
• Oversees the operation of event set-up and tear-down, i.e. basketball floor, stage risers, chairs, signs, hockey glass, and dasher boards, etc.
• Administers and negotiates contracts with outside vendors including pest control, scoreboard systems, seasonal landscaping and snow removal.
• Acts as liaison with City Services for numerous facility related functions (City Codes, Parking, Licenses, permits, etc.).
• Oversees Event Service Staff; hiring, training, supervision
• Responsible for Health & Safety compliance.
• Other duties as assigned by General Manager