Here is an uplifting moment to share for the weekend (courtesy of ProBasketballTalk):

Moments like these, even after a loss, are what create indelible memories and lifelong fans. A lot of credit to the Warriors players for staying around after what was surely a heartbreaking loss to show their appreciation for their fans.

By now, I’m sure most of you have seen the news that Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks are crowdsourcing a new look for their uniforms in 2015-16. You can read his own blog post on this topic over on blogmaverick.com.

I have a few quick thoughts on this initiative that I want to share:

• First and foremost, I am a big fan of crowdsourcing and applaud the idea. I am curious to see if there will also be a public voting process to select finalists that many graphic design crowdsourcing projects use. I know the team would never give up control of any final decisions, nor should they.
• I like how he is very upfront about who will own any and all designs that come from this effort. If a designer doesn’t want to cede control, then they should simply not participate.
• There are many platforms to run this type of initiative, or it could be run internal through a file upload process direct to the team, but they rolled this out with crowdSPRING. I wonder if this led to a sponsorship agreement with the team, as it had to have generated a lot of traffic and designer participation for the site. Could this be a new opportunity for digital sponsorships? There are plenty of things that could be crowdsourced besides jerseys.
• The prize money being offered is disappointing considering the potential impact this could have on merchandise revenue. Clearly they don’t need to offer a lot to get a high volume of participation, but $600 for first place?
• To me, the real potential value in this will come from the volume of submissions, not just the two top designs. The range of creativity that they are tapping into through the power of the crowd could inspire a wide range of ideas for the Mavericks brand, merchandise, in-arena graphics, digital creative and much more.

—–

UPDATE: I was able to get send a couple of questions to Ross Kimbarovsky, co-founder of crowdSPRING. Here’s what he had to say:

Who is providing the reward and how were the amounts selected?

“Beyond public recognition, Mark Cuban offered a few tickets to Dallas Mavs games if he really liked a design. crowdSPRING offered awards totaling $1,000 for the two best designs. Buyers on crowdSPRING set their own price and because of their experience helping 35,000 entrepreneurs and business owners, crowdSPRING believed this was a good award level. crowdSPRING set multiple awards because multiple awards often attract more and higher quality designers, since there’s a greater likelihood of being picked. The project has been open for only one day, and already more than 120 designs have been submitted.”

How did crowdSPRING get involved and is the site an official team partner?

“When Mark mentioned on his blog that the Mavs were re-designing their uniforms for the 2015-16 season, crowdSPRING reached out, introduced Mark to the site and offered to involve Mavs fans and the global crowdSPRING community of more than 137,000 designers and writers. crowdSPRING has worked with some of the world’s best brands, many of the world’s best agencies, and tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and startups. As a savvy entrepreneur, Mark wanted to see many creative designs and knew crowdSPRING could help. Mark liked the idea of the project on crowdSPRING and said that he would look at the submitted designs. crowdSPRING is not an official team partner but has worked with many official sports organizations and professional athletes.”

CableTV.com just released an infographic to show how, in their opinion (and backed by some pretty good statistics) that LeBron James is the most underpaid athlete. Now, to truly say he is the MOST underpaid, we would need to see similar analysis for athletes in other sports, but the numbers here do paint a pretty good picture.

LeBron James Is Underpaid – An infographic by the team at CableTV.com

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Christi Goza. Ticket data to support this article provided by Razorgator.

Did Russell Westbrook’s Knee Injury Impact the Price of Oklahoma City Thunder Playoff Tickets?

Just prior to the start of the NBA Playoffs, Thunder Playoff tickets vs. the Houston Rockets were averaging $300 a seat , with Game 5 (if nec) at Chesapeake Energy Arena averaging $270 and Game 7 (if nec) averaging $459. Thunder ticket prices were fifth most expensive of the sixteen NBA Teams. Many felt the Thunder were destined for an NBA Finals rematch with the Miami Heat.

The morning of Game 2, ticket prices for Game 5 were averaging $297 and Game 7 $492 – both games had increased in price since the start of the Playoffs. It was later that evening in Game 2 Russell Westbrook tore his lateral meniscus. Following the team’s announcement that Westbrook would undergo surgery and would not play for the remainder of the 2013 NBA Playoffs, Oklahoma City Thunder ticket prices for Game 5 and Game 7 dropped 3% and 10% respectively. The cheapest seat in the house for a possible Game 5 (Home Game 3) fell 21%, from $90 to $71. The long term impact of the injury is also telling as potential Conference Semifinals tickets in OKC saw an average of a 6% decrease. Rockets fans had a different outlook as tickets following the Thunder’s announcement of Westbrook’s injury rose 15% for Game 3 in Houston.

In comparison, following Derrick Rose’s torn ACL in Game 1 of the First Round last year – Bulls tickets fell 5% for Game 5, 2% for Game 7 and an average of 11% for the Eastern Conference Semifinals Games in Chicago. And, although the injury didn’t take place during the postseason – when Kobe Bryant went down April 12 with a torn Achilles tendon, Los Angeles Lakers tickets took a similar fall. The Lakers had not secured a playoff spot at the time; however tickets for a potential first round series and semifinals were down 18% and 15% (in that order) following the Black Mamba’s season ending injury.

In last year’s AL Championship Series opener, Derek Jeter broke his left ankle in the 12th inning and would not return for the rest of the postseason. Different from the NBA teams’ tickets, New York Yankees tickets for a possible ALCS Game 6 and 7 at Yankees Stadium following a key player’s injury increased on the secondary market, rising 27% and 37%. Yankees World Series tickets for home games 1, 2, and 3 however, fell 6%, 22%, and 18% respectively.

Losing a star player to injury during the postseason not only hurts the team’s aspirations of winning a title but directly affects the potential revenue a team can earn. The impact is immediate as demand is affected by the fact that players that fans want to see are out of the lineup. Tickets further into the playoffs are also significantly impacted as fans lose confidence that their team will actually advance without one of its stars. Basketball tickets are particularly affected in a star driven league where the best players drive a team’s popularity and play a huge role in the success of their franchise.

Christi Goza is the Community and Social Media Manager at Razorgator and an alumni of the Graduate Program in Sports Management at Long Beach State.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Michael Dittelman.

Many who work in the sports industry started out in lower level, or “entry level” roles. As such, those who hold the lower level roles learn what our parents often tried to implore to us: To learn humility, you need be humiliated. For those who have worked at the NBA league offices in certain business units these past many years under the man whose name is emblazoned on the sacred orange ball – David J. Stern – have had ample opportunity to learn humility. And for good reason: David’s obviously incredibly smart, with a strong personality who governs the NBA firmly. His grip on the NBA brand, and his dedicated efforts to protect and nurture it have increased the value of franchises for owners, created entertaining content for fans to consume, and enabled thousands of employees to be a part of the NBA business infrastructure.

Within David’s regime is a culture that speaks to, and often times resembles, David’s work-place personality: There are high standards for employees, with a corporate culture and environment that is hard-driving, steel-strong in its devotion to the goals of the corporate governance at the helm. The residue of this culture often brings challenges that bear out in the “weeding out” of employees with a “weak personality,” who may find it difficult to assimilate to the environment. This is proven by the somewhat high turnover rate within certain units at the league office: Compare the average length of tenure of lower and mid-level employees within Marketing Partnership divisions (aka “sponsorship sellers”) at each of the leagues as proof of this.

Yet, this unwritten and natural progression of “weeding out” is not necessarily a bad thing. And clearly, the successes the NBA has had – on many fronts – are a testament to the culture that starts at the top of the organization, and flows down to all employees.

With the public announcement of David’s impending exit from the league, there’s been talk – and questions – of a change in culture, and a subsequent fear in some camps of doom looming around the corner, once David’s replacement Adam Silver takes office.

Anyone who’s met Adam sees immediately that Adam Silver is not David Stern. Aside from the immediate recognition of a difference in size – as Adam stands as tall as many of the NBA’s players – the personalities and “presence” within the work place of Adam and David differ greatly. Yet, this is not a bad thing… And in no way does this denigrate, nor criticize David Stern: From team owners, ranging from the steady business savvy of Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, to the outspoken tradition-challenging maverick Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, to the combined hard-core avid fan and media personalities akin to Bill Simmons (ESPN’s “Sports Guy,” and author of the tome “The Book of Basketball”) to the casual fan, each surely recognizes the value, the growth and the relevance of the NBA brought forth under David.

But, change is inevitable. The speed of change can vary, but it comes. So, with transition from David to Adam Silver the culture of the NBA will surely change: Adam’s open, warm, receptive and welcoming personality will be the main influence of such a culture change. His approach in the work place, where he’s known to gain consensus among colleagues and constituents, where he entrusts employees with relative autonomy to do their job and excel, may not differ from David. Yet, his Adam’s presence, always welcomed and invited into the room to lend guidance, advice or opinion, is always well received. Adam doesn’t engender fear from junior or mid-level employees within the NBA, as David could be known for (probably somewhat unbeknownst to him at first), simply because of who he is, how he acts, and the strength of his personality. Rather, a multitude of NBA employees look up to Adam, and respect him just as much as they do David. The difference is, they don’t fear Adam.

So where there may be a rise in “noise” reflecting a “The King is Dead” scenario from David’s coming exit, the exit shouldn’t be construed as a negative, nor should there be fear in a lapse in the NBA’s continued growth and successes: Those who have had the opportunity to be in the room with David, to sit next to him in meetings, or to hear him address employees en masse or individually, have no doubt absorbed what they could, and as fast as they could. Given that Adam Silver’s been at David’s side for a number of years, he’s seen the immediate daily, the short term and the long term challenges the league faces, and he’s taken them on directly. Adam’s used guile and smarts all his own, but has certainly culled and garnered skills from his time with David.

Above all, the league will be – and is – in very good hands with Adam Silver. He’ll provide strong direction at the helm, engaging business partners, sponsors, media, team owners, players and fans alike with his own style and comfortable nature. These varied entities, with their own agendas and needs will take heed, as Adam, with his own voice, his own style and his own resolve, having learned humility (hopefully having not been humiliated too recently) will steer the ship, navigating waters that may become choppy ahead of him from time to time, but will surely be calm in his wake. The result will be a shout from all on board the vessel of “Long Live the [New] King.”

A former NBA league office employee, Michael Dittelman has enjoyed a career focused on sports media, with leadership roles in marketing, business development and management with the likes of each Sports Illustrated, USA Today Sports Media, Sporting News, the NBA and the Harlem Globetrotters. Michael can reached via email at MikeDittelman@gmail.com

Yesterday, the big story out of the NBA was the Spurs’ decision to send their four best players home before their game vs. the Miami Heat. I immediately jumped to Twitter to try and get some different thoughts on this decision and David Stern’s subsequent reaction from a sports business perspective. Thanks to everyone for sharing their comments!

Note: I will probably continue to update this post as more feedback comes in.

The NBA has been heavily promoting the Twitter hashtag #NBAPlayoffs in all of their broadcasts and marketing materials this offseason. These efforts are highlighted by their Social Spotlight page over at NBA.com/social-spotlight, which is aggregating content together via this hashtag.

However, in doing my own searches for this hashtag via Hootsuite and Twitter.com, I saw the following Promoted Tweets:

Hootsuite:

Twitter.com:

So, if I understand how this works, both Edge Shave Gel and Degree Deodorant are taking advantage of the popularity of the #NBAPlayoffs hashtag to get exposure for their product via Promoted Tweets. This seems like quite the social guerrilla marketing tactic to me. I don’t think the NBA can officially “own” a hashtag, so the brands aren’t technically using any NBA assets, but they are still getting NBA-related exposure.

In the case of Degree, the official deodorant of the NBA is actually Right Guard, which makes this tactic even more interesting. Does the NBA have any leverage to try to prevent this, or do the brands now need to consider adding Promoted Tweets to prevent competition from swooping in and stealing exposure? Or on the other hand, am I reading too much into this? Share your thoughts in the comments!

In light of yesterday’s trade/non-trade of Chris Paul from the Hornets to the Lakers, I feel the need to re-publish my take on the inherent conflicts of interest that arise from having a franchise owned and operated by a league. I’ve heard and read several different arguments over the merits of this trade and why it should have been allowed, including:

• The Hornets got back a lot of talent and it was a fair package for Paul.
• The Hornets have a GM in place that is keeping the best interests of the team in mind.
• Paul wasn’t going to sign an extension with the team, so it’s best for them to make a trade.

The actual reason why the trade wasn’t allowed to go through is unclear. The “official” statement was that the Hornets decided against it, but in reality, there has to have been a decision at the league level, which makes sense because…THE LEAGUE OWNS THE TEAM! General managers have to report up to the team owner, and in this case, the team owner is the group of all 29 other team owners. If those team owners do not want the trade to go through, whether or not the reasons are justified or completely selfish in nature, then the trade cannot go through.

Update: For all those people who feel that David Stern either made this decision himself or shouldn’t have “allowed” this veto to happen (cough, cough, Bill Simmons), his bosses are the other 29 team owners. For all of his authority, he still has to listen to them, even if he disagrees with them.

Clearly, this is a gigantic conflict of interest, and it’s a big reason why situations like this should be prevented at all costs. It affects both team decisions (trades, signings, contracts) and business decisions (television contracts, relocations, sponsorships). I wrote about this earlier this year with regards to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and I also include other examples with the Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, and funny enough, the New Orleans Hornets.

———-

By now, you’ve probably already seen the news that Major League Baseball has taken control of  day to day operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers away from current team owner Frank McCourt. Instead of trying to weigh in on whether MLB’s decision in this case was right or wrong and what McCourt should or shouldn’t do, I’d like to take a philosophical look at the concept of a league-owned or league-operated franchise. This situation has come up a few times in professional sports over the past decade, including the Texas Rangers, the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, the New Orleans Hornets, the Phoenix Coyotes and now the Dodgers. While the circumstance behind each situation is different, there are some fundamental issues at hand any time a league steps in to manage an individual franchise.

If a league owns or operates an individual franchise, in essence the other 30+ owners within that league are now in charge of that team, since the league itself is owned equally by all of the separate team owners. While each owner is primarily concerned with their own franchise, even having a 1/30th stake in another team is a significant investment. This additional “ownership” can represent a unique conflict of interest for those put in charge of the team’s operations.

The owners want this franchise to be run profitably, but what is the best way to do that? Often times, the best way to generate a short-term profit is through reducing costs, whereas long term profit is more sustainable via investing in the team’s operations. If the other owners care more about the short-term, which could easily be the case since they theoretically won’t own the team for long, then those in charge may be forced to cut costs. In addition, the specific approaches the team takes in their operations could be dictated by that league’s revenue sharing system. If more revenue is shared from ticket sales that local media, will those in charge be forced to focus more on that specific revenue stream to the detriment of the other.

This problem is even more significant when looking at the on-field operations of the team. Those in charge should theoretically continue to do what they can to help the team win, since that will in turn lead to more revenue. However, if that team wins more games, logic dictates that other teams will lose more games, which can decrease revenue for those team owners. This question came up last year with the Texas Rangers. The team was doing well, but until new ownership was in place, the team seemed unlikely to make any roster changes. A more recent example took place this year with the Hornets, when those in charge of the team did make a significant trade in an attempt to improve the team. Mark Cuban spoke out vehemently against this trade in particular because the team took on additional salary, which mean as a partial owner of the Hornets, Cuban could end up losing more money. He didn’t seem upset about the team’s attempt to improve (he said that he wouldn’t mind the trade if they hadn’t taken on additional salary), but I wouldn’t be surprised if behind the scenes, other owners were angry about this aspect as well.

Finally, you also need to look at the context under which the league steps in. One of the most unusual arrangements was when MLB decided not only to “purchase” the Expos, but also arrange for the sale of the Marlins to former Expos owner Jeffrey Loria, and in turn the sale of the Red Sox to former Marlins owner John Henry. While I will not attempt to analyze the various motivating factors behind these deals (how often do you see owners “trade” their team?), there’s no doubt that Henry and Loria benefited greatly from the situation, while the “rest” of the league ends up owning the orphaned Expos, which surely had a negative cash flow until the time they were sold as the Nationals. Again, there does seem to be some conflict of interest when other owners end up having to support the operations of an additional team as part of another owner’s franchise purchase and sale.

Even putting that unique situation aside, other events will continue to arise where a league has no choice but to step in and own or operate a franchise. It is clearly in the best interest of any professional sports league to make sure all of its teams can operate successfully. The conflicts that these situations present are real, and must be delicately managed by all parties involved until operations can be turned back over to the team, hopefully as quickly as possible.

Thanks to Brett Pharis for sending me this colorful timeline of the NBA Lockout through the end of October. I’m sure everyone is paying attention to how things go this week with the league’s Wednesday deadline on their current offer. Will the players agree? Will they decertify? We’ll all find out soon enough!

Via: Designed by USDirect.com

The NBA is clearly going through a rough period because of the lockout, and with every passing day, more damage is being done between the league and its fans. However, even when an organization has to deal with something as stressful and problematic as a work stoppage, teams must continue to communicate to their fans, keeping them abreast of the situation and offering up as much damage control as possible.

I’m signed up for several team email lists, and I have to say, I’ve been most impressed by the Lakers messages over the past few weeks. Here are a few snippets to show how they’ve stayed in touch with their fans in an honest and direct manner. Each of these messages was “signed” from Tim Harris, Senior Vice President, Operations/CMO.

September 23:

We appreciate your continued patience as the NBA and the NBA Players Association negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. Since no such agreement has been reached at this time, the league has postponed player training camps and cancelled preseason games scheduled through October 15th.

Please know that you are a vital part of the Lakers, and we value your support.

We want to assure you that the league’s efforts are focused on reaching an agreement that benefits all parties involved. The NBA’s goal is to secure a sustainable business model that enables all 30 teams to compete for a championship, fairly compensates players, and ensures a world-class experience for our fans.

We recognize that without our fans, there would be no NBA. Your passion for the game is what motivates us, and we do not take your support for granted. The league will continue to work toward a new collective bargaining agreement so that we can get back to enjoying the excitement of NBA basketball.

Thank you again for your support and your continued loyalty to the Lakers.

October 4:

We appreciate your patience as the NBA and the NBA Players Association negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. Since an agreement has not been reached at this time, the league has canceled all preseason games.

The league will continue to work toward a new collective bargaining agreement so that we can get back to enjoying the excitement of NBA basketball.

Lakers fans are the passion that drives the team and we appreciate your support and your continued loyalty to the Lakers.

October 12:

We’re sorry to share that the NBA and the NBA Players Association have yet to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. Unfortunately this means the league has had to cancel all regular season games scheduled through November 14th.

Rest assured both sides are working hard to get a deal done so that we can get back to what we all want most, the excitement of NBA basketball. In the meantime, we’ll continue to keep you informed with updates as they become available.

We share your frustration and sincerely appreciate both your support and continued loyalty to the Lakers.

There’s really no way to sugar coat the labor situation that the NBA is going through, so I think the Lakers’ sincere approach and expression of gratitude is a very effective way to communicate to their fans as the lockout moves along. Sending out bad news can be quite challenging from a marketing and PR perspective, but its much better to take this approach than to ignore the situation and not say anything.