Last week, LeBron James filled us in on “The Decision.” Well today, I’m filling you in on “My Decision.” Before I reveal “My Decision” let me tell you about the remarkable parallels in our stories:

• Young boy/girl growing up in a challenging, snowy climate (LBJ: Akron, Ohio, Me: Rochester, NY)
• Athletic talent obvious from an early age (LBJ: averaged 21ppg/6rpg in his freshman year of high school basketball. Me: was told by my coach as a junior ‘You can be on the varsity volleyball team, but you’ll never play.’ Decided to stick it out. Never played. [Note: please excuse the horrible eyebrows and braces in the picture at right])
• Made a ton of money soon after graduating from high school (LBJ: millions in the NBA. Me: waitress at Cracker Barrel during the ‘96 Summer Olympics = an average tip of $1 per person PER TABLE!)
• Finding themselves at a crossroads in the summer of 2010 (LBJ: which team do I sign for? Me: which industry do I work in?)

Which brings us to “My Decision.” Well, we’ve got a few minutes here, so let me hold off on that and revisit LeBron’s decision. Did he handle the revealing of that decision well? In a word, no. LeBron was one of the few athletes who had escaped (until now) the stereotype of being snobby, pretentious, and an overcoddled baby. He had a great smile, and people looked at him as a friendly teddy bear, albeit one with a paycheck that had three more zeros than the average Joe.

But in one fell swoop, LeBron showed us he is just like 99% of other athletes… it’s all about him. It wasn’t enough to issue a press release and say ‘I’m going to play for the Miami Heat.’ It wasn’t enough even to have a press conference that would have been held live across the country to announce his new team. No, LeBron had to have a one-hour long special dedicated to he, himself and his majesty. It took him approximately five seconds to utter the words “This fall…I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat” so it seems the other 59 minutes and 55 seconds were just a glorified ego boost.

It will take awhile to assess the damage he has done to his reputation and brand. He dragged his former team and home town through unspeakable torture, making his announcement in Ohio even though he was heading to Florida. Last night at the ESPYs, the crowd boo’ed every time his name was mentioned. His best bet to clean up his tarnished image? Win a championship for the Heat. Better yet, win two or three. With LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh essentially playing 3-on-5, it may be more difficult than it seems.

So finally, we’ve come to “My Decision.” My crossroads was not a choice between taking $20.83 million to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. $19 million to play for someone else. It was a choice between almost ’starting over’ again in the sports industry or advancing my career in another industry. You can quote me here… “This summer… I have chosen to take my talents to Tempe, Arizona, and join the staff of Arizona State University.” Ok, maybe not as dramatic, but it’s big news in my world!

I am leaving the sports industry for several reasons. To get to where I want to be, I need more traditional marketing experience, I need more managerial experience, and I want to feel respected and appreciated. ASU is giving me the opportunity to do all three of those things. Don’t worry TheBusinessOfSports.com fans, I’ll be back from time-to-time, but for for the foreseeable future, that will be as a ‘guest poster.’ I’ve appreciated all your encouragement over the last 1+ years. I’ll leave you with a quote, and wish you many happy ‘accidents.’

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.  ~Sidney Lumet

Editor’s note: I want to take a moment to thank Amanda for all of her valuable contributions to this website over the past few months. Her knowledge, opinions and expertise have been a tremendous asset for all of the readers, including myself. I wish her nothing but the best in her career, both in and out of sports. Thanks again!  ~RS

Rather than just presenting my individual opinion on Dan Gilbert’s letter to Cavaliers fans (I’m actually quite torn on it), I decided to go to some of the sports business and PR professionals on Twitter for their take. Here’s what they had to say on the subject:

From SternalPR: I get why Gilbert wrote the letter, but you can defend your city and instill confidence in a more tactful way & avoid silly promises

From ChrisFreet: Agree or disagree with Dan Gilbert’s open letter, there is no disagreeing with his honesty. It’s interesting that some media are bashing Gilbert. Media want honesty, not PR spun letter, yet they are still hammering him

From KyleJudah: A little petulant move but so was Lebron’s. Cavs fans I know seem to use it as a rallying point, so got the job done. Very ballsy.

From MarcusAHall: Whether or not you agree with his comments is one thing but I commend him for taking a stance and making a statement.

From PUBLISIDE: Gilbert should have slept on the language. Even if he was still that angry in the a.m., he may have rethought and crafted the letter with less venom. He will likely regret the tone for fans’ sake.

From mmahoney13: Gilbert’s passion was the right tone for partners and season ticket holders but he went a little over the top with cowardly.

From MarcIsenberg: Way to take the high road, Dan Gilbert. Abe Lincoln waited 48 hrs before sending because he didn’t want to write emotionally.

From Aharris101: I understand Gilbert was upset, but still think he should have handle it more in a professional way….he should’ve slept through

From AmandaRykoff: If I didn’t know that letter from Dan Gilbert was real, I’d think it was a joke. Of epic proportions.

From IsaacBearg: Cavs fans were pissed and I imagine wanted their owner to show he knows how they feel… it was a bit much but I don’t mind it

I’ll continue to update this with additional tweets as they come in. In the meantime, please share your own take on the letter in the comments!

It started with one, small, under-140-character sentence…

“Hello World, the Real King James is in the Building “Finally”. My Brother @oneandonlycp3 gas’d me up to jump on board so I’m here. Haaaa”

Well, actually it started several hours before that, when the word got out that twitter.com/KingJames was the official Twitter account for LeBron James. News spread of this account like wildfire, both through traditional and social media outlets. As a result, the account had close to 100,000 followers before anything was ever posted. As of 9:45PM Tuesday, that number was up to over 170,000 with still just the one tweet on the record (Update: Two tweets and 222,292 followers as of 10AM Wednesday). Darren Rovell tweeted several updates throughout the day, highlighting the account’s incredible growth rate. So now that this account exists, there are two big questions (besides what team will he sign with).

1. What will LeBron do with his Twitter account?
2. What should LeBron do with his Twitter account?

Here are a couple of Dos and Don’ts to help him with his new-found interest in tweeting:

• Do update multiple times per day, even if that means getting some help from your camp. With all the buzz right now, there is no better time to really leverage your social media presence.
• Don’t tweet just for the sake of tweeting. We’re all tuned in, but if it becomes noise, we’ll also tune out.
• Do have some fun surrounding the pending contract announcement. Feel free to tweet and joke with other players and build the suspense.
• Don’t actually give any of the real news away or announce your decision on Twitter first (although with the TV special announcement, you seem to already know this)
• Do be personal! Let your charisma shine through. This was a great approach for Shaq and Ocho Cinco.
• Don’t go over the line. Shaq and Ocho Cinco can also go too far (being critical of others, being honest to a fault). You want to be the Global Icon, so nothing that can damage the brand.
• Do reply to fans occasionally. The impact you’ll make on those fans cannot be measured.
• Don’t feel obligated to reply too much. It will take the fun out of Twitter, and we want to make sure you hang around.

While we’re talking LeBron, here are some other interesting links to read through:

• What the Knicks Told LeBron: Come to New York and Make $1 Billion from Forbes.com SportsMoney (in particular, make sure to check out the presentation from Interbrand – interesting stuff. I’d really like to see more of how they calculated those numbers!)
• LeBron James is Twitter’s Latest Sponsored Trending Topic from Mashable.com
• LeBron Decision Thursday on ESPN.com

For the record, I think they’re going with the scheduled TV announcement for two reasons. The fun reason is that he recognizes the level of interest in this decision and found a way to go something positive with it (raising money for the Boys and Girls Club of America). The business reason is (and this is pure speculation), I think it’s down to the Cavaliers and one other team, but he’s waiting for some action from one of those two clubs. What better way to take control of the situation than through the pressure of a public time deadline. I bet there’s a lot of moving and shaking going on behind the scenes today!

We are days away from arguably the most important and historic free agency period in NBA history. The biggest question is, where will LeBron James sign? Stay at home in Cleveland? Hit the Big Apple? What about Chicago? The sports media cannot stop talking about this question, with everyone spouting their own theories and “insider” information. The same story goes for Wade, Bosh, Stoudemire, Johnson and others, although not quite on the same scale.

While all NBA teams need to wait until July 1 to start officially pursuing these free agents and July 8 to actually sign any of them, there is an incredible “signing” opportunity sitting out there right now that no one has taken advantage of yet. No need to wait until July!

Why hasn’t a single company stepped up and “signed” LeBron to a new endorsement deal during this pre-free agency buzz? Why haven’t we seen articles, press releases, tweets and more with the huge headline of “LeBron James Signs New Deal”? This seems like such a no-brainer for any company looking to make a big endorsement splash during a period of huge offseason media attention.

Remember how much buzz State Farm got for the fake LeBron James / Cleveland Browns signing campaign that they ran in 2009? That seemed to have been a very effective campaign for them in an industry that doesn’t generally sign athletes to endorsement deals (most insurance companies concentrate on team and league sponsorships). Imagine how big a LeBron James signing campaign could have been…and could still be?

I know companies want to know what team and market an athlete will be playing in before committing a large amount of money to an athlete, but seriously, we’re talking about LeBron James, currently the most iconic figure in professional basketball. The team almost doesn’t matter, so why hasn’t this happened?

Attention Corporate America – time is running out! Have your people call his people right away. And if LeBron’s people are reading this right now, I’d be happy to sign him right now, as long as he’d do it for free! The buzz would be huge…call me (973-498-TBOS)!

After a hectic couple of weeks, I need to ramp up my writing again. So let’s get it started today with some links and recaps of some interesting sports business stories from the past couple of days.

Brits May Challenge Visa’s 2010 Olympics Exclusivity – Marc Perton, The Consumerist (thanks to @khuda1 for the link)

As one the highest level sponsors of the Olympics, Visa has benefited not only from the traditional sponsorship elements, but also complete exclusivity for any credit card purchases made at the Games. The Office of Fair Trading in Great Britain has some issues with this, as it restricts commerce and hinders open competition in the marketplace. This reminds me a bit of beer and beverage sponsorships here in the United States. In order to not restrict competition, the pouring rights for a particular stadium cannot be directly tied to a sponsorship for that company. This is definitely a story to watch for the 2010 (and future) Olympics. If this aspect of the sponsorship is overturned, does the sponsorship hold the same value to Visa? And would they still be required to pay the full cost of their deal?

How Much Will Hayward Cost the Pacers? – Darren Rovell, CNBC

It was almost the “perfect” scenario for the Indiana Pacers. They were one pick away from being able to take their hometown hero Gordon Hayward in the 2010 NBA Draft, until the Jazz swooped in and selected him. This could have been one of those unique opportunities where a team could have made a draft decision (outside of the top 2-3 picks) that fits the team on the court and would provide an immediate lift to ticket sales off the court. Darren Rovell reminds us of other past situations where some teams have made picks with too much focus on the revenue side (the Charlotte Bobcats picking two UNC players in 2005) and where other teams looked past the short-term revenue lift and stuck to their on-field preferences (Houston Texans passing over Vince Young and the same Pacers selecting Reggie Miller over Steve Alford).

Old Navy co-sponsors Coney Island hot-dog contest – Adrianne Pasquarelli, Crain’s New York

Hot dog eating may not be viewed as a sport, but competitive eating has grown in popularity over the past few years, with more media coverage, attendees, and revenue. The Coney Island competition is the biggest event that Major League Eating runs, and through their partnership with Old Navy, they have created two new revenue streams: the sponsorship itself and jersey sales. That’s right, you can buy an official jersey for a hot-dog eating competition. But don’t laugh – as the article points out, over  1 million people tuned in to watch last year’s event, with another 35,000 people attending it live.

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a post about how teams can take advantage of sponsor relationships to sell “discounted” playoff tickets without directly discounting their seats and in the process, devaluing their product. Well, the Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire has found an even more creative approach that brings the athletes themselves into the equation through their social media outlets.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, you can find the full article over on Mashable.com. The short version of the story is that Amar’e partnered with RazorGator and AtCost.com to offer “group” discounted tickets through the store tab on his Facebook page. I call them group tickets, because the more people that took advantage of the offer, the better discount everyone received, similar to how Groupon.com and AtCost.com are able to provide great discount offers by selling their offers to a large number of consumers. By the time the offer expired, two tickets that normally go for $600 total sold for more than 50% off, and the entire allotment of tickets for both games 3 and 4 sold out (the offer was posted separately for each game). In fact, there is now an offer up on his page directed towards Amar’e/Suns fans for game 5 in Los Angeles (as of writing this, the price for a pair of tickets was down to $435.97).

This may be one of the most effective social media sales tools that teams (or athletes) have implemented to date. Now in this situation, they were selling a fairly high-demand/high-value item, but the tactic should translate to all different types of ticket inventory and beyond – maybe we’ll see a merchandise offer next. Very cool promotion from Amar’e and all of his partners.

Geolocation is definitely a hot topic in social media, and as such, is starting to make its ways into the sports marketing landscape. The idea that you can proactively target and communicate with people based on their exact or relative location is a very appealing thought. Right now, all sports organizations practice based forms of geo-targeting in their marketing campaigns. This can take several shape, such as:

• Delivering web advertisements only to visitors from within your DMA (designated market area)
• Sending direct mail pieces to certain towns and zip codes within your DMA
• Purchasing prospect lists based on a combination of zip and area code
• Placing billboards and running grassroots events locally

All of these measures are taken to another level when you break down your existing customer base to find out what zip codes you have the most success in and focus these campaigns to the areas with the best fan penetration.

VaynerMedia and the New Jersey Nets have taken the idea of geo-targeting in another direction with geolocation through social media. This live, interactive form of geo-targeting has some great potential for teams and leagues to interact with local fan segments in ways that can drive fan affinity and revenue. Take a look at the case study to see what they did with their recent promotion through Gowalla.

The guys at the Row Show also discussed this case study live with Sam Taggart from VaynerMedia. Check our their discussion below.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Deandra Duggans and was originally published on her blog at sportsandalatte.wordpress.com.

You may or may not have seen “Logorama,” the short film that took home an Oscar earlier this year for “Best Animated Short Film.”  It’s a film that explores the way that logos are increasingly embedded in our existence.  While the movie discusses the ubiquity of branding and leaves one to ask is it too much?  Well I don’t think so.  Plus, that’s not my call and I think it’s completely subjective. What it did make me observe more carefully is the logo placement and corporate alignment as it relates to sports.

Of course corporate sponsorship runs rampant in the NBA and there’s no better time than now for presenting sponsors to align themselves with one of the most premier stages in all of sports: The NBA Playoffs.

Check out the presenting sponsors for some of the playoff contenders (note: most of these were splash page elements on the teams’ websites, so obviously there are some teams that are missing):

(Atlanta Hawks Playoffs Presented by Aarons)

(Cleveland Cavaliers Playoffs Presented by Cub Cadet)
Side note: I like that one athlete isn’t singled out…great concept of “teamwork”

(Boston Celtics Playoffs presented by Arbella Insurance)
Side note: this is my favorite piece of creative out of all of them. I appreciate how clean, yet intense it is.

(Charlotte Bobcats Playoffs “powered by” Budweiser, Kobalt, Presbyterian Hospital and McDonalds)

(Denver Nuggets Playoffs presented by KeyBank)

(Miami Heat Playoffs presented by Miccosukee Resort & Gaming)

(Phoenix Suns Playoffs presented by Casino Arizona)

(Spurs playoffs presented by HEB and Toyota)

Of course many of the presenting sponsors are also presenting sponsors of the team as a whole.  It’s just really interesting to see the amount of involvement by corporations and the partnerships they have with sports entities and how sports is a great platform to enhance brand awareness and brand image.

Deandra is currently working in the sports business industry as a Media & Marketing Specialist.  She is a graduate of Georgia State University’s M.S. Sports Business Management program and attended undergrad at NC State. Her previous work experience includes time spent with Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, GSU Athletics, NC State Athletics and the Women’s Sports Foundation. In her spare time, she does freelance graphic design (www.deandraduggans.com) and shares her talents with grassroots sports organizations. You can reach her via email at deandra@deandraduggans.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/SportsandaLatte.

An interesting article from flipcollective.com by Paul Shirley (former NBA player) that I read earlier this week got me thinking about the differences between men’s and women’s basketball. Paul focused on the differences in athleticism and how enjoyable the games are, but I’ve been thinking more about the cold hard cash.

The men’s championship game drew 71,298 fans in an NFL stadium, while the women’s game (UConn over Stanford) drew ‘just’ 22,936 in the Alamodome. Beyond that, over 48 million people saw at least some part of Duke squeaking by Butler for their fourth national championship. According to an analysis of the 2008-09 championships, men’s basketball netted the NCAA $32 million, while the women’s championship cost over $7.5 million.

Geno Auriemma (UConn’s coach) hasn’t gotten a call from a men’s program about an open head coaching position in four years. He’s obviously coaching at a very high level: his team hasn’t lost in two years, and they are just 10 wins away from tying the hallowed wins record in all of college basketball – UCLA’s 88 in a row, yet for some reason, ADs aren’t looking at him as a candidate for their men’s teams.

So what does this mean from a business standpoint? There are obviously more fans for the men’s product then there are for the women’s, but are they all equally as invested? My gut tells me women’s fans have a stronger connection to their team… maybe not just the name on the front of the jerseys, but to the players wearing them.

This gives teams and their sponsors a unique opportunity to connect with fans. A sincere, distinctive ‘voice’ in social media goes a long way towards building a rapport with fans. Passionate fans are happy to provide feedback and ideas to those brands that ask. I wasn’t able to find an obvious Twitter account for either of the Stanford or UConn women’s basketball teams, so I’d suggest to them to capitalize on their recent success and get that started. Use players to guest tweet, guest blog, tape short videos, thank fans, and maybe show some behind the scenes footage of their trip to the Final Four.

Don’t get me wrong, the men’s teams can do these kinds of things too, but a lot of men’s Division I teams are doing just fine without those initiatives. Does anyone really think Duke’s team lost $2 million last year? Social media is an avenue where sponsors can utilize the popularity AND gender of the team they sponsor to make a better connection with fans. Better than that 3′ x 8′ banner hanging in the concourse, and better than the flyer they hand fans as they are walking out the door.

The Phoenix Mercury drew a lot of attention when they signed LifeLock as their front-of-jersey sponsor. They are the first major professional league to monetize that ad space, not counting soccer, where the practice is standard. The men’s leagues aren’t quite ready to go there… yet.

So, what do you think is the biggest opportunity out there for women’s sports? Am I wrong? Do men and women have the same opportunities here? Do their fans react to the same messages?

On Saturday night, I hosted a live sports business chat during NBA All-Star Saturday with two special guests joining us to take your questions. Darren Heitner, CEO of Dynasty Athlete Representation was with us for the first hour and Drew Cloud, Vice President of Sales and Service for the New York Knicks took questions during the 2nd hour. You can see a full replay of the chat below.