Last week, Pro Football Talk reported that the Buffalo Bills were taking some heat from fans for a season ticket renewal flyer that featured their punter Brian Moorman kicking from his own endzone (you can see the picture here on Deadspin). Well since that story, I’ve seen two excellent marketing and community relations campaigns that the Bills have come out with, so let’s take a moment to highlight the good stuff.

First is the Jim Kelly Football Camp Scholarship Sweepstakes. I love to see items like this where organizations provide an opportunity for people to take part in unique experiences, especially for younger fans. This is one of the reasons I really love what the Arizona Diamondbacks do every year with their season ticket scholarship program. It doesn’t take much effort on the organization’s part to extend these types of offers, and the value they provide those who participate is immeasurable.

The other campaign currently running is their “Bills All-Time Draft Picks and Draft Day Challenge” contest and micro-site. You can check out the site at http://www.channel1media.com/billsdraft/. This is a great way to build excitement about the team in the month leading up to the  NFL draft. There is a nice montage video of past draft picks that does a good job building on the nostalgia of past Bills superstars, and the site lets fans rank the team’s 10 best draft picks. This look back then transitions nicely to the question of what future Bills star they will select with their first pick this year, which fans are encouraged to try and predict. Both elements of the site offer prizes tied to the team’s past and future draft picks. In addition the site also offers valuable sponsorship inventory, with the All-Time Picks presented by Bud Light and the Draft Day Challenge presented by M&T Bank.

Nice work by the Buffalo Bills on both campaigns.

It’s one of the most frustrating things about sports… highly-paid players who don’t get the job done. Who hasn’t thought after a loss ‘I think our team could have played harder’ or ‘if only that player hadn’t given up in the 4th quarter.’ Well, a group of fans in England are going to be reimbursed after having that experience.

Last weekend, Wigan Athletic suffered a horrifying 9 – 1 loss at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur. Hundreds of Wigan fans had made the trip to see their team play, only to watch them concede eight second-half goals. In an almost unprecedented move, the Wigan players have offered to reimburse any Wigan fans who purchased a ticket at the stadium that day.

With player salaries in the English Premier League being well above those in Major League Soccer, no one should worry about the Wigan players going hungry. The gesture, however, is one to take note of. These are professional players who realize that they did not do their job, and that their ‘bad day at the office’ cost hard-working people money that in this recession, isn’t easily parted with. It is refreshing to see a group of professional athlete take their responsibility seriously.

Their captain Mario Melchiot was quoted as saying “We feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters yesterday (Sunday), and this is a gesture we have to make and pay them back for their tremendous loyalty.” Now, no one gets to choose whether they see Kobe’s 81-point game or Kevin Garnett’s 14-point one (I personally attended the latter), but the recognition by these players that the fans loyalty should not be taken lightly is a lesson that should be learned by all sports business professionals, especially in this economic climate.

We saw a whiff of this last month when wide receiver Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals teamed up with Motorola to purchase the remaining 1,200 tickets to his teams’ home game against the Houston Texans. If those tickets hadn’t been sold, the game would have been blacked out in the Cincinnati area  and many die-hard Bengals fans wouldn’t have been able to see their team play. In these especially hard times, it seems especially important to find a way to make sure fans stay connected to their favorite teams, even if they can’t afford to go to the games. Black-outs are just about the exact opposite of that philosophy, as it removes an important touch-point between fans and their team.

So, what can teams do? Well, here’s an example of what NOT to do. Don’t sue your season ticket holders who have legitimate hardships. The Washington Redskins opened up a huge flap by suing season ticket holders who asked to get out of their contracts. Instead of working out a payment plan, offering to try to re-sell the tickets, or just excusing the fans from their contracts, the Redskins filed lawsuits. Lifelong fans not only lost their coveted tickets, but lost faith in their team.

In these tough times, teams need to continually be on the lookout as to how they can provide better service to their fans. Refunding them after a particularly brutal loss might not be the way to go, but there are certainly opportunities for teams to make their fans feel appreciated. Preventing black-outs, making affordable tickets available, and offering free access to select team events are just a few ways to keep fans connected and ultimately generate greater lifetime value and fan loyalty.

One of the things I love most about sports is how athletes, teams and leagues can use the power of their fan affinity for a good cause. This weekend, the NFL did a tremendous job with their “A Crucial Catch” campaign.

If you watched even two minutes of football this weekend, you saw pink everywhere on the screen: jersey patches, helmet stickers, cleats, towels, gloves, wristbands, cheerleader uniforms and more (check out this photo gallery for some great pictures). The announcers constantly mentioned the league’s pink initiative and the link to www.nfl.com/pink was shown regularly throughout every game. In fact, right now the entire NFL.com website has a pink background. I like this integrated, multi-channel approach to maximize the impact of this campaign.

The pure value of the media exposure generated by this campaign has to be tremendous, in the hundreds of thousands if not more. All of this exposure goes a long way towards generating breast cancer awareness and encouraging annual screenings.

Major League Baseball also deserves a lot of credit for their own breast cancer awareness programs, which is highlighted every year by the use of pink bats by many high-profile players on Mothers Day. I would love to see similar league-wide campaigns from the NBA and NHL this year.

Update: If you are interested in supporting the NFL’s breast cancer awareness program, you can contribute by bidding on any of the authentic pink items from Sunday’s games that are being auctioned here. All profits will go to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been running a poll to gather your opinion on whether or not you think an NFL team should sign Michael Vick.  Being that the Philadelphia Eagles went ahead and signed Vick last week, now is a good time to look at the results!

Just over 2/3 of the participants felt that an NFL team should sign Vick.  This seems pretty consistent with other articles I’ve read and discussions I’ve had with peers.  For the most part, a majority of people believe that he served his punishment for his crime, and as such, now deserves an opportunity to continue his life and his livelihood, which happens to be professional football. Multiple animal rights groups have even agreed with this sentiment, accepting Vick’s remorse and new efforts to prevent animal cruelty.

However, this also seems to be a case when the minority is very vocal, and often times, a vocal minority can have just as much impact as a majority.  People in and out of Philadelphia who disagree with the Eagles’ decision have found many outlets to voice their displeasure, including using different social media platforms to reach a larger audience. Many have also proactively contacted team sponsors to question their relationship with the team, threatening boycotts of the team and the sponsors’ products.

The first Eagles home preseason game that Vick could play in will be on Thursday, August 27. I think on that day we’ll be able to truly gauge the reaction of the fans and the community.

If you have an idea for a new poll, please use the Contact Us link at the top of the page to send me your suggestion!

There is a fun tradition among many NHL teams where the players do not shave at all during the playoffs.  Some players end up with very impressive facial hair, especially if their team makes a deep playoff run. 

Recognizing this tradition and the opportunity it presents, several NHL teams have partnered with the website www.Beardathon.com to help raise money for their team charity.  Their slogan is “Grow One for the Team” and the concept is very simple and fun.  Fans can sign up and volunteer to grow a beard during the playoffs.  Then they can encourage their friends and family (or anyone really) to pledge an amount per day that they grow their beard (the length of time corresponds to how long their team is in the playoffs), or simply make a flat donation.  The participating teams have gotten their own players to participate, so fans can pledge money on their favorite player beards as well.  Fans can also view the beard-of-the-day, vote on fan and player beards, or build a virtual beard that they can send to their friends.  Finally, Beard-a-thon is also using Facebook and Twitter to help promote the program.

This is a great initiative, connecting a fun tradition and the excitement of playoff hockey with a wonderful charitable program.  I couldn’t resist signing up myself, so you can click here to see my Beard-a-thon profile and make a pledge!  Thanks!

StadiaTech.com, a website/blog dedicated to topics in stadium technology, is trying to organize a global blood drive.  Their goal is to get 50 stadiums to participate, which when you think about it, is not a very large number.  But if they get 50 venues and 250 donors per venue, that ends up being 12,500 blood donors, which is a great number! 

You can read more about the details of StadiaTech’s efforts by visiting their website here.  They provide a lot of details on the merits of donating blood, as well as information on how you can get your venue to participate (you can also reach them directly by sending an email to blooddrive@stadiatech.com).  Many locations do events like this once in a while, but coordinating in a larger level is a great idea to generate participation, interest, and public exposure.  I hope StadiaTech can reach their goal and then some!

This post is courtesy of guest blogger Adam Sherlip:

The significance of the USA beating the USSR in 1980 isn’t as impactful today as it was in the 80s.  Many Russians are among the best and most popular players in the NHL.  Alex Ovechkin is a superstar that has singlehandedly made Washington, D.C. into a hockey-crazed town.  Think about that – a Russian athlete is THE star athlete in the capital of the USA.  Wow. 

The New York Times recently featured an article describing how a team that used to be in East Germany, is about to begin playing in an arena built where the Berlin Wall used to stand.  This team has been a source of unification of former adversaries. 

This type of cultural progress is happening all over the world with different initiatives to help connect people.  Non-profits have been established by people from all walks of life, interested in using sports to affect those in less privileged regions.  Roberto’s Kids (robertos-kids.org) is an organization using baseball and the inspiration of Roberto Clemente to positively affect children in third world countries.  Right to Play (rightoplay.com) is another organization using sports and play as a means towards improving health, teaching life skills, and fostering peace in disadvantaged areas of the world.  Sports, it seems, is the common ground we can all start from.

Some professional teams have also invested resources into this outreach.  I had the unique privilege to be heavily involved in Project Hope (nyiprojecthope.com), an initiative of the New York Islanders to develop youth hockey in northeastern China.  Working with Team USA star Angela Ruggiero, Project Hope was uniting children from China with kids from around the world.  In 2006, Project Hope hosted its first youth hockey tournament on Long Island, comprised of a team from Qiqihar, as well as three teams from the New York area.  The tournament was an incredible cultural experience, and a great success! 

A few weeks later, Angela and I went to China to visit each school affiliated with Project Hope.  We spent 45 minutes on the ice showing the players and the coaches the basics, reinforcing the foundation of the game, but more importantly, we preached the culture.

Hockey is a sport that thrives on teamwork, sportsmanship, trust, accountability, and fun.  What we found was that because of the distinct differences in Chinese culture as compared to the Western World, players were being worked too hard, too long, and without an understanding of those virtues that hockey is based upon.  We also noticed that coaches relied on the best players to assume dominance, but in hockey, the best players succeed by being the best teammates, whether it’s Gretzky, Lemieux or Crosby.  To fix this, we showed them drills to enhance creativity, worked on passing, and ran more scrimmages.  It helped!  They were much better the following year at the 2008 tournament!

This is the calling I have been waiting for…to share happiness around the world, one puck at a time, using the sport of ice hockey as the language and culture to bond over.  My first destination is Ladakh, a region in Kashmir, India running on solar energy and ecofriendly practices.  Phey is a rural, Buddhist village in the Himalayas, looking for volunteers to teach the kids hockey before the ice melts in early February.  More information can be found on my website, hockeyvolunteer.blogspot.com.

Adam Sherlip, formerly responsible for digital marketing and amateur hockey development for the New York Islanders, is now heeding his life’s calling.  An idealistic New Yorker, Adam is looking to travel around the world teaching kids hockey, as well as write a variety of books based on the culture of sports.  You can continue to follow Adam at his blog, hockeyvolunteer.blogspot.com.

One of the great things about the sports industry is how much everyone embraces the community and helps with charitable organizations. I want to take a second to help promote one of them. If you visit ESPN.com, you will see that it is Jimmy V Week. I’m sure you all know the story of Jim Valvano, his fight against cancer, and his emotional speech at the 1993 ESPYs – “Don’t give up…don’t ever give up.” When times are tough financially, charities tend to suffer, but every few dollars can help. If you have a chance, I’d encourage you to contribute by clicking here, even if its only a couple of dollars. It is a great organization with a great focus to support cancer research. If you need some motivation, take a few minutes and watch Jimmy’s speech. It is incredibly moving and inspirational.  All of us have had friends or family touched by cancer, so let’s try to help do something about it together.  Thanks.

For the second year in a row, the Arizona Diamondbacks are running their “Season Ticket Scholarship Program.” I think this is one of the best initiatives that I’ve seen a professional franchise run. The basic premise is that any fans (usually previous season ticket holders) who are experiencing a financial hardship can apply for this “scholarship” by telling the club about their current situation and their love of the Diamondbacks.  Then the team will go back and select a few winners who will received completely free lower-level season tickets for the upcoming season (winners may also receive parking passes and/or concessions vouchers).  Fans can be nominated by a friend, or they can send self-nominations and include references.

Last season’s scholarship winners included:

• A family of seven that hit rough times financially and asked for two tickets to share among the entire family…the Diamondbacks gave them seven season tickets.
• An older married couple who were charter season ticket holders (since ‘98), but whose medical bills had risen too much for them to afford season tickets anymore.
• A grandmother who raised two grandchildren on her own and who used baseball to help teach math to her grandchildren.
• The family of one the victims from Arizona’s 2006 “Serial Shooter.”

The Diamondbacks are one of those teams that is truly committed to their fans, and this program is the perfect example of that dedication.  Derrick Hall has done an incredible job since he was named team president a couple of seasons ago.  I pay close attention to the team to see what new fan-friendly initiatives they come up with each season, and I would suggest that others do the same.