It’s pretty common to see economic impact studies to show how building a new venue or hosting a large event can lead to an economic windfall for the local municipality. The fundamental concept is that the costs involved are more than offset by the additional money being spent by non-local residents with local businesses. However, until yesterday, I had never seen a report on the supposed economic impact of a scoreboard, but that’s exactly what the Florida Panthers are trying to demonstrate in their efforts to get Broward County to pay upwards of $5 million for a new scoreboard.

Thanks to ProHockeyTalk.com for sharing this story and the link to the spreadsheet itself, courtesy of the The Miami Herald blog. Take a look below, or click on the spreadsheet for a larger view:

Credit: The Miami Herald

Essentially, the team is trying to say that the events listed here would only take place at their arena if they get the new scoreboard, and then shows a rough calculation of what the economic impact for the county would be. I am going to assume/hope there is more math going on behind the scenes in determining these numbers, as the methodology behind an accurate economic impact study is quite detailed. It’s an interesting angle, but I have to believe they’d be able to book some of these events even without a new scoreboard, and they are completely disregarding the potential loss that the team could get in both ticket sales and sponsorship assets if they don’t upgrade it themselves.

I reached out to my friend Brian Connolly of Victus Advisors, who is an expert in this area of research. He said, “Just because a new scoreboard is used during an event doesn’t mean that a) it’s the sole reason that event came to town, and that b) that event is attracting new dollars into the town that wouldn’t have been spent there otherwise. You need to meet both of those criteria to assign economic impact to a scoreboard.”

Ultimately, with the challenges that teams are having getting public money for venues, especially in that market (see the Miami Dolphins), I can’t see this approach working for the Panthers. If anything does happen to their current scoreboard, it will be interesting to see if Michael Yormark follows through with his position that they “just won’t have a scoreboard.”

UPDATE: I guess I was wrong – Broward County approved the measure by a 6-2 vote yesterday. Now I’ll admit that when I originally wrote this post, I thought the team owned the arena, but apparently the County does, so this makes a little more sense. However, I’m still not sure about how the economic impact of a scoreboard can be accurately determined.

Yesterday, I received an interesting report by a company called Fizziology that did a deep-dive analysis of social media conversations surrounding the NHL lockout. Here is the quick overview of their report:

“This DMA Analysis looks at the social conversation toward the NHL Lockout over the last week. The analysis looks at the total social conversation and negative sentiment of the top 5 markets in both the US and Canada, to identify the market that is the most social engaged, and most negative toward the ongoing lockout in the NHL.

Fizziology listens to the “big 3” of social media: Twitter, Facebook and blogs. We use broad search terminology to gather all references to a tracked property. Trained analysts then read a statistical sampling of the total conversation to determine what is relevant conversation, grade sentiment (to 95% confidence, using a 2-tiered approach for accuracy) and flag conversation drivers.

The data is quantitative and should be looked at week-over-week. But the insights are qualitative, using the social conversation as a giant focus group to learn about audience reactions and perceptions.”

The report points out some interesting facts:

• Ontario is by far the most socially engaged market in North America when it comes to discussing the lockout.
• Within the U.S., Los Angeles has the most negative sentiment but New York shows the most total discussion, probably due to the presence of three teams in the market.
• Urban areas have more than six times the percentage of total lockout conversation than rural areas.

You can click here to download the PDF or read the full report below:

Back in October of 2011 when the NBA lockout was taking place, I wrote a post titled “Always Be Communicating” which outlined how important it is to communicate with fans at all times. “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.” At the time, I included some example emails from the Los Angeles Lakers that I thought did an excellent job of this.

Now that the NHL is in the midst of their own lockout, it seemed like the right time to revisit this concept. Below, you will find two different team examples that I thought were particularly good. The first is a series of emails from the Toronto Maple Leafs. I like how they seem to be reaching out to their fans on a weekly basis, being honest yet optimistic with them. Sometimes simple and direct is the best approach (although their most recent email might be a little too short). The second comes from the New Jersey Devils. This one-off email does a good job trying to keep their fans connected to last season’s success and shows appreciation of their support and patience.

Toronto Maple Leafs – September 21

Dear Russell,

On behalf of the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club, we sincerely appreciate your patience as the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Hockey Leagues Players’ Association (NHLPA) negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

On Wednesday, The National Hockey League announced the cancellation of the 2012 preseason schedule through Sept. 30. The cancellation of the schedule was necessary because of the absence of a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL. The NHL remains committed to negotiating 24/7 to reach an agreement that is fair to both sides — one that provides for a full season of games for our fans.

While the Maple Leafs efforts in creating a world-class experience for our fans are on hold, our commitment to our community remains as strong as ever. The Maple Leafs organization will continue our charitable outreach efforts and community initiatives as the NHL and NHLPA work through the process of securing a new collective agreement.

As a valued fan and member of Leafs Nation, your loyalty and support is very important to our organization. Your passion for the game is what motivates us. Thank you again for your understanding. We greatly appreciate your support. In the meantime, we will keep you informed and provide information as it becomes available.

Sincerely,

Tom Anselmi
President and C.O.O.
Maple Leaf Sports + Entertainment

Toronto Maple Leafs – September 28

Dear Russell,

On Thursday, The National Hockey League announced the cancellation of the remainder of the 2012 preseason schedule. This includes games up to and including October 6th, 2012. The cancellation of the preseason schedule was necessary because of the absence of a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL.

During this time, our commitment to the community remains as strong as ever. We will continue our charitable outreach efforts and community initiatives as the NHL and NHLPA work through the process of securing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. As a valued fan and member of Leafs Nation, your loyalty is very important to our organization. Your passion for the game is what motivates us and we greatly appreciate your support.

We will continue to keep you informed as information becomes available and also encourage you to visit mapleleafs.com for updates.

The Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club

Toronto Maple Leafs – October 4

Dear Russell,

Today, the National Hockey League announced the cancellation of the 2012-13 regular-season schedule through October 24. The cancellation was necessary because of the absence of a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL Players’ Association and the NHL.

We will continue to keep you informed as information becomes available and also encourage you to visit mapleleafs.com for updates.

Sincerely,

The Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club

New Jersey Devils – October 5

A MESSAGE TO OUR LOYAL FANS

As we are sure you are aware, the current collective bargaining negotiations between the NHL and the players have delayed the start of the regular season, with games up through October 24, 2012 having been recently cancelled.

Building off of an incredible run to the Stanley Cup Final, and seeing how the Devils Army has grown from your passionate and unwavering loyalty, we are dedicated to doing everything we can to ensure that you know how important you as a fan base are to this organization. Together, we are confident that we will be able to pick up where we left off, once the play on ice resumes, and continue to build that home ice advantage that was so apparent throughout the playoffs. We are extremely appreciative of the support you continue to show through your emails and calls, and we can’t wait to host you at The Rock once NHL play resumes. Camaraderie amongst Devils fans is unmatched throughout the NHL.

Until then, there is nothing more important to our organization than communicating with each of you and keeping you up-to-date on any and all current events surrounding the upcoming season. It is our promise to you that once a new CBA is agreed upon, as a member of PowerPlay, we will ensure that you are part of an exclusive group that will be able to pick up seats prior to the general public, for games that interest you the most.

Once again, we can’t thank you enough for all of your support and we are open to any and all feedback you may have, as we go through this together. You may call us at 1-800-NJ-DEVIL with any and all questions, concerns, or ideas you would like to share.

Thank You!

UPDATE: Neil Horowitz did a great job aggregating the communications from 15 different NHL teams. Click here to read his Google+ post.

Time for another infographic – this one comes to us courtesy of The Score’s Backhand Shelf hockey blog (via Mashable). Interesting takeaways that I see:

• Much more activity in the first round from Eastern Conference teams – I think this is both because of the size of the markets and having more traditional hockey markets involved
• The Kings clearly dominated the Devils comparatively in the Finals, but both showed a tremendous level of social activity
• The Flyers had what would appear to be a random spike in activity right at the end, but this could be due to the Kings having several former Flyers on their roster.
• Even though they didn’t make it past the first round, the Bruins were still the top social team in the East in total mentions. I don’t have a good explanation for that one, and the timeline graph doesn’t seem to quite match up.
• Claude Giroux’s tremendous playoff performance helped make him the top mentioned player. This also coincided with his run to the “finals” of EA’s NHL ’13 cover contest.

Coyle Media has created a great info-graphic providing insight into the demographics, behaviors and affinity of fans that follow NHL teams on Twitter. Take a look…

[Via Coyle Media]

Some of the items that I found to be most interesting were:

• 78% attended at least one game, which is particularly impressive since only 68% live within the team’s metro area. These engaged Twitter users represent an important source of potential ticket revenue.
• 87% check Twitter multiple times a day, but only about 1/3 of these users have used a geolocation service. While geolocation has a lot of potential, the adoption rate is still much slower than other forms of social media usage.
• The fact that 88% are multi-screeners shows how much value fans see in social engagement as a key facet to the home viewing experience. The more that media outlets integrate social media, the better experience these viewers will have.

For more insights from Pay Coyle, including his thoughts on how this data relates to sponsorship potential, visit his blog post at CoyleMedia.com.

Update:  Coyle Media just released a similar info-graphic on Facebook usage – click below to view that one as well, or visit CoyleMedia.com for the complete blog post.

On my drive home last night, I was thinking about the differences between the visibility and marketability of NBA vs. NHL players.  At first, I thought there were enough similarities between them that NHL players should get more name recognition about casual fans than they currently do, especially compared to the recognition that NBA players have.  Let’s take a look at some of those similarities, then I’d like to highlight one particular item that I think the NHL’s media partners can help with.

Similarities:

• Time of year – both start in the fall and finish in late spring
• Season length – both have around 80 games per season with similar playoff structures
• Venue – both have similar capacities and most arenas are designed to host both sports
• Markets – the NHL has more Canadian presence, but most major U.S. markets are represented
• Players in action – both sports are 5 on 5 (plus goalies for hockey), which should be an advantage compared to baseball (9 on 9) and football (11 on 11)
• Uniforms – both feature the players’ last names and numbers prominently across the back
• Action – both games feature a constant flow of action for about the same length of time

Differences:

• TV Coverage – while the NHL’s coverage is increasing, the NBA has more network and cable coverage
• Grassroots – there are many more basketball courts across the country than hockey rinks, leading to more familiarity and interest
• Scoring – there’s a big difference between a 3-2 final score and a 104-96 final score
• Roster size – hockey rosters are about double the size of basketball

If I keep drilling into more details, I can list out more similarities and differences, but there’s one more difference that I want to focus us…line changes. Unlike basketball, where you have a lot of continuity with the players on the court, hockey has a constant stream of player changes that makes it very difficult for a casual fan to know who exactly is on the ice at any given time. Combine that with the lack of scoring (in basketball, every basket provides a chance to share the name of the player that scored), and the amount of exposure that the players gets throughout the course of a game is limited.

With this in mind, I have a simple suggestion for the NHL’s media partners that can help… an “on-the-ice” bar at the bottom of the screen that lets the viewers know what players are currently on the ice.  I know the idea of putting more things on the screen takes away the amount of space available for the game, but with the popularity of widescreen televisions, I feel that two thin bars at the bottom of the screen could easily be added in the same place you’d see a score ticker.  Seeing the names of the players involved in the action and updating them with each line change could have a huge impact in building awareness for these athletes, which will benefit both the players and the league.

I know I write about email marketing a lot, but it is an important way of communicating with your fans. Even with the constant increase in social media usage, email marketing is still the most effective way to reach your customer base with targeted messaging. One way to make those messages stand out even more is to use personalization.

When I mention personalization, most people think about using the customer’s name, such as starting your email with “Dear Russell” or including the customer’s name in the subject line. Both of these can be effective options for increasing open and click-thru rates. However, sometimes the best way to personalize is to use other information you know about the individual receiving the email.

Take a look at this example from the NHL (viewed from my Gmail account):

The important think to note here is the subject line – ‘Vote for “THE CAPTAIN’S GUARANTEE” as the greatest Stanley Cup Playoffs moment in history.’ From my NHL.com preferences, they know that I am a New York Rangers fan, and Mark Messier’s famous guarantee from the 1994 playoffs was an incredible moment for all Rangers fans. This subject line resonates with me in a very personal way, increasing the likelihood that I’m going to open the email and vote for this moment. I’m sure that Bruins, Canadiens and Penguins fans received a very different subject line to encourage them to vote the historic moment that they care most about.

Think of it this way – imagine you are a Rangers fan. Which email would you want to open?

- Subject 1: Vote for “THE CAPTAIN’S GUARANTEE” as the greatest Stanley Cup Playoffs moment in history
- Subject 2: Russell, vote for the greatest Stanley Cup Playoffs moment in history

In this case, personalizing with my name would seem flat. There’s nothing about adding my name that makes me more interested in opening the email and voting. On the other hand, referencing a historic moment that brings back wonderful memories as a Rangers fans drives much more interest in opening this email. In general, I believe that name-based personalization is a much better approach for customer service related communications, while interest-based personalization can have more impact on sales and marketing communications.

With the NHL Playoffs starting today, it’s a great time to look at how the NHL differs from other major American sports leagues in crowning their champion.

National Football League (NFL)

Only 12 of 32 NFL teams make the playoffs each year. At 37.5%, the NFL has one of the lowest percentages of teams allowed into the postseason. Four division winners from each conference automatically qualify, plus two Wild Card teams (non-division winners with the best record). At times, this can make for interesting seeding. In 2011, for example, the Seattle Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 record. They were slated to host the first round matchup against the 11-5 New Orleans Saints, the non-division winner Wild Card out of the NFC South. There was quite an uproar about whether Seattle deserved to host that game, but they quieted  (most of) the critics when they pulled out a 41-36 win.

National Basketball Association (NBA)

In the NBA, 16 out of 30 teams (a whopping 53.3%), make the playoffs. Once those 16 teams are seeded, the bracket will never change, regardless of any upsets that occur.

Major League Baseball (MLB)

MLB doesn’t refer to their tournament as the ‘playoffs.’ For baseball, it’s the ‘postseason’ that determines the champion. Only 8 of the 30 MLB teams (the lowest of all major American sports leagues at 26.7%), make the postseason, often coming down to the very last game, and occasionally needing an extra game as a tiebreaker.

Major League Soccer (MLS)

The youngest of the major American leagues, MLS advances 10 of their current 18 teams (55.5%) to the playoffs. Five teams from each conference are seeded, and while the first three seeds get byes, the #4 and #5 seeds play each other for the right to face the #1 seed. Once the bracket is set, no changes are made to account for upsets.

National Hockey League (NHL)

The NHL may just be the most fair when it comes to their playoff system. While they do allow a large percentage of their teams in (16 out of 30 – 53.3%), teams are re-seeded after each round. What this takes into account, that no other major American league does, is the regular season. A lower-seeded team that didn’t perform as well over the course of the 82-game season, doesn’t get an easier path to the Stanley Cup Finals just because they upset the higher seed. Kudos to the NHL for keeping the regular season more relevant than the other four leagues.

What is your favorite playoff system? Do any of these five leagues get it right? Should MLS consider going to the European-style of crowning the regular-season champion and forgoing any regular season?

Image courtesy of NHL.com

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Adam Sherlip from The Hockey Foundation.

At the end of the day, we all know the sports industry is about making money.  Sure, there’s a part of it that is entertainment, but not to the degree that the industry claims, and certainly not how we perceive it to be.  Listen to sports radio.  People rarely call in to talk about the amazing entertainment of the teams they watched.  They call in to complain or criticize or say they can do better.  Look at the advertisements by the teams, that tell you about the “grit”, “energy” and “determination” of their “experienced” or “youthful” team.  It’s a marketing of emotions.  It’s the business of sports.

I have no issue with capitalism.  Everybody deserves to make money for what they do.  Owners deserve to make a profit off of sales/sponsorship reps that fill the arena with fans and sponsors that are paying to see players they believe can help their local team win.  What I do have an issue with is pretending that it is for the betterment of the community if this team wins.  I’m not saying local fans shouldn’t enjoy themselves when their local favorite team wins a game or a championship, but keep in perspective that watching highly compensated salaried athletes from another state/country play against others of the same breed should not determine your mood the following day.  If/when those athletes go out into the community to do charity work, keep in mind that while there are absolutely those that do these events out of the kindness of their hearts, many more of them go out of obligation to an organization/league that requires they do goodwill because it will endear the player/team/league to the fans, ultimately resulting in more tickets sold.  Many community relations departments will strategize what organizations to help based on how it affects ticket sales.  Not all, but most.  An important distinction is in the case of natural disasters or tragic events, like Hurricane Katrina or 9/11.  Everybody opened up their hearts when these disasters happened, and players that supported recovery in any way should be appreciated as kind-hearted human beings, not charitable athletes.

I comment on this because of the Winter Classic, the annual NHL game played outside on New Year’s Day.  It’s a relatively new brand concept for the NHL, but for what my opinion’s worth as someone that has now worked more time since my time at the Islanders than working for the Islanders, it was the purest hockey game event I’ve seen at the professional level in quite a while.

The Winter Classic is a big business for the NHL.  It is the Super Bowl (because it’s a one day event in the Winter), without the ring.  NBC throws a lot of money to televise this game, and sponsors have returned to the league to be aligned with a magical event.  And I get it.  Even Mike Milbury was warmer than usual because this game was about a bunch of hockey players and hockey fans enjoying themselves.  The fun was palpable, even through the fighting and aggression, because it was highly skilled children playing in front of a lot of people.

When the players were asked whether the poor weather was a factor, they all brushed it off as a natural aspect of playing outside.  They were blinded with adrenaline because of the experience of playing outside in front of a large crowd, but also because they were just playing outside like many of us did when we were kids.  That’s what it’s all about, getting back to the child-like state of playing sports.

As a sports-crazed nation and species, we love watching highlight reals.  We love it because we get to witness world class athletes execute elite athletic achievements, like we envisioned we could when we were children. The next time you watch a sporting event, remember what it was like to play that game as a child, but with the knowledge as an adult that we are not them.  We can achieve what drives us, the way the sport drives the athletes.  Appreciate human achievement when Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, or any random minor-league call-up performs an incredible feat.  Appreciate it because it’s an art-form unto itself.  If you enjoy the art of the sport, the way hockey players change lines on the fly, the way the ball swooshes through the net from a perfect shot, striking out 20 players in a game, etc., appreciate it as you would a Broadway musical or a Van Gogh masterpiece.

Ultimately, you will learn to love the sport for the beauty of the game, won’t care who wins, won’t stress out when “your” team loses, and will be happy to pay your hard earned money to see the continuation of the art you loved as a child but weren’t qualified enough to continue.  Remember, the players you watch probably can’t do what you do, because they’re human, not superhuman.  At the end of the day, you’ll have more fun, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

Adam Sherlip is the Founder & Executive Director of The Hockey Foundation, a non-profit that uses ice hockey as a means to improve life in remote communities around the world.  The UN & US recognize sports as being a key component in international/cultural cooperation, and Adam’s philosophy is that the ideals of hockey stand above other team sports to achieve these goals.

The Hockey Foundation is about to embark on a journey to Ladakh, a predominantly Buddhist region, in a predominantly Muslim state, in a predominantly Hindu country.  It’s a high altitude desert that is heavily populated with the Indian military, as it’s located between Tibet & Pakistan.  The Hockey Foundation is going to Ladakh to help communicate a message of peace while on the ice.  For more information, please visit www.hockeyfoundation.org.

I’m always on the look out for new, fun ways that teams can use social media to engage their fans and customers, so I was quite pleased to see this latest initiative from the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche (with a big assist to Digital Royalty, who worked with the Kings on this program).

On Saturday, October 23, the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche “faced-off” in a the first-ever NHL Hashtag Battle, as part of Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness month. From the start of the game until the final buzzer, fans of each team could tweet with either the hashtag #GoKings or #GoAvs, and for every tagged tweet, $1 would be donated to the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles or local cancer organizations in Colorado involved with the Hockey Fights Cancer program.

This type of social media initiative has a wonderful combination of competition between rival teams, fan engagement and community outreach. The battle was actively promoted on the teams websites and via email. So what did the results look like?

Final score:

• #GoKings: 29,374 tweets
• #GoAvs: 13,876 tweets

Specifically looking at the Los Angeles Kings:

• $29,374 was raised for the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles
• The Kings were also the #1 trending topic world wide during the game (better than UFC, which had two fights going on, and Kanye West, whose short film “Runaway” debuted at the same time)
• The team added close to 1,000 Twitter followers during the battle

Sounds like a pretty effective campaign from the folks at the Kings and Digital Royalty. You can read more about the Kings use of Twitter here.