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.

Sports Marketing from Coyle Media, LLC.

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.

Earlier today, Jonathan Goldberg (@JRGoldberg on Twitter) pointed out a promotion that the Florida Panthers just launched. Take a look at the screenshot below:

While the team can’t actually use LeBron James to sell hockey tickets, the references are obvious and offer a creative way to try to leverage the buzz of LeBron’s potential move to Florida to sell hockey tickets.  Panthers President and COO Michael Yormark said “Based on the hype surrounding rumors of a new King headed to South Florida, we wanted to remind our fans that we want them to feel like royalty. Certainly, it’s an exciting time to be part of the South Florida sports industry.” (ESPN.com)

What do you think of this type of promotion? Some people would call it creative and outside-the-box, while others like @JRGoldberg call it “tacky” and says “This makes them look minor league, desperate and silly.” Share your thoughts in the comments (after you watch LeBron’s special of course, which is on in 10 minutes!)

On Tuesday night, I finally took in a New Jersey Devils game at the Prudential Center, which opened back in October of 2007. Having been to several Devils games at the older Continental Airlines Arena (now the Izod Center), I was looking forward to seeing what the new building had to offer. Here are some quick thoughts from the game, including some tweets that I sent during the game.

Stadium Environment

• Taking in the Devils/Bruins game at the Prudential Center. My 1st time here at “The Rock.” Definitely like it http://tweetphoto.com/16470860
• Prudential Center has a great open-back design on one end of the mezzanine seating/concourse area. Unique feel for http://tweetphoto.com/16475479
  • It almost had the same feeling I get when walking a baseball concourse, where you can still see the on-field action while you get to your seat.
• They’re doing Score-O (four fans try a shot from mid-ice with most of the net blocked off). I did Score-O back in high school and made it on the first shot! One of the sports highlights of my life.
  • I was 16 when I did this contest, so that means they’ve been doing it for at least 13 seasons now, and fans still seem to enjoy it, especially when the first guy made the shot.
• Fun video during the break of the Devils’ ushers dancing to the music. Crowd got into it too. http://tweetphoto.com/16480551
  • I love when the personality of the arena staff comes through like this.
• Guy not paying attention to the mascot’s t-shirt toss just got hit it the back of the head w/ a shirt. At least it wasn’t a puck!
• There was a “deck” in one lower corner of the arena where the Devils had some female dancers. The location was odd as only part of the arena could see them, and only some of their dances ended up on the center-hung scoreboard.
• They also featured jerseys of all New Jersey high school and college hockey teams hanging on the walls throughout the entire building.
• The food selection seemed pretty standard with typical prices. The one “extra” that I really noticed was the “Taste of Newark” section on the mezzanine concourse that featured food from popular local restaurants.
• The egress from the mezzanine level was a little rough. They could definitely benefit from additional escalators.

Sponsorship

• The permanent naming rights signage for Prudential Center is prominently featured everywhere inside and outside the building, and always includes both the company name and logo for full branding impact.
• PNC Bank has a strong presence, particularly in the PNC Tower, which is also where the box office is located (more visibility). You can’t miss PNC in the building – they also had frequent appearances on the scoreboard and LED.
• Frank’s Red Hot Sauce was just on the scoreboard and ribbon LED. Don’t think I’ve seen them in any other sports sponsorships.
• Great presence by Verizon at the Prudential Center. Phone demos, sales staff, free co-branded t-shirts, games and more http://tweetphoto.com/16477636
  • I cannot over-emphasize how effective this activation was. There was a “Text Battle” station where kids used Verizon phones to answer Devils trivia, a long line to get the free Devils/Verizon t-shirt (which also included a product demo), and Verizon sales/service staff answering questions and showing off new phones.
• The Belvedere Vodka Ice Lounge premium club seating. Looks very nice inside. http://tweetphoto.com/16477896
• @SeatGeek I walked past it (The Fire Lounge) on the other side. Can’t get into either tonight but they look great. Love the Fire and Ice theme between the two.

Sales

• My favorite Devils sales rep (@isatten) swung by and dropped off a season ticket flyer. And I’m actually contemplating it.
• The Devils have put together some creative season ticket offers, including a 12 month payment plan, guaranteed early purchase/renewal benefits, additional higher-end pay-in-full benefits, and 15 different top-tier prize drawings that all early-buyers are eligible for.
• The team also offers a $15 and $30 price point for select locations, which is a pretty affordable option for hockey tickets (and I firmly believe there is no such thing as a bad seat for a hockey game).

I have to say that I came away very impressed with the arena across the board. I’m sure the Devils are quite happy with it as well!

I attended last night’s Rangers/Thrashers game at Madison Square Garden (unfortunately, the Rangers lost in the shootout). While I was there, I decided to send out a series of sports business “tweets” based on some of my observations. In case you missed them in real time, here they are again for your viewing pleasure. As always, I’d love your feedback and thoughts in the comments.

• Some #sportsbiz thoughts from tonight’s #NYR game: I don’t like the “I am a Ranger” messaging. Been done too many times by other teams.
  • Reply from Stefmara “I am a Ranger” has been their tagline for 3 seasons now.
• I want to ride the SpongeTech zamboni! http://mypict.me/266xU
• Rangers dashers are packed tight, only one spot that I can see with an in-house ticketing message and two for MSG HD.
• No ribbon bands at MSG, which limits inventory a bit. Even so, there is still some internal facade that could easily be used but isn’t.
• Some scattered no shows in the building, but still very good for a Monday vs. Atlanta. Rangers have had a great show rate all year.
• Also find it interesting that the MSG teams refer to their season ticket holders as subscribers. Makes me think of a magazine subscription.
  • Reply from bluejayrock - Or perhaps a subscription to your friendly local cable company, say maybe Cablevision?
  • Reply from mario_prosp – “Subscriber” makes the fan sound more connected w/ the team, “ticket holder” sounds transactional.
  • My reply – I see that perspective. But I also think that of a subscription as something that I can just cancel – I don’t feel invested in it.
• Just had the Coca Cola fan music choice of the game. Nice way to activate in a unique way around a basic part of the game experience.
• Sponsor of the Night: FXDD – in the ice, on screen for replays, text messaging promos. I have no idea who they are, but now I want to know.
• Might have spoke too soon. The NY Lottery’s Human Puck Race was great! Engaging participants and the crowd loved it. http://mypict.me/269e6

Last week the NHL had their 2008-09 end-of-season awards ceremony at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. It was a night to celebrate a great season of hockey, with Alex Ovechkin taking home three awards and three different players from the Bruins winning individual awards.  From all accounts, the event seemed to be a great way for the NHL to cap off a successful year.  However, I want to talk about a different event that took place out there.

While the NHL was taking over Las Vegas, they partnered with PokerStars.net, a free online poker site, and the World Series of Poker for a special charity poker tournament.  The tournament (which was appropriately a “shootout” style event) featured a combination of current NHL players, celebrities and amateur poker players that won their seats through PokerStars.net.  Scott Hartnell from the Philadelphia Flyers ended up winning the event, earning $25,000 for the ASPCA.  You can read more about the event at NHL.com and PokerNews.com.

Now the NHL and the World Series of Poker might seem like an unusual pair of companies to work together.  After all, poker is viewed as a gambling activity, and most professional sports do everything they can to avoid connections to gambling. But in this case, the pairing seemed to work out well for both sides.  The NHL found a way to gain more exposure for their first Las Vegas awards show and create another unique event to add to their get-away weekend. The World Series of Poker got to add a unique hockey flair to their events for a day and tap into some of the NHL’s recent positive publicity.  Take a look at some of the pictures here, courtesy of PokerRoad.com. I particulary like the hockey rink style poker table and the hockey boards in front of the spectators.  They even brought out the Stanley Cup during that day’s WSOP tournament winner’s ceremony.

Ultimately, both “leagues” are looking to increase their public exposure.  The NHL is still viewed as a distant 4th in the “Big 4″ U.S. sports, but is arguably gaining ground.  Meanwhile, poker and the WSOP want to grow their audeince and be viewed as “sports entertainment” with their coverage on ESPN.  I think both brands benefit from an event like this, and they deserve credit for their unlikely partnership.

Here are three quick thoughts on sports business storylines for the 2009 NBA Finals.

• What happens to the Kobe/LeBron ads?  Whether it’s Vitamin Water, Nike or the NBA itself, there was a lot of hype focused on Kobe vs. LeBron.  Now that the Magic have eliminated the Cavaliers, will these ads disappear?  Maybe Nike can add a puppet for Dwight Howard, since those commercials had done so well.
• Speaking of Mr. Howard, how will he be used in the NBA’s marketing efforts, or in the marketing from league partners?  Off the top of my head, I’ve only seen him in the T-Mobile ads where he plays second fiddle to Wade and Barkley.  Howard is a funny, charismatic athlete and should be easy to promote.  When I asked people on Twitter what stories they were following, this was definitely the most common response.
• The ratings for both conference finals were excellent, but will any disappointment about the match-up impact the rating for the finals?  I think there will be a small hit, but they still have the power of the L.A. market.  I think one early win from the Magic would reassure people that it will be a good series and keep the viewers tuned in

And of course, I cannot forget the NHL Stanley Cup Finals, even if I’m two games late!

• How will the declining auto industry and specifically the recent bankruptcy filing by GM affect ticket sales for the games in Detroit.  The Red Wings do a great job drawing fans in, especially in the playoffs, but the fans still need money to buy the tickets.
• Is the rematch from last year’s finals a good thing or a bad thing for the league? Since we’re two games in, we already know some of this answer.  The ratings are upfrom games 1 and 2 last year (which were on Versus) and from NBC’s first two games last year (games 3 and 4).  I would think the league is happy to see the Penguins come out of the East, but it might have been a great opportunity to strengthen the NHL’s presence in Chicago (top 5 media market) if they had advanced over Detroit.
• Does the NHL need to worry about over-marketing Crosby?  Clearly he’s one of the most talented players in the game (arguably #1), but his team is already down 2-0.  Is there a risk to pushing Crosby if his team fails to win again this year?  Maybe there is too much pressure on him to succeed.

Finally, here are the results of the poll that I’ve been running the past two weeks:

While more readers said they were paying closer attention to the NBA playoffs, the numbers are pretty close!  

So what other stories are you following?  Leave your thoughts in the comments!

UPDATE:  Well, it didn’t take Vitamin Water long to get their Dwight Howard ad together! Check out this post from Darren Rovell of CNBC, complete with the commercial video clip.

I recently interviewed Dani Muccio (also know as @dani3boyz on Twitter) regarding all of the NHL Tweetup events (www.nhltweetup.com) that have been taking place throughout this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

How did the idea for organized NHL Tweetups start and how did you get involved?

It all started with a single tweet. Even in that first tweet, I tagged it #NHLtweetup. After getting my first taste of networking outside of Twitter’s 140 character limit at a tweetup in my area, I thought it would be great to try and gather some of our “Hockey Tweeps” for a gathering in a central location (NYC). Getting like-minded people together is something that I’ve always enjoyed doing through my volunteer work in my community. The idea really took off and quickly evolved into an international event with 23 locations planning events for the first playoff games  The experience of coordinating these events on an international level, revolving around a sport that I love, has really been incredible. The best explanation of what happened after that first tweet was put together by Angela Robson (@goaliegirl) in her blog post which can be found here. I have continued to be the contact person/coordinator for NHLtweetup events. I monitor Twitter for mentions of NHLtweetup and reach out to people who are interested in hosting an event in their area. I supply them the info they need to get started and gather information I need from them in order to help them promote their event via nhltweetup.com and @nhltweetup. Angela Robson created and hosts nhltweetup.com and continues to serve as the site’s administrator.

What has the attendance been like at the various locations?

Attendance varied greatly from location to location. The smallest was in Belfast, Ireland which was dubbed “The Littlest NHLtweetup” with two very enthusiastic attendees. The largest were the first round events  in NYC at the NHL Store and in Nashville, which topped off at about 100 people. All over the US and Canada you could find events that had anywhere from 10-30 attendees.

Have the events grown in popularity as the playoffs progress?

Yes, they have been extremely successful in getting hockey fans together and have gotten quite a bit of media attention. The most exciting, was a mention in USA Today. A quick Google News search of NHLtweetup brings up pages and pages of articles. Each write up touts NHL fans as the most tech-savvy of any major league sport with these events as an example of how social media is being used to connect with and extend its fan fan base.
 
Some locations, such as Washington DC, have had 5 or more events since the inaugural night. Other locations like NYC, Pittsburgh, Denver and Chicago just to name a few, went for Round 2 and Round 3 tweetups and are already discussing a NHLtweetup for the final. Currently, there are two more events that I’m directly involved in that I will attend – one in Farmingdale Long Island on 5/27 and another (maybe two) in Montreal for the draft during the weekend of June 26th. Other events in Seattle, Denver and Cincinnati will take place this week. As soon as the final schedules are released, the planning will start for those games as well.

Are there any plans to organize events like this next season?

Absolutely. I’ve been told as soon as the 2009-10 schedule comes out, I better hold onto my BlackBerry very tightly because a number of cities are going to want to have NHLtweetups during their team’s first away game. I expect the beginning of the season to be pretty big. I’m looking forward to it. This is something that I’ve enjoyed doing and will continue to do so as long as the demand is there.

What have you learned from NHL Tweetups that other teams/leagues could benefit from?

The biggest thing I’ve learned is that hockey isn’t “celebrated” the same way in all markets. Whereas some areas, such as NY and NJ, have “social hockey fans” that will get together to watch just about any team play, other areas such as San Jose, Detroit, and most of the Canadian market, are team loyal and are mostly interested in their local teams and not the NHL overall. Identifying these differences and marketing appropriately would be beneficial to the fans as well as the teams and league.

Also, the league and teams should not dismiss social media outlets such as Twitter, or the fans that utilize it. NHLtweetup is proof that this is a powerful tool for for connecting with the fans and bringing them together. These outlets are also a valuable tool in drawing attention to the sport and raising interest in the more passive fans or creating new ones altogether. The events that were supported by the NHL and/or their local teams had the best turnout and were more likely to have follow up events.

If you want more info, you can visit:

• http://delicious.com/angela/nhltweetup (List of links that contain mentions of NHLtweetup)
• http://www.blogtalkradio.com/PredsOnTheGlass/2009/04/28/PredsOnTheGlass-Radio- (A podcast with Dani and Buddy Oakes from PredsOnTheGlass)

Everyone here has most likely seen this classic sports commercial, featuring a very intense game of HORSE between Michael Jordan and Larry Bird:

Why doesn’t the NHL (or one of the NHL’s top sponsors) create a similar commercial featuring Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin?  These two are clearly the most marketable players in the league, and on top of that, they have quite the individual rivalry brewing.  How hard would it be to put the two of them together in a hockey-style HORSE match? 

If I was creating this commercial, I’d even try to make it as close to the commercial above as possible.  In fact, isn’t McDonald’s a league sponsor?  They should be the company to recreate it.  Combining the nostalgia of the original commercial with the top two emerging stars of the NHL would be an instant hit!  Someone get McDonald’s and the NHL on the line!

This year, the NHL is going “big time” with their end of season awards by hosting an all-out awards show next month in Las Vegas.  Take a look at the image below which is from an email I recently received:

I think this is a brilliant idea.  Right now, the only sports awards show in existence is the ESPYs, and that show has gained popularity over time, so if you were the NHL, why not put on your own production? Other leagues handle their awards with little more than some press releases, and maybe a quick trophy presentation before a playoff game.  This is a chance for the NHL to gain more attention for their sport by highlighting the best players and moments from the season.  Hopefully, the event will get the full “awards-show treatment” complete with the red carpet intro and plenty on celebrities from both the sports and entertainment worlds. Another nice touch is that fans can by tickets to attend the actual ceremony at ticketmaster.com/nhlawards, and of course the show will be broadcast on Versus. If this event is a success, I would not be surprised to see other leagues copy the idea for their next season’s awards! You can read more about this event at NHL.com.

On a personal note, this is the 200th post on TheBusinessOfSports.com. Thank you to everyone who reads and follows the site. I really appreciate your support, and I hope you all continue to find the site informative, entertaining and valuable.

By this point, most people know that the Phoenix Coyotes have declared for bankruptcy and the team will end up being sold to someone.  Beyond that, the story gets interesting depending on who you ask and what perspective you’re looking at the situation from.  Here is a quick run down of the parties involved in this dilemma:

Jim Balsille - The Blackberry billionaire has been trying to buy an NHL franchise for a while now (he previously tried to buy the Predators), and he’s made an offer that the current Coyotes owner wants to accept.  However, Balsille will only buy the team if he can move the franchise to Ontario.

Jerry Boyes - The current Coyotes owner has lost millions on the team (as much as $100M depending on what reports you look at). The team has filed for bankruptcy, and Boyes wants to sell the team to Balsille because it is currently the best offer.  However, the NHL feels that Boyes does not have the authority to accept the offer, because…

Gary Bettman and the NHL - According to sources, the NHL has actually been in control of the team for some period time, possibly dating back to the fall when they loaned the franchise a lot of money. They want to help Moyes sell the team, but not to Balsille.

The City of Glendale – The city wants to keep the team in town and force them to honor the 30 year lease with Jobing.com Arena that was signed.  They are taking the team to court over this – the only way the team could get out of their lease would be through the bankruptcy process.

The Canadian Public - There is an online/grassroots movement to support Balsille’s bid and bring a 7th team to Canada.  They have created the website www.makeitseven.ca, and you can also find them on Twitter and Facebook. It’s too early to tell what type of impact this support could have.

There are lots of moving parts to this situation, and I have no idea how they will all play out.  This is definitely a story to watch closely!

I’m watching the Rangers/Capitals playoff game this afternoon (which is quite a fun game to watch), and on the bottom of the screen, they mention the NHL Star Cam.  Apparently, NHL.com is offering a live stream that follows around the star player of the game, which for this game is clearly Alexander Ovechkin (when Ovechkin is off the ice, the camera follows a different star player).  If you visit NHL.com during the game, you can play the stream right from the home page.

This is an interesting way to promote and market hockey.  Normally, teams and leagues are hesitant to focus their marketing around specific players.  This approach can backfire if a player is traded, gets hurt, or simply under-performs.  Also, most sports believe that marketing the team or the game itself is enough to generate interest from their fans and potential fans.  However, since the NHL has had some trouble generating as much public interest over the past couple of years, I like that they are trying new things.  In particularly, the league has two very marketable players in Crosby and Ovechkin, and they should find new ways to leverage these superstars wherever possible.  The star cam also offers a unique way of viewing the game that existing fans will appreciate.

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!

Last night, Martin Brodeur set the NHL goaltending record for most career victories with 552, one more than Patrick Roy.  This was an incredible accomplishment by one of the most talented and respected athletes in NHL history. 

The NHL, recognizing the rarity of this type of record-breaking event, is doing a great job in embracing Brodeur’s accomplishment and getting fans directly involved in the celebration by launching a “digital celebration” on NHL.com, NHL Mobile, and across the Internet.  This includes:

• Extensive coverage and video from yesterday’s win, including reaction from teammates, opponents and fans
• Exclusive video retrospectives on Brodeur’s career
• A dedicated section on Shop.NHL.com called that includes new products to commemorate the record
• Asking fans to e-mail a congratulatory note or favorite memory of Brodeur to CongratsMarty@NHL.com, with the top entries displayed on www.NHL.com/brodeur and shared directly with Brodeur himself
• Encouraging fans to visit the NHL’s YouTube site (www.YouTube.com/NHL) and submit their own video or text message to Brodeur
• Encouraging fan conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #Brodeur

This is a very comprehensive “digital celebration,” finding ways to integrate both fan-generated and league-generated content across multiple platforms.  These types of strategies can be implemented by any team or league to celebrate a significant event or milestone, and they are pretty easy to manage.  Congrats Martin, and nice job by the NHL.

News was released today about a new partnership between the NHL and MLB.  Starting next week, fans of both leagues will now have the opportunity to purchase a combined membership to MLB.tv Premium and NHL GameCenter Live, the two streaming video products produced by each league.  The package will be available for purchase at both NHL.com and MLB.com, and will cost $139.95.  This is a very nice price for fans, considering the MLB product costs $109.95 and the NHL’s “Race for the Cup” video package costs $79. 

Along with their typical selection of regular season games, both products have added to their product packages.  MLB.tv will include over 100 spring training games and the first two rounds of the World Baseball Classic, while NHL GameCenter will include select playoff games.  This deal will probably be more beneficial for the NHL in improving adoption of their GameCenter product.  MLB.tv has been around for a few years now and is more well-known by sports consumers, while this is the first year for GameCenter Live.  

“We couldn’t be more excited about this tremendous opportunity to introduce our groundbreaking NHL Game Center LIVE experience to an even bigger audience,” said John Collins, COO for the NHL. “MLB.com has built a great business by engaging their audience with a best-in-breed product. This partnership is all about our mutual commitment to deliver world class digital sports experiences to sports fans everywhere.”

I don’t know what their expectations are in terms of total sales numbers, as I’m sure there are some questions about how much crossover there is between MLB and NHL fans.  But even if the numbers are small, any increase in NHL viewership by sports fans as a whole is a very positive thing.

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.

On Monday night, I recorded the first official TheBusinessOfSports.com podcast with my interview guest, Michael DiLorenzo, Director of Corporate Communications for the NHL.  You can actually follow Michael on Twitter (twitter.com/umassdilo).  We covered a wide range of topics, including:

• The use of social media in sports
• Communication strategies for the NHL, during and after the season
• The league’s focus on video-based content
• Why the NHL is on the Versus network
• The upcoming Winter Classic
• Career tips for those starting out

You can use the audio player below to listen to the episode in your browser.  You can also use the links below to download the MP3 directly or subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.  Since this is my first attempt at a podcast, I would really love your feedback!  Thanks!

Download audio file (TheBusinessOfSportsPodcast-20081210.mp3)

Download the MP3 | Subscribe via iTunes

According to the old cliche, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”  There is definitely some truth to this statement. A player makes some public mistake and the media covers every detail of that team and league.  It might not be the best publicity, but there is no question that your teams will get a lot of additional media exposure.  But eventually, the hype dies down and the publicity ends, right?  Well, what if the league had an easy way to keep it going, say by suspending the player?

The case I’m specifically referring to is with Sean Avery of the NHL’s Dallas Stars.  Avery recently made some recent off-color remarks regarding an ex-girlfriend that is now dating a player on the Calgary Flames (the team he was playing that night).  Now even though the remarks were crude, players have said and done much worse over the past few years, so you wouldn’t think this would be that big of a story.  Well, Gary Bettman disagreed and decided to immediately take action, suspending him indefinitely and turning the incident into a top story across all media outlets.

Bettman was completely within his right to suspend Avery, but to me it seems just a bit too quick and drastic of a decision.  Then I saw a comment from another blogger (www.motherpucker.ca) who said “Letting him play would have received attention, but it would have died off. Suspending him is viral.” That is a great observation – it was the drastic action by the NHL and the corresponding attention it brought to Avery’s statements that made the story take off.  Could Bettman have been motivated by the publicity he knew the suspension would generate?  It’s not a bad idea, really.  The NHL always struggles to take exposure from the other three major U.S. leagues, so why not do something to generate some headlines?  It will be interesting to see how long the story hangs around and how Avery and the NHLPA react over the next couple of days.  In the meantime, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity!”

Yesterday the Seattle Mariners named Don Wakamatsu as their new manager, the first Asian-American manager in MLB history.  This is a great story for MLB, as the league has really tried to enhance their international presence over the past few years.  The number of foreign-born players continues to increase, including from outside of North and Central America.  The World Baseball Classic was viewed as a big success and the next WBC is coming up in March.  The league also ran the China Series in Beijing this preseason and actually started the regular season in Japan.

MLB is not the only league making large strides in reaching an international audience.  The NHL started their regular season in Prague and Stockholm this year.  The NFL has had a regular season game in England each of the last two seasons.  The NBA had preseason games in China and Europe this year, and has an international department dedicated to developing the game and leagues in Europe and Asia.  I’m not even going to talk about soccer, which is the most international game of all (although I do believe that there were more international exhibitions with MLS teams this year than ever before).  Clearly the U.S. sports leagues have a global focus.  My question is, for which sport(s) does it make the most sense, and are the leagues doing it the right way?

I think that the NBA has the best international plans of four major leagues, at least at this point in time.  Their dedicated global offices have done a great job in promoting and developing the game internationally, and the increase in popularity has been tremendous.  We are not too far away from seeing NBA-managed leagues in other countries.   The NHL has more work to do, but they took a good first step this year with the Prague and Stockholm games.  The U.S. audience has not embraced hockey as much the last couple of seasons, but the game is very popular in Europe and Russia, so tapping into this audience is very important.  MLB has done a pretty good job with the first WBC, but there are still some kinks to work out logistically.  They also haven’t been able to really spread the game much beyond Asia and Central America. 

The NFL has probably done the worst job of the four, and the game just might not translate well internationally.  After all, every other country has their own game of “football.”  The regular season game in London is just a novelty at this point, and the NFL Europe was a complete failure.  The more interesting markets for the NFL to look at might be Mexico and Canada.  They had a great audience with their preseason game in Mexico City, and Canada has a long track record in football with the CFL. 

What do you think of the various international efforts the leagues have made recently?  Which sport has done the best/worst job?  What sport has the biggest needs internationally?  Let me know what you think in the comments, and please answer the poll question on the right.  Thanks!

I’ve been using Twitter to help grow my network, get more exposure for the site, and look for interesting content.  Earlier today, I found a great article on NHL.com web traffic, courtesy of @detroitredwings. 

According to the article, “80 percent of visitors to NHL.com that watch videos return the next day.”  That’s an incredible repeat percentage.  Many organizations concentrate on how to get initial visitors, but repeat traffic is the key to developing loyal fans and customers, and clearly for the NHL, video is the most effective way to build this loyalty.  Video has been the biggest focus for the new NHL.com, from their free programming (game highlights, The Hockey Show, and more) to their new GameCenter Live product.

Another important takeaway from this is the value of engagement.  Too many entities focus on acquiring as many potential customers as possible, growing their database, and them immediately trying to convert those subscribers to revenue.  While generating revenue is the ultimate goal, there need to be an extra step between acquisition and monetization - engagement.  Provide additional value for your users, whether its video, games, or an “insider” newsletter.  The better you can engage your fans first, the greater that customer’s lifetime value will be.

Tomorrow (or today, depending on when you read this) is Election Day, and in case you didn’t notice, it’s a Presidential election year.  So lets take a look and see some ways that Election Day and sports are overlapping:

• Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady have Adidas sneakers that encourage people to “Vote ’08″
• Both Barack Obama and John McCain will be interviewed at halftime of tonight’s Monday Night Football game
• The New Jersey Nets are encouraging fans to buy tickets and “Vote Nets” – they will also provide live election updates during the game
• The Dallas Mavericks have partnered with a local radio station, 1200 WOAI, for a $12 Election Night ticket offer
• The Los Angeles Kings are offering 44% off of tickets and select merchandise in honor of electing our 44th President

Ironically (or maybe by design), four of the seven NHL games tomorrow are hosted by Canadian teams, avoiding a conflict with the election.  On a league level, I know the NHL is going to start their all-star balloting soon.  Election Day would have been a great marketing platform to launch the balloting and drive “voters.”

Madison Square Garden is hosting a pretty interesting event on Tuesday, December 2 called “Night with the President”.  Scott O’Neil, the President of MSG Sports, is going to give a talk is the WaMu Theater on “breaking into and being successful in the sports industry” – a topic that he clearly knows quite well.  Scott is well known for his work with the NBA’s TEAMBO group, and has now taken on one of the highest profile positions in the industry.  Tickets are $30 each, and also includes admission to that night’s Knicks game (so this event doubles as a nice sales vehicle for the company).  I may try to attend this event, and I’d encourage others in the New York area to attend as well.

Other Newsbytes:

• The NHL is offering another free trial of NHL GameCenter Live tomorrow, October 30.  I still think their price point is a bit high, so this additional free trial might be a sign that they’re not hitting their subscription goals.  I do really like the service, and hope it does well for the league.
• I am starting to use Twitter a bit more, and I update my account whenever I add a new post.  If you use Twitter, please follow my “tweets” and I will do the same!
• Finally, if you work for a sports league/team/organization and would like me to write about your current events, please add me to your press release distribution list.  Use the “Contact” link at the top of the page and I will get back to you with my contact information.

One of our readers (Rob. S from New York) suggested the topic for today’s post.   Rob says:

“Since I am now a religious reader and commenter on your blog, I have something to contribute. I was driving on I-287 today and saw a NJ Devils sign advertising them as “Jersey’s Team”…the Devils are [New] Jersey’s only true team with the Jets and Giants still being NY and the Nets moving back to NY shortly. It’s a good way for the Devils to grab a Jersey fan base that may just hate anything NY, even if they aren’t a hockey fan yet. Let me know what you think of this…”

Here is the logo for the marketing campaign that Rob is referring to:

I think this is a great campaign for the New Jersey market.  Fans in this state have a pseudo-identity crisis when it comes to their team loyalties.  The state is quite divided between North Jersey fans that support some combination of the Rangers/Yankees/Mets/Knicks/Nets and the South Jersey fans that support some combination of the Flyers/Sixers/Phillies/Eagles.  The Giants and Jets are also unique because they are “New York” teams that actually play in New Jersey.  So the Devils have a very unique opportunity to be the only true New Jersey team.  Tie in the fact that hockey probably has the smallest fan base of the four major sports, and this has a legitimate chance to connect with local residents and build a deep brand loyalty.

Are you looking for a good way to grow your potential fan base? Is your team having trouble getting people to attend a game for the first time?  This can be the case for many newer franchises that don’t have a lot of brand loyalty, teams in tough markets, or teams in more “secondary” leagues (minor leagues, AFL, etc).  To combat this, the Florida Panthers have come up with a great idea to reach a new audience, which they’ve called the “First Timer” program.

They’ve created a new website called www.panthersfirsttimer.com and the premise is very simple – if you’re a Florida resident and have not attended a Panthers game before, they will give you two free tickets to an upcoming game of your choice (limit of 500 redemptions per game).  All you have to do is complete a simple prospector survey, and then you will receive an email that you can print out and take with you to the game to claim your tickets.  As a potential customer, how can you argue with the chance to attend a game for the first time for free?  Meanwhile, the Panthers are going to simultaneously introduce new customers to the team, grow their internal database, and collect valuable information about first-time buyers through the survey.  The long-term value of this type of program is tremendous and well worth the small, short-term cost in some lost sales.

I received an email yesterday announcing the launch of NHL GameCenter LIVE, the NHL’s new online streaming media service that will broadcast all of this season’s game live (hence the name).  The service seems to be modeled after MLB.tv, with a subscription costing $19.95 per month (this is an initial promotional price), and potential blackout restrictions applying for games televised in your local market.

This is GREAT news for the NHL.  To me, the number one problem holding the league back is a lack of public exposure.  Too many fans, both casual and dedicated, either do not get Versus or are not in the habit of searching for it.  Last year I thought that this type of service would be a great way to help fans get around the lack of TV exposure to watch the games conveniently on their computer.  I have little doubt that the more “hardcore” fans will flock to this service, generating a nice new revenue stream for the league.  I disagree slightly with the price point however.  This seems too high for the more casual fans, limiting the initial adoption and limiting the league’s chance for additional public exposure.  I would do two things right off the bat (or stick, in this case):

1.  Create a discounted full-season option (right now, the full-season is $159, which is the same as the monthly price for the length of the season).  Yes, you may lose a bit of revenue, but you will increase exposure which for the NHL simply needs to be a higher priority.

2.  Create two monthly price points with differentiated features, similar to what MLB.tv did.   The “premium” package can have better quality streams, the ability to aggregate multiple games on one screen, show additional camera angles, etc.  The dedicated fans will select this full-featured option, and the casual fans will be more likely to sign up through the lower price-point option.  Right now, I think they are going to miss out on a large percentage of the casual fans by only offering the full-featured package at the current price.

Even if they do not go with either of these suggestions, NHL GameCenter LIVE is still a big step forward for the league.  Their attendance numbers have continuously increase, so the interest is definitely there from the fans.  Now they need to capitalize on this growth and expand into the public light.  I believe that this will be a very good year for the NHL.

I do plan on continuing with my team-by-team review of the NHL, but in the meantime, a friend of mine just sent me information on an interesting promotion that the St. Louis Blues are running.  From October 5 – 10, the team is letting fans tell them how much they are willing to pay for their tickets (full season, plans, or single game), and the team can decide if they want to accept the fan’s offer (BND.com, 9/26/08). 

For a team that has had recent attendance problems and poor on-ice performance, this promotion might be well received by the fans.  Even better is that Ticketmaster is covering the difference between the regular price and the fan’s price as part of their sponsorship deal, removing the financial risk from the promotion.  However, this program could easily create negative fan experiences, specifically any time the team turns down an offer deemed to be too low.  I hope they have a pretty wide range of prices that they’re willing to accept!  The other important element of this plan is that they are first offering it to their current season ticket holders for any additional single game purchases, hopefully preventing any disappointment that they couldn’t name their price when they made their purchase.

Here are my recommendations and quick picks for this week:

Book:  Money Players: The Amazing Rise and Fall of Bob Goodenow and the NHL Players Association by Bruce Dowbiggin - This book was recommended to me by a former classmate of mine in the ASU Sports Business program, and it’s a must read for anyone who has ever been interested in hockey.  Dowbiggin does a great job going through the history of the relationship between the league and the players, the development of the players association, and the final conflict between them that led to the 2005 lockout. 

Website: Forbes Business - SportsMoney (www.forbes.com/business/sportsmoney) – I can’t believe that I didn’t know this site existed.  There are some great articles from Forbes about a wide variety of sports business topics, including naming rights, team valuation, and more.  Most of the articles focus on economics, finance, and revenue, which makes sense since it is from Forbes.

Team: Tampa Bay Rays – For the first time in their franchise history, the Rays will play in October.  From a business perspective, it will be interesting to see what the response is from the Tampa community.  The team has always had trouble selling tickets, so will they be able to sell out their playoff games?  The assumption is that playoff games always sell, but the Diamondbacks had trouble with this last year, so there is no guarantee.  Also, what will the local and national television audience be like?  You can be sure that MLB will be watching this.  (Edit: I’m a bit late on this one – ESPN.com reported earlier this week that the first two games have sold out already.  I hope they can keep this up and sustain the interest into next season (they were 12 out of 14 in the AL in attendance this season, even with one of the best records in MLB).

Other: The BCS – With USC’s loss to Oregon State, people are already talking about all the situations that will complicate this year’s BCS Championship Game.  Beyond the traditional arguments over which teams deserve to play, there will be plenty of discussion about the system itself again this year, and more people calling for an actual playoff system.  The bowls will resist any significant changes, but I have to believe that ultimately the system will change.  The negotiations between all the parties involved (conferences, bowls, colleges, television stations) will be interesting to follow.

With the start of the NHL season around the corner, I thought I would go through each of the teams in the league and highlight one or two interesting promotions or business ideas from each.  I’m going to start out in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference:

San Jose Sharks:  The Sharks seem to be using blogs to promote the team more this season, with two different blogs being highlighted on their site, the Seagate Technology’s Broadcaster Blog and Marcel Goc’s Blog (a current player, but the blog is empty right now).  The first blog shows how you can also leverage new media offerings as new inventory for your corporate partners, as the Sharks have done with Seagate.  The Sharks are also offering both 10-game and 3-game ticket packs.  The 10-game is pretty common, but the 3-game might be a good way to start upgrading your regular single-game buyers and get them thinking about those 10-game plans.  The question is, will the 3-game plan cannibalize their 10-game plan sales?

Anaheim Ducks:  The Ducks are letting fans download the team’s goal song, which is a great way to build a continuous connection to the team away from the actual games.  It also offers a new sponsorship offering (in this case, with BestBuy).  The Ducks are also offering a Fan Loyalty Card - I know several other teams have tried similar loyalty programs with very mixed results.  I think something like offering the goal song will ultimately build more loyalty than a card with partner discounts.  Any loyalty program really needs to tie back to the team at its core, and this one doesn’t.

Dallas Stars:  I really like the StarsFanatics page they created.  Now this is a fan development program!  It connects with the die hard fans and it has a real fan-generated feel to it.  I also like the Stars iMix, which lets fans download the music that their favorite players listen to (I believe the Coyotes were the first team to do this).  Finally, they have a Student Rush program that has a similar structure to the student rush for Broadway shows.  The college student audience is very price sensitive, so this could be a great way to unload seats at the last minute and connect with a large audience.  They’ve also done a great job connecting with Chipotle as a corporate partner on this offer.

Phoenix Coyotes:  The Coyotes are doing a good job communicating with the younger audience through their Howler’s Den website.  I am a firm believer in developing a connection with younger fans to try and build a long-term fan base, which is particularly challenging in the Phoenix market.  They are also offering a Coach’s Corner Package which includes actual bench seats and other VIP amenities.  This is a wonderful way to not just create new inventory, but create premium inventory that can help make up for some of their difficulty selling tickets (the Coyotes have some of the lowest attendance numbers in the league).

Los Angeles Kings:  The Kings are offering a desktop product called Kings DeskSite.  These products are interesting, because you get the chance to integrate your team into a fan’s daily computer use – I just wonder what the adoption rate is on these initiatives.  If the content isn’t high quality and updated constantly, its easy to try it and then disregard it.  The team is also offering a complementary, customized third jersey to season ticket holders that complete a prospector survey.  I like finding ways to collect more information about your customers – the more you know, the better decisions you can make across the board.  Finally, the Kings are offering a service to connect with other fans and share a season ticket package.  This can help a team meet their FSE goals and provides another alternative to the now-traditional mini-pack.

On October 2nd, Business Week will release their “Power 100″ rankings of the top 100 influential people in sports.  This is always a good read – you can click here to see their 2007 list.  The list contains players, owners, executives, and more.  Last year’s #1 selection was Roger Goodell, which I think was a pretty good decision considering all the attention on the NFL after his transition to the Commissioner’s office (Pacman Jones and other off-field incidents, the Patriots, NFL Network problems) and how he quickly became more publicly visible compared to his predecessor. 

This year, I think the favorites would have to be David Stern (esp. after the Donaghy issues), George Bodenheimer, or possibly LeBron James (I would think he’d be the top player on the list, only because Tiger has been out of the spotlight lately).  In the meantime, BusinessWeek has a nice profile of Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center (9/20/08).  There’s no doubt that marrying into the Walton (Walmart) family helped his pre-sports career, but since then, he has quietly turned into one of the most successful sports owners in the business.

I think I’m going to do a “picks” post each weekend, starting today.  So here are my recommendations and quick thoughts for this week:

Book:  The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott- This is a great book for people that know they need to expand their use of the web and new media in marketing (blogs, podcasts, etc.) but either don’t know how to start or don’t understand how to connect these channels to their traditional marketing efforts.  Lots of great examples from the business world and very easy to read.  David is generally regarded as one of the leaders in online and viral marketing.

Website:  Sports Biz Feed (www.sportsbizfeed.com) - This site brings together feeds from some of the best sports business blogs on the web into one easy-to-read website.  Its a great site to visit every couple of days to see what other sports business bloggers on the web are writing about (including me!)

Team:  New York Yankees – I’m not just picking them because I’m a NY/NJ guy.  This is the last weekend of games at Yankee Stadium.  This is the first time since 1994 that they will not be in the playoffs, which even for the Yankees will have an impact on their revenue (especially considering their payroll costs).  There is more controversy over the new stadium financing (ESPN.com, 9/18/08) and their high ticket prices (CNBC, 9/17/08), and they’re close to a deal with Bank of America (BizJournals.com, 9/8/08). There is a lot going on in New York, and unfortunately, most of it is pretty negative.  Hopefully they will at least close the stadium this weekend on a good note.

Other:  Hockey – NHL teams open their preseason in the upcoming weeks, and I’m excited.  The question is, will others also be?  The league closed the 2008-09 season with a lot of momentum, capped by their “perfect” finals match-up between the Penguins and Red Wings.  I actually predict that the NHL will show a strong uptick this year, in ratings, revenue, attendance, and general fan interest.  It might be the last year for sponsors to “buy low” in deals with the league and NHL franchises.