Today ESPN officially launched their second regional sports website, ESPNBoston.com, timed perfectly with the first New England Patriots game of the year on Monday Night Football (another ESPN production). Their first regional effort, ESPNChicago.com, went online back in April and has already become a top site for Chicago sports fans, reaching over 700,000 visitors per month. The company has plans to release similar sites for New York, Dallas and Los Angeles over the next few months.

ESPN realized that even though they offer a tremendous amount of sports content on their primary ESPN.com platform, fans in these hotbeds of sports activity are constantly seeking out more in-depth content for the teams in their market. So why not leverage the power of their brand (arguably the most powerful and recognizable brand in sports) and dig deeper into these individual markets? Because of their global scale, they have more resources available to them than even the strongest regional content provider.  They’ve also attacked their regional expansion in a very logical manner, starting with cities where they already have an established core of writers and contributors that will generate immediate interest.

It will be interesting to see how the ESPN regional websites grow and what their total impact is on existing local content providers. In the past, ESPN has convinced many of the best local writers to join their national platform, and I’m sure they’ll pursue similar efforts to try and get the best content on these new platforms. This is also another hurdle for local newspapers to deal with. For some readers, local sports coverage is the only reason to still get the paper, but that reason is quickly fading away.

Last week, news came out about a new “Twitter policy” being implemented by ESPN.com. It started with a tweet from Ric Bucher, followed by lots of speculation, and then information on the actual guidelines was released on TheBigLead.com.

Last night, I had the chance to talk with Rob King, Editor-in-Chief of ESPN.com, about this policy and the relationship between ESPN.com and social media.  I wasn’t able to do a full podcast recording, but here are some notes and quotes from our conversation that I thought were really valuable:

On the new guidelines:

• The recent guidelines are meant to be a starting point for the company, because there was nothing in place with regard to how ESPN personalities were using Twitter, blogs and social media, and this seemed like the right time to put something in place.
• These channels are viewed as a “valuable opportunity to relate with our audiences” and it is regarded “as a form of important programming and publishing,” and as such, the focus on the guidelines is less on prohibiting content and more on how social media should be used.
• The desire is to disseminate news on ESPN platforms, but continue to converse with and engage with fans through other platforms such as Twitter.
• There is an additional challenge as a media company in balancing the opportunity to broadcast a personal message versus a company message, so “even in the instance of a 140 character message sent along through a cell phone, we’re in the position of representing something a lot larger” and they wanted to make sure everyone is aware of this.

On driving users to ESPN.com vs. reaching out to them in other locations:

• ESPN realizes that the conversations often occur outside of the ESPN.com platform, and still wants to engage users in those ways.  As such, there’s been an increased focus on using blogs, optimizing the site for search engines and a partnership with YouTube for video content.
• ESPN has also worked with a company called CoveritLive to integrate with live Twitter conversations, which was used in the WNBA All-Star Game and Sunday night’s game between the Yankees and Red Sox. This let users engage with ESPN through the website or Twitter, whichever they preferred to use. There are plans in place to use this again during ESPN’s coverage of the PGA Championship.

On the reaction to the new guidelines:

• Internally, there was a large follow-up call to review the policy, which helped clarify things and created a lot more understanding. Some questions might still come up as to what content is “breaking news” and where the content can or should be shared.
• There was an “appropriately passionate” initial response from the public. Rob received a lot of thoughtful feedback, and it showed how much people cared about ESPN and how passionate they are about their sports coverage.  Most of the negative public reaction died out in less than a day, once people saw the policy and learned more about it.
• “If there’s a great story here, its that people clearly expressed the notion that they enjoy connecting with our talent or our contributors in a way that was immediate, that was direct, and that was ongoing through the course of the day.”

I want to thank Rob for taking the time to talk with me.  You can follow Rob on Twitter at twitter.com/rfking.

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)

One of my goals for this blog is to be a valuable resource for my readers, providing you with valuable, informative content on the business side of sports.  There are many other sports business resources out there as well, and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t sharing these other sides and project with you.  So today, I want to highlight a couple of outside websites and projects that I think you’ll enjoy.

The Sports Business Exchange:  A couple of weeks back, Joshua Duboff wrote a guest blog post about this project, and now, the first official issue of The Sports Business Exchange (TSBX) has been released.  From his website, “TSBX is a forum for intellectual articles on issues and concerns in the world of sport business. These articles are written strictly by young professionals in the sports business industry who often otherwise lack a platform for writing articles on current events.”  You can download the April 2009 issue here, and you can also sign up to be notified about future issues.

SportsIn140.com:  This website is entirely focused on the use of Twitter in sports.  In fact, Brendan has put a lot of time into creating a complete list of all the leagues, teams, and professional athletes that are on Twitter, as well as verifying whether these accounts are authentic and official.  He also offers regular tips on how to user Twitter, providing many good examples.

The Row Show:  The Row Show is an Internet video show created by Row27 Studios that talks about current topics in sports marketing with a special focus on media and technology.  They only have two episodes so far, but the content and video quality is excellent.  The episodes are a little on the long side (30-40 minutes each), so you might have to go through then in multiple sittings.  Even so, I think this will grow into another valuable education tool for the industry. I’ve included their first video below:

The Row Show 001: Twitter and Vanity Domain Names from Jonathan Dusing on Vimeo.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Dan Beeman, Founder of Sponsorship Insights Group.

Have you wondered about the value of social media – the return on investment of time?  With all of these weird-sounding names and new medium like blogging and micro-blogging, who has time for that and who cares?

In 2008, I decided to dive into this new media world to promote my news sponsorship agency and develop a position as a thought-leader.  Mind you, I am a 44 year old technophobe.  As the same time, I am widely regarded as the most powerful voice in social media when it comes to sponsorship insights.

My story is a good one and I owe it all to LinkedIn.  Last year, I started my sponsorship consulting company under the name of “Beeman Sponsorship Consulting.”  We provide sponsorship valuation, advisory and sales representation services.  A short while later, I started a LinkedIn Group for Sponsorship and Marketing professionals called Sponsorship Insights Group (SIG). 

The group membership took off with very little marketing and now stands at 3,000+.  It is the largest one for Sponsorship and Marketing professionals to network, share insights and find exclusive discounts on vendors goods and services.  My value proposition was simple to members – I would provide free quality content, a place to network and share information with others and a chance to learn more and find opportunities. 

On January 1, my New Year’s resolution was to blog every day and the following for my blog has also grown quickly.  More recently, I have also built a group on Facebook which replicates the LinkedIn Group and can be found on Twitter. I quickly realized that the social media practices that I put in place generated a significant amount of recognition for Sponsorship Insights Group.   Then, I realized there was more equity associated with SIG in the marketplace than BSC.  So, I changed the name of my business to that of my group. 

I now literally get inquiries for my services Every Day from properties and agencies throughout the world – they want to join my group, tap into our knowledge and seek our services.  If you look at my profile, you’ll see that LinkedIn is a tool that I use on a daily basis for business.

Time?  I’d say it was well-spent.  ROI? Absolutely!

For more information on Dan and all of his social-media related initiatives, check out the following links:

• Sponsorship Insights Group – My business website
• www.linkedin.com/in/danbeeman – My profile, recommendations, work examples and more
• Sponsorship Insights Blog – New content daily
• Join my LinkedIn Group on Sponsorship - Connect with thousands of sponsorship professionals
• twitter.com/danbeeman – My tweets for Twitter folks
• Sponsorship Insights Group on Facebook- A replication of our LinkedIn group for Facebook users

Twitter continues to grow in leaps and bounds, including in the sports community.  More teams and athletes have joined in the 140-character-long conversations, and the communication channel continues to gain popularity and credibility as a legitimate marketing outlet.  Along with the official sports accounts are the hundreds and thousands of other “unofficial” accounts run by fans and bloggers that write primarily about teams and leagues.  So, if a new sports fan joins Twitter, how should they navigate among all of these interesting sports accounts?  Who do they follow and how do they join the conversation?

The folks at Octagon recognized an opportunity in this area, so they created Twackle (the name is a little funny, but consistent with many Twitter-focused applications and websites).  The concept is simple – Twackle aggregates content from many different Twitter accounts and groups them by league, team and sport.  They refer to this as as virtual “Twitter sports bar,” filled with good sports conversations.  Now users don’t need to manually search through Twitter to find accounts related to their sport interests – they can just go to Twackle and find them all in one place.  They can also participate in the conversation through Twackle’s web interface, which they call the ”barstool.” 

The only drawback to the site right now is the dependence on a web interface.  One of the best features of Twitter is an open API, meaning that people can easily create applications to communicate with Twitter.  That’s why so many people use other applications on their computer or mobile device to access their Twitter account.  If Twackle can find an easy way to integrate with these applications, I think they’ll be in excellent shape for long-term success and adoption by sports fans.

Almost all teams and sports entities are trying to figure out the social media landscape.  What tools are out there?  What are people using?  Where do we need to participate, and how do we do it?  No one has all of the answers yet, and if you’re just entering this arena, it can be very overwhelming.

This is where the folks at Sports Media Challenge have stepped in to help.  They created a great resource called “Winning Fans with Social Media: A Dynamic Glossary for Tackling the Language of Social Media” (click on the link to download the PDF).  The guide reviews almost all of the common terms and concepts in social media, which can be a great help in exploring the different option available to you.  The guide has two sections, one on the basics for true novices and an intermediate section for those further along.  In addition, the guide provides “sideline tips” to go along with all of the terms and definitions.  Even if you think you know social media, you will find some useful tidbits by reading this paper.

If you have other questions about social media and sports, you can reach out to most of the Sports Media Challenge staff on Twitter (@KathleenHessert, @JakeRosen, @RyanStephens, @BrittanyLane, @mhannahp, @MatthewGarner, @LindaHutch, @JaneWeddington) or visit their website at www.SportsMediaChallenge.com.

The National Sports Forum started today with a bonus session on “Making Money from the Web,” led by Pat Coyle (www.sportsmarketing20.com and www.patcoyle.net).  Pat’s session has a lot of great presentations and panel discussions covering topics on:

• Digital media sponsorships
• Mobile sports marketing
• Ticket pricing and sales
• Digital market research
• Strategic partnerships
• The future of sports media

This bonus session was a great way to kick off this year’s Sports Forum, which I really think is one of the best sports business conferences out there.  Ron Seaver, the President of the Forum, really does a great job in lining up excellent speakers and exhibitors.  You can view the full conference agenda here.  Also, make sure to check out Sports Marketing 2.0, the online community created by Pat Coyle for people involved in digital marketing of sports.

Today’s post is an email interview I did with Christian Busch, Vice President of Marketing for Takkle.com, a social networking site geared around high-school football.

Christian, tell us a bit about yourself.

My background is actually quite far away from American High School Sports. I grew up in Germany and lived in London and Barcelona before moving to New York in 2002. Since then, I’ve really gotten into the American way of life and the Internet and decided to join Takkle after working in the Internet and mobile space at Bertelsmann and Lagardere for about 6 years. Takkle is at the forefront of social media and catering to the high school athlete community combines my passion for the Internet with my passion for sports.

It seems like all different teams, leagues, and sports companies are rushing to get their own social networking sites up and running.  Why do you think everyone is jumping into this arena now?

Social media is one of the biggest trends of this decade and everyone now wants to be a part of it. I believe that there’s a right way for every company/team/league to participate in the social media revolution but the approaches really have to take into account the individual situation of the company. There’s no “one size fits all” in social media.

One of the issues I have is that, just because you offer a social networking service that’s tied to sports doesn’t mean you are providing enough value to pull users away from traditional social networking sites.  If you do enter the social networking world, what can a company do to create a real value proposition?

You’re bringing up a great point. The time when you were able to just launch a plain-vanilla social network and hope for millions of users is definitely over. There are very few primary (Facebook and Myspace and to a lesser extent Hi5, Bebo, Tagged, Sonico et al.) social networks that have achieved critical mass. But there are plenty of opportunities for niche social media sites that can provide a combination of content and utility to audiences. That’s why we at Takkle launched Takkle Recruiting last month and will continue to provide value to our users by helping them reach their goals and entertain and educate them with relevant content.

OK, once you get users to believe in your service and commit to it, how can you monetize it, and does the strategy change if you are a team vs. a league vs. a company like Takkle?

The monetization strategy for us consists of several revenue streams such as advertising, lead generation, market research and down the line also charging users for certain services we are going to provide. The approach for a team or league might be much more based on expanding sponsorship opportunities, increasing sales of tickets and merchandise and promoting the team/league to new audiences.

What do you see as the next “big thing” for sports on the web?

To me, the next big thing (besides of course Takkle Recruiting for high school athletes) is going to be to take the interactive conversation about sports online and mobile to the next level. Imagine live-sharing of clips in a stadium during a game and discussing the replay with tens of thousands of fans while sitting in front of your HDTV.  For sports fans, mobile holds tremendous promise.

One last question – in two to three sentences, what is the purpose and mission of Takkle Recruiting?

The purpose of Takkle Recruiting is to help qualified high school athletes get discoveredby college coaches and help them to really make the most out of their athletic potential. We launched the first phase of Takkle Recruiting in December and very thrilled with the results: more than 5,000 RecruitMe sheets were created by athletes within the first few weeks! We’re already offering athletes the ability to create their free RecruitMe sheet and get into the Recruit-Match database of high school athletes maintained by our partner, the National Collegiate Scouting Association, that is accessed by more than 30,000 college coaches in the country on a regular basis.

Thanks again to Christian for taking the time to do this interview. Social networking is an important topic in sports marketing today, but just building a social networking platform and expecting people to join is not viable. Any site geared around social functions needs to have a well-defined strategy and a unique advantage that is unavailable through traditional social networking sites. Takkle may have found that unique advantage in combining their recruiting functions with a passionate, young customer base.

Normally when you wish someone a happy birthday, you call them, send them a card, or for the more Internet-focused, you send an e-card or write on their “wall.” Well, what if you have a larger-than-life public figure that hundreds and thousands of people would like to say happy birthday to? That is the perfect recipe for a massive viral campaign, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now with Joe Paterno’s 82nd birthday.

Penn State fans on Twitter created a new blog (www.joepabirthday.blogspot.com) dedicated to celebrating JoePa’s birthday, and the URL is getting passed around the Internet very fast.  The blog is encouraging fans to submit their own favorite JoePa moments and happy birthday messages, so the blog is very interactive.  They also put together an image and link that fans can post online to help spread the word even more.  Finally, some of the best submissions will win PSU merchandise (I don’t know if the University is assisting in this part, but they definitely should!).

While this was a fan-generated initiative, there is no reason why teams can start their own similar promotions based around significant events like this or help support existing fan-generated ones.  And even though there aren’t any catchy videos or new technologies involved, this is definitely a viral platform.  Great job by those who created/supported this, and of course, Happy Birthday JoePa!

The first discussion panel I attended at Friday’s Princeton Sports Symposium was on “Sports Business 2.0.”  The panelists were Christian Busch (Takkle.com), Hagos Mehreteab (yoonew), Doug Perlman (Accrue Sports and Entertainment Ventures) and Christopher Russo (Fantasy Sports Ventures).  Here are some of my notes from the discussion:

On the topic of monetization:

• There are three different models, which can all overlap depending on the specific business.  Advertising, Subscription, and Microtransactions. 
• Advertising is still powerful because the ads reach a young, male demographic, with a passionate association to the product. 
• Subscriptions tend to focus on valuable streaming content, such as niche or youth sports that would not be available for free elsewhere. 
• Microtransactions are situations where a basic service is free to use, but there are small, incremental costs for customizations and enhancements.

Some of the elements that are important for a viable subscription model are:

• Are there enough people willing to pay?
• Can you aggregate them and communicate with them?
• Can you offer a distinct value proposition?
• Is this content available somewhere else for free (e.g. Yahoo’s effect on fantasy sports – Yahoo offered it for free while ESPN/CBS continued to charge, and large numbers migrated to Yahoo because of it)
• If you use a “Free-mium” model (free basic service with additional paid premium services), how many can you convert from free to paid?  Industry average runs from 3-5%.

On the topic of mobile:

• Mobile should be used as another channel for engagement with existing users
• It is a very time-sensitive channel, but well suited for sports based on the combination of immediacy with passion
• The large number of different phones does make consistent application development a big challenge
• The big question is, when is the advertising model going to catch up?  This is very important in order to monetize mobile programs.
• Companies want to stay a half step ahead of the curve, but not three steps ahead (it could take too long for the consumer to catch up)
• Another challenge is that there is no direct revenue for the content owner, especially without ad-based revenue.

There were other topics covered as well (you can see some of the details on Lewis Howes’ Twitter page – he was live-twittering the panel).  I also asked a question about whether push or pull-based communication would be more effective for the mobile channel (assuming the used has first opted in).  The consensus was push can be much more effective (sending messages vs. viewing a WAP site), as long as you give the user full control over the types of messages they want to receive.  Finally, the panelists all seemed to agree that the “next big thing” was the convergence of mobile with video and social elements.

More posts later this week on some of the other panel discussions!

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.

A friend of mine passed along an interesting news story the other day.  SB Nation (short for SportsBlogs Nation, a group of over 150 team-based sports blogs) has recently obtained a “mid-seven-figure sum” of venture capital (TechCrunch, 10/29/08).  In light of the current economy, this is a substantial success for the “blogosphere.”  So what else does this funding tell us?

• Blogs are gaining more and more credibility in the public eye, taking traffic away from “traditional” websites. 
• This shift in web traffic will in turn have an impact on advertising rates that major sports websites can demand.
• Fans may trust blogs more than traditional sites because they are primarily run by other fans (although, if blogs become more corporate-owned, this could easily shift…something to keep an eye on).
• Teams/Leagues/Companies absolutely must monitor popular blogs that cover their team/league/company in order to stay in touch with what their fans are discussing.

Now I just need to find a way for TheBusinessOfSports.com to get some funding.  I’d settle for a ”mid-any-figure sum!”  Calling SB Nation – how about a new section on Sports Business??

Gonzaga is running a campaign called “Inspired Season” which is one of the most innovative and interactive marketing campaigns that I have seen.  Before you read any further, please go to www.inspiredseason.com and enter in your name and phone number to experience it for yourself (your information is kept private and is not used for additional marketing purposes, which is actually a BIG sacrifice on their part, as they could really grow their database with this campaign).

Now that you’ve experienced the video, what did you think?  I came away very impressed and the quality of the production and the message they chose to focus on.  You, the viewer, are the center of this campaign.  You come away from the video with a closer connection to the school and the women’s basketball program.  If I lived in the Washington area, I have to believe I would be much more inclined to come out to a game after watching this.

The campaign also has great viral potential.  I know that I emailed several friends and colleagues about this, and now I’m taking the time to write about it.  They give the viewer an easy way to share the video with others through social media link and an email link.  They might want to add other social networking links (MySpace, Delicious, etc.) or provide an easy form to email the video to others (which would also let them collect names and email addresses).  Even without these elements, the campaign is so unique and engaging that it should spread virally regardless.  Great job by Gonzaga – it won’t be long until other schools and teams copy their efforts.

Update: PartnershipActivation.com also wrote about this campaign recently, and the post includes the name of the partner agency (in case you are interested in exploring this type of campaign yourself).

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.

One of the most popular pages on any team’s website is the schedule page.  This make sense – your fans want to know when and where you are playing, so they can either go to the game or watch at home.  But what if your fans are really busy, and don’t have the time to look at the website all the time?  You need to get your schedule in the hands (or computers) of your fans and make it as convenient as possible for them to know when the next game is.  Passing out your foldout schedule cards is always a good tactic, but here are a few extra things you can do to make this happen a little easier.

• Make Outlook Calendar and Apple iCal files out of your team’s schedule and make them available to download off your website.  Now your schedule is on the fan’s computer and maybe even their mobile devices.
• Make a Google Calendar available online so fans can see the schedule on their own Google homepage.
• Use popular event calendar websites, particularly those local to your region like craigslist.org, eventful.com and upcoming.org to reach some of the more casual fans.
• Create desktop wallpapers that include the team’s schedule, so your fans can see the schedule every day on their desktop (take a look at the ASU Football wallpaper here as an example).
• Use mobile alerts, maybe through twitter.com, to remind fans about the game on game nights, and suggest how they can attend, watch, or listen to the game.

These are just some of the ways to make sure your schedule is viewed as much as possible.  The best part about these ideas is that they have no cost and take little time!  If you have other ideas, please share them in the comments.

Two of my former classmates from the Arizona State Sports Business MBA program have started a cheerleading-focused web business called Sideline Star.  I think the business has a lot of potential, so I asked Leslie Reedy (one of the co-founders) to tell us a bit more about the site:

Bring It On-Line:  Social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook have been met with widespread popularity in recent years.  While it would be easy to simply replicate the basic features, this does not guarantee that the staggering number of users will follow.  The competitive advantage of SidelineStar.com is its potential to serve their audience in a variety of new ways that are specific to this niche.  For example, this space will offer references for safety regulations, a cheerWIKI, calendaring systems for the squads, fundraising through “virtual bake sales” with customized team stores, recruiting tools for coaches, SMS text messaging and video downloading capabilities; these are just a few of the ways SidelineStar.com will differentiate itself from other social networking sites. 

Getting A Jump Start:  So we have knowledge of the industry and identified areas where SidelineStar.com could greatly benefit this market– now how can we begin to capitalize on the opportunity?  There are three equally important things that are critical for turning an idea on paper into a fully functioning organization: product, funding, and demand.  While these three things may certainly occur in any order, we have found that pursuing them simultaneously in stages is beneficial to what we are trying to accomplish.  By receiving a substantial amount of grant money from ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneurial program, we were able to build the bulk of our product – the website – that will include some of the “sticky” features mentioned earlier. At the same time, management has invested a tremendous amount of sweat equity into marketing efforts, brand management, and awareness in order to drive traffic to the site.  As a result, we are able to showcase a product-in-progress with proven demand; in turn, investors are more likely to provide additional or 2nd round funding, which will enable further growth, and the cycle continues. 

Let’s GO 2.0:  The cheerleading market has been underserved in the interactive online community; everything has been static or 1.0…until now.  SidelineStar.com has several business development strategies that will assist in generating traffic, the primary driver for every one of our revenue streams.  One way we plan to accomplish this is by using other successful social networking sites to feed users to our site. In order to promote the launch of our site we will be having a contest where teams that use the tools on the site the most will be rewarded with more entries.  One team will be chosen each month to win prizes comprised of in-kind donations from our sponsors such as a Nintendo Wii and the new All Star Cheer Squad game.  We also host LIVE! Clinics where Sideline Star staff teach cheers and routines to young cheerleaders across the country and post their pictures and video performances online, which will prompt  them to create profiles and invite others to view them as well.  Sponsoring local, regional, and national competitions is another marketing strategy we look forward to starting in the near future. 

By driving high traffic figures, we also become highly visible to corporate sponsors.  It’s a well known fact that customer loyalty is important for any company, but a loyal customer with an influential reach can be extremely lucrative.  This is especially true when you realize the impact globalization is starting to have on the industry. Western cheerleading is already popular in countries such as China, where there were cheerleaders at every event during the Beijing Olympics this past August.  For reasons such as this, it is crucial to continually evolve strategies all while prioritizing and executing those things that will help us reach important benchmark goals.  However, we also know that our success is directly related to our knowledge of and passion for cheerleading, which makes us very excited about SidelineStar.com and what it can mean for the “sport.”

Leslie Reedy
CFO/COO of SidelineStar.com
Arizona State Sports Business MBA Program, Class of 2008

Here are my recommendations and quick picks for this week:

Book: Bleachers by John Grisham – This may not be a business book, but it is my favorite sports fiction book.  The story revolves around the passing of a legendary local high school football coach, and people coming back together to celebrate his life, even those who hated him.  The book does a great job showing how big an impact sports can have on people, even at such a small scale.

Website: Business Week’s Power 100- I wrote about this 2 weeks ago, and they have just released this year’s list.  I thought that David Stern (3rd) or George Bodenheimer (4th) would top the list this year, but they selected Tiger Woods.  It’s still a great choice – the only reason I didn’t think he’d be #1 was because of how long he’s been away from the public stage this year with the injury, but it wasn’t enough to keep him out of the top slot.

Team: The Chicago Cubs – You have (maybe) another year of disappointment for the most loyal fans in baseball, combined with the continuous process of the Tribune Company trying to sell the team.  The Cubs are an prime example of brand power – no matter how many times the team falls short, the fans keep coming back, and as a result, the team is one of the most valuable franchises in all of professional sports (even with the potential cost of renovating Wrigley Field).

Other: I’m going with a podcast this week – Marketing Edge by Provident Partners.  There are new episodes of this podcast every week, and while it’s gear towards traditional business, the content is just as applicable in sports.  They cover some great topics, including how to leverage new media, market research, social networking, and more.

Do you have a good “pick of the week?” Use the Contact Us link at the top of the page and send me your picks!

Are you looking for a unique way to drive interest in your products, whether they be collectibles, merchandise, tickets, or anything else?  Take a look at the website Woot.com.  Woot sells a fixed quantity of a single gadget every day, posting a new item for sale every night at midnight.  They also have two spinoff sites, shirt.woot.com and wine.woot.com, which logically sell shirts and wine (the shirts change daily and the wine changes twice a week).  The site has a cult-like following, with people staying up every night just to check the site every night for the next great deal.  They also have a very active forum-based community, which helps build a deep connection between the site and their customers.

So the question is, would this “deal of the day” model work in the sports world?  I think it would, depending on what products you sell.  I’ll use a basic professional franchise as an example.  The team could take one month of the season and run a Woot-like site and selling a new product at a discount every day.  One day it’s a t-shirt, then a jersey, then a mezzanine seat to next week’s game, then a bobblehead.  The idea of having a special item each day and changing that deal every night at midnight creates an exciting experience for your customers.  What’s today’s deal going to be?  Can I get it before they sell out?  I understand that there is only so much inventory to sell, so this would not be feasible long-term, but for a short-term jump in merchandise sales and to build some extra buzz for your organization, I do believe this would work.

This year, the Oakland Raiders created a site called The Raider Creator (www.raidercreator.com), which lets users take one of their own pictures, add the Raiders eye-patch, and create their own Raiders banner image.  Here is one that I put together pretty quickly:

I really liked this program for several reasons: 

• This is a great way to build a deeper brand connection with your fans, literally making their own image a part of the brand itself.
• The Raiders collect each participant’s email address, and then have an additional data collection opportunity by letting fans enter their image into a contest to be on a Raiders billboard.
• They give an easy way to share the image with others, and in turn, collecting the names and email address of the user’s friends.
• They’ve created a unique merchandising opportunity, by letting users purchase a mug, hat, or bumper sticker with their image.
• Finally, when you’re done with your image, you can “See Where You Can Sit” and buy tickets for an upcoming game.

The only thing this site is missing is the ability to share your Raider image via social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Blogs, etc.) which could make a service like this generate a more viral impact.  Regardless, it was a great idea and well executed.

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.

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.

The NFL kicks off their 2008-09 season tonight when the Giants host the Redskins.  The NFL has done an impressive job over the past couple of years making the season kickoff into quite the event, with a large marketing blitz, concerts, lots of TV coverage, and then finally the game itself.  This year, the NFL has added a new twist – the game will also be streamed live on NFL.com.  Now live streaming is nothing new in sports – MLB has been at the forefront with MLB.tv, NASCAR has done it, and ESPN 360 has done a great job with it.

The difference to me with this decision (and the subsequent decision to stream other NFL Sunday Night games) is the power that the NFL holds with their media rights deals.  They make over $3.7 billion with their Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN television contracts, and that doesn’t include their DirecTV deal.  So, why would they risk devaluing their television-based broadcast to stream these games online for free?  This isn’t like MLB, which provides streaming only to those that cannot view the games via a local station, or ESPN 360, which collects revenue from cable providers.  This is a completely free offering to fans, that could potentially pull them away from the TV. 

I’m sure the fans will appreciate the new viewing option – it will make it even easier to go back and forth from the game to their fantasy team.  There may be other ways to generate revenue from the free stream (sponsorships, fantasy games, etc.) that I do not know about yet.  It will be interesting to see if this has any unforeseen impact on their traditional television revenue.

There is a new website that just went public this week that seems quite interesting.  The site is www.sportscareers.com, and it is positioned as a complete career management site for people in the sports industry.  They are running a free 2 week preview right now, then after that they offer monthly and yearly subscription packages.  The content seems pretty good, containing articles, interviews, chats, and podcasts, and every week, they release new content through their Virtual Job Fair, including featured jobs, resume tips, career advice, etc.

The site also seems to have a professional networking element to it, where you can connect with other members through the “My Sports Career” section.  You can also buy an upgraded subscription that contains regular job alerts from WorkInSports.com, which would be valuable for those just starting their career (or those who are looking to change positions).  I think the site has a lot of potential, and its definitely worth checking out.