Social Media through

As for less than 10 years ago I wouldn't have seen social media being a intricate part to the sporting industry.  But in today's world and soon in the future, social media to be one of the most important ways to connect with fans or any other type of audience.  I think the future of the sport marketing and sponsorships in the NHL will use social media more than ever as well.  When looking at the Detroit Red Wings home page you can find that it can connect with many other applications such as mobile, Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, and Twitter.  By reaching out and using these other avenues of social media it allows people that are constantly on the go to stay up to date with what is going on in the organization.  Almost every American these days has access to the internet whether it be at home, work, library, coffee house etc.  This is a key reason why it is and will be successful in the future.  More over, the cost of these social media outlets is extremely cost efficient.  A website cost practically nothing to setup and with sponsors and advertisement spots inside the web page, the Wing's for instance, could make money off of their page. 

Sport Writing for Marketing & Promotions

Throughout this course I have learned many things associated to sports writing for marketing promotions.  I have learned that there is a lot more that goes into the advertising of events.  Looking at how much advertisements and marketing some organizations do opened my eyes to how much time is invested in this area.  When walking into a stadium there is number of advertisements from sponsors and other promotions.  Another key aspect I have learned is that having a star athlete that is well respected both in the community and the sport they play in will increase the power of an advertisement for your organization.  It's understood that the cost of this player will be high, but the profit from this deal will be in your organizations favor.  I have also learned the basics of writing contracts.  I know these contracts go more in depth but it is good to have a foundation to work from.  I enjoyed the class very much and I think with my love of sports I will take my profession to a high level.

Olympic Athletes & Endorsements

Michael Phelps was dropped by Kellogg’s when it was revealed he had smoke marijuana at a college party.  The decision to drop Phelps came just about a week after the News of the World published the photo.  Kellogg’s had stated that it is "not consistent with the image of Kellogg's.”  I did some research and found out that this is hypocritical of Kellogg’s to reprimand him.  Phelps has had a DUI in the past and signed him anyways.  This offense is much more serious and could have potential killed someone.  How can they get rid of him for doing something that Presidents and members of the US Congress have done?  It doesn’t make any sense.  Kellogg’s got rid of him because of this so how does this make our nation look?  Kellogg’s is just a food producer and distributor and seems to be stricter than the President of the United States. 

Speedo on the other hand decided to keep Phelps as an endorser of their product.  This is a smart move seeing that he is the face of all swimming and will bring in tons of revenue for them.  Yes, he made a mistake that a very large portion of US citizen do as well.  Phelps has taken on some new endorsements since  the incident and it has benefited those companies.

There is a portion of implications that agreements and contracts have for “moral clauses”.  These agreements and/or contracts outline the behaviors that will breach the contract.  They put this section in there to ensure they are getting every penny worth when signing the athlete.  A company doesn’t want to sign someone that is constantly in trouble with the law or someone that is seen in a negative way in their sport.  The player is a representation of the company and anything the player does will affect that endorser, i.e. revenue or reputation. 

20 Consecutive Years in the Playoffs

For the 20^th consecutive year the Detroit Red Wings have made it into the post-season to fight back for what they have been working for all year, The Stanley Cup.  This is Detroit’s 25^th time in 27 years to enter the playoffs.   This year the Wings controlled the Western Central division coming in 1^st place, their 19^th time to do so.  They came in 3^rd place in the Western Conference with 104 points behind, San Jose 105 points, and Vancouver 117 points who finished 1^st overall in the NHL.  Out of the 30 teams in the NHL Detroit came in 6^th place behind San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, and Vancouver Canucks, respectively.

In the first round of the playoffs the Wings took the 6^th seed to face off against the 3^rd seed, Phoenix Coyotes.  With home ice advantage for the Wings they took the first two games with ease and then the next two at Phoenix to end the series in a sweep of the seven game series 4-0. Since the Wings did a tremendous job beating the Coyotes they have been taking the past week off resting, practicing and waiting for another series to finish.

The other series the Wings are waiting on is Vancouver vs. Chicago which is going into a game seven on 4/26/11 at 10 p.m. EST.  Now this doesn’t mean we will be playing either of those.  We are just waiting on the seeds to be rearranged to find out who our next opponent is.

This is how it looks for the Wings: If Vancouver loses we play Nashville Predators.  If Chicago wins we play the San Jose Sharks.  As much as it burns to say this, I would like to see Chicago come out on top in this game. Remember, if Vancouver loses the Wings play Nashville and this is an easier opponent then the Sharks.  Nashville ended up 10^th overall in the NHL while the Sharks finished 5^th overall, one spot ahead of the Wings.  I am only saying it would be easier to beat them then Vancouver, but I know the Wings will beat both of them.  It may not be in a four game sweep like we did to Phoenix, but with no doubt or hesitation in my mind will the Wings lose the series to either of these teams.     

Wings Sweep Series 4-0

              

  POTENTIAL 2^nd ROUND MATCH-UPS



The Over-Commercialization of Sporting Events

Having signage in stadiums is extremely effective.  As stated in chapter 7 in the Honda Center Partnership Opportunities section, Honda Center has tons of signage spots for quality branding opportunities all throughout the stadium and with the organization.  The Honda Center uses every avenue they can to sell spots to advertisers.  For example they have: In-Bowl, LED, dasherboards, team bench, player tunnels, zamboni machine, and communication signage; such as radio and TV.  As these advertisements are shown people nationally and internationally will be exposed to them.  In some way or form every sporting event uses this technique.  It not only helps the team that is allowing the company’s to advertise because it brings in income for them, but it also helps the companies that are advertising by the exposure they are getting from it bring air threw internet, TV, or radio.

Over-commercialization would start to detract from the exposure benefits for clients when the stadium or organization is tied up more into sponsors and advertisements rather than the fans or the game.  I think it would be detrimental to the organizational if the stadium managers and owners relied on the sponsors and advertisements to bring in the cash for the club.  I understand these advertisements contribute to a large portion of the income for the organizations, but the games are for the fans and the players.  For example, the Super Bowl.  The Super Bowl is known for having fans that are in attendance because companies are given tickets or these companies buy tickets to treat other companies.  I think this takes away from the passion that a true fan can bring to the game.  A true diehard fan is there to root on his team no matter how the game turns out.  On the other hand, you have the business companies that are solely there to just be at the game that don’t add excitement to the game.

Sponsorship: UofM vs. OSU

A lot of the Bowl Games in college football and other professional stadiums around the world use sponsorship.  Some of the ways these stadiums or teams use these naming rights of sponsorships is to endorse the team to get their company name to be the name of the stadium.  This obviously comes at a high price, but it can pay off for both the team and the sponsor.  For example, the Detroit Tigers stadium is named after Comerica Bank, Comerica Park.  Comerica Bank pays $2.2 million per year and will being be paying this through 2030 to keep the name of the stadium.  This brings business for Comerica Bank and also gives the Detroit Tigers extra cash to use seeing the Tigers organization spent about $300 million to build it.

A good potential sponsor for the UofM vs. OSU football game would be a beer company.  Typically, people will have a few beers while enjoying the game, so I think a beer company that shows their name and logo as a key contributor to the enjoyment of the game will only benefit from this.  The only problem with a beer company being a sponsor of a college footballgame is that college students that are under the age of 21 will be watching closely.  It will be difficult for the beer company to not target these students while targeting the college students who are of legal age.

Michigan Stadium, also known as The Big House, and Ohio Stadium, also known as The Shoe, should keep their names of the stadiums as is.  I believe they should do this, because it has been the tradition of each university for years now.  Also, the universities bring in enough money through football already so having a corporate name on the front of the stadium is pointless.

Coors & FedEx

Coors and FedEx are both very popular company's, both of which are in two opposite ends of products that are offered.  Coors is a beer company and FedEx is a shipping company.  To start off with Coors, I found that Coors uses a beer drinking index survey that must rate high when considering to be part of a sponsorship program.  It looks for sports that have high number of audiences, competitive in nature, and when finding an individual they look for someone that is known and respected as a "leader" in their sport throughout  the Coors market are. 

Coors is limited to only advertising to a demographic of 21 and up.  This doesn't necessarily mean their commercials and any other advertisement aren't seen by the younger population.  I have done research on beer company's before and they usually target the 18 year old demographic indirectly.  There are more opportunities than limitations for Coors.  Being a company that sponsors a large avenue of sporting events the name of their company is viewed mostly in part by men. 

Sports Sponsorship Opportunities appealing to Coors but not FedEx would be any type of college related event that involves people in their mid - late 20's.  I say this because Coors strives on advertising to legal drinking age - 29 years old.   A Sports Sponsorship Opportunities appealing to FedEx and not to Coors would be something like a Polo golf tournament or a gymnastics meet.  You usually find a different type of crown that tends to be a bit more established and older crowd for these type of events.  A Sports Sponsorship Opportunity for both Coors and FedEx would be a mega or regional event.  Something like the Olympics, Super Bowl or World Cup.  Even a major league sport will benefit both company's.