Fort Worth Gets Into The Game

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on that site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/03/29/sports-rush-fort-worth-gets-into-the-game/

Last week, the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) announced it had formed a sports marketing department. The focus will be promoting the mayor’s bid to become the first elected municipal official to win a spot on the U.S Olympic track cycling team.

OK, just kidding about the mayor, although Ms. Price does seem to highly value athletic pursuits. In truth, the initiative hopes to attract new sporting events of all kinds to Cowtown with an eye to boosting tourism revenue.

Josh Dill heads the sports marketing initiative. He has actually worked on sports matters for the CVB since 2013, but now will head his own division as Sports Marketing Director.  A study released in January by the Huddle Up Group took a comprehensive look at Fort Worth’s sports landscape and has helped guide some of the strategic directions Dill and the CVB plan to take.

Dill came to North Texas from Lubbock, where he worked in a similar capacity. He listed equestrian events, gymnastics, cheer, and motor sports as current strengths Fort Worth has in the sports world. He, like many of us, grew up loving all sports, however, and wants to bring as many different kinds of sporting events to the city as possible. We sat down with him for a Q&A session about what his department hopes to achieve.

Rush Olson: How is this different from what the CVB was doing before?
Josh Dill: We’ve slowly been devoting more resources to sports. I came in with a mission of this, of creating this department. Fort Worth was a convention town and had worked with sports. We had a few guys here who handled it on a reactive basis, but this is more of a proactive, relationship-building, figuring out what we do well and doing it, and carrying that through to the national level. I don’t want to bid of lacrosse right now because I don’t know that we have a strong lacrosse base here. So the idea is that we grow sports at the local level, build fans around it, and then we can go out and bid on these events. And then also just supporting what we already have, because we have a great sports history and a lot of great sporting activity already going on here.

Rush Olson: What do you want to accomplish?
Josh Dill: The end goal is always to create economic impact for the citizens of Fort Worth. I think the Texas Comptroller’s office has said it and it’s pretty universally true that the best way to grow your economy is by bringing people into it, having them spend money, and then leave. They come in, they’re not a strain on your resources, they’re not a strain on your infrastructure. They come in, they spend their money, and they leave. And that allows us to use that money to do more and more here locally. The end goal is that we start hosting more and more sporting events. I think eventually what I’d like to see is that we are more operational with our events, where we help operate the events and maybe, in the future, even owning our own events, so that we control that event, we put it in a time whenever Fort Worth’s calendar supports it, maybe a down time. And we start an event that’s really important to Fort Worth. We can kind of own and run that event and we don’t have to worry about bidding against other cities to host it.

Rush Olson: What resources do you have at your disposal?
Josh Dill: We’ve been slowly devoting more and more resources here internally. I think we have great resources in that we’ve been building great relationships with TCU and Parks and Community Services. Then kind of educating about what it is that we want to do. And people have embraced it at both those organizations and I think we’re starting to get a lot more support and headway in utilizing their facilities and bringing opportunities that benefit all parties.
Financially, we’re devoting more resources internally to sports. It allows me to hopefully add some additional staff members, but also promote Fort Worth in the right places as a sporting destination.
We’re really close to maybe expanding our staff. The overall goal is we want to be very methodical and do something that is very sustainable. Watching the national trends, sports commissions have popped up all over the country. A lot of them, if they’re not set up correctly, and if they bite off more than they can chew, they fail. A lot of them are independent, but the model that works is a blended sports commission, which is it’s a department of the CVB. We can share resources the CVB already has, but it’s separate marketing, different branding, I guess you would say. That plays better with the national governing bodies of sports.
We’re paying attention to sports more because it’s somewhat recession-proof. People will cut out vacations. They will cut out business trips based on the economy. Not many people will cut Johnny or Susie’s baseball, softball, lacrosse tournament. That’s the last thing they want to cut when times get tough. It’s proven to be a really recession-proof sector of our industry.

Rush Olson: What is the balance between “big-time” events and the grassroots variety?
Josh Dill: The big, flashy events help us gain some notoriety and they put us on the map. They don’t always create the most impact for Fort Worth. I think it’s really important that we support grassroots events because those are kind of the bread and butter of sports tourism. But you get notoriety by hosting some of the bigger events. It’s a balancing act. We try to look at events that we feel fit best for Fort Worth and our future goals. For instance, the NCAA Gymnastics event that we are having next month, and that we hosted last April, was one of the first things that came across whenever I got here. I looked at it as an opportunity to show the NCAA that Fort Worth is serious about sports and that we know how to host major events. It’s also, in turn, led to a few prospects, but also a few events like USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics. That was our way of saying, “We’re serious about gymnastics.” And people have responded by bringing a lot of gymnastics events here in the last three years.

Rush Olson: What is the ceiling for Fort Worth sports?
Josh Dill: A lot of cities get into this going, well, “We want to host the Olympics.” I think there’s a chance we could be a part of a regional potential to host something on that scale, but that’s not what I’m working towards per se. Honestly, a lot of our regional partnerships with the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau and with the Dallas Sports Commission and with our friends up in Frisco, we have a good group that gets together and discusses some major regional events, and we all benefit from them.
We’re looking strongly at bidding for more NCAA championships in the next cycle, which is this year. Over the next couple years, we want to host more national championships and we want to play a part in the regional events that we do. With Wrestlemania coming in, we don’t necessarily have an active role in that. That’s more of an Arlington and Dallas thing, and really it’s more Dallas than it is anyone else. Whenever that came up, my first thing was I went and looked at what ancillary events go on around Wrestlemania in which we can play our part. When we met with college football, the national championship committee there, that’s what we said. We saw, “The stadium’s in Arlington. Arlington is your running back. Dallas is doing this, they’re your quarterback. But we can be your left guard because we are very much a player in this and we have a lot of resources and we have the Texas feel that so many people from outside the region want.”

Rush Olson: What line do you walk in competing with, but also working with, the other cities in this area?
Josh Dill: I use the term “coopetition.” There are times when it’s us versus them. Luckily I feel like I have a strong relationship with a lot of the people in the cities that I’m competing against. I’ve always taken the approach that I want what’s best for the event. If the event works better in Arlington, then I want it to be in Arlington, because I know that there’s another event that fits for me. We all understand where we are and what we do well. I’ve sent events to Arlington and I’ve sent events to Dallas and said, “You should really look at Frisco,” but I’ve had the same thing returned, a lot of times more than I’ve sent. It’s not as contentious as one might think. That’s a good thing.

Rush Olson: What is your role in working with venues in Fort Worth?
Josh Dill: A lot of what I do is I go to trade shows and I go and meet and make relationships with national governing bodies or people that own events. I’m more of a broker. I broker deals. If I think something really fits at the speedway, then I take that opportunity to them. I try to make it advantageous for everyone.
We incentivize groups to come here, but I’m really adamant about not doing any kind of incentive that just lines someone’s pocket. We want to make sure that we are offsetting expenses to make sure that it shows that doing business in Fort Worth is good for the event owner and it’s good for the facility to get the benefit of hosting the event, whether it’s notoriety or it’s concession dollars, whatever it could be. We just try to make it as pleasant to do sports business in Fort Worth as possible.

Rush Olson: Do you have thoughts on Fort Worth having additional professional sports teams within the city limits?
Josh Dill: Professional sports is one of the things in our industry conferences we talk about a lot. They can be very helpful and they bring a lot of notoriety. I don’t think that it’s something that someone who’s tasked like we are, with creating economic impact, can really subsidize. I don’t think that it’s a good use of our funds to do that. But I do like the idea of having more professional sports teams here.

Is it something we’re going to actively pursue as part of our strategic plan? Probably not.

I can’t really get involved in subsidizing a professional sports team. I just want to have them there so I can bring them opportunities.


The Fort Worth CVB will host an event it is calling the Fort Worth Sports Huddle on April 7. This first event will honor the Texas Motor Speedway for its 20 years in Fort Worth. top-level NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick will speak. Eventually, they hope do a few such events each year to create dialogue around sports in Fort Worth. One can purchase tables or individual tickets for the April 7 event by contacting the CVB’s Elizabeth Story at ElizabethStory@FortWorth.com.



Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


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Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Bernie Ball

This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly website. To read it on that site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/03/22/sports-rush-bernie-ball/


There’s a race going on, one that generates more attention than even the biggest Olympic 100-meter dash or New York Marathon. A few finalists have broken away from the field in the contest to become U.S. Commander-In-Chief. As part of this competition, a candidate named Bernie Sanders has proposed that under his administration, the taxpayers would finance free tuition for students at all public colleges. You as a sports fan heard that and said, “Who should I pick in my hoops bracket?”

So this column won’t attempt to dive into the feasibility of the policy’s economics or whether it is, in fact, a good policy or a crummy idea. I also won’t evaluate whether it’s realistic for a Sanders to bribe some superdelegates or benefit from a Mrs. Clinton conviction stemming from one of her various scandals. But we will look at how his proposed higher education policy might affect athletics, since that’s what you and your fantasy league commissioner really care about.

We can start by assuming athletic scholarships would no longer hold importance at public schools, but they would become vitally important at private schools. Government institutions of higher learning would no longer need to award athletic scholarships, since tuition would be free for all students. Sanders’ website also indicates the “Sanders plan would require public colleges and universities to meet 100 percent of the financial needs of the lowest-income students,” so the most value an athletic scholarship to a public university would add is a dorm, books, and food for middle-income students.

No longer able to position themselves as remotely affordable, private schools might become more exclusive, catering to high-income or highly religious students. Perhaps some would still think it worth it to take out student loans to study under a certain professor or in a program with a track record of producing lucrative job offers for graduates, though one would think that number would be small. Would student athletes view those private school athletic scholarships as even more valuable than they do now? That could especially be true if the quality of education were diluted at public schools as increased enrollment forced them to quickly hire more inexperienced or under-qualified professors. We can’t be sure all those scholarships would continue to exist, though.

Schools with prominent athletic programs have long cited on-field performance as valuable in attracting the attentions of aspiring academics. TCU’s athletic success likely played a role in its recent surge in applications. Private colleges will have to truly evaluate how important athletics are to their marketing efforts, especially as they plan how to target a more narrow demographic mix of students.
It might be that only certain sports will meet the cost-benefit test for whether non-public schools should keep them. Could we see a situation in which only the so-called revenue sports (primarily football and men’s basketball) survive at most private schools? Perhaps they would be accompanied by sports with a larger number of higher-income participants, such as golf, tennis, or rugby union. Title IX legislation restricts schools that receive federal funding (or whose students do) from awarding more scholarships to men’s athletics than women’s. Since the education financing picture will have changed to de-emphasize federal student loans, we’d possibly see many private universities opting out of all federal funding to avoid having to comply with what would now be unaffordable Title IX rules.

Keeping smaller sports becomes even more difficult when we consider that the likes of baseball, softball, and lacrosse mostly award only partial scholarships, currently. If the NCAA rules remained in its present form, the privates would have to compete with public schools awarding unlimited financial aid. If the regulations changed to allow private schools to also put every athlete on a full scholarship, it would raise costs significantly, increasing the incentive to drop sports. Conversely, we might also see schools invest in a lobbying effort to direct federal funds to private institutions specifically to increase the number of athletic scholarships.

In terms of how his policies would impact public schools, Sanders’ funding mechanism would matter. He might dispense tuition reimbursement to schools via federal grants. Perhaps the Department of Education will award the grants the way Medicare reimburses doctors, with complicated codes for various programs to determine how much is paid for different costs. You can imagine the lobbying frenzy among the admissions officers, custodians unions, AFCAs, academic specialties, and every other group whose compensation would depend on how well they navigated that political environment. Whatever the process for directing the funds to the schools became, you’d have to assume sports has good enough lawyers to ensure the profession retains some funding.

If that funding is enough to cover the actual costs of educating students, we would expect school administrators to look to grow their empires and admit as many students into their schools as possible, since they would add money and prestige with every student. That could result in adding sports, since the more niche interests you can cater to, the more students you get in. Why not build a curling rink in Brownsville if the feds effectively pay for it? Given the marketing benefit sports add, we could see more dollars directed toward sports, especially if many of those activities qualify for taxpayer reimbursement.

If the compensation rates don’t cover actual costs above certain enrollment levels, perhaps for campuses in areas with high costs of living, those schools would have limited incentive to seek new students. They would look to cut costs, and dropping sports and other endeavors requiring high fixed costs might be a way to do it.

The candidate plans to pay for his $75 billion education program through a tax on a class of people he has dubbed Wall Street Speculators (which we are going to assume eliminates the possibility of an unfunded mandate to the states for this particular program). One thing we certainly expect from a Sanders administration would be higher taxes for higher earners, including those who donate large sums to colleges. When tax rates go up, so do the value of tax deductions. With investments now requiring higher profits to yield the same net return, more investors might prefer a deduction coupled with the perks (psychological and physical) that come with donating a new practice facility or athletic dorm. If your name is also the name of your business, putting that moniker on the side of a building makes even more sense. If Rush Olson Creative & Sports really takes off in the coming years, look for that Rush Olson Athlete Laundry Facility to open at Trinity University. Overall, then, this reallocation of capital might not be too good for, say, entrepreneurs looking for angel investors, but it might enhance some college athletic programs. Of course, if higher taxes result in an overall reduction in wealth in the economy, college athletics might end up with a larger piece of a smaller pie and less money with which to work overall.

Basic economics indicates that when one lowers the price of a good, the quantity of it demanded increases. Reducing the cost of higher education, then, makes it likely we will see more persons partake in it. In the long term, more students mean more alumni and more fans of the schools they attended. The new Tigers, Hokies, and Anteaters the legislation would create might buy a lot of shirts and hats and season tickets, depending on their post-graduation earnings and tax burden, and whether or not their school still plays sports. We promised at the beginning that we wouldn’t render judgement on whether Sanders’ policy would be a good one or not, but one thing we can conclude after composing this column is that the situation would be a complicated one. Sports, as we have seen, would need many questions answered, and such a far-reaching piece of legislation would surely spawn many others whose consequences must be anticipated and dealt with by the combination of legislators, lobbyists, special interests, bureaucrats, and whoever else will effect the policy’s implementation. Are they, and Bernie Sanders, up to it? Be sure you’ve decided the answer to that question before you vote. It could affect your bracket.


Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

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A Sponsor's Dilemma

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on that site :

http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/03/15/sports-rush-sponsoring-sharapova/

For years, Maria Sharapova’s sponsors had a pretty easy decision to make about whether she made a good spokeswoman for their products. The tennis star won Grand Slams, looked great in any garment, and spoke fluent English and Russian. She had no major scandals or suspensions and even been recognized for her charity work. She probably wasn’t perfect (see grunting, injuries), but if you wanted someone to serve as the face of your product, you could hardly go wrong even at the huge fees she commanded.

Last week, Nike, Tag Heuer, and Porsche abruptly dropped her from their endorser rolls.

Sharapova didn’t retire from playing. She didn’t sign deals with her sponsors’ competition. She didn’t injure anyone. She failed a drug test at the Australian Open and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) gave her a four-year suspension for it.

 

Photo by Carla Rosenberg

One can understand how the companies no longer saw value in association with the player. She will have significantly diminished visibility in the coming years and the failed test will create negative associations from which brands may want to distance themselves. Speculation has also posited that Sharapova’s recent decline in the rankings contributed to the corporate decisions to terminate the relationships, with the drug situation serving as a convenient excuse. She remained in the top ten, however, would have likely earned Hall of Fame induction, and could have maintained a significant Q Score post-retirement.

Did they make the right decision to discard the years of brand equity they’d had with the player? To make such a quick decision, it must have appeared to them a clear-cut situation. Perhaps their reasoning went “Sharapova is unequivocally a cheater. Our metrics indicate that being associated with cheaters damages our brand to a far greater degree than any of her other qualities augment it. Therefore, we must take the drastic step of ending or suspending the relationship with her.”

Did they do the right thing? Or did the situation have nuance they should have considered?

Sharapova announced the suspension in a press conference during which she accepted fault for failing to pay attention to an email detailing substances added to the banned list for 2016. She claims to have taken one of the newly naughty drugs for years on a doctor’s recommendation for legitimate medical purposes.

If she didn’t intentionally take the substance for performance enhancement, should her intent count for something? She may apply for a retroactive Therapeutic Use Exemption that could absolve her if granted. Should sponsors have waited to see what would happen with that situation? Could she be telling the truth? Honesty and humility can be positive qualities with which a company might want to be identified.

Should they have also looked at the bigger picture? The assumption seems to be that Sharapova was at fault, but what if other parties’ actions deserve scrutiny as well?

The Washington Times reported that Dick Pound, the former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), called her “stupid” for not noticing the new ban on the drug known as Mildronate. Some sources say she was notified five times. Sharapova says most of those notifications were buried among long lists of other information. The New York Times quoted WADA President Craig Reedie as saying, “We take great care to inform our stakeholders of any amendments to the prohibited list.”

Her native Russia’s anti-doping agency is in disarray right now after a 2015 scandal. While Meldonium is illegal in the U.S. and the European Union, the Latvian drug is in wider use in the east. Is it possible the WADA could have anticipated some difficulties with athletes taking a drug that is legal in their home countries and made a better effort to ensure they were notified? Do the anti-doping forces, in fact, have incentive to do so, or do they get more mileage out of high-profile athletes getting banned so they can point to a larger drug problem and request more resources for their efforts? They aren’t the ones who lose their livelihoods for four years for one positive test. Should they be evaluating their communication strategies, especially given how serious the penalties are?

One could also look at the drug itself. In the process of banning the substance, the anti-doping folks found that athletes were, in fact, using it for performance enhancement. The question is, should that be a good enough reason to ban it? I found at least two sources indicating that Meldonium has few side effects, and the rationale for banning performance-enhancing drugs has always been that the likes of anabolic steroids boost ability but at a horrible cost and we must keep the children from thinking it’s okay to make that choice about your body. Without side effects, however, might Meldonium belong more in the category of sports drinks? If it hasn’t been approved in certain areas of the world, is that due to a rash of accidents or due to excessive bureaucratic caution or labyrinthine approval processes? All those involved should satisfy themselves as regards the fundamental question of whether the substance deserved its ban in the first place.

The bottom line is that there is clearly nuance to the situation. Only individual sponsors can decide for themselves if there is enough to justify maintaining a relationship with their endorser. They have tough bigger picture decisions to face, too. If they decided much of the problem lay with the anti-doping establishment, they’d have to really muster some moxie and resources to raise that question with a powerful force in sport. Nike could do it, but one can certainly understand why they wouldn’t want to risk being branded as supporting doping in sport.

Is making different choices than Porsche, Tag Heuer, and the swoosh merchants a viable possibility? We’re going to find out, because at least one of her sponsors decided there were enough gray areas to the imbroglio to not only support Sharapova, but extend her contract.

Racquet manufacturer Head issued a statement in which its Chairman and CEO declared “this falls into the category of ‘honest’ mistakes.” They added, “Furthermore, we question WADA¹s decision to add Meldonium to its banned substances list in the manner it did; we believe the correct action by WADA would have been to impose a dosage limitation only. In the circumstances we would encourage WADA to release scientific studies which validates their claim that Meldonium should be a banned substance.”

Which sponsors made the right call? At this point, it’s a gray area.

Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

A Sport with Spice

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on that site :http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/03/09/sports-rush-the-spicy-sport/

Food and sport have a symbiotic relationship. We love to combine vittles with victories. The marriage of a hot dog and a ballgame let no man tear asunder.

But what happens when food becomes part of the action? Perhaps you’ve seen the Milwaukee Brewers’ sausage races? And some exceptional athletes (?) can earn a living thanks to their hot-dog-chomping prowess.

The preparation of food can stimulate competition, too. Such events have come to prominence in recent years through TV shows like Iron Chef, but Texas has long offered its own brand of food fight : the chili cook-off.


The Fort Worth Weekly held such an event this past Sunday featuring local restaurants’ top food makers. The inaugural Celebrity Chef Chili Cook-Off filled the parking lot outside Dagwoods Fire Grill Tap with merrymakers who had bought tickets for the privilege of tasting, voting on, and, in certain cases, recovering from a substantial variety of chilis. They experienced music from KNON artists, beer from Deep Ellum Brewing Company and Karbach Brewing Company, and lots of what contestant Felip Armenta of The Tavern, Pacific Table, and Press Cafe called “American comfort food.” So it was a lot of fun. But how much of a competition was it?


“I told my team, ‘Look, I really want to try to win this thing’,” said Armenta. “I think everybody took it pretty serious.”

For some, playing sports against friends is highly competitive. Bragging rights matter. These men and women weren’t strangers to each other, explained Juan Rodriguez of Magdalena’s.
“It’s all the chefs that I know. We’re all like brothers. It’s almost a friendly competition. We all try to talk smack to each other, but it’s all in fun.”

Some of the spicier chilis may have exuded intensity, but the competition, in truth, did not. All the chefs echoed Rodriguez’s theme – this was in fun.
“It’s not always about the competition,” said Keith Hicks of Buttons. “I’m the type of cat that likes to do things out of love. If we win, that’s fine. If we don’t, we still fed a lot of people.”


Whether motivated by affection or prestige, the preparers put a lot of effort into their concoctions. They used multiple meats, spices, and some creative elements Billy Woodrich of Billy’s Oak Acres BBQ termed “unicorn milk and fairy dust.” Of course, the chefs also used chile peppers. David Hollister of Dagwoods achieved double figures in that last category.
“My house blend has 18 different chiles and my spicy one has 21,” he said.


One ingredient had the potential to cause controversy as it filled bellies. Blaine Staniford of Grace Restaurant explained.

“When they put the newsletter out, it said to do beans at your own risk. I thought it was funny. But there’s no beans in Texas chili, period.”

The debate about whether beans belong in the recipe might be the true competition of the chili world. The debate inspires strong feelings on all sides. As I was writing this article, in fact, the song “Chilihead/No Beans” by Texan Tommy Alverson started playing on the radio. The chorus demands “don’t put no beans in your chili brew.”

Some competitors went ahead and used the legumes in question. Armenta, one of the bold ones, reported that 95% of his tasters liked what he served, beans or not.
The compound that would win the day, however, included, according to its creator, “a blend of Texas and Mexican cuisine” and a “blend of beef tri-tip and top round.” The ingredients, along with the all-important copper cooking pot, belonged to Juan Rodriguez.
The Magdalena’s chef/owner earned his triumph by a scant two votes over Terry Chandler of Fred’s Texas Café. In the spirit of the day, however, the runner-up didn’t mind.


“I’m not here competing with anybody. I’m just down here having fun with everybody in Fort Worth on a nice early spring day and just loving everybody, hanging out, making chili.”
Rodriguez also pointed out another of Sunday’s winners.

“It’s for a good cause as well,” he said.
The event benefited Cook Children’s Hospital, and in the end. the cause, plus fun and fellowship, likely played more of a role in drawing top chili makers than any competitive fire. Oh, and also just the fun of making chili, which is a sport in itself. After all, as Armenta said, “soup with meat is like a home run.”




Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Should Major League Baseball Expand Internationally?

Should Major League Baseball expand internationally?

The subject came up recently in a broadcast on the Phil Naessens Show radio program. You can listen to how Phil and I discussed the issue here : http://www.philnaessensshow.com/atlanta-hawks/how-to-make-fantasy-hockey-more-popular/

How U.S. sports leagues and teams market themselves abroad has been an interest of mine since I worked for one. How can U.S. sports entities generate more business outside the country? Phil and I discussed how expansion has drawbacks in terms of time zones and domestic broadcast contracts. Single exhibition games have limited reach.

I have always felt that freeing up teams to do more of their own marketing outside the country the way association football teams do might represent a lot of the solution. 30 creative teams thinking of ways to push baseball brands, instead of one MLB International office, could power growth.

I wrote about it more extensively here : http://rusholson.blogspot.com/2014/02/teams-need-to-get-out-more.html

I am always happy to discuss big picture sports business solutions - connect with me on LinkedIn or through my website at rusholson.com.




Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Sports' Spring Break

This post originally appeared on the Arts page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on that site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/03/02/sports-rush-five-reasons-march-is-mad/

 

The name “March” sounds like a military PT regimen. The sports phrase most associated with the month implies a certain mad-as-a-March-hare kind of crazy. And most April Fool’s Day pranks are planned during its 31 days. Any way you look at it, March is a funny sports month. Here are five reasons why.





 
Football-free
It’s typically the only month of the year with no American-style football. The Arena League doesn’t start until April. NFL and CFL training camps remain a ways away. The long-defunct USFL and XFL tried it, and organizations like Major League Football might give it a try again, but it has generally remained unfootballed. We do get to watch professional Association Football, as the Major League Soccer season starts this week and European leagues continue.

The Biggest International Events Avoid It
It’s not quite cold enough for Winter Olympics, but not quite warm enough for the summer games. In fact, no Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, or Rugby (Union) World Cup has ever been held in March. The World Curling Championships have traditionally taken place during the third month, though, so there’s that. MLB has also staged the World Baseball Classic every three or four years in March, but it hasn’t really risen to the level of the other big global events. When held in the southern hemisphere, the iCC Cricket World Cup probably comes the closest to putting the month on the global stage.

No Playoffs
No major U.S. league holds playoffs in March. The period joins July, August, and September as the postseason-less season, what with the World Series stretching into November now and the MLS Cup pushed to December. We don’t have any All-Star Games this time of year, either. Pro hockey and basketball certainly have compelling games as teams jockey for playoff position, but you also have some squads playing out the string after February’s trade deadlines.

Spring Training
No other sport gets so much traction out of its ramp-up period. Major League Baseball plays a whole schedule of preseason games, charges normal prices for them, and nobody minds. The national pastime has it sweet that respect. The home fans don’t complain that meaningless games were included in season ticket packages, the franchises make additional money when those fans travel for a snowbirding experience, and they also get to sell tickets and t-shirts to the natives of whatever Cactus or Grapefruit League municipality built them a charming ballpark.

Plus, because no regular season games are played in March, baseball teams will sometimes celebrate the month’s most noteworthy holiday later in the year. A number of teams do “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” promotions for September 17th games. You’ve really got a month figured out when you can make money off it 20-something weeks after it ends.

March Madness
Well, yeah, Month 3 does get wild sometimes. Certainly, the United States’ most heated March sporting event comes from the college ranks. The month inspires substantial passion among college basketball fans and those of you who chose the right upsets in your office bracket pool.



March ostensibly comes in like a Lion (Bobby Layne vintage) and goes out like a, well, Lion (Dan Orlovsky vintage). In reality, it’s pretty laid-back throughout, reflecting more anticipation than finality. Even March Madness now concludes in April.

For the most part, March seems to be the spring break month for students and sports fans. It’s a chance to chill out and maybe read a good sports blog post or two before baseball home openers and Stanley Cup Playoffs and Champions League Finals demand your most urgent attention and some face-painting, chest-bumping intensity. See you on the beach.



Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


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