Week 5: Hardwork and Dedication

In today's economy not many industries are doing very well and struggling to keep their head above water week in and week out.  It just so happens that the golf industry has been one of the hardest in the sports industry.  At Pipestone we have not got by without being scathed by this recession.  Which is why lately I have been called upon to cover multiple jobs the are crucial to the function of the golf course.  While earlier in the summer I was mostly in the pro shop or doing behind the scenes work, now I have been picking the range, washing golf carts and even doing some food and beverage jobs.  It has been more work on my part, but it is more cost effective for the course to have myself do multiple jobs, rather than have 2 or 3 other people spread out doing three different task.  It is understandable for my supervisor to do this, and honestly I would have initiated this much earlier in the summer to help out the bottom line.  If there has been one thing that I have learned in this past week is that in a small operation such as Pipestone is, you must have dedicated staff members willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.  This speaks true for every one of my co-workers, we all work very hard because we realize if the course were to get into money trouble each and everyone of us would be out of work.  I just hope when I get into my first supervisor role that I have employees as dedicated as the ones at Pipestone.

Week 4: Inventory

This past week was the end of the month of July and the beginning of August, which means the course must file paperwork with the city and Kemper Sports on the monthly revenue.  Part of this monthly revenue report has to do with how much appearal and equipment we have sold and have left to sell in our pro shop.  This report is extremely important because we have to know how many things are missing and how much money was made off the items sold.  We first start out by counting every item that we have in stock in the shop.  This includes items such as shirts, sleeves of golf balls and all the way down to golf tees that we sell.  After counting every item in the shop we have to go into the FORE! system where we have the last count of every item the month before.  After going through and editing the numbers from what we counted, the computer goes through and analyzes the numbers you put in compared to what has been rang in and sold.  When it is done it prints out a report with all the variances in the number of items we counted and the actual number we should have. If there are any instances where the counted number is different from what the computer says we should have, we must go back and count to make sure we did not miscount.  This happened this month one time and it was with Under Armour golf Polo's.  We were missing three Under Armour Polo's, and we had no clue where they were.  After searching around the shop and offices we had found the tags to the shirts on the Head Professional's desk.  What we found out had happened was he had donated the shirts to a fundraising outing at the course two weeks earlier.  This was really the only speed bump we ran into through out this long process.  While this may be a long and dreadful process, it has to be done in order for the course to make sure items are not being stolen and the city of Miamisburg and Kemper Sports know how much we are making off equipment and apparel sales.

Week Three: 9 Dine and 9

This past weekend we held one of the most unique golf outings we will host the entire summer, and it is called 9 Dine and 9.  It is unique in that this is an outting that originated from the club and is not another groups outting that we house.  It is also unique in that part of the nine holes is in the day time and the other nine holes is played in the dark with glow golf equipment.  As well, dinner is served to all the participants between the two nines, and this year we had a full field of forty participants.  There was much detail that needed to be accomplished so this event could go on with out a hitch.  These details included making sure that we order enough glow sticks and glow balls for all the participants.  We then ended up buying over one hundred and twenty glow golf balls (three per person)and over two hundred glow sticks and necklaces to light up the holes for directional purposes.  Thereafter the group completed the first nine holes the Assistant Golf Professional raced out on to the course to start putting glow sticks on the tees, fairways and flag sticks.  This was the key part to pulling this off because we only had about thirty five minutes before they were to start the last nine holes of glow golf.  Thankfully we finished setting up the the golf course with about ten minutes to spare and were able to get the group off for the second nine after dinner exactly at 9:30.  This was only the second time the club has ever done this event, and the overall feed back from the participants was great.  They loved the event and some even mentioned to us about possible doing a full eighteen holes of glow golf, or doing a 9 Dine and 9 once every month.  This was a huge success for the club because of the focus on the finer details.  The things that I want to change about the event is to order more than three glow balls per person, as well as order more extra glow sticks to light up the golf carts so people are easier to find and see.  Other than that this event was a huge success and we received mostly positive feed back from the participants.

Week 2: The art of event planning in small facilities and my role as a manager

This week I began to finally settle in to my roll in the management of tournaments and events the course holds throughout the busy months of summer.  My job when the course holds tournaments and outings is to make sure all paper work is completed, golf carts are in line and customers are checked in and are taken care of.  This week has really stretched my imagination as far as getting multiple events arranged and take place at the same time in our small facility.  On Friday we had a 144 person outing on the golf course that teed off nine o'clock and were scheduled to eat at five o'clock.  At five thirty we had a wedding planed in our event tent, so there was no where we could put the golf outting to eat.  I called around to different tent rental places and found a company that would allow us to rent tables, chairs, large fans and most importantly a tent big enough for 144 people.  My idea was to set the tent up on the range out of the way of the wedding so we could please both of our parties without having the clutter of more than 300 people.  This was a great success, I managed to please both of our events and pull them off successfully with out a glitch.  The key lesson that I have learned through this week's experience is that you must have an imagination.  My supervisors said that they would never had imagined having people eat on the driving range, but it is what needed to be done to pull this off.  When your working with limited resources you must use everything that you have at your disposal.

As well this, past week I was given a key to the building so I can begin closing the facility down and taking care of the money and deposit for that day.  My duties when I close down the building is to count the money, make a deposit slip, and make sure the building is all locked up and the alarm is set.  I have not begun to close by myself yet because I still need some guidance, but next week I am suppose to begin closing all by myself.

The Beginning - Week One

This week I began my internship with Pipestone Golf Club, which is located in Miamisburg, Ohio.  After I graduate this next Spring I attend on becoming a PGA Professional and going into the business side of golf, which consist of running a golf course such as Pipestone.  I was excited to finally get to start my internship because I knew that I would obtain valuable skills for a successful future in this field.  This week mostly consisted of training.  Since the golf club is owned by the city of Miamisburg, but managed by Kemper Sports I had to go through training programs offered by both.  The training that I endured through the city mostly consisted of how to use their online terminal.  Their online terminal is very complex and is where the budget reports for the course are filled and completed, and it is also a place where you stay connected to other offices in the city.  The training that attended this week for Kemper Sports consisted of learning how to use the computer program FORE.  This program is used for the computers at the front desk for checking guest in, as well it is used for booking tee times.  The best part about this program is it helps the course keep track of inventory and also does a sales report at the end of everyday.  This week might not have been the most hands on week, but it was a vital part to get understanding how this certain course operates.  In the coming weeks I hope to gain enough understanding so I can begin to close the course down by myself, as well to start assisting with the many events and tournaments that the golf club host.  The course has a great management team and I look forward to the following weeks and learning from their leadership and my own experiences throughout the internship.

Final Post.....For Now

As we begin to round up the end of the semester,  I want to take the time to write on a new sport that I have not mentioned in the past, and that is Major League Soccer.  The reason that I am choosing the MLS to write about is because this league will start to struggle getting sponsors.  Since the league formed it has taken a back seat to the other leagues such as the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NBA to name a few.  As well the lack of television spots, are not exactly appealing to sponsors looking to put their name on a team or stadium.  With that problem already in place for the league, the economy slowing getting worse it will only lead to less sponsorship money for the league and its teams.  The future of the league looks really grim right now, just when after the World Cup everyone thought that American soccer was on the rise.  The problem of lack of sponsorships also leads to low pay for many of the players in the league.  If the player is really good, they pack their things and go over seas to play in bigger and better leagues, and mostly importantly they are paid more over there.  While the economy will have a negative impact on the the future of the MLS, the technology may help their cause a little bit.  Now that it is possible to stream live feeds over the Internet, the league has many options compared to just trying to find a station on television to show their games.  The advancement of online television will help the league gain more viewers, and most importantly more selling points for future sponsors.  There are still people who want to watch the games, however like I said before it is hard because very few games are shown.  This will now make it easier for people who want to watch the games have chance to watch.  The end result will possible give the MLS more of a chance to add more sponsors to their list.

Sports Writing and Promotions

During my time of studying the elements and examples of sports writing and promotions, I have realized how complex it can really be.  There are so many elements that go into marketing an event of any size, weather it be the Super Bowl or a local charity basketball game, every element and characteristic of the event must be considered.  After doing my own marketing plan in this class it helped me gain a new understanding that an event must be marketed to the correct market segmentation and at the appropriate time.  Any flaw in the marketing plan could lead to the disapproval of the event and the worst outcome of the event being a complete failure.  That point brings me to the next thing that I have realized after this class, you can't be afraid of your event or idea failing.  There are hundreds of thousand ideas and events that have failed, do you think that Bill Veck was afraid of his corky ideas failing?  Of course not!  He had confidence in everyone of his ideas because they were well planned and well marketed.  This leads me to the my last point and that is about sponsorships.  The last part of the semester I have realized that companies are more than willing to sponsor just about any kind of sporting event, as long as the benefits fit with what they are trying accomplish.  While the size of the event does matter in how much the company will be willing to pay, it does not affect their decision on wether or not to sponsor the event.  The key is to make sure that they know the value they will get with the money they will be spending.

Aside from what I learned from the material that was covered in the book, I have recieved real world knowledge of sports writing and promotions through the various real marketing plans and promotions we got to talk about.  Along with the links that Dr. Tiell put up on the course page, she talked about her experiences of being on a committee planning the Women's Leadership Symposium that is associated with the NCAA.  Not only is this a huge event for the NCAA, but to have someone who is in charge of gaining sponsorships and marketing the event really adds to the complete experience that every student in the class will leave with.  Learning happens every day, but learning through real world events and happenings is the best way to obtain knowledge about a given field.  I feel that given the oppurtunity to do a real marketing plan or given the task of gaining sponsorships, I would be able to succeed after what I have gained from this class.

Olympic Athlete Endorsements

After Michael Phelps record setting summer Olympics in Beijing where he eight gold medals, there were many companies knocking at his door wanting him to endorse the products.  The two companies that he does endorse are Speedo and Kellogg's.  Speedo being the one of the biggest swimming apparel providers in the world and Kellogg's a family oriented cereal company.  When the picture of Phelps smoking Marijuana at a college party leaked these two companies happened to be in two very different situations.  The decision for Kellogg's to drop him did not come as a surprise to many,but the decision for Speedo to keep him on as a endorser was.  Let us first justify why Kellogg's did what it did and dropped his endorsement contract.  The Olympics is only every four years, and if this is the only time that people really follow swimming why keep a person on to endorse you when they can't keep a good image and they are really not in the spot light to endorse your product.  This is more than likely what Kellogg's had going through their minds when they decided to drop him.  Why keep him around, there were more down sides to keeping him on than there were upsides.  So in other words it was best to just cut their loses and move on.  Now to justify why Speedo kept him is a whole different story.  The consumers who buy Speedo products follow swimming outside of when it is on during the Olympics.  If Speedo were to drop him there would be a whole slew of companies, that are Speedo's competitors, coming to sign him to a sponsorship deal.  While in society he may be considered a deviant, in the swimming society he is still the worlds best known swimmer and the greatest swimmer maybe of all time.  It would be like Nike cutting off Tiger Woods for his actions, that would be catastrophic to the sales of the product.

Just because I think that Speedo was justified in keeping Phelps as a sponsor, does not mean that I agree with his actions.  In fact I think that a "moral clauses" in contract as big as the one he signed is a great idea.  You are making millions of dollars at the sake of a companies brand and image, the least you can do is behave yourself or at least be smart enough to do it in private.  I do not think we have enough instances where world famous athletes are held responsible for their actions.  When I mean held responsible I mean money wise, which is why I truly believe that moral clauses need to be in every contract anyone signs.  I think that Phelps has felt the wrath of his moral clause, and more athletes need to go through the same thing he is.

Honda Center Partnership Opportunities

The Honda Center is one of the premier sports and entertainment center in the world by welcoming nearly 1.7 million guest a year.  This provides a great opportunity for the center to create long time relationships with many companies and can make a lot of money doing it.  Their state of the art center offers multiple opportunities to display advertisements for many different companies at once.  On top of that their prime location right off Freeway 57 offers the opportunity to reach people who may never even go to an event in the Honda Center.  The Freeway 57 Marquee would be very easy to sell because of the easy visibility it has from the highway.  The set up that the arena has for advertising areas is prime for the guest in the events as well.  First would be the Honda Vision scoreboard that hangs in the middle which has four upper panels for advertisements, as well as four lower panels that provide the same space.  In addition to that the arena has four corner panels, four center scoreboard panels and two 360 degree LED rings that offer fully animated branding opportunities.  When there are hockey games at the arena it offers for even more signs.  These signs are located on the the bench and penalty boxes for both teams, as well as the four dashboards that are part of the rink.  As you can see, with the amounts of guest that the arena houses every year and the amount of signage that the arena can house offers a great opportunity for the arena to make a profit and its partners as well.

While the arena does have the opportunity to advertise all over, there is a chance that over-commercialization could detract from exposure benefits for clients.  When there are signs from ten different companies all over the arena it would be hard for guest to really take in all of the signs.  There would come a point that people would just start ignoring them.  For me, when I am at an event such as a MLB game or an NFL game I get tired of all the advertisements that they flash on the boards and the announcements they make about the teams partners.  I just think when it comes to advertising in a venue such as the Honda Center, less is more and the over advertising could harm the effectiveness.

The Naming Game in Sport Sponsorships

Companies around the globe are buying names of stadiums and even games between teams in order to get their name out to potential customers.  This is no tiny bill when companies try to buy the naming rights, they are forking out million and millions of dollars to get their name out.  One of the biggest examples of this in the sporting world today would be the the Bowl Championship Series in college football.  This series consist of four different bowl games in which all of them are have naming rights attached to them which include the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the All-State Sugar Bowl, the Discover Orange Bowl and the Rose Bowl Presented by Vizio.  This is just one example of many where companies buy the naming rights for certain events.  However, the rising trend in sports advertising and revenue generation is selling the naming rights of a stadium.  It seems today that almost every stadium has a name that represents a business or organization.  For some people it just does not seem the same with their favorite stadiums change the name to some multi billion dollar business.  For many Indians fans their stadium has been known mostly by the name Jacobs Field, until 2008 when the organization sold the naming rights to the Progressive Insurance agency for $3.6 million annually until 2023.  While the name is now Progressive Field many fans still call it by its old name Jacobs Field.  While I understand why companies sell the naming rights for stadiums, you have to think it ruins so many fan's prospective towards the organization.  Now a days it seems to be a trend among many college and professional teams except a couple universities, which include Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan.  Either the university officials of both Michigan and Ohio State have not realized the trend yet, or they want to preserve the integrity of the 107 year old football rivalry.  The universities probably have realized they could sell off the naming rights for millions of dollars, but choose to keep the games rich history in their hands and not some one else.  While there are some options for these two schools could explore if they ever wanted to have the games naming rights auctioned off.  Some of their options would include companies with rich histories in our country, which would tie in to the rich history the rivalry brings with it.  A couple companies that come to mind would be General Motors and John Hancock.  These two companies fit the description and really ties into the history of this game that I explained earlier.  This also ties into why there are still major college athletic programs who have not sold off the naming rights for their stadiums.  With the rich and old history of college football, which has been going on much longer than professional football, stadiums have names that make their programs prestige.  Certain stadiums have names such as the Horseshoe (Ohio State), The Big House (Michigan) and the Swamp (Florida).  The way that these universities see it is that they already bring in profit from their programs, why ruin the tradition that they have with the names of their stadiums for and extra $3 million a year.  The fans would not like it and it would certainly change the atmosphere of the game that attracts the millions of fans to watch the games.  Seriously would you rather hear the announcer say "It's the 108th meeting between Ohio State and Michigan here at The Big House" or "It's the 108th meeting between Ohio State and Michigan here at All-State Stadium"?  To me it is a no brainer, and I am glad that the major universities in college sports are not entertaining their options of naming rights.

Coors Company and FedEx Sports Sponsorship

After reading about the elements that go into getting sponsored by the Coors Company.  While nothing really suprised me about what types of events they sponsor, it was the depth in which they go to see if the event qualifies.  Coors will only sponsor events that score high on the beer drinker index survey, which practically means it must have the stigma of having alcohol involved.  The biggest thing that I learned from reading about the Coors Company sponsorship requirements, and that was the requirement for television coverage and a governing body (NASCAR) in charge.  This is somewhat different than other beer companies, most others will put their name on many events that do not have television coverage.  With these requirements it somewhat limits the Coors Company to the type of events that they can sponsor.  These limits that they have with their requirements is they will not be able to sponsor any type of high school or big youth sporting event.  While it limits them in that respect it also opens many doors for them.  These opportunities spread into sponsoring many college sporting events and the opportunity to get in to larger professional sporting events.  With that being said lets take a look at what events appeal to just FedEx, events that appeal to just Coors and events that would appeal to both.  Let us start at what events appeal to the Coors Company, but not FedEx.  Since we now know that Coors likes the event to be high on the beer drinker index, events that would appeal to them would be NASCAR races, rodeos, beach volleyball tournaments and the NHL.  The reason these events are so appealign to Coors is that thereis usually alot of alcohol consumed at these events and these sports are usually watched by the average person.  This is why it does not appeal to FedEx because they are looking for the CEO of the company instead of the average Joe.  That leads us to what type of events appeal to FedEx, but not to Coors.  These type of events would consist of NCAA sporting events, the Little League World Series and PGA golf tournaments.  These are usually events that are very respected and they draw in many higher class people and would fit into what FedEx is trying to accomplish.  There are many different opportunities for both companies, but both of these companies could benefit from some of the same events.  These events you could possible see both of these companies sponsor would be the Olympics, the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the World Cup.  These companies for the most part are very different, but they do share many similarties.  In the end both companies are trying to strategically sponsor events that will help them recieve a huge return on their investment.

Names that you will see come the 2012 London Olympics

You may think that in this colomn that we will explore what athletes we will see break out in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, well you were wrong.  What we will look at is what companies are coming up with the mass of amounts of cash to be able to put there mark on the 2012 Olympic Games.  Lets face it with out sponsorships not many sporting events would take place, the Olympics is no different.  In fact, their sponsors make the contributions that make the whole event come to life in the manner that it usually happens.  The sponsors are broken up by the London Organizing Committee into different levels of committment.  Companies and organizations can become a worldwide sponsor, an official partner, an official supporter, or an official supplier/contributor.  The worldwide sponsors are the biggest contributors to the games, these companies are forking out millions and millions of dollars to have their commercials and name all around the venues of the games.  The companies that make up this level for London 2012 are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, Dow, GE, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung and Visa.  These companies will not only be financially assisting the games, but they will also be providing their services to the games and the patrons attending the games.  Most of the companies that are on this list are not new names to the worldwide sponsors catagory, but some of the new names for these games are Atos Origin, Omega, and Dow.  From here it moves on to the official partnerships, the companies that fall into this catagory are Adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF, and Llodys TBS.  These companies will provide their products to the games production in exchange for their name on the event.  For example, Adidas will be supplying uniforms to the athletes, BMW will provide the complementery cars for transportation and BP will be providing fuel to all official vehicles.  The last catagory that rounds out the committments by companies is the official suppliers and contributors.  Some of the companies on this list are UPS, Cisco, Cadury and Cadbury.  These companies will provide their services to the running of the event, mostly technical services from these listed companies.  Their committment is important to the event, but is not as much of a committment as the other two catagories.  Without these companies deep pockets and drive to get their name out there, there would be no Olympics.  So when the 2012 games finally arrive and you complain about all the commercials during the events, remember it might not even be possible with out all the sponsors contributions.

Unethical decisions trend in Division I sports



Jim Tressel speaking at his news conference on the scandal



In the back of every ones minds who follows major collegiate sports programs has to wonder, how much does cheating happens?  Lately in the news, coaches of major collegiate have come under fire for unethical behavior and breaking NCAA rules.  Of the latest in the news is Ohio State coach Jim Tressel.  He was found to be hiding facts about his players selling memorabilia to a local tattoo shop.  In December, five student-athletes on the football team was suspended by the NCAA for the first five games of the 2011 season because of their actions.  It has been made public that Coach Tressel has known about the situation since as early as April.  This is just one of the many situations that has come about, others consist of Oregon's football program for paying a man to recruit a high school athlete and the Tennessee men's basketball program gave improper visits for recruits and then lied to the NCAA about it.  These are just a few of the recent discoveries made by the NCAA and these are just some of the minor ones.  The University of Southern California has seen its football program and basketball programs put on post season sanctions.  The findings in this case consisted of one of their players received $100,000 from and agent and free tickets to professional sporting events.  The question I have is, how many programs are actually doing these things?  These are just the teams that are getting caught, I could only imagine that there are many other happening that have just not been discovered yet.  I believe it so much that, I would even go to say that in major collegiate sports that if your not cheating, your not winning.  Many programs have to look in a mirror and ask them selves, when is enough actually enough.  NCAA is suppose to be an association where amateurs are suppose to compete, while it seems that some of these student-athletes are making a living playing collegiate sports.

Social Networking: A New Wave of Marketing

Social networking sites are have grown tremendously over the last five years, and sports teams and players are taking advantage of this new marketing medium.  In the last year teams, as well as individual athletes have set up accounts on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  Not just to market their products and talents, but to make personal connections with their fans.  With these sites teams and athletes are able to connect with fans through post and messaging available on these networking sites.  Since these sites are extremely popular and free, it is a cost effective way to build their networks.  These sites are not only used to connect to fans, but also to attract fans.  Organizations and athletes offer contest where they will give away free merchandise, game used gear and even trips.  For example, the other week while I was on my Twitter account Brandon Phillips, the second basemen for the Cincinnati Reds, was giving away an all expenses paid trip to three spring training games in Arizona.  Who ever answered his question correctly first would win the trip.  This is just one of many ways teams and athletes are marketing their selves and their teams through networking.  It is not just professional  teams and athletes doing this, it is also performed on the collegiate level as well.  Collegiate sports programs are giving live post from sporting events and reminding their fans of games and promotional nights that are being offered.  This market has become very popular, but I can only see it becoming more used in the years to come. 

Sporting Promotions.....Are they really worth it?



One of five bobble heads given out in 2010



In today's sports world teams and sporting clubs are trying different ideas and promotions to improve attendance and spike interests out of their fans.  Minor league baseball clubs are amongst the leaders in the field of promotional nights for the fans, if they attend the games.  Lets not sugar coat anything here, who really wants to go see the a bunch of reserve baseball players play each other?  This is what Minor league and other non-professional teams have to put up with, which is why they offer promotional nights.  It gives fans a reason to come to the games, besides to see the actual game itself.  This past year I had a chance to go to my first Toledo Mudhens game, and it just so happen to be a promotional night.  The club gave out mini paintings of the stadium that they just moved into this year.  I am not a fan of the Mudhens or their father club the Detroit Tigers, but the gift they gave out was really cool.  That night it turned out to be a record crowd that night because everyone wanted their own painting.  While the minor league baseball teams are great at promoting, some professional teams are as well.  When the Cincinnati Reds had their streak of eight losing seasons in a row, the attendance was dismal at most games, but not the bobble head giveaway nights.  For a couple seasons in a row the organization was having bobble head nights once a month, just to keep up their attendance for that month.  Some other promotional nights that I have personally been a part of here at Tiffin University is Chipotle Day.  This promotion consist of the Chipotle Restaurant sponsoring the game and they bring in free burritos and chips and salsa to give away.  This game is done once a year for during the basketball season and it is always the largest crowd of the year.

After discussing promotions for professional teams and amateur sports the question still remains, are promotional games really worth the time and effort?  Of course they are!  Without promotional games most sporting events would have minmal attendance numbers, especially the smaller sporting leagues.  With ticket prices rising for most sports fans need another reason to go see games.  Every sporting promotion that I have ever heard of has been some what successful, according to attendance and fan feedback.  Without the fans there would not be a game,  so the least teams and organizations could do is give back to their fans.  It may not be much but it is the little things that count. 

Dragons to Open Spring Campaign for First Super Regionals In California

Senior Jimmy Bell on first tee during the Kyle Ryman Memorial

The Tiffin University Men's Golf team will be opening up their season at CSU-San Bernardino for the Coyote Classic.  The tournament will be held at Arrow Head Country Club in San Bernardino, California.  The field will mostly consist of teams from the CCAA (California Collegiate Athletic Association), which is considered to be one of the better golf conferences in the nation.  The conference has four teams ranked in the national top twenty five which are Chico State(4), Sonoma State(7), CSU-Monterey Bay(14) and CSU-Stanislaus(23).  The Dragons are coming off of one of their best fall seasons since the school switch over to Division II.  The team is currently ranked 12th in the region, but in order for the school to make its first Super Regional appearance they must be in the top ten.  Coach Roggow stated that, "this is one the most important seasons in the golf programs history.  Once we break this barrier who knows whats next, a conference championship, national apperance or even a national championship.  The sky is the limit with this team!"  After this tournament their spring season will have a rare week off, then they will go back to action at Tusculum College for the second tournament appearance March 12th and 13th.  

Bill Veeck and "Good Old Joe Earley Night"

For the people who work in the sports industry will agree that without the fans there would never be a game.  In the case of business man and master mind promoter Bill Veeck, he took it to another level in a September 28 night game in Cleveland.  Bill Veeck not only want to pay tribute to the fans, but he wanted to put the average fan on center stage.  In a September 9, 1948 edition of the the Cleveland Press, a man by the name of Joe Earley wrote a letter to the editor with the title "The Night to End All Nights".  The letter that was published was exactly this:
              “Now they want a “Bill Veeck Night.“ It’s a good idea, but here’s another suggestion. Let’s have a “Joe Earley Night.“ I pay my rent and my landlord spends it on things that keep business stimulated. I keep the gas station attendant in business by buying gas regularly. I keep the milkman in clover by buying milk. He uses trucks and tires and as a result big industry is kept going. The paper boy delivers the paper, wears out a pair of shoes occasionally and the shoemaker wins. My wife keeps a grocer and a butcher (don’t we all) in business and the department stores as well. A lot of people depend on me (and you) so let us all get together, and send in your contributions for that new car for “Good Old Joe Earley Night.“ - Joe Earley, 1380 Westlake Ave.

Business man and promotional master mind Bill Veeck

Within days of the letter being published Earley, a watchman at an automobile plant, was bombarded with letters, phone calls and even money.  Earley would later donate all the money to a cancer foundation because he said the joke had run its course.  What the family did not counted on the promotion genius of Bill Veeck, and Veeck quickly got to work.  With the last night game of the season approaching on September 28, he deemed that night "Good Old Joe Earley Night", which Veeck declared a tribute to the average fan.  This would soon be a night that the Earley's and the fans of Cleveland would never forget.  That nights game was not only a promotional night, but it was important for the club because they were one game up on the Red Sox and Yankees for first with six games to play.  The crowd that night was electric and it helped that, with all the promotions going on, the stadium was filled with 60,405 fans.  Along with the tribute to Joe Earley the first 20,000 female fans would receive orchid for the island of Hawaii.  While the fans also received this gift, they would also receive an experience they would never forget.  Before the game Veeck ran out on to the field where he met Earley.  He began to get the crowd fired up and then proceeded with the ceremony.  He first told the crowd that the organization had built the family a new house, and right as he said that the field workers rolled out a brand new out house.  After that the fans went crazy, but that was not all the family received.  The out house was followed by farm animals and a beat up Model T filled with young and attractive female models.  Some of the gifts were very generous though.  These gifts included a truck filled with appliances, a brand new convertible, luggage, books, clothes and a life time pass into any American League ballpark.  At the end of the pre-game festivities the fans were going crazy and were ready for the game.  The fans had finally received a night that honored them, but that was not the only thing they would receive that night.  The Indians led the game off with a lead off home run, which led to a 11-0 rout.  This game helped the Indians extend there lead by to games over both the Yankees and the Red Sox.  Later that week the Indians won their first pennant in twenty eight years.  It had seemed that the outcome of "Good Old Joe Earley Night" not only helped the fans, but it had a positive impact on the organization and the team.  This may have been one of Bill Veeck's craziest promotions, but the impact had an over whelming impact on everyone involved.

Ticket Pricing

In today's economy, ticket pricing and the strategies for coming up with what price to sell tickets at has become the importance to sports teams and programs.  Not everyone has the money to fork out money to go see sporting events.  So given the case, would you rather sell ten thousand tickets for two dollars or sell one thousand tickets for twenty dollars, you would have to understand the market you are working with and the level of sport involved.  If given this situation there are many factors that you would have to consider because you would not want to sell tickets for two dollars if you could get twenty for them.  In the case of trying to sell tickets to a college lacrosse game, you would have to choose the option for selling ten thousand tickets for two dollars a piece.  Since lacrosse is not a very popular sport like college football is, you would have to try to attract as many people as possible by offering cheap ticket prices.  For the most part college students are not the richest demographic in the population so asking them to come to a college game and pay twenty dollars would not work.  This would be true for most college athletics besides the major Division I basketball and football games.  These sports are high in popularity and people would pay twenty dollars to watch future pro football or basketball players play.  In the case of most professional athletics, it seems more viable to sell one thousand tickets for twenty dollars.  The reason being is that these professional sports are extremely popular and people want to see these great athletes play.  In some cases fans would pay hundreds of dollars to see their favorite professional athletes play, so being asked to sell a thousand tickets for twenty dollars would be fairly easy.  Given these two examples it shows that given this situation for selling tickets, you have to consider the demographic you are trying to attract and the popularity of your team or sport before deciding.

Super Bowl XLV Advertisements

Most of the time when you are watching a sporting event you see signs on the scoreboards or possible around the benches.  Given this notion it was surprising that in this years Super Bowl there was not much of that happening.  During the game there were not many shots of signs that were hanging around the Stadium, for the most part it was the occasional glimpse of something small.  The most advertising present on television besides the commercials had to be the Gatorade signs.  It seemed that every time the camera did a bench shot you saw either a Gatorade towel, cup or sign that was posted near the bench.  In my opinion, Gatorade got there money worth for their in stadium advertising because there logo was showed on television multiple times.  Some of the other signs that were shown on television during the game were Bridgestone and Budlight.  For the most part Bridgestone sign was only shown during the half time show because they were they major sponsor for the show.  The thing that surprised me the most was the limited times that the Budlight signs were shown.  There was only a small glimpse of a larger sign posted in the stadium and the most surprising glimpse was when they showed a sign in the back tunnel as they took an injured player into the locker room.  Other than the signage in the stadium the announcers made occasional plugs about the major sponsors of the game.  The company that the announcers during and after the game plugged the most had to be Chevy.  This also included an little Chevy symbol that was on the bottom of the post game tags on the bottom of the page.  If I had to say for the most parts Fox did not do a very good job at showing the signage around the stadium.  If I were a company that paid to put my sign inside the stadium, I would be upset about the little amount that my sign was shown.

Acushnet Company Leads the Way

The golf industry for clubs, apparel and accessories is known to be a extremely competitive field.  This competitiveness has formed over the past ten years when companies like Nike, Adidas and Mizuno entered the golf industry picture.  While these companies have made a surge at entering this industry and being successful, there has been one company that has been successful for a while now.  This company that I mention is that of the Acushnet company.  Many people who follow golf or are the occasional golfer have no clue who this company is and would probably say that they have never seen any of their golf equipment.  They may think that they have not seen any of their equipment, but that is completely false because they own the most popular brand in golf known as Titleist.  The Acushnet Company produces the value priced golf ball Pinnacle, Cobra golf equipment, Scotty Cameron putters, Vokey Design Wedges, golf bags, outerwear and Footjoy accessories.  Items that make the company as successful as they are is there #1 selling Titleist ProV1 golf ball and their classic Footjoy golf shoes and golf gloves.  These top selling items allows the Acushnet Company to keep their grasp on the golf equipment industry.  With their years of experience in the industry the company is still years ahead of other companies when it comes to the technology that factors into golf. 

     Since the golf industry has expanded in the past five years there has not only been an increased competition to create new technology, but most of the competition comes when companies are trying to sponsor professionals on the PGA Tour.  The Acushnet Company sponsors the most players on the PGA Tour and their golf ball is the number one ball on the tour, yet there is the lack of star power amongst the players they sponsor.  Some of the players that the company sponsors that have won on tour are players such as Adam Scott, Davis Love III, Steve Stricker and Geoff Ogilvy.  This is where the company has fell behind the game because even though they sponsor the most players on tour, they really lack in the star power of their spokesmen.  For instance, when Nike finally decided to enter the golf industry, Nike signed Tiger Woods to a record deal in which he left Titleist for.  In the future that is one area that the company needs to work on.

     It is evident that the Acushnet Company has a strong hold on the golf industry in almost every area.  Since they have been such a power in the industry, other companies in the industry are working harder to over take them.  The company does have an advantage and more experience over the rest of the field, however there are some question marks that may come up in the near future.  The biggest question mark for the company is the recent sale the company has made with Puma.  The company last year just sold off the Cobra portion of their company to the sport apparel company Puma.  Puma is taking the industry by storm with their hip and colorful clothing on the market.  I feel that the Acushnet company with this sale is trying to encourage competitiveness that they really do not need.  Since the company sold of the Cobra portion of the company, they have stated that this will allow them to put even more work into making their other products better than they already are.  This sale was financially a great sale for the company because it puts more money in their pockets with less of an overhead, but I feel that strategically this may come back to bite them in the distant future.  For right now however, the Acushnet Company has a strong hold on the golf industry that does not seem to be in any harm right now.  The Acushnet Company will continue on its path and lead the way for the rest of the industry financially and technologically.

Blogging the Golf British Open

Tiger Woods after winning his last British Open

When it comes to golf not many people follow it and even less people like to watch it.  While I am one of the few ones in a small group who love to watch and play golf, this event catches my interest.  The British Open is one of the four major golf tournaments, in these majors every top golfer in the world plays in these four tournaments.  Each one of these four tournaments is by invitation only, which is why these tournaments are held higher than other tournaments throughout the course of the year.  What is different about the British Open is that it is the only major not held on American soil.  This is exactly why this golf tournament would benefit from a blog.  Since there is a six hour time difference, most players are half way done with their round by time people in the United States are waking up.  This brings up exactly what this blog would do for people if it were created.  Instead of turning on the television and wait for the broadcasters to show highlights of what they missed while they were sleeping, I would write about the highlights of the first nine holes.  This way fans would not have to wait and could read about what happened and an see updated leader board right away.  Other items I would blog about would be the weather that was effecting the play of the professionals and I would also follow some of the star players such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson.  This way if the person is not interested in looking at the whole field they could just scroll to the blog just about how Tiger Woods played.  This blog would not only convenient the crazy golf followers, but it would also cater to the fans wanting to follow the super stars of golf, given the time difference between the United States and Britain.

My Sports Autobiography

Some people say that they are born to do something or achieve something, I believe that I was born to love sports.  I was born into a family where sports was what we all loved to participate in and we all loved to watch.  My experiences with sports starts out when I was five years old when I began to play baseball at a local athletic club.  This became my first true love.  I was that kid who was out until dark playing toss with my dad and everynight and before a game I wore my uniform to bed.  Not only did I love baseball, I was also pretty good at it.  That same autumn my parents decided to put me into a soccer league at the same local athletic club.  I enjoyed playing soccer, but it did not give me the same satisfaction as baseball did.  That next summer my grandma asked my parents if she could take us to a pee wee golf league at Miami Whitewater Golf Course. My parents always wanted my brother and I to play every sport during our early childhood then we could choose just one to play later if we wanted to.  The first time we got to play golf in the golf league I was six years old, and that day would change the rest of my life.  I started to love golf because I had natural talent and it came really easy to me.  I began to play tournament golf when I was eight years old and won my first tournament that same year.  For the following years I played soccer, baseball and golf at the same time.  I began to play select soccer for a club team when I was twelve years old and I also began to play select AABC baseball around the same time.  This did not last long though because when I was thirteen I decided to give up soccer because it was to much travel and it was not my favorite of sports.  The following year I was on a baseball team called the Cincinnati Lightning, and this led me to quit baseball.  I had a bad experience with the coach of my team, so I decided to give up baseball together.  This left me with just one sport when I began highschool, and that was golf.  This was all I did, I did nothing but practice, all my focus was now on just this one sport.  I was already an above average golfer when I was playing two other sports and golf, but now I was able to put all my focus towards it.  I became a great high school golfer for my four years.  I broke several records at my high school, one in which I take most pride in was the low nine hole score, which happen to be my brothers, where I shot a three under par 33 to break it.  I also was all city of Cincinnati all four years, all league all four years and I was player of the year in my conference my senior year.  In April 2008 I signed on with Coach Darby Roggow to play golf for Tiffin University as a walk-on.  This was a blow to me because I felt that I was a great golfer and deserved to get a scholarship.  It did not take me long to earn one, because the next year I played in every spring tournament and was offered a scholarship the next year.  I am still at Tiffin University and as of this year I am a junior and I am one of our best golfers on the team.  As you can tell I really had no choice but to love sports growing up, but I am glad that I grew up in the environment that I did.  The athletic industry is one of the largest growing industries in the world, and I look to stay in the industry the rest of my life.  This is what makes me happy and I want to continue to work in the athletic industry.  One day I hope to become a collegiate athletic director for a major Division I school.  Not only do I plan on working in the industry, but I plan on participating in sports for as long as I am able to.