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.