Andy Boyer

Category: Sports

  • Are You a Sports Widow?

    sportswidow_sm.JPGI’m taking a few minutes to plug a new and exciting idea from two of Seattle’s best Marketing folks. Dave Sharp and Nan Hall have launched SportsWidow.com. The site is focused on aspects of a "Sports Family" and profiled tonight on King 5’s Evening Magazine.

    Some of the many features include the following: 

    • Sports Widow Journal & Features – Topical commentary, tips, ideas about coping/ surviving in a house full of sports fans.
    • Store – Sports Widow® Wear and Gear
    • www.sportswidowradio.com : Pilot Radio Show – This sample 1-hour radio show features interviews with other Sports Widows, Boxer George Foreman and relationship expert Pepper Schwartz, PhD. It includes the Sports Widow Blues theme song by composer/vocalist Chris Sharp and the C. Sharp Trio (yes, she’s Sharp’s wife). www.sportswidow.com/podcasts/theme song.mp3
    • Fan Fare – Recipes and entertaining ideas for sports events
    • Resources – Book, website and movie recommendations

    The team will be looking for content soon. “We plan to connect with Sports Widows through interactive media, traditional media, special events, social network meet-ups and products specifically geared to them,” says Sharp. “To that end, we are searching for partners who share our vision and passion for this subject and market.” Plans to roll out Sports Widow Entertainment, include a radio talk show, syndicated columns, cartoons, greeting cards, books, video games/instructional videos, and a television show.

  • Players Texting the Media

    So here’s something I bet Bob Cousy or Wilt Chamberlain never did.

    An ESPN.com article reports that when New York Knick Stephon Marbury left his team’s practice in Phoenix and flew home to Arizona, "The point guard reportedly sent two text messages to the New York Post saying that he had permission to leave the team in Phoenix and fly back to New York. He arrived at approximately 4 p.m."

    So much for the need for PR guys and Agents.   

    But how far could this go?  Think about Game 7 of the World Series, and a player in the dugout texts the announcers.  Or training camp where a player texts a reporter about a rumor or trade.  I know it’s all absurd, but if you told me a player would ever leave practice and make his press statement through an SMS text directly to a reporter, I’d have said that was ridiculous too….  

  • Good Post on SportsEconomist.com

    For Sonics fans, this post from the always entertaining and well-written SportsEconomist.com is a good read and forum for any comments you have on the "Relocation Issue."

  • Sonics 2.0

    The NBA kicked off season #40 in Seattle last night, in a game notworthy for it’s few absolutes:

    • It wasn’t the actual first game of the year, as the team had played in Denver the night before
    • It may or may not have been the last home opener in team history.
    • They never looked like they would get killed, and never looked liek they would win.
    • The roster is stacked full of people you may have heard of, but wouldn’t recognize if they sat next to you.
    • The arena was almost full
    • The fans didn’t quite know how to root for the players and boo the owners

    But that made for an interesting dynamic. Some of the recognizable attractions remain – like Squatch, the Boom Squad and Sonics Dance team. T-Mobile still has big ads and the Dunking Ushers still put on a cool show. But there were no more Starbucks ads, and unless I missed them, the Southwest Airlines promotion seemed to be gone. At least there was no ad for the Stillwater Savings and Loan or Petroleum Workers Union 476.

    There were some very noticeable handmade signs that I’m surprised fans were allowed to bring into the arena, including, "Noklahoma" and "Trade Bennett." It certainly would not have been unreasonable for an ownership group to force security to remove signs that denigrade the team or execs.

    The loudest roar of the night was not prompted by the scoreboard, Squatch or PA Announcer – it was started by the fans and was simply a cheer of, "Save Our Sonics" that reverberated through the stadium for a few minutes. KJR’s Softy Mahler could be seen in the corner of the stadium taking part, and maybe 10% of the stadium was standing for it. With a little more organization, this cheer could take on a bigger role in future games, much like the "Go" ‘Huskies" cheer at UW shifts from side to side.

    And finally, here’s an angle people aren’t writing about. The sales, marketing, admin, HR and other folks who work for the Sonics today are all Seattleites. They don’t want to move to Oklahoma. So you have owners who want to go, fans who want them to stay, employees who want them to stay and players who don’t care.

    But one thing that is absolute – Kevin Durant is going to be a stud.

  • Al Kaufman Hates Fun

    I’m going to add Al Kaufman of Diamond Parking to my list of people who need a new perspective on life.

    According to a report in the Seattle Times, Mr. Kaufman is responsible for some idiotic stance by Diamond Parking to tow cars from their parking lots outside Seahawk Stadium, if they see people tailgating with *gasp* beer before a game.

    So let me get this right.  Mr. Kaufman charges $25-$40 per car for parking outside an NFL stadium, and can’t afford to train or provide security to keep Seattle’s "rowdy tailgaters" under control. 

    If your average lot has room for 50 cars, and Diamond owns 30-50 lots around the stadium, it’s not inconceivable to surmise Diamond makes $50,000 per Seahawks game.   That is a lot of coin.   For 50k a day, maybe you want to come up with a better way to deal with a few drunk fans than trying to annoy the entire Seahawk Nation.

    But, since he wants to be unreasonable, its up to Seattlites to be unreasonable back.  So if you disagree with Mr. Kaufman’s view on parking, or life in general, here are a few ways you can reach him:

    3161 Elliott Ave, Ste 200
    Seattle, WA 98121-1097
    (206) 284-3100
     alan.kaufman@diamondparking.com

    Heck, here’s the whole list of people to ask about this:

    Home Office

    605 First Avenue, Suite 600
    Seattle, WA 98104
    (206) 284-3100
    (800) 340-PARK
    (206) 285-5598 Fax
    info@diamondparking.com

    Joel Diamond – Chairman & CEO
    Jonathon Diamond – President & COO
    Dave Watson – Senior V.P. Operations
    Direct Line: (206) 436-7203
    Bob Turley – Chief Financial Officer
    Greg Matous – Controller

    Seattle Operations

    2600 Elliott Ave. Suite A
    Seattle, WA 98121
    (206) 284-6303
    (206) 269-6390 Fax
    (206) 729-0590 Monthly Parking
    seattle@diamondparking.com

    Alan Kaufman – Regional Vice President
    alan.kaufman@diamondparking.com

    John Hjorten – City Manager, Seattle Attended Locations
    john.hjorten@diamondparking.com

    Richard Smith – City Manager, Seattle Self-Park Locations
    richard.smith@diamondparking.com

    Real Estate
    Mike Sherstad – V.P. Real Estate and Market Dev.
    mike.sherstad@diamondparking.com

     

     

  • Technology Finally Slows Down the Rockies

    Well, they’ve won something like 23 of 24 games, so other teams can’t stop them.  But the Colorado Rockies finally found a nemesis they cound’t vanquish.

    According to reports, "on Monday, there were 8.5 million attempts to connect with the computers in the first 90 minutes after sales started, and only several hundred tickets had been sold before the system had to be shut down."

    One has to assume many of these 8.5 million attempts are from the automated robots now being used by ticket brokers and resellers.  This indicates the technologies that have been so useful in selling tickets have now become an impediment to getting them to the real fans. 

    In fact, the Denver Post reports on the issue, including this section.  "The bots pose a significant challenge to companies such as Ticketmaster, which won an injunction Monday blocking a Pittsburgh software company – RMG Technologies Inc. – from making and distributing such programs.

    "We will not allow others to illegally divert tickets away from fans," said Ticketmaster chief executive Sean Moriarty in a statement.

    The flooding process has also come under fire from parents trying to purchase "Hannah Montana" concert tickets for their kids, only to learn tickets are sold out minutes after going on sale."

     

  • Idea for Soccer on US TV

    So this is unrelated to anything.  But here’s a thought about televising Major League Soccer games.

    Problem: The most common complaint about soccer is that there’s not enough scoring.  But if you do something goofy to change the rules, then no legitimate player will come (or stay) here.

    Solution: Well, if there are 12 teams, why not have a set schedule so all 6 games occur simultaneously.  Say every Thursday and Sunday.  Now, on your TV broadcast, you have a regional game, and live look-ins on the other 5.  So lets say thare’s an average of 2 goals per game in the MLS (I have no idea what the real number is).  That’s 12 goals in 90 minutes, or every 7-8 minutes.  I think that would be stimulating enough.

    You have to fix the schedule so that the start times make sense for home fans.  Maybe each week one set of home fans would get an inconvenient start time, but Monday Night Football games end after midnight, so that doesn’t seem to be a deal-breaker.

    Thoughts? 

     

  • TixMob Launches in UK – New Way to Buy Tickets for Events

    An old friend from Manchester sent me news about his company, Tixmob, this morning. Here’s a synopsis:

    http://www.tixmob.com/ Is a new concert ticket agent, just like Ticketmaster and Seetickets we work directly with concert promoters and event organizers to sell tickets on their behalf.   Unlike Ticketmaster, Seetickets etc.. A Tixmob ticket is paperless. Upon purchase it is sent to your mobile phone in the form of an sms message with a bar code. When you get to the event the ticket taker will scan the ticket with our scanner to prove it’s valid and it hasn’t already been used. So ticket touting/scalping is more difficult, you’ll probably get in faster since, for a while at least, we’ll usually have our own que.   A big complaint people have about ticket agents like Ticketmaster is all the crazy fees they stick on top of the ticket price. Generally Tixmob will have a booking of 10% of the tickets face value. As some extra incentive for people to try the product, we’ve reduced booking fees on our first few events to as low as 2%.

    While it appers to be UK based for now, the US possibilities seem far reaching as well.  I would assume sports teams would love the anti-scalping features.  Anyway, something to keep an eye on.

  • If You Can’t Build a Marketing campaign Around This…Then You’re Just Not Trying

    Minor League Baseball rules.  Here’s Phil Wellman, manager of the Mississippi Braves, politely disagreeing with an umpire.

     

  • Overachiever….

    Not sure how I missed this last week.  And I’m not sure if this makes me feel inadeqaute or just dumbfounded.  According to sources, including FoxSports, Lil Romeo, the youth rapper and son of Hip-hop mogul Master P, is now going to play basketball for USC. 

    The kid is 17.  His life to date includes the following accomplishments:
    – The son of a record mogul worth $225 million
    – A young hip-hop artist with several CD’s and concert tours
    – And now, he’ll be a guard on a top 25 college basketball team.

    Hello perfect life. 

    Plus, I give him a huge amount of credit because you never see his name listed next to Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie. 

    Can we look 30 years ahead and predict that this kid is going to either be the President of the U.S. or the guy backing the President?  Legacy, music, sports – with what is sure to be a future in film, TV and more.  This kid is obviously no dummy, and his father has certainly proved himself to be highly intelligent. 

    What an exciting future this guy has in front of him.