Super Bowl Halftime Show

Hey NFL, 1978 just called, they want their Super Bowl halftime act back. The NFL and CBS have chosen The Who to play the halftime SuperBowl show this year.

You don't think CBS' CSI series success has anything to do with the halftime act? Oh yeah it's probably also a coincidence that the Super Bowl is being played in Miami.

Refund for a bad performance?

What a novel concept that the English Premier's Wigan club had after a recent drubbing. Wigan lost 9-1 to Tottenham last weekend. So embarrassed by their road performance that the Wigan players decided to refund the ticket cost of those Wigan fans that decide to travel and watch their club get beaten unmercifully.

It appears the good karma has already paid off; Wigan rebounded with a 1-0 win over Sunderland over the weekend.

UFC giving away tickets

A year ago this time, it would seem unfathomable to think that the UFC would faltering but the evidence from UFC 106, the company's last PPV suggests just that.

UFC 106 event drew 10,529 attendees for a $3,003,250 paid gate at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.However, 3,898 tickets (worth an additional $2,331,250) were issued complimentary. A total of 6,631 tickets were sold that accounted for the $3,003,250 gate. - Source: MMAJunkie.com

So why the need to give away tickets? Clearly the in-ring product has suffered. Injuries have rocked the company. GSP, Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, are just some of the company's fighters that have been sidelined. The only reason that Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz headlined UFC 106 was due to Lesnar's health problems.

Als-Riders: Most Watched Grey Cup of all-time

Say what you will about the CFL but last night's Grey Cup game was an instant classic. The game pitted the overwhelming favourite Montreal Alouettes against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the CFL's version of the community-owned Green Bay Packers. It saw the underdog take it to the faves in the 1st half, it saw what looked like a missed field goal attempt, cap the game before the play was called back due to an extra defender being on the field. And ultimately it saw the Als win the Grey Cup with a last second filed goal conversion.

Fittingly the game drew monster record-breaking audiences. The game drew an average of 6.1 million viewers between 5.087 million on TSN and an additional 1+million viewers on French-language RDS. It shattered the previous mark of 5.2 million viewers set in 2002.

Don Cherry Military Appreciation Night

Say what you will about Don Cherry but he is one of the Canada's biggest advocates for honoring the work of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan where he regularly uses his Coach's Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada as a forum to talk about Canada's troops.

The Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL recently held a night to honour both Don Cherry and the Canadian military. The night was remarkable alone for the sight of seeing the Frontenacs' players rocking hideous Don Cherry inspired jerseys.

With the Kingston Frontenacs decked out in wild Don Cherry-styled tartan red, white and black jerseys in honour of the Canadian Forces, the final outcome wasn't the big story of the evening at the K-Rock Centre. It was a tribute night to the military with the star of Hockey Night In Canada's Coach's Corner on hand and the hockey took back stage to the theme of the evening and the one-of-a-kind jerseys. Source: Peterborough Examiner

Each of the jerseys worn by the Kingston players will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to a charity for the troops.

NHL Early Season Attendance Trends

James Mirtle over at From The Rink has tallied up a list of the biggest home attendance gainers and losers thus far through the first month of the NHL season.

Thus far the biggest gainers are Atlanta (attracting 934 more fans per game over last year), St. Louis (up 596), New Jersey (up 324), Colorado (up 267) and Vancouver (up 180).

The biggest losers through the first month of the season are: Phoenix (down 4,176), Chicago (down 1,976), Anaheim (down 1,737), NY Islanders (down 1,708) and Tampa Bay (down 1,510)

Blackhawks-Bears Cross Promotional Campaign

Ever since the Chicago Blackhawks acquired the services of former Chicago Cubs VP of Marketing John McDonough their own marketing efforts have vastly improved. A new cross-promotional marketing campaign between the 'Hawks and the Bears is just another example of the creative marketing that's going in Chicago these days.

The cross-branding promotional initiative includes commercials, representation inside the United Center and Soldier Field during home games for each team and a wealth of other activities. The five sets of commercials that will be released this fall feature one Blackhawks player and one Bears player, emphasizing the mutual support between each organization and the city of Chicago. Blackhawks Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook and Brian Campbell will join forces with Bears Jay Cutler, Devin Hester, Robbie Gould, Lance Briggs and Greg Olsen in these spots. - Source: Chicago Blackhawks

Mark Sanchez's Hot-Doggin'

Mark Sanchez got himself into some hot water last week.

During the New York Jets 38-0 dismantling of the Oakland Raiders, Sanchez, the prized rookie QB was seen scarfing down a hot dog on the sidelines after the Jets lifted him from the game.

It's not like he was caught scoping out girls from the sidelines and getting numbers but getting food from the concessions doesn't make you look the best in your coaches eyes.

To make amends Sanchez did a pretty admirable thing by making a large donation to a local food shelter in a fun tongue and cheek kind of manner.

Sanchez bought 500 hot dogs and 500 hamburgers, along with buns and rolls, through A&P supermarket, and donated them to the Community Soup Kitchen of Morristown, N.J.

"Something happened here and wanted to turn it into a positive," Sanchez said Wednesday. - Source: AP

UFC vs. StrikeForce

In what has become a signature move for UFC whenever they are faced with the slightest form of competition, UFC is offering counter-programming free on Spike TV to combat CBS' airing of a major Strikeforce fight card.

On November 7th Strikeforce's live card will include Fedor Emelianenko in the main event against Brett Rogers, and others like Jake Shields, Gegard Mousasi and Jason 'Mayhem' Miller in action. Meanwhile UFC will be offering a compliation fight card from some of their most recent PPVs.

The headlining-headlining bout will be Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the main event from UFC 102. The special will also feature Vitor Belfort vs. Rich Franklin (UFC 103), BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian and Forrest Griffin vs. Anderson Silva (UFC 102). - Source: The Sporting News

I personally think Strikeforce will have strong ratings with their poster boy Fedor making his Strikeforce and US network TV debut. Counter-programming works well for UFC when they offer a free product up against a competitors' PPV option but with their competition being available on free network TV (which has far greater distribution than cable tv i.e. Spike), I don't think it will make a big dent in Strikeforce's projected ratings.

Let's see how things turn out with this one.

Ocho Cinco: Now there's an app for that

Love or hate him, Chad Ochocinco is the NFL's best self promoter. He constantly keeps his name in the headlines, a name which has been converted from the pedestrian "Johnson" surname to a grammatically incorrect translation of his jersey number. Now the Cincinnati Bengals' star wideout has his own iPhone app.

For $4.99, Ochocinco fans can follow his daily exploits in photos, videos and tweets. They can ask his advice on dating or anything else, send their own photos for posting, and track where he is each day when he's on the road.

There are sound bites in English and Spanish; a "What Would Ochocinco Do?" section; a place to post fan pictures; videos; a "Where's Ocho?" section that tracks his travels; a place for news and more. - Source: AP

The interesting part about the story is the fact that Rock Software, the company who created the app is led in part by non-other than Jordan Palmer, third-string Bengals QB and younger brother of staring Bengals QB Carson Palmer.

Rock Software has designs on creating a similar app for Terrel Owens and other athletes.

It's a good thing that the Bengals are one of the league's most pleasant surprises this year because some would term this kind of stuff as unfocused and a distraction.

Coyotes Attendance: Not so good

So despite selling out their home opener (with a little boost from extreme price discounts) the Phoenix Coyotes are not exactly drawing well at the gate. Through five games the Coyotes are averaging just 10,699 fans. In fact after selling out their home opener in their next game the 'Yotes drew less than 7,000 fans. Yeesh! This is uglier than a contract negotiation with Dana White.

Meanwhile the ongoing saga of the Phoenix Coyotes continues with the latest news item being that owner Jerry Moyes has agreed in principle to sell the club to the NHL.

What happens when Guarantee Win Night doesn't happen?

The answer in the Dallas Stars' case is to give fans free tickets to the next game. Not a bad a deal for the fans.

So how did this all come about? Prior to their season and home opener Dallas Stars' TV colour commentator Daryl 'Razor' Reaugh guaranteed that the Dallas Stars would start the season with a win against the Nashville Predators. The Preds ended up winning the game. As a result Reaugh (really the Dallas Stars) have offered up a free ticket to those in attendance for that failed guarantee win night to an upcoming game against either the Preds on Oct 14th or the LA Kings on Oct 19th.

You have to hand it to the Stars this is a creative yet expensive way to drum up some positive PR for the team.

Phoenix Coyotes Sellout Home Opener

The Phoenix Coyotes had their home opener on Saturday Night against the Columbus Blue Jackets - their first meaningful home game after a tumultuous off-season(to say the least) which was full of bankruptcy claims, an unsuccessful sale of the team, the stepping down of their head coach days before the start of the season and so on.

The good news about the home opener is that it was a sellout. 17,000+ fans came out to show support for a franchise that may soon be on the move out of the state and the country. The bad news about the home opener , it took heavily discounting tickets in order to entice fans to come out to the game. According to reports, some tickets were discounted by over $300.

A rousing show of support for a financially beleaguered team? Well, tickets discounted as much as $305 may have played a role. In hopes of filling Jobing.com Arena, the Coyotes sold lower bowl tickets for $25 and upper deck seats for $15. The best tickets in those sections usually sell for $330 and $40, respectively. - Source: Wall Street Journal Blogs

It will be interesting to follow the Coyotes' attendance figures over the course of the season.

Kimbo Delivers Ratings

The casting of Kimbo Slice on UFC's latest season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) has proven to be a big ratings boon for the Spike TV series. Slice ended fighting former IFL-champion and fellow TUF contestant Roy Nelson on the 3rd episode of the series and even though he ended up losing, the fight-centered episode was the highest rated episode in both TUF's and Spike TV's history. 6.1 million viewers tuned in for the episode. The episode surpassed the previous network and TUF high set in the season premiere (http://sellingthegame.blogspot.com/2009/09/ultimate-fighter-ultimate-ratings.html)

DirecTV and Versus Still at Odds

The NHL's regular season begins play on Thursday but for fans of hockey in the U.S. who are DirecTV subscribers they will be unable to watch the games. As I wrote about earlier in the month, DirecTV and Versus (the main carrier of NHL games in the U.S.) are at odds over what the worth of Versus is. Allegedly Versus feels that subscriber rates for their network should be increased from 21 to 26 cents, while DirecTV contends that ratings for the channel don't warrant it. In any case it looks like barring a last minute miracle millions of subscribers will be unable to view the NHL's debut.

The NFL is kind of a big deal

There has to be a peak for the NFL popularity growth right? Maybe not. The juggernaut, Megatron of a league just continues to grow by leaps and bounds each and every season. I've already touched on their excellent early season TV ratings but not to be outdone is the league's popularity online.

With NFL teams kicking off pre-season games, August saw an increase in activity on the field and online. NFL.com ranked among the month's biggest gainers, growing 123 percent month-over-month to reach 6.5 million unique visitors (UVs). The top three most visited NFL team sites, DallasCowboys.com, Steelers.com and PhiladelphiaEagles.com also drove traffic, contributing to the Football category's 14.5 percent UV increase over August 2008. - Source: TNS Media

Desperate Jaguars

It took only one game into the new NFL season before Jacksonville Jaguars' owner Wayne Weaver started discussing his teams' potential plans for next year's draft. Way to get your fans excited about this season.

Weaver has brought up the idea of drafting local Jacksonville product and College QB extraordinaire Tim Tebow in an effort to generate interest and spike ticket sales amongst the struggling Jags' fan base. The Jags lost 17,000 season ticket holders, tarped off 10,000 seats in the stadium over the off-season and are in constant danger of having local TV blackouts for their home games.

Weaver told The Associated Press this week that drafting Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner who grew up in Jacksonville and has top-ranked Florida seeking its third national championship in four seasons, is something he will consider next year.

Think LeBron James in Cleveland. James, from Akron, Ohio, turned the foundering NBA franchise into an Eastern Conference power and made the Cavaliers the hottest ticket in town.
"Star power is incredible, and Tebow is an iconic figure," Weaver said, noting that Brett Favre's arrival in Minnesota prompted about 7,000 season ticket sales. "That's very compelling. He clearly is an outstanding football player and would be an asset to any football organization."

Weaver pointed to Tebow's popularity, marketability and leadership skills as reasons he would be a perfect fit in Jacksonville. Weaver also believes there's no doubt Tebow will play quarterback at the next level. Source: ESPN

Ottawa Senators Promoting Other Teams' stars

An uninspiring non-playoff year, a disgruntled star wanting out, a cynical fan base. The Ottawa Senators are up against it to resell their fans on tickets for a new season. While the free agent signing of Alexei Kovalev did bring about a small boost in sales the Sens have chosen to take a different approach to selling game tickets. Unlike previous seasons, the Sens have been heavily pushing individual game tickets by selling the opposing players.

Here's an example of one of their emails that are promoting games against the Islanders, Thrashers and Penguins by selling John Tavares, Ilya Kovalchuk and some dude named Sydney Crosby (kinda tough to screw up the spelling of the NHL's poster boy)

The NBA has become all a twitter

Last month I wrote about the NFL and their attempts to quash the usage of social media tools like Twitter by their players. The NFL has restricted Twitter updates on game-day.

The NBA will announce their stance against players' usage of social media communication. According to an article by Marc Stein from ESPN, the NBA's policy won't be as strict as the NFL's and will simply limit "tweets" during the game. We'll call this one the Charlie Villanueva rule.

Mayweather-Marquez PPV Numbers

I guess we should hold off on writing that eulogy for boxing.

Despite going head-to-head against UFC last Saturday in a matchup of combat PPV's , the Floyd Mayweather - Juan Manuel Marquez headlined fight drew an incredible 1 Million plus PPV buys.

The fight generated $52 million in domestic pay-per-view revenue and is only the fifth time in boxing PPV history that a nonheavyweight event has reached seven figures.

Mayweather has participated in two of them. His May 2005 split decision victory against Oscar De La Hoya set the all-time record, generating 2.44 million buys. Source: ESPN

Even with this result boxing is still perilously trying to hold whatever ground it has against UFC. Mayweather is clearly a big draw, but sadly for boxing he's about the only one who still remains.

NFL TV Ratings Off to a Hot Start

The NFL's first week of action was full of dramatic moments that reminded each and every football fan how much they actually missed the NFL over the last 7 months. From Gus Johnson's call of Broncos' WR Brandon Stokley's miracle tip drill game winning catch to Leodis McKelvin and the Buffalo Bills' inexplicable and stomach punch loss against the Patriots on MNF the NFL delivered with plenty of must see moments.

The ratings as broken down by Nielsen, show that the NFL, if you can believe it, is growing significantly. Here's the breakdown of the ratings from last year's Week 1 games versus this year.

TELECAST - 2009 VIEWERS - 2008 VIEWERS - % CHANGE
NBC Thurs Kickoff (TEN-PIT) - 20,909,000 - 13,478,000 - 55%
FOX National (NY-WAS; STL-SEA; SF-ARI) - 25,109,000 - 20,921,000 - 20%
NBC SNF (CHI-GB) - 21,102,000 - 18,352,000 - 15%
ESPN MNF (NE-BUF) - 14,001,000 - 12,501,000 - 12%
ESPN MNF (SD-OAK) - 11,945,000 - 9,665,000 - 24%

Perhaps most impressive, NBC's telecast of the Packers win over the Bears was the highest rated Sunday night game for the NFL since 1987.

If the trend of strong ratings continues, based on Week 1's strong performance and the carry over effects of last year's Super Bowl between the Steelers and Cardinals, which was the most watched Super Bowl of all-time we're going to be looking at the most successful year ever for the NFL in TV by a large margin.

The Ultimate Fighter = Ultimate Ratings

Last night, Spike TV debuted their 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) series to big time ratings. Last night's 10pm premiere episode drew a network all-time high for Spike with 4.1 million viewers.

Impressively the MMA show drew massive numbers in the most desirable demographics: young men.

The Spike TV telecast bested all competition on television in the advertiser-coveted demographics of Men 18-34, M18-49, M18-24, M25-34 including the highly-promoted network originals "The Jay Leno Show," "America's Got Talent" season finale, "Glee," "So You Think You Can Dance" and the premiere of "Beautiful Life."

Overall, the record-breaking Spike TV telecast drew a 5.3 rating (1.5 million) in Men 18-34, a 4.3 in M18-49 (2.4 million), a 2.9 household rating and 4.1 million total viewers.

Source: PR Newswire

The highly anticipated TUF Heavyweights season had a lot of hype going into the premiere highlighted by the inclusion of backyard brawler Internet sensation Kimbo Slice as one of the competitors. As well, the inclusion of the charismatic Rampage Jackson who is a coach opposite Rashad Evans makes for some terrific TV. It's no wonder that Rampage has won the Mr. T role in the upcoming, updated adaptation, movie version of the A-Team

Washington Redskins Rescind Lawsuit against Grandmother

Sometimes all it takes is a pull on the heart strings to drop a $60K lawsuit settlement. That an painting a NFL club as scrooge ripping off grandmothers.

An article ran in Thursday's Washington Post, that told the story of 72-year old season ticket holder Pat Hill and her inability to afford her season tickets, which she signed a 10-year contract for at a cost of 5,300 a year. Because she backed out of her contract with the club, the Redskins sued and successfully won a settlement of $66,364 that she had to pay them.

After the story ran, the Redskins decided to drop the suit against her the very next day and free her from any contract obligations.

Now if only sports clubs would redirect their legal focus to players who renege on their contracts I think we would all be happy ***cough***Ottawa Senators***cough***Dany Heatley.

DirecTV vs. Versus

As it stands right now DirecTV subscribers in the U.S. will not be able to watch NHL games aside from games carried on their regional FSN network. DirecTV and Versus, the NHL's primary carrier of games are at an impasse that recently saw DirectTV blackout Versus from their cable offering.

DirecTV posted a statement on their website concerning why the negotiations between the Comcast owned Versus network and itself have faltered. BTW - Comcast and DirecTV are direct competitors which adds another wrinkle to the situation.

The deal that just expired was well above market value and beyond what other significant distributors were paying. To add insult to injury Comcast demanded we carry Versus at a 20 percent premium in a new deal, thereby forcing us to take down the channel. We're not happy about this, but we hope you understand that we must hold the line on programming costs in order to protect our customers from unwarranted price increases in this difficult economic climate.

We have successfully negotiated hundreds of carriage deals, but sometimes you need to stand up to a bully and there is a strong possibility that if Comcast makes these same demands to other distributors, they will also be forced to drop Versus resulting in significantly reduced exposure and availability of the sports you like to watch on Versus. Maybe that's what Comcast wants; other than greed it's the only other explanation.

There's still time before the start of the NHL season in October for a deal to be reached between the feuding sides but judging by the comments offered up a resolution doesn't seem eminent. While DirecTV isn't the only carrier of Versus, the fledgling network can ill afford to deplete it's already smaller viewer base of about 75 million homes. Without DirecTV Versus would lose 14 million subscribers.

This dispute certainly adds to the argument that the NHL would be far better off by getting themselves back in partnership with ESPN.

Delaware loses out on Sports Betting

Delaware, a state looking for new revenue streams to balance its budget lost out on a major ruling that prohibits the state from becoming a fully fledged sports betting state. Delaware is one of four states (Nevada, Montana, and Oregon) exempt under the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act because in the 70's they operated a state run NFL lottery that took NFL bets in parlay form (this is a common practice across Canada with numerous provinces running sports lotteries (e.g. Pro Line).

Delaware's attempt at expanding their sports betting practice was met with extreme displeasure from the four major sports leagues and NCAA.

But the leagues argued that the exemption does not allow Delaware to offer bets on single games, or on sports other than professional football. Speaking for the court, Judge Theodore McKee said Monday that the betting plan as currently envisioned violates the federal ban. - Source: AP

This was a significant ruling in favour of the sports leagues and huge blow to Delaware who had planned on taking individual game bets in September to coincide with the start of the NFL season.

Madden Monopoly

An interesting class-action lawsuit has been brought against EA Sports, the makers of the popular Madden NFL video game series. The lawsuit brought forward by the law firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro represents all Madden purchasers and contends that and I quote "the company engaged in unlawful and anticompetitive agreements that monopolized the market for football videogames and nearly doubled the price of its popular game."

This story really starts in 2004 when EA Sports and the Madden faced a slight competitive threat from the makers of the NFL 2K series. The NFL 2K series were at that point licensed to use NFL player name and likenesses and they successfully targeted the market by pricing their product at $19.99USD, well below the price of the Madden games. Madden responded by significantly lowering their prices and eventually when EA Sports secured exclusive rights to NFL players and their likenesses the threat went away. It was at this point that EA Sports raised the price of Madden games back to the levels they currently are, at a high of $59.95.

Let's see where this lawsuit goes and how the prices of the Madden series if any are affected.

LA Lakers and Tequila

Back in January the NBA reversed their stance that was originally set back in 1991 that prohibited courtside advertising of spirits and hard liquor. The main reason behind lifting the restrictive ban now is to allow NBA clubs to find new streams of advertising revenue during this economic downturn that has seen numerous companies decrease or eliminate their sports advertising budgets.

The defneding champion LA Lakers are one club that has taken advantage of the ability to work in conjunction with hard liquor companies. The Lakers recently signed a deal with 1800 Tequila, a brand distributed by Proximo Spirits, which will see the tequila brand advertised throughout the Staples Centre in areas visible to fans at game and watching at home via TV broadcast.

Why tequila you ask?

According to research conducted by 1800 Tequila, Lakers basketball fans drink tequila more than other liquors. Therefore, Elwyn Gladstone, vp of marketing at Proximo Spirits said, the company forged a partnership with the basketball team to better reach that demographic. - Source: Brandweek

Free World Cup Tickets

It's certianly an admirable and noble offering. The South Africa World Cup organizers are handing out 120,000 free tickets to next year's World Cup of Soccer extravaganza. 40,000 of those tix are going to the construction workers that are building the stadiums.

Additionally organizers are offering tix as low as $18 CAD to S.African residents, those same tix are being sold to international residents for $87 CAD.

The bulk of the free tickets will be distributed by FIFA's sponsors - adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates airline, Hyundai and Kia carmakers, Sony and Visa. They will focus on poor fans working in fields such as health care and education. Coke, for example, is encouraging students in impoverished areas to collect bottles for recycling while they learn about protecting the environment. Schools whose students collect the most will win some of the 20,000 free tickets Coke has been given to distribute. - Source: AP

Canada Day - LA Kings Style

The LA Kings are running an interesting promo night this upcoming season. In what's being dubbed as 'Canadian Night", the Kings are offering tickets starting at $39 to their Oct 29th tilt against the Vancouver Canucks, which includes a ticket to a post-game concert put on by the Tragically Hip at Club Nokia. The Hip are popular in Canada but have failed to transcend the US market. The Hip are kind of a curious choice in my mind because even in their native country they're not connecting with younger fans as much as say other Canadian Artists like Billy Talent and Metric.

Shaq vs. Nash

There's an interesting back story to Shaquille O'Neal's new ABC show Shaq Vs. that has been recently unearthed. To those that are unfamiliar with the show, Shaq challenges athletes to head-to-head competitions in their respective sports. Athletes participating include Ben Roethlisberger, Osacr De la Hoya, Albert Pujols and Michael Phelps. Shaq has long asserted that he came up with the idea as a way to challenge himself and give his off-season training an interesting twist, the thing is the idea wasn't his at all. According to numerous reports Shaq stole the concept of the show from his former Phoenix Suns teammate Steve Nash.

The smoking gun in this case is the fact that Steve Nash appears as an Executive Producer in the credits of the show.

Shortly after O'Neal was traded to the Suns in February 2008, Nash mentioned to his new teammate a reality show he was pursuing. It would feature the Suns point guard taking on professional athletes in their own sport.

The topic didn't come up again until early in the 2008-09 season, when O'Neal boarded the Suns bus and told the team he would be starring in a new reality show in which he would be taking on, you got it, professional athletes in their own sport.

"You mean the idea you stole from me?" one Suns representative said he heard Nash say.

Nash eventually sought out an entertainment lawyer, according to sources, which is why he now has an executive-producer credit and the compensation that comes with it. Source: The Arizona Republic

So what does Steve Nash think of the show?

"We collaborated on parts of the show," he said. "I support him 100 percent. I thought the first episode was a fantastic episode, and I can't wait for the next one."

You have to wonder if this played into the decision at all that saw Nash re-sign with the Suns as free agent shortly after Shaq was traded away to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Dick's says: Ick to Vick Jerseys

U.S. sporting goods company Dick's will not be selling the new Michael Vick Philadelphia Eagles jerseys at their stores until according to them "they evaluate the reaction of Eagles fans".

The NFL's own merchandise shop NFLShop is not waiting for anything, they've already got a few Vick jersey options including a jersey you can buy for your dog.

"We anticipate sales of No. 7 jerseys will be among the top-20-selling player jerseys for the month of August," said the NFLShop's Brian McCarthy. The NFLShop is also selling an Eagles jersey for dogs that could be customized with the No. 7 and VICK on the back for $39.99.
"Just as you could with any other player, you can buy a customizable jersey for a dog with anybody's name on it," said league spokesman Greg Aiello.

Aiello said there are some names that the NFLShop would not accept — "Badnewz," the name of Vick's former kennel, among them. "But just to have Michael Vick's name on the back is not an issue," Aiello said. "Vick is working with the Humane Society and speaking out for the proper treatment of animals, so we don't see a problem." - Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Seriously who in their right mind is going to buy a Vick jersey for their dog unless its for a joke, like when people we're throwing "MEXICO" on the backs of Falcons' jerseys a few years ago?

Favre's Financial Impact

His on-field debut in purple garbs may have been a dud but the impact of Brett Favre's signing with the Minnesota Vikings has been an absolute financial success off the field. According to reports the Vikes sold 3,200 season tickets in a 24-hour period after Favre's signing. In less than a week they've sold about 11,000 individual game tickets.

Steve LaCroix, Vikings Chief Marketing Officer is already predicting big sales figures on the merchandise side business as well:

LaCroix said that more than 200,000 people bought Favre's Jets jersey last year, and the demand for the Vikings version figures to be even higher. "He was right up there at the top of jersey sales and so we're ready." - Source: AP

$1 Nationals Game

You've heard of $1 hot dog promotions to entice fans to the ballpark but how about $1 ticket night by a MLB club. The Washington Nationals in a an attempt to generate buzz around the record signing of dynamo pitching prospect Stephen Strasburg are offering a select number of tickets for a dollar a piece for Friday nights game which will be preceded by an introductory press conference.

The Nats ended up selling out 6,000 tix in only 3 hours. Seeing as how Washington currently ranks 26th out of 30 teams in home attendance you have to think this promo was a "loss leader" just to get casual fans engaged in the the team and their young bright star.

UFC Counter-Programming

When Strikeforce signed free agent heavyweight and arguably the MMA world's best pound-for-pound fighter Fedor Emelianenko they instantly became an enemy of Dana White and the UFC. Prior to the signing of Fedor, Strikeforce was able to operate and carve out their own little piece of the MMA world without the wrath of the UFC, which was an impressive feat. The days of not being in the crosshairs of the UFC are over for Strikeforce.

During Strikeforce's PPV last Saturday which was headlined by Gina Carano's loss to Cyborg Santos, the UFC re-ran their extravaganza UFC 100 event on Spike TV at the same time, free of charge of course.

The UFC has a history of not responding warmly to direct competition. When the now defunct Affliction fight promotion put on their first PPV event the UFC ran counter-programming free on Spike TV, alive event which featured Anderson Silva's first foray in the 205 weight class.

It's rumoured that Fedor's first fight in Strikeforce will be in November, keep an eye on what sort of counter-programming UFC decides to run that night.

NFL - Moments of Truth

Back in June, I wrote about Grey New York signing a deal with the NFL to create a new brand initiative and marketing campaign for the NFL, now the results of that work are starting to come out.

Grey New York has come up with a 'moments of truth" campaign that will be carried out in several 30-second spots made that will be filmed in a real slow motion feel. The commercials will have the tagline "If you want the N.F.L., go to the N.F.L.”

To depict these moments, most of the six 30-second TV spots created so far by Grey New York — there will be about 12 by the end of the coming football season — feature N.F.L. players strikingly filmed in action in extreme slow motion by the Phantom HD, previously used for Animal Planet wildlife film. The players include Jeff Reed of the Pittsburgh Steelers, last year’s Super Bowl winner, kicking the ball, and Adrian Peterson, a running back for the Minnesota Vikings, running a 40-yard dash, as he would in training camp. - Source: NY Times

I'll post some of the commercials as they become available but right now I'm picturing something similar to the look and feel of the Where amazing happens commercials that the NBA ran during the playoffs.

The Patrick Kane Incident

By now you've probably already heard about Chicago Blackhawks' superstar Patrick Kane and his run-in with the law in his hometown of Buffalo. According to reports Kane and his cousin assaulted a Buffalo cab driver after the driver wasn't able to produce the proper change when handed $15 for a $13.80 cab fee. By all accounts this ugly incident looks like it will be settled out of court and swept under the rug as best as it can for one of the league's brightest stars.

Where the Kane case gets interesting is the impact it may have on his marketability. Kane has already been chosen by EA Sports to be the cover boy of their September video game release of NHL 2010. No word yet if EA Sports will backtrack on their decision of naming Kane as the cover boy.

There is precedent for EA Sports changing the cover because of the actions of players in the off-season. Joe Thornton was the original choice for NHL 2004 before assault charges were brought against him. To replace Thornton EA chose Dany Heatley and shortly there after he killed his teammate Dany Snyder in a car accident, which led to Heatley being dumped off the cover and Joe Sakic taking his place.

The NFL Vs. Twitter

While athletes from across sports embrace Twitter as a means to up their Q scores and build connections with fans, teams across the NFL are warning their players not to join the social networking bandwagon. Perhaps sparked by the fears of a NFL player divulging too much information or losing their focus during a game a la Charlie Villaneuva of the NBA who tweeted during halftime of a game last season.

An article that ran last week in the NY Times provided a look at how some teams are responding to Twitter. According to the article the NFL doesn't have a league-wide ban on social media such as Twitter or Facebook but there are plans on introducing a non-communique policy on the day of games. According to the NY Times article there's already a policy in place that states cellphones, computers and P.D.A.’s cannot be used by players, coaches or other club personnel on the sideline, in coaches’ booths or locker rooms from pregame warm-ups through the end of the game.

Last month newly renamed Chad Ochocinco already said that he fully intends to update his Twitter account during games. Let's see how well this goes over as the start of the new NFL season draws closer.

Florida Panthers Marketing Team Working Overtime

From offering free tickets to fans with a driver's license, to falsely guaranteeing a playoff berth which led to more free tix, to deploying the services of Drew Rosenhaus, the Florida Panthers' marketing and promotional groups have plenty busy over the last few months of trying to find new ways to attract fans to a franchise that sorely needs them.

The latest promo from Sunrise is the the 'Panthers Locker Room 'season ticket option, which essentially sees fans appointed to a specific Panthers player's section for the season and over the course of the season they'll be chances to meet and interact with said player. The season ticket promo works out to be $35 per game for lower bowl seats.

The 1,100 seats in sections 105 to 114, rows 18 to 28, are being divided into segments that will be named for five to seven Panthers players, who will hold autograph sessions and skating clinics for fans in their areas. Those seat holders will also get their section namesake's merchandise and birthday and holiday e-mail messages from him. The sections are being decorated to look like the inside of a team locker room. - Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

In the age of Twitter and athletes becoming more accessible to fans you have to hand it to the Panthers for offering up such a unique and aggressive season ticket option. It's pretty cool for fans to skate with a player, have personalized messages from that player and meet them over the year.

VANOC - now in the billboard sales business

In order the protect the integrity and spirit of the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) took the proactive step of buying up all the unclaimed billboard space in the city and surrounding areas mainly as a measure to thwart unfavourable sponsors, competing sponsors or protesters to display outrageous and shocking messages - PETA we're looking your way.

Now VANOC is stuck trying to sell of a portion of the billboards to an beleaguered and unresponsive sponsorship market.

With Olympic sponsors and government partners all cutting budgets because of the economic downturn, Vanoc said Wednesday it still has $12 million worth of inventory.

The figure -- just under a third of the $40 million Vanoc put out years ago to uphold a demand by the International Olympic Committee to protect its sponsors from being targeted by non-rights-holders -- represents a significant risk to the organizing committee, which continues to scramble to find ways to cut costs in its $1.7 billion operating budget. - Source: Vancouver Sun

NY Yankees surpass 1M registered online users

MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, announced today that the New York Yankees this month became the first of the 30 Major League Clubs to surpass one million registered users for free newsletters and alerts, including exclusive ticketing opportunities, via its official Web site, www.Yankees.com.

With free registration of a valid email address, Yankees fans can personalize their subscriptions to any of a number of direct communications to stay connected with the Club, including the Yankees Insider newsletter, a weekly source for exclusive inside-the-clubhouse stories, the latest ticketing opportunities, prospect scouting reports, discounts on authentic Yankees merchandise, photo galleries, video highlights and Yankees trivia. Source: PR Newsire

It guess it's easier to put your focus on online fans when the real Yankee fans are priced out of attending games at new Yankee Stadium.

How Can Milk be controversial?

According to an interesting New York Times article, CYTOSPORT makes of athletic-focused drinks have come under fire from Nestle in particular about CYTOSPORT's use of the term 'milk" in their brand Muscle Milk.

Nestle argues that "Muscle Milk" is misleading to consumers because the product doesn't include any actual Milk. They want CYTOSPORT's trademark on Muscle Milk. to be revoked.

Nestle's opinion:

“Nestlé USA strongly believes in the nutritional benefits of milk,” the company stated. “Consumers looking at Muscle Milk, marketed as a ‘Nutritional Shake,’ are likely to be misled into believing they are purchasing a flavored or supplemented milk product, when, in fact, they are purchasing a water-based product that contains no milk.”

CYTOSPORT's counter:

CytoSport countered that it had never “marketed Muscle Milk products as flavored dairy milk,” adding that, rather, it is modeled after another milk entirely. “CytoSport’s marketing and advertising materials have made it clear — over the more than 10 years that Muscle Milk has been sold — that Muscle Milk products are high-protein nutrition products designed after one of nature’s most balanced foods: human mother’s milk.”

CYTOSPORT has a established a small but significant group of athletic endorsers that include NFL Star RB Adrian Peterson, Shaquille O'Neal and Brandon Roy from the NBA and Ryan Braun from the Milwaukee Brewers of MLB.

Who ever knew that Nestle was the official world guardian's of milk's marketing and branding? If Nestle can put up this type of fight, what if the Red Hot Chili Peppers make a stand about this infringing on one of their albums or what if the Dave Chappelle Cambodian Breast Milk group raised a concern?

Affliction Folds and Then Decides to Fold T-Shirts

What a wild course of events over the last week it has beenn for MMA promotion Affliction. They went from hyping their third PPV with a headline match of Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett, only to see Josh Barnett test positive for steroids which led to a wild and unsuccessful scramble to find a suitable opponent for arguably the MMA world's best pound-for-pound fighter, which ultimately led to the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a competitor to UFC in the fight promotion game.

To its credit Affliction put on some real decent PPV cards but unfortunately for the company, without a TV deal in place that allows for a natural connection with fans between PPVs as UFC has with Spike TV it was impossible for the upstart promoter to make serious in-roads as a viable competitor to UFC. They certainly tried their damnedest by throwing lots of money to entice fighters to join the organization e.g. Andrei Arlovski was paid upwards of $1.5M for his bout against Fedor. Ultimately the company was hemorrhaging money and likely would have added to their losses had the August 1st PPV gone on as planned.

No need to shed tears for Affliction though, they have gone back to focus on what initially brought them into the MMA market- making t-shirts. Specifically Affliction signed a sponsorship deal with UFC which will see the clothing company once again be able to sponsor UFC fighters.

The biggest hockey game of all-time?

The 2010 I.I.H.F. World Championship will be played in Germany and one of the games is surely going to draw huge interest simply because of the sheer enormity of the amount of people that could witness the game live and in-person. According to reports the May 2010 hockey game between Germany and the US will be played at Veltins Arena to a crowd just short of 76,000 people. Wow!

Veltisns Arena was built in 2001 chiefly to be new home for German Bundesliga soccer club Schalke 04 and World Cup action from 2004. The Veltins Arena is a pretty cool stadium its got a retractable roof and a slide out grass pitch.

If the game does sellout it will be the largest attended hockey game in history. Michigan State played host to the University of Michigan for an outdoor game in 2001 to a record crowd of 74,554.

Mannywood Bobblemania

Despite his 50-game suspension for a PED violation early this season, Dodgers' slugger extraordinaire Manny Ramirez popularity with fans in Los Angeles continues to grow. Case in point the Dodgers held a Manny Ramirez Bobblehead night on July 22nd which resulted in a sell-out crowd. Because of the success of that promo night the Dodgers wasted no time in adding another Manny Bobblehead night for a tilt in September.

Despite his strong fan base not everyone wants to be associated with the Mannywood phenomenon. Kaiser Permanente, a health insurance company was originally slated to sponsor the Manny bobblehead giveaway promo but opted out when Ramirez had his positive PED test.

As a health-care organization, we thought it was necessary to pull out of our sponsorship of the promotion when he was suspended for violating baseball's drug policy," Kaiser Permanente spokesman Jim Anderson said. - Source: LA Times

San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino ended up stepping in to become the title sponsor for the promo event. It will be interesting to see who steps to sponsor September's giveaway.

NFL Team Lotteries

Dre & Snoop, Weddings & Open Bar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and the NFL & Gambling. The list of the greatest pairs wouldn't be complete without the NFL being there. Gambling has never gone greater with another sport than it does with football. Back in May the NFL decided to legalize a form of gambling by allowing individual teams to seek out scratch lottery deals with their state lotteries.

Already the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks have set up deals with the Massachusetts and Washington State Lottery Corporations. The deals will allow the state lotteries to sell NFL-themed scratch games and will most importantly give NFL clubs another revenue streams. Other sports leagues have already been doing this with great success.

The Massachusetts State Lottery has sold $5, $10, and $20 Red Sox scratch-off tickets that generated a total of $632 million in three years. Massachusetts cities and towns got $83 million, the lottery said, and in a typical game about 2.1 percent -- about $13.2 million in this case -- goes to operating expenses, which would include the fee paid to a third party that obtained the rights from the Red Sox. - Source: ESPN - AP

GSP Gatorade Commercial

Days before his UFC 100 beat down of No.1 Contender Thiago Alves, Gatorade released this commercial for Georges St-Pierre.



GSP is a central figure in Gatorade's Canadian What's G campaign ad it makes a lot of sense. You could make a strong argument that St-Pierre is the most popular Canadian athlete, with maybe Sidney Crosby being his only real opposition.

MLB All-star ratings

Last week's MLB All-star game in St.Louis, which saw the American League extend its unbeaten streak to 13 years over the National League drew impressive viewership numbers. According to MLB, the game had a total audience of 33.6 million viewers, the largest total in 10 years and drew an average of 14.6 million viewers, the highest in 7 years.

MLB Maternity Wear

From the files of what will they think of next comes the launch of a baseball fan gear for those women that want to cheer on their teams while preggers. www.maternityjersey.com sells MLB maternity shirts for fans from the Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals and Cubs.

In case the company hasn't already thought of it, maybe they could also sell these shirts to men who carry large 'Molson Muscles". New York and Chicago are amongst the Top-25 fattest cities in the U.S. so you've already got a built-in market.

GQ Golf Style

When it comes to golf fashion, Tiger Woods is a torchbearer for driving golf apparel sales. Tiger wearing his iconic red shirt on Sundays is as synonymous as Eddy Curry leading the NY Knicks in body fat%. Even though Tiger sporting red on Sunday is a given, did you know that there's a strategy and thought process put into planning the wardrobes of specific players for the full duration of tournament?

The New York Times ran an interesting article this week that shed some light on this subject, like for instance the attire Tiger will wear at Turnberry this week (pictured above) was selected over a year ago and the discussions about what he should wear began almost a year and a half ago.

This well-thought out coordination is done in effort to ensure stores are stocked with the attires of all the fans' favourite golf pros. So what type of impact does a player's performance have on an individual clothing item?

“A single shirt worn by one of our athletes on a Sunday afternoon winning a tournament can raise sales 10 percent,” said Tiss Dahan, the senior director of global apparel at Adidas Golf. “We see the influx online, and our customer service phone line will get the calls from retailers who are reacting to requests from consumers. You get somebody playing well in clothes that look good, it really moves the needle for apparel.” - Source: NYTimes

Drew Rosenhaus & the Florida Panthers

What Scott Boras wasn't available?

The Florida Panthers are using NFL super agent Drew Rosenhaus as part of a new ticket campaign. Rosenhaus is best known as the co-conspirator in all of Terrell Owens' contract sagas, holdouts, trade demands and lawn-orchestrated press conferences.

The Panthers' campaign has casted Rosenhaus in the role of agent for Panthers' fans as he 'negotiates' on their behalf for better season ticket perks and prices.

Advertising Age has more about the campaign including reaction from ad industry experts.

Lesnar not big on Drinkability

Newly minted UFC undisputed Heavyweight Champion and former WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar ushered in his win at UFC 100 with a 'memorable' post-fight interview. Along with bashing his opponent Frank Mir, giving the middle finger to the crowd and acknowledging that he planned on having sex with his wife, he also bashed one of UFC's main sponsors.

Bud Light who had a prominent logo at the centre of the octagon were on the receiving end of a major dis by Lesnar. Lesnar stated he was going to celebrate his win with a Coors Light (Bud Light's biggest competitor) because according to him "Bud Light won't pay me nothing."

At the press conference, Lesnar backpedalled on his comments and even drank a Bud Light as mea culpa. Obviously Dana White got to Lesnar and explained to him that sponsors, such as the one he trashed are the ones that contribute to paying his contract, and his purse fees...so in essence they are paying.

The gluttony of sports

Your team is coming off a putrid season where they set the NFL's all-time futility mark with an 0-16 record, how do you win fans back? By allowing them to eat themselves stupid of course!

The Detroit Lions are introducing 5,500 seats next season that will allow fans to have all-you-can-eat privileges with the price of their ducat. It's these types of promotions that do not do much in quelling the stereotype of the "overindulgent' American.

The LA Dodgers have been employing the strategy for a few seasons now, offering an "All-You-Can-Eat-Pavilion" in the right field bleachers. For this season the Dodgers lowered the cost of sitting out in right field from $35 to $25

Tampa Bay Lightning Late Night Calls

In an effort to drum up interest for an upcoming Young Guns camp, the Tampa Bay Lightning had Steven Stamkos record a message that would got out to fans via an automated call. The problem was the calls were made as late as 11pm.

Obviously the Tampa Bay Lightning don't watch Curb Your Enthusiasm otherwise they would have known about proper phone etiquette in not calling people after 10 pm.

Champions Hockey League Cancelled

Last month I wrote about the inaugrual season of the Champions Hockey League and now it looks the fledgling competition is in real trouble. The IIHF has ruled that the 2009 season will be cancelled due to the backing out by main sponsor Russian energy supplier Gazprom. Gazprom reportedly contributed 10 million euros (C$15.6 million) in prize money last year.

If the Champions Hockey League gets relaunched it will likely to have to be with the NHL's economic support. The IIHF is looking to the NHL to help out and judging by previous comments Gary Bettman is certainly open to the idea.

The Oakland Raiders are soaring....off the field

The Oakland Raiders have struck up an interesting sponsorship deal with an Asian airline that doesn't even fly to the US. Malaysian-based AirAsia already has a plane adorned with the Raiders' colours, logo, wordmark and images of several players. Perhaps ironically the plane is named 'Xcellence'.

The make of the AirAsia Raiders plane is an Airbus A430. With the two recent and tragic AirBus crashes and calls for Airbus' to be possibly grounded for long-range flights you have to wonder how smart this partnership is for the Oakland Raiders? It's a very sensitive and tragic story, hardly something you want your brand associated with at this time.