The choice for JMU to provide free coverage of home JMU athletics shows a changing market for the sport media industry.
For starters, a big reason for the change is social media. Users can instantaneously comment and discuss about games and events for free via blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. This type of coverage forces better coverage (i.e. video coverage) to compete with coverage one can receive on one’s smart phone.
As for MadiZONE, turning to free coverage of JMU Sports was just a natural evolution of media. Free coverage means a greater number of viewers and more viewers means there will also be a greater demand for advertisement space. Subsequently, the revenue loss from MadiZONE subscribers when MadiZONE had to be paid for to watch, is made up and surpassed by advertisements.
To further increase the demand for advertisement space, MadiZONE must first increase the number of viewers even more; by increasing the quality of the production, MadiZONE can achieve just that. One suggestions we had for Mr. John Martin was to further market to students who, for example, may be studying but able to flip between homework and the game. In addition, by having more sequences of student spectators at the game could increase viewership. For one, people want to see their friends and family on camera. Also, prospective students will also see a better student atmosphere which could ultimately attract better student and better athletes to James Madison University.
In conclusion, MadiZONE is on the rise. It’s free subscriptions will help JMU Sports promote JMU by using MadiZONE as a recruitment tool for athletes and students alike. I look forward to the changes and updates to come to MadiZONE. ---- Review by Chase Warren in SRM 334
MadiZONE is the best place to go for all of your James Madison University sports, and it recently became free. In the past, a paid subscription was needed in order to use MadiZONE and get access to JMU athletics, but that has changed. For different reason, such as contract negotiations, MadiZONE decided to change its ways. This website gives JMU sports fans access to virtually any home game, and even a few away games. There are many perks to this website becoming free. It is a great way to promote JMU as a university in general and it creates a better fan base. Another perk to MadiZONE being free comes from a recruiting standpoint. For example, if a player is thinking about JMU but lives on the other side of the country, his or her parents will be pleased to hear that they will have free access to every home game right on their computer at home. One last thing that it does is creating a higher demand for advertising space. With that being said, the advertising space will help to make up for the lost funding created by MadiZONE's conversion to free, rather than paid. The amount of viewers has grown exponentially since the change has been made. Last season, football games averaged about 750 MadiZONE viewers per game, and in the home opener against St. Francis, $4,700 viewers tuned in to MadiZONE . The fact that this is a sports website that is interactive with fans makes it relevant to this class. It is a type of sport communication, and it becoming free is the type of thing that can happen to many different types of sports media at all levels of athletic competition. Money will always be a huge issue in the world of sports media.
The article, “Dollars just keep climbing for college kickoff games,” highlights the fierce, competitive industry for opening college football games that includes a neutral site and an illustrious high payout offer to both teams competing in the game. This wasn’t always the case though as the “kickoff” as it is called started back up in 2008. The idea was and still is to give two college football teams a chance to feel what it is to have a bowl like atmosphere while increasing excitement about the beginning of the new college football season. This year highlighted two big time programs, Alabama Crimson Tide and the Michigan Wolverines, in the Cowboy Classic. The payout for the game is anticipated to be about $9.4 million dollars with each team receiving about $4.7 million dollars after the game. The article continues to list big time neutral site openers for the 2012-13 year that are expected to bring in high revenue. With such high profile games and neutral sites the marketing aspect of this seems to be ingenious. First the schools still must market the game to their fan based audience which is sort of a tough position trying to market a game that could be hours away with higher ticket prices. How do you sell 25,000 tickets to your fans with a 20-50% spike in price? At the same time as a coach you must ask, “Do I want to lose a chance of hosting a home game while increasing the chance of being on a national stage and having future recruits witness your school on the big stage?” Being on a neutral site at a NFL stadium is a market itself to future recruits. Another big factor with these games that was brought up in the article is the advertising on TV with Dick’s Sporting Goods being the winner as they were the umbrella sponsor this past weekend with advertisements during all the games. Overall, in the sports marketing world this article is perfect as it hits many aspects involving sports marketing from many different views such as the coach, fans, players, future players, and marketing departments of big time companies.
Smart phones have made it possible to access immeasurable amounts of information and the ability to perform services anywhere a person could possibly desire. Whether it is checking the score of a game, finding directions with GPS coordination, shopping, or even renting your favorite movie to watch in the palms of your hands these phones continue to change the ways in which both businesses and individuals conduct business and leisure activities everyday. “StubHub, Paciolan Go Mobile For Four Schools” is an eye-opening article in the August 27th issue of the Sports Business Journal discussing the introduction of mobile ticketing to NCAA college football.
North Carolina, Purdue, Tennessee and Texas are the four schools that are introducing mobile ticketing for this upcoming season. In the words of Greg Ivry, Stubhub’s business development manager, “Mobile is a seamless experience that allows fans to buy a ticket on their phone. Receive a new barcode for that ticket and then scan it at the gate and get your seat.” Forget stopping by the box office or even printing out the tickets at home, this new form of service provides consumers with the convenience of having a ticket within a matter of seconds. Making it this easy for the consumer to purchase will result in new marketing and sales strategies for both Stubhub and the University introducing mobile ticketing.
Stubhub is affiliated with thirty colleges for ticketing services, however only a few maintain legitimate sponsorship deals. With more universities embracing the secondary ticket market industry I believe that this new form of convenience will soon become the norm of the college sports world. According to Paciolan eighty percent of school’s currently have the technology to scan barcodes off of phones. The Internet in recent years has proved to be a major game changer bringing in new ways for fans to purchase tickets. This leaves you to wonder what is in store for the athletic marketing and sales world with the dawn of the Smartphone era.
