From ESPN.com and Sports Media Watch Review by Will Taylor in SRM 334 (section 3) The BCS has always been criticized for how it picks the teams for the National Championship Game and people used to think that the teams that weren’t in the game didn’t receive a fair chance to prove themselves. Finally, they implemented a culture change in college football; the BCS playoff system. Now there is a much fairer shot for all the teams represented by the BCS to reach the championship. ESPN of course was the one to sign the media deal with the BCS to cover all the playoff games, the national championship, as well as other bowl games. It was a twelve year deal, from the 2014 season on to the 2025 season.The deal was worth over $7 billion dollars, and it covered all facets of media; TV, radio, mobile TV, ESPN Deportes, as well as all international media outlets of the game. The deal is huge, and could bring over $1 billion dollars in revenue. Another way that the BCS playoff system affects mass media is in the advertising before, during, and at each event. The amount of ways to advertise around this event is sure to bring ESPN as well as the BCS a huge amount of revenue. This topic is relevant to this class because it deals with stakeholders; like the universities, the BCS, and the fans. It also deals with mass media outlets, like television, the internet, and radio. It also deals with this class because we’re all avid sports fans, and this deal could revolutionize how we view college football, and sports in general. --- Review by Ben Edsall in SRM 334 (section 3)
The current event Will and I chose to present to the class was the new college football playoff system. It has been talked about for years and will finally be implemented for the 2014 season. The playoffs will consist of four teams that are chosen from a 15 member committee. This eliminates the old system of the computers calculating what two teams would be in the championship. Hopefully the new system will diminish a majority of complaints from the old system, which made some controversial decisions of which teams played in the championship. There will now be six major bowl games which consist of two groups, the contract bowls and the host bowls.
One major influence for the new system was the potential revenue from media rights. ESPN signed a 12 year deal worth $470 million which gives them rights for TV, radio, mobile TV, games in 3D, ESPN Deportes, and internationally. This contract is projected to generate annual revenues ranging from $600 million - $1.5 billion. That amount of revenue will attract other networks to join the contract which will raise the bidding price. The increase in revenue is a positive impact, but there are also other pros and cons.
Additional pros to the new playoff system are that it provides more advertising opportunities, teams that are not powerhouses now have a shot at reaching the championship, and it removes an easy schedule that forces teams to make the championship based on performance. A few cons are that there could be some preferential treatment towards the bigger conferences, other bowl games will be viewed as less important, and it takes away revenue for teams that do not reach the playoffs. Even though this system is not perfect it is a step in the right direction and hopefully will continue to improve in the future.
This topic is relevant to the class because it plays a major role within the broadcast media. We discussed in class how television is the most dominant way of providing content to the public, and this is clearly demonstrated by ESPN signing a huge contract to control the market. Another investment was in social media to help them expand and generate revenues from other areas. Social media is taking over society and with major investments into the market it will benefit the networks and companies tremendously.
The Walt Disney Company is known to be the best in the world when it comes to customer service. They are the leader in the hospitality industry and are viewed as the frontrunner in the amusement and resort trades. In recent years Disney has broken into the sports industry as well. They acquired ESPN, open the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, and sponsor countless athletic events throughout the year such as marathons, fitness trade shows, and competitions. Members of the collegiate athletics community have definitely taken notice of Disney’s success. The Athletic Business article “Athletic Departments Apply Disney Principles to Game Day” discusses the transition many collegiate athletic departments are trying to make from a typical game experience to a service-first, customer-centered experience. Arizona State University is one of the schools that has looked to Disney for guidance in this area. Last year, a group of ASU officials flew down to Florida to attend a three day event at Disney Institute, the professional development learning center for the company, to discuss how they could transfer the Disney experience to a game-day situation. This led to a three-month partnership between the two programs with the purpose of reevaluating ASU’s entire program, from its highest senior staff to the frontline hourly personnel. The results were unbelievable. ASU’s athletic director stated that the biggest difference now is “the customer comes first. Make the decision and then talk to us later, and we'll deal with whatever you do to fix their problem, because we want to be a solutions organization from here on out.” The marketing question is, “does an athletic department with eight home football games a year have to obsess over details to the same degree as a year-round theme park holding daily customer service meetings?” Would marketing an improved customer service fan experience really affect or benefit a team?
The article for my current events is “Fans React to Caleb Moore’s Death”. The article describes how fans are reaching out after the X Games participant’s death. Caleb Moore passed away a week after being involved in a crash during the X Games. He was involved in the snowmobile freestyle portion. After his death, ESPN said they are looking into safety of the X Games and its athletes. His fans have taken to social media to give their condolences and prayers to his family. A Facebook page named “Praying for Caleb” has been created for words of comfort. Many fans also turned to Twitter to express their feelings on the situation. This is relevant to our class because we focus a lot on how social media usage is increasing. We all know that social media is used for marketing and communication in sports. I think even more people, especially fans, are using this to connect to other people when an incident occurs. Pages and Tweets are now created daily for professional athletes and people in the sports industry. I believe that Caleb Moore’s death shows us how that usage is expanding. People now turn to Twitter and Facebook to be heard and connect to athlete’s families. Another group on Facebook was created to sell t-shirts and wristbands to support the Moore family. Without the usage of technology, the fans would have a harder time to give back and connect. I believe that with the increase of technology, this will continue to grown. There are a lot more apps and devices that will allow fans to do so. I feel that also when there is more controversy around an athletes death or life, fans are going to want more of an inlet. I feel that Facebook and especially Twitter are the way for fans to get to that inlet. It helps fans share their own ideas where in the past this was harder. --- Review by Steven Mashinski in SRM 334 (section 3)
As a fan of snowboarding I have been a viewer of the x games for years. Although I did not know Caleb before this accident, I do know that these athletes put themselves in extreme danger. Caleb Moore was a 25 year old that was competing in the snow mobile freestyle. He was performing a black flip when his accident occurred on January 24th. Moore went off a jump and on his landing the front of his snowmobile skies caught the ground before he was able to rotate fully. This caused him to be ejected face first in to the snow followed by the 450 pound snowmobile rolling over his body. Emergency precautions took place immediately and eventually they allowed him to walk off in his own power. Until they arrived to hospital they had no idea how serious the injuries really were. Moore had blood surrounding his heart and announced by his family he came up with secondary complications to his brain. He passed away on January 29th at a hospital in Colorado. His accident raised questions about how safe this sport really is and how they can fix it, but shockingly enouh he is the first athlete to die in the 18 years of the X-games. This story in relevant to this class due to the attention it received on social media. Seconds after the extreme crash viewers were talking about it on twitter. They did not know the severity of his injuries but they could tell it was not good and proceeded to wish him well and hope he is ok. Moore’s family released a statement saying he is in critical condition and the impact of social media got even stronger with Facebook groups and hash tags on twitter that people could use to raise he attention. Before we had social media this story would have had tons of questions due to how much slower information was distributed and released by the reporters on hand. I think this is extremely interesting because now that I am accustom to how fast news can spread it makes me wonder how I was able to wait and watch Sportscenter to hear if that athlete was okay.
