From The Guardian Review by Steven Golob in KIN 332 The article that I chose to discuss in class is a huge talking point in the sport of soccer worldwide. Soccer is a sport of very rich history and pride in one’s club that a person chooses to support. Items such as stadium names and team colors are a very important part of these clubs that fans are very hesitant to part ways with. This article examines, further, one of the biggest names in the Barclay’s English Premier, Newcastle United. Not only is Newcastle one of the oldest soccer clubs in England, it may well display of the greatest examples of historical significance and fan loyalty as a whole. That being said, this article explains that although the relatively new club owner’s decision to sell the name of the club’s stadium in order to make a bit more money makes sense financially, the supporters of the club have been up in arms about the decision since it was only a rumor.
Newcastle’s club owner, Mike Ashley, is merely doing what most other top-flight soccer clubs are doing in current times. They certainly aren’t even the first team to do this in the English Premier League, either. The article touches on other big-name clubs, such as Manchester City and Arsenal, in reference to the fact that their fans were not happy about the changing of their beloved stadium’s names at first, either. However, Mike Ashley has been able to run Newcastle quite stably with this stadium name-change producing more revenue for the club. It makes a lot of sense from a marketing standpoint as well. With a brand attached to the name of the stadium, it will be much easier to market the stadium as a whole. Using the old name, St. James’s Park, would be much more difficult even with the fans being able to identify that as their home stadium. Sports as a whole are so focused on making money from a marketing standpoint that they are very ready to toss tradition aside in order to keep teams afloat. It almost seems like a necessary evil that the fans might just have to accept in order to further enjoy sports.
Review by Jake Orpin in SRM 334 (section 3) James Madison had its first taste of basketball success defeating Northeastern in the CAA Championship to secure a visit to the NCAA tournament. The basketball team got their 10 seconds of glory having a 30 second highlight reel of their win over Northeastern on ESPN. James Madison has never been known as a basketball powerhouse so they didn’t get much coverage on the championship win. Then came March 17th when star center Rayshawn Goins got arrested for obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct. The very next day James Madison had media coverage like they won an important game in the NCAA tournament. Before the incident the media coverage JMU got was small then the arrest happened and it blew up to a national story. James Madison had to act on the incident and decided to suspend star center Rayshawn Goins for the first half against LIU-Brooklyn. On March 19th The Washington Post wrote an article on the ordeal, which wasn’t the case after JMU won the CAA tournament. The media coverage brought James Madison into the limelight whether that’s good or bad that’s for you to decide.
This subject is relevant to this course because its shows what media is really after. The media wasn’t concerned with James Madison making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1994, they cared about the off the court arrest. In this situation I learned media is more concerned with the repercussions stemming from off the field actions more than they are concerned with the results of the game. A lot of the attention was on James Madison only suspending Goins for a half. James Madison was wrong for only suspending Rayshawn for a half. In my opinion James Madison should have suspended Rayshawn for the entire game. The media coverage we got from the suspension showed that it was a soft penalty. In my opinion since we haven’t made the tournament since 1994, James Madison was hesitant to suspend Rayshawn for the entire game. One thing to come out of this whole ordeal is James Madison getting a lot of media attention over this, whether that’s good or bad press we will have to wait and see.
From Adweek Review by Sean McGough in KIN 332 Digital Media is constantly changing in today’s society. More specifically, it is forever changing how fans interact with their favorite athletes, teams, leagues, and sports brands they follow. Fans are no longer turning to newspapers, magazines, or radios for their information. Why look something up when it could be found in a 0.002 second Google search? That is the mentality many sports fans have today and now that sports sponsors are a main source of information, they too must keep up with advancement of digital media.
Fans want to be entertained with videos of their favorite athletes, play games, and win prizes. This article “The Passion of the Fan” by Stuart Feil digs deep into the sports and sponsorship marketing that is “fan involvement”. As sports marketing agency Catalyst found in its 2012 Fan Engagement Study, digital channels such as: league websites, fan sites, online sports news sources, sports-related Twitter feeds and other Internet and social media outlets are now second only to TV as a primary and trusted source of information for sports fans. With that information, marketers look to find a way to create sports advocates. A hot area for doing that now is with the use of “super fans” and loyalty programs. Organizations are utilizing Facebook pages and social media apps to extend their reach of gaining more fans. By giving fans more insight or “behind the scenes” content, they will be more engaged and connected.
However, once a fan is connected, they must also be continuously entertained. Sponsors and promotional marketers have created plans to do this, as well. Through commercials, documentaries, videos, and contests the fan always has entertainment at his or her fingertips with the click of a button.
