"Phoenix Suns hiring social media sideline reporter to track hot topics during televised home games"

From the SportsBusiness Journal

Review by Jordan Hunter in KIN 332 (Section 1)

The Phoenix Suns are a very popular NBA team with many fans from across the world. However, as well as any other professional sports team, they desire new methods to increase their fan base. The Suns wanted to get their fans more involved and active during the home games. This caused them to hire a social media sideline reporter.

The Suns never used this strategy before, but they recently thought of it as a major marketing component. In fact, they will be the first NBA team to hire a social media sideline reporter. Also, the Suns are offering a discount on a ticket package for all social media users. The ticket will be valid for five games. This was another first time approach for them as well. Everything that is recorded by the reporter will be shown on Fox Sports Arizona, which broadcasts the Suns home games at the US Airways Center. Another responsibility of the reporter will be to give updates on what people are saying about the Suns on social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or any other website. In addition to a new social media sideline reporter, they have recently started a front-office position for Greg Esposito. He is a columnist for Arizonasports.com that will now be the social media specialist for the Suns.

Sports marketing can be done in a bunch of different ways. Many NBA teams use similar techniques, but some come up with other, creative strategies. This article portrays sports marketing by the hiring of a new member, which caused the fans of the Suns to become more active and involved with the team. Fans are a major aspect of how successful NBA teams become, and they allow the programs to continue to grow. The suns are doing this as a promotion for their team, which seems to be greatly helping their business.

"New Florida Marlins ballpark can guarantee fan comfort, but not wins"

From the Sun Sentinel


Review by Austin Hersh in KIN 332 (Section 1)

When a city has a baseball team that has just finished in the cellar of their division, has a very weak fan base and no clear sight of future success what do you do? Apparently in Miami, Florida, you build a brand new $515 million stadium.

The Florida Marlins have been the joke around the National League since their World Series championship in 2003. Not only due to the lack of talent, and lack of fan base, but to the fact that they were one of two Major League Baseball teams to still play in a football stadium. With ticket sales continuing to decline, the Marlins decided to move out of the stadium they have always called home.

The new facility features a retractable roof, climate control when the roof is closed and many other state of the art upgrades. But even with the new stadium and all of the excitement, the glamour of the ballpark will quickly wear off if there is no production on the field.

Even with opening day sellouts expected, baseball has to be the hardest professional sport to market due to the lengthy season. With promises to increase team payroll to attract fans, the Marlins seem to want to wait last minute to put a winning team on the field. But as the Minnesota Twins learned this season payroll does not win games. Since the inaugural season of the Twins new stadium, the team has gone from a division winning team to last place in the division all while increasing payroll by $97.7million. Money can buy many things, but team chemistry, and fan loyalty are not on that list.

Without the guarantee of the renovated team giving the fans what they want, it then falls on the marketing team to fill the new seats. The article speaks about a 41-game ticket package which includes marquee games against the Red Socks, and Yankees who have some of the most fan loyalty in all of sports.

Team President David Samson has stated, “It is the most important offseason in the history of our franchise.” The newly found hype and excitement about this ball club is something that has been lacking since the teams championship in 2003. The major question marks would also tend to mean that job security could be in question for many, if the Marlins continue their old ways in their new home.

"More College Athletic Departments Partner With State Lotteries"

From Athletic Business


Review by Zack Miller in KIN 435

There is an annual game every year between Oregon and Oregon State called the Civil War. The Oregon state lottery has seen this big game as a great opportunity to cash in on some promotion by getting sponsorship on a scratch off lotto ticket from Oregon State. They tried to have the same sponsorship from Oregon, but the university’s Athletic Director didn’t feel comfortable with the idea. Instead, while Oregon State has their official logo on the ticket, Oregon has allowed promotional presence to the state lottery at each of its seven home games this year. The lottery offers a good sum of money, $60,000, for allowing the promotional use of the schools. Oregon’s IMG general manager stated that it would be hypocritical to accept the money and not allow some form of promotion for the lottery. After all, the state lotteries have given over $11 million to Oregon in the last 20 years, and over $10 million to Oregon State. I believe that the state lottery has done an excellent job in marketing and finding an easy way to use the classic rivalry game to help promote their product. The ticket is a basic two dollar scratch off and therefore is not a big expenditure for fans who want to try their luck. What is interesting is the difference in the way they have gotten promotion from the two schools. While the “Civil War” game is a state wide event, it is my opinion that Oregon actually offered a better deal to the lottery than Oregon State gives. By being able to show up at all seven home games and have a consistent presence, the loyal fans who show up at every game will realize that state lottery has an invested interest in their school. Therefore, they might be able to sell more lottery products rather than the one big game promotion that Oregon State gives. 

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Review by Dale Robins-Bailey in KIN 435

The question of state lottery affiliation has surfaced recently with many top schools and their football programs having to make decisions. Teams like Oregon, Oregon State and Iowa have all recently signed agreements to be affiliated with their respective state lotteries. Questions of hypocrisy have been raised as some schools do accept lottery funding from the state but choose to opt out of being used in promotional lottery games. Sales of lottery scratch games would increase in those areas if they used local university teams to market them.

Recently a lot of programs have started to jump on the lottery bandwagon but there are some that feel it is not ethical to promote gambling. Some schools do not even agree with the NCAA’s rather unclear stance on the matter. The NCAA prohibits affiliation with state lotteries at NCAA championship events but looks the other way as regards to conference and out of conference games. Their official stance is that they are opposed to all types of gambling but do realize there are financial and promotional benefits of such an affiliation. Having said that the NCAA seems hypocritical in itself as it does allow gambling at the conference level at the same time as wanting to be seen as taking the moral high ground. They are aware that some members of their organization feel that the benefits of being linked with gambling establishments such as Casino’s can help market their schools. The NCAA it is missing out on a huge revenue source here as sales of tickets from championship events would surely bring in more money than conference games.

Schools are now beginning to see the benefits of a partnership with state lotteries. With over 43 states offering lotteries, it is a huge opportunity for advertising. The marketing implications mean that both schools and lotteries benefit from the advertising as schools gain exposure from scratch cards and other promotions, and the lottery improves its public relations when schools make it know they are benefiting from lottery funding. Programs include the Bright Futures program at the University of Miami.

In all, the article highlights the opinions of schools and organizations on the partnership with state lotteries.