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Video: How the Economy is Affecting Sports

For those of you who are not strong readers, here is a three part series on how the economy is affecting sports.

How the economy is Affecting Sports: Corporate Sponsors

Even if you think NASCAR doesn’t qualify as a sport, it is hard to deny it is at least a spectator event, drawing over 100,000 people to the track on average. The difference between NASCAR and other professional sports is its high reliance on corporate sponsors to support their teams, drivers, and cars, making it the perfect launching platform into how the economy is affecting corporate sponsorship.  I mean who doesn’t think Dale Earnhardt is a name synonymous with Budweiser? Recently though, NASCAR has been struggling because of the economy and it’s affect on how much corporations can denote to racing. NASCAR legend Richard Petty said last month, “The economy changed everything,” as he tried to explain the off-season decision to close Petty Enterprises, begun in 1949 by his father, Lee Petty. The team merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports and will race under the name Richard Petty Motorsports.

How the Economy is Affecting Professional Sports: “Second Tier Sports”

I was orginally planning of writing my fourth installment of the economic situation surrounding professional sports on future draft transactions in the NFL, MLB, and various other leagues. As I researched the subject I came across all sorts of material concerning what I deemed “second tier” leagues such as the WNBA, Arena Football, and NISL (National Indoor Soccer League). By “second tier”, I mean professional sports that are not necessarily on ESPN’s Sports Center on an every day basis, and do not have nearly the economic strength and fan bases the major leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL enjoy. Many of these leagues and franchises have been under enormous pressure because of the economy, with some of them even postponing seasons a year in hopes of an economic rebound next year. I will begin first with the Arena Football.

How the Economy is Affecting Professional Sports: MLB

Not even the nation’s wealthiest baseball franchise is immune from the economic downturn. Recently, New York Yankees’ brand new stadium has plenty of empty seats, and it’s not in the nose bleed section. It’s the seats behind and to the side of home plate, the cleverly named Legends seating.

How the Economy is Affecting Professional Sports: Owner’s/Player’s Perspective

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair sums up the situation surrounding owners and professional sports team in the failing economy.

“It’s a different business atmosphere than 20 to 30 years ago. Originally, we worried about selling tickets. Now we’ve got to worry about selling tickets, about keeping media partners happy, operating stadiums, keeping fans happy in the stadium, servicing debts. We need a structure that works long-term. We can’t expect the fans to pay more and more and more. We have to hold all our expenses down and labor is just one of them.” ”

How the Economy is Affecting Professional Sports: Fan’s Perspective

When starting my research on the recent economic depression and it’s affect on the sport industry, I believe the topic would prove relatively clear cut; increased economic pressure would cause fans to buy less tickets, thus decreasing revenue for franchises. After reading a few articles, I arrived at the conclusion that my preconceived notions were somewhat accurate, but do not nearly encompass the entire situation surrounding sports. First I will provide a few examples confirming my original hypothesis, followed by outliers rejecting this notion.

While trying to decide whether to buy New England Patriot and Boston Red Sox tickets this upcoming season, Kent Haines, a father of two, has decided to forgo these usually yearly expenditures.

“In this sky-is-falling economy, attending a pro sporting event is last on my list. When you combine the cost of the tickets with the effort it takes to get our fannies in the seats, watching on TV with my wife and kids sounds pretty good right now.” says Haines.

The cost of tickets and surrounding expenditures when going to a game just is not worthy of the return on the investment. In other words, watching the game for often hundreds less on a high definition TV, in today’s economy, enacts a much higher entertainment and overall viewer satisfaction return. Recalling that in May he dropped $250 for tickets, parking, food and a souvenir for himself and his 10-year-old son, Zach, at Fenway Park, Haines echos a sentiment shared by many other sports fans throughout the country. Similar to Haines, who based his purchasing decision on ticket price vs. experience at home, overall sport fan and father of two, Michael Popham has seen his spending on sporting event decreased significantly.

“I am a 27-year-old father of two and my spending on sports has dropped dramatically as the economy has sputtered. In years past I would take both of my kids to games and buy all sorts of concessions and souvenirs. Recently though the quality and quantity of seats that I purchase has diminished and the quantity of money spent during the game also has dramatically dropped. I am a huge baseball fan and every year since I was a child would go to multiple games a month just for the joy of being at the ballpark but now with the high ticket prices and parking fees I will only attend the three games my team comes to town. I would love to take my son to an NFL game but at $200 dollars for two tickets and parking the cost is not worth the return.”

Fathers like Popham, whom as children experienced many sporting event and developed lasting memories, are finding it difficult to provide the same sort of special experiences only found in live sporting arenas. When buying tickets, what many people fail to realize is the cost surrounding the games outside the initial ticket purchase. For example, at a recent Phillies game I attended at Citizen Bank’s Park my upper level seat cost 35 dollars.Throw in parking cost at 10 dollars, hot dog, soda, popcorn, and peanuts cost a combined 17, and finally a pack of Phillies official trading cards at 3 dollars. All these costs calculated together adds up 30 dollars; only five dollars less than what I paid for the ticket in the first place! I could not even imagine the cost if I had to take a son along with me and the costs he would incur. This example demonstrates the growing trend surrounding sporting events. More and more fans are finding it hard to constitute spending a good portion of their pay checks on tickets to games coupled with the other costs surrounding the entire event. While both father Popham and Haines struggle with the choice of buying ticket vs. watching on TV, other fans like Mark Weinstien of Georgia struggle in selecting which events they want to sacrifice.

“The current economic situation impacted me as far as this is the first year in a long time I did not attend a baseball game. I am going to a football game but will have to strongly consider finances when deciding to attend a hockey or a basketball game (something I try to do on a yearly basis also).”

Weinstien still is electing to attend sporting events, but at the same time has the tough decision on which ones to attend. In the past, he has watch live an array of different sporting spectacles, now he has to choose between sports. This idea hit me especially hard because I love every sports team in Philadelphia and having to question my loyalty to different teams in the same city is a extremely disheartening idea. Although the data has not surfaced concerning how the economy has affected viewers between leagues, its will be interesting to see in the future how this conundrum played out. Unlike the examples above, some families plan to attend the same amount of sporting events, while at the same time sacrificing other aspects of their life. Take Adam Stevenson of Toronto for example,

“I am an avid Toronto Blue Jays fan and attend spring training each year. As a family, we attend roughly 5 games a year and spend an average of $200/game including tickets. Will we spend less now? Probably not. That’s because we budget accordingly for the things we enjoy to do. We don’t spend more than we have on things that we THINK we need — baseball included.”

Instead of electing to exclude sporting events from their costs, Stevenson has decided to spend less on other aspects in life in order to spend more on sports. Many Americans, myself included, love sporting events so much that they take precedent over other aspects of life. Luckily for me, Philadelphia has been relatively successful, in terms of winning, over the past decade with their sports franchises, but other teams, such has the NFL’s Detroit Lions, have seen their attendance and fan support dwindle over the years. Take Lion’s Brian Blight for example,

“I won’t attend another Detroit Lions game until they prove to me that they are competitive. Matt Millen did not fair well up in Detroit, but that organization stunk long before Mr. Millen arrived at the scene. I wish they would dissolve the whole team!! The Detroit Lions are an embarrassment to the NFL.”

This goes to show that the economy sometimes has no affect on whether tickets sell. The NFL year in and year out has been the most popular and profitable league in America, but if your team fails to win on a consistent basis, fans will begin to question their decision on purchasing tickets. Especially in such an economically troubled place like Detroit, ticket sale will see significant decline is the Lions can not find a way to win at least one game this year. (Lions went 0-17 for the first time in NFL history last year).  In cities like Boston and New York, teams have fared well and championships have been one (Patriots, Celtics, Giants etc.) and it reflects considering both cities boast the highest average ticket prices in America.

The example shown above of real American sports fans and the affects of the economic downturn demonstrate a growing trend. Where fans used to buy tickets on the regular without much thought, now household budget, or totally eliminate live sports expenditure. In my next post, I will evaluate how this startling new sentiment has affected the approach franchises and owners take towards ticket sales and overall profit gathering.

Sources:

“Economy dips and fans react.” Michael McCarthy, USA Today. October 17, 2008

“Sports, too, hit hard by the economy.” Dan McGgrath, Chicago Tribune. December 16 ,2008

Great Fashion+Hacker Blog

A student of mine for her final project creatded a blog about recycled fashion.

Ditch or Stitch!

Great name!

Happy reading.

Organizing for Success: Organization Theory and the Stage-Gate Innovation Process

Introduction

In today’s globalized world where information flows freer than ever before, the current generation of consumers is more discerning than any other generation in the past. There are more competitors in any given industry. Companies that fail to innovate, or fail to innovate at a fast enough pace face the threat of going out of business. However, it is not just enough to be innovative; almost half of the resources that are used for the research, development, and launch of new products go to products that never make it.

The text of this page is available for modification and reuse under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 and later and under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribute Share-Alike

Alternative Newspaper Models

In the past two parts of my series, I have examined the organizational structure of a newspaper (the Bucknellian) and the problems facing the industry. In short, the newspaper industry is losing readers to the internet, while its print advertising revenues are decreasing quickly. In order to survive, the newspaper industry is going to have to change.

Virtual Worlds Paper: WordPress Has Some Awesome Tools…

Hey Everyone! Here is a copy of my paper on VWs if anyone is interested. I am using WordPress as a tool to convert to HTML.

            Every once in a while a new type of organization comes along and changes the way that the world works. In the past these have included guilds, schools, and corporations. Today the new type of organization is not tangible, but rather lies within the depths of our computer screen. The organization type that I am talking about is

The Slow Food Movement and Concluding Thoughts

The Slow Food movement began in 1986 on the historical Spanish Steps in Rome as a protest against a McDonald’s. The founders were not concerned that McDonald’s would be competitive with the upscale restaurants frequented by the upper/middle-class, but they feared the safety of little places serving local delicacies. The mission of Slow Food was to spread a new attitude of taste guided by the attitude that people should have the right to taste. Other objectives included spreading knowledge of “material culture” (every product reflects its place of origin and production technology), preserving the craft-based food production, and protecting the historical and artistic heritage of traditional foods. (Miele, 2006) In efforts to do so, they have created an “Ark of Taste” along with awards for biodiversity of cuisine. (Pilcher, 2008: 405)

McDonald’s in Beijing

The story of McDonald’s in Beijing is a little different than in Japan or Hong Kong. For starters, the first restaurant did not come for another twenty years after the McDonald’s in Japan opened. Also, the conversation turns into one concerning social space. Even truer than in Japan, Beijing consumers do not admire fast food for its taste or for the speed in which it is consumed.  Yunxiang Yan (2008) studied on the one hand, how spatial context shapes consumers’ behaviors and social relations, and how, on the other hand, consumers appropriate fast-food restaurants into their own space.

McDonald’s in Hong Kong

McDonald’s arrived in Hong Kong in 1975. Due to strong cultural views about food, similar to those of the Japanese, the success was surprising. People questioned whether the triumph of the fast food industry meant the local culture was under siege. Anthropologist James Watson set out to find if the food chains were helping to create a homogeneous “global” culture better suited to the demands of a capitalist world.

The conception of fast food was already present in Hong Kong before the entrance of McDonald’s. Time is money and consequently, an entire industry had already been built to deliver mid-day meals directly to workplaces in Hong Kong. The rise of McDonald’s during the 1970’s paralleled the conversion of the nation-state from a modest industrial economy to a booming financial and technological market. A new class of educated, affluent consumers subsequently followed. Before the public accepted McDonald’s as an ordinary meal, the organization fought to compete with the local restaurants by offering American culture in a package. (Watson, 1997)

Cultural Differences: McDonald’s in Japan

When Ray Kroc established McDonald’s in 1955 he founded the restaurant on the basis of providing customers quality, service, cleanliness, and value. The McDonald’s website still boasts these values as part of its core as well as giving back to the communities in which they do business, celebrating achievements while striving to achieve new heights, approaching all aspects of the business with honesty and integrity, and giving back to the system that provides them their success. Along with the core values, McDonald’s includes its guiding principles on the website– a commitment to exceeding customer’s expectations, belief in success from the ‘three-legged stool’ (corporate, franchisee partners, and supplier partners), a passion and responsibility for enhancing and protecting the McDonald’s brand, a belief in collaborative management approach, and a commitment to franchising and seizing every opportunity to innovate and lead the industry. These values and principles make up the organizational culture of McDonald’s.

Organizational Culture vs. National Culture: The Globalization of McDonald’s

In organizational theory, culture is a commonly researched subject matter. A link is often drawn between a strong organizational culture and dominance in the market place. Culture is shaped by an organization’s unique history and situational growth. It can be defined as the values, beliefs, and expectations more or less shared by the organization’s members. It affects the way a company does business and makes known relevant employees, customers, suppliers, and competitors. Managers and upper level executives are responsible for instilling the values and norms into employees so they not only know what is expected of them, but are eager to perform in such a way as to benefit the company. A top-rate administrator is able to create sources of meaning and identification by providing an atmosphere that is rewarding for its employees and customers. (Scott and Davis, 2007)

Dad, what’s a “newspaper”?

 “If you would have told them 60 years ago that in 30 years they would be flat on their backs, broke, and pleading for government subsidies, they would have thought you totally demented. Such a future was simply not considered possible.” Theodore Levitt on Railroads, 1960.

Even though Levitt is referring to the railroad industry, he might as well be describing the current state of the newspaper industry. This is the second part of my series on the newspaper industry. Go here for Part One.

Newspapers: Have they met their final deadline? Part One

For my final paper, I will be examining the newspaper industry. The newspaper industry is currently at a turning point. New technology, especially the internet, has changed the way people receive their news. At the same time, the universal advertising-supported revenue model is becoming unprofitable. The industry as a whole has had difficulties keeping up with the times and many newspapers are going under or are moving to online versions online. First, I will look at the organizational structure of a typical newspaper. I will also examine the current revenue model and offer alternative models. Finally, I will discuss how the newspaper industry has succumbed to institutional inertia. 

Part One: Editorial Staffs as Rational Organizations

The Long Lost Blog Post…Kiva and Structural Holes

Some prewriting that I forgot to post last time about my final paper…

According to the work of Ronald Burt, it is evident that Kiva has managed to fill a “structural hole”.  A structural hole is loosely described to be disconnects in the structure of information that is shared between people and in society.  Furthermore, “A structural hole between two groups need not mean that people in the groups are unaware of one another.  It means only that the people are focused on their own activities such that they do not attend to the activities of people in the other group” (Burt, 2005 p. 16).  The structural hole that Kiva has filled directly connects willing lenders with entrepreneurs in need in developing nations through their website. 

“Patient Zero” Found

The origins of the current swine flu pandemic have now been linked to Edgar Hernandez, a 5 year -old boy from La Gloria, Mexico. Edgar has been recovering from the Swine flu and his symptoms. His mother originally blamed the flu from unsanitary pigs in the area, however testing on these pigs came back negative. The origins of the swine flu are still unknown.

With this new information, and the confirmation of seven deaths in Mexico, Mexico CIty has temporarily close or serve take-out meals only. Other public venues that closed included schools, bars, clubs, movie theaters, pool halls, theaters, gyms, sports cetners and convention hall.

Networks and Pandemics

We talked about networks some in class.

Here is a good and easy to follow explanation of how a workplace contact network for good stuff (ideas, support) becomes the basis for a pandemic of bad stuff (swine flu).

Is being able to collect and analyze this type of data something you would like to have a class in?  To see the full range of what network research is up to see here or here.

Preliminary Instructions If You Are Doing a Wiki Article

Several of you say you plan to do a long wiki article for yoru final paper.

Here is what I want you to do.

1) Write it (complete with any relevnat photographs, tables, figures, and so on.  You probably want ot use word.

2) You will post it to two wikis, hopefully.  First, the NEW wiki I am tentativley calling “Organizations and Organizing.”  I hope to find a better title.  I also hope that this will eventually become a year to year resource for me and future students.   Wetpaint seems like a very user-friendly wiki.  Furthermore, it has export options, so eventually, I can migrate it if needed.  I drea, of a joomla site someday.

I did this today 9cut-n-paste from Word) with some basic formatting and it worked pretty well.

3) Second, the big enchilda, the mothership, the borg of collaborative knowledge, wikpedia.org.  THis can be a little trickier.  You will need an account.  I pasted from wetpaint (just text) with no problem.

1. I embedded a link in the Manuel Castells article to mine using this syntax
2. [[term]]  This created a new page in wikipedia that I could then edit.
3. Wikipedia is pretty user friendly and has lots of help.  For reference notes, there is a button you push and then just type the text there.  When you save it it pushes the text down to the end of the article.

When you have posted your article, you better take a screen shot of your compter because lord knows how long it will last.

How do I turn in my paper?

1) Post it to Organizations adn Organizing.

2) Post it to wikipedia.org

3) Email me that you have posted it and include your screenshot!

ASK if you have questions.

We may update these instructions based on your experiences.

The Glowing Puppy, Ruppy

A living glow in the dark puppy? If you think this happened with the help of science, well, then you are thinking right. Scientists in North Korea cloned the first fluorescent beagle puppy named Ruppy by combining red fluorescent genes that sea anemones produce. The purpose of this normal by day, glowing by night puppy was not just to find it when it’s running away in the dark. Bioengineers are working to expand a transgenic technique (combining genes from two different animals) in order to begin to pave the way for modeling human diseases in dogs which have a longer lifespan than do rats and mice. Specific human diseases scientists could one day study by means of transgenic dogs include cancer, narcolepsy, and blindness.

Best of Last Week!!

Okay, so since we are the last blog council we decided to break the rules and give an award to everyone   Since, we all worked really hard during these weeks of classes and blogs.

So now…dim the lights…and the awards go to:

Best Use of Theory-

Geoff – The Facebook Effect

Wittney – Amusement Parks as a Center of the Vacation Organizational Field

 

Best book proposal-

Holly – Applying my Ideas to Enron

 

Sustainability of higher education-

Blaire – Sustainability in Higher Education

 

Class and blog together…Linking Across Classes-

Blaire – Sustainability in Higher Education

 

Woo Haa what the hell last blog-

Megan – Should there be more teams in the NFL?

 

Best Booster for Local Tourism-

Wittney – Amusement Parks as a Center of the Vacation Organizational Field

 

Best life hack suggestion-Ross- Do the ChaCha ,

Evan-  What’s the Big Deal

 

Most likely to erase her own career :<)

Anna  :<(__! (tapping my foot) – The         Specialization of the Athletic Department

 

Most likely to promote her career-

Kristen – Final Home Stretch

Best focusing in on final paper -

Josh – Paper Take II IDEO

Most succinct post :<)-

Nadir – Visual Guide to the US Budget

Best use of, you know, an actual BOOK:

Dave - Final Paper Thoughts

The Facebook Effect

When thinking of Virtual Worlds, my mind has always jumped to conclusions. World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Webkinz are some of the first to come to mind. By joining these worlds, subscribers enter into a world much different from the one we live. We can chose from a multitude of “Second-Personalities” as I like to call them. Becoming a Knight, a Sage, a real estate Mogul, or even a puppy (Webkinz), is easily within the realm of possibilities. In these worlds, impossibilities become possible.