Sports Business & Sports Ticket Management Links: Week Ending 1/30/10

CEG’s weekly collection of relevant press, tweets, and blogs shaping the world of corporate ticketing. The evolution of Corporate America’s involvement in sports is leading towards more responsibility and better analytics. Please read on for more on: sports sponsorship, sports business, ticket management, corporate accountability, and The Spotlight Ticket Management Solution. PWC released an interesting piece discussing Travel and Entertainment expense fraud and the effect it has on every firm’s bottom line. Sports and event tickets are a major source of internal fraud and few firms have the controls in place to combat it. Too many employees buy tickets under false pretences and through back door deals without a centralized ROI tracking system like Spotlight.

The Detroit Free Press discsusses the possibilty of the Pistons moving to Pittsburgh. One of the integral questions in the equation: Can Detroit’s corporations support 4 sports teams. The answer is yes. The problem is that corporate sports ticket buyers have been beat up for so long that, even though it’s been proven to drive business and better the bottom line, they are reluctant to spend any money on sports sponsorship or entertainment. The fact that many Detroit firms received government help hurts even more. Had these firms tracked their inventory originally they would be able to keep that inventory……and the precious Pistons.

  • There is no birthright ensuring Detroit four professional sports teams. Remember that should Karen Davidson sell the Pistons. The immediate response to the news that she has placed her late husband’s sports legacy on the trading block didn’t surprise anyone.The wishful thinking is that if she’s not passionate enough to give the franchise the committed ownership required, then it’s only a matter of time before a local investment group emerges — ensuring that the Pistons remain in town. We’ve grown accustomed over the past 50 years to Detroit being a major player, if not a major performer, on the professional sports landscape, so it’s unimaginable envisioning Detroit in a reduced role.

The much maligned BNP Paribas Open has landed a new sponsor to the well attended yet poorly run tournament in Indian Wells, CA (better know as the Palm Springs area). The Open, formerly the Pacific Life Open, has changed owners yet again with Oracle magnate Sir Larry Ellison purchasing the tournament.

  • Emirates, the global airline of the United Arab Emirates, has become a premier sponsor and the official airline of the BNP Paribas Open, tournament director Steve Simon announced today. The BNP Paribas Open, the most attended tennis tournament in the world outside of the four major events, will be held March 8-21 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The sponsorship agreement, which will run from 2010-2012 and includes a renewal option, is the airline’s third major sports sponsorship in the United States. Read More…..

The USOC recently announced that it would combat ambush marketers clearly pointing fingers at Subway and Verizon even though neither once mentions any affiliation with the games in the spots in question. Quite simply, the Olympic marks and an official sponsorship cannot hold that much sway if generic ads mentioning a sport that is competed in during the games is any threat whatsoever. Perhaps the sponsors should be demanding more in the way of on-site unique activation and athlete access….or simply drop the sponsorship because it’s clearly not worth it. Sports sponsorship vendors need to stand behind their products and provide true ROI. Witchhunts won’t accomplish that. Value to the customer will.

  • The rough times continue for the United States Olympic Committee. Over the past year, the governing body of the U.S. Olympic team has struggled through leadership turmoil (three different CEOs in 10 months; pictured is current CEO Scott Blackmun), the failed Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympics, and a nasty spat with NBC about an Olympics cable-TV network that the USOC wanted to launch with Comcast.
    And now, just two weeks ahead of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the organization is on the defensive again, issuing a statement Wednesday criticizing “ambush marketing” tactics by Subway and Verizon. Neither company is an official USOC sponsor, but both recently unveiled Olympics-themed commercials. Verizon’s ad features two racing speed skaters and narration that asks, “What does it take to succeed … in a place with the highest level of competition?”, while Subway’s spot has Michael Phelps swimming across an animated map toward Canada, “Where the action is this winter.” Read More….

Releveant Sports Business & Sports Spnsorship Tweets Of The Week :

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