"Touch" MLB Clothing for Women

Major League Baseball just recently announced a brand new clothing line for women, in tandem with star actress Alyssa Milano. This new clothing line is stylish and designed for women baseball fans who until now haven't had a real seperate line of clothing for baseball apparel.

This new clothing line indicates the growth in female fans to major league baseball in particular but female fans are also growing in other sports. This growth is important for teams to recognize as it is a potential untapped revenue stream.

http://shop.mlb.com/sm-touch-by-alyssa-milano--ci-2712401.html

MLB.TV

Often times fans are on the go or away from their local area, not being able to watch their favorite team. Major League Baseball has tried to remedy this problem with their service MLB.TV.

MLB.TV allows fans from out of market areas to watch their favorite team through a streaming webcast on their computers. In recent years the quality of this product has greatly increased, making it a much more feasable option for baseball fans.

MLB.TV was the first service of its kind to offer fans around the world access to watch games from around the country. The NBA and NHL and NCAA have recently followed with their own similar services.

The MLB.TV service costs 119.95 for a full year at a premium subscription, a higher bandwith broadcast. It costs 89.95 for a full year of a lower bandwith broadcast.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/premium.jsp?c_id=mlb

NFL Draft

The NFL Draft is one of the biggest sporting events of the year. College players get drafted by NFL teams and often the top picks sign very lucrative contracts.

One of the top players in this years draft. Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn was expected to be a top 10 pick. Many teams passed on Quinn because he had what they considered to be a subpar senior year.

Quarterbacks are often the most important player for a franchise. With all of the teams passing on Quinn it is estimated that he lost around 10 million dollars in guaranteed money by slipping from the top to number 22 where he was selected by the Cleveland Browns.

Quinn's slip shows just how much money can be involved in professional sports and how much of a difference money wise a player gets when selected in the top 10 as opposed to the top 25.

March Madness

March Madness is about to begin again. It is one of the largest sporting events of the year and makes even casual sports fans into sports fanatics for the run of the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament. Amateurs become experts and experts become fanatics. TV coverage is consistent, with games being on all day every day at the beginning of the tournament. Office Pools and side bets on the tournament are becoming somewhat of a national pastime.

One large problem for workplaces is that there is so much focus on the tournament, that productivity goes down. One new wrinkle to this problem is the online web casts of tournament games free. Some estimates have lost productivity from the tournament as high as $4 billion dollars.

CBS, the main broadcaster of the tournament has started a new online service. CSTV (College Sports Television. By going to cbssportsline.com users can view any tournament game live from their PCs. This has only made the tournament bigger, allowing fans all over the world to watch tournament games, and allowing those in the workplace further distraction. Many workplaces have taken steps to block this new content from coming into the workplace.

With more viewers viewing the tournament, more money will be spent in both official and unofficial office pools and side bets. Also this may drive merchandise sales of college merchandise up.

Either way, March Madness is one of the most exciting and enticing sporting events of the entire year, and allows fans of all types to become involved.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11862323/

The Explosion of Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports is an industry that 10 years ago virtually didn't exist. It has recently exploded and by some industry estimates is a $4 billion industry.

Fantasy Sports come in all shapes and sizes. You can play Fantasy Baseball, Football or Basketball, or you can play Fantasy Nascar or Golf. There are many leagues that are free to join, but there are also many leagues that cost a fee to join. Often the pay leagues are more serious and include access to in depth statistics and live updates.

Fantasy Sports is a growing concern in the workplace as lost productivity is a concern. Avid fantasy sports players will spend signifigant time researching their team for a draft or checking the stats of their players.

There are also many sites that offer fantasy advice and rankings. These sites often charge fees and are growing quickly.

I believe fantasy sports are so popular because it allows users to form a group (league) and feel like they are a part of something bigger.

Fantasy sports also allows fans to extend their passion of sports beyond individual games and into everday life.

This booming industry will only contiune to grow.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/07/technology/fantasysports_fortune_121205/index.htm

Daisuke Matsuzaka and Sports Marketing

The Boston Red Sox this winter signed perhaps the most sought after free agent. Daisuke Matsuzaka. Matsuzaka is the third major asian baseball player to make the leap from Japan to America. The others being Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners.

The Red Sox committed a record $51.11 million to the Seibu Lions, his baseball team, just to exclusively negotiate with Matsuzaka, paying him another $52 million over 6 years to play in Boston. The Red Sox felt that not only was Matsuzaka a top of the line pitcher, he would be a revenue generating machine in the lucrative asian market.

The Red Sox are expected to have Japanese advertisments in Fenway Park for the first time ever. They are also planning special events, such as holding back tickets to Matsuzaka starts and charging a premium to customers who would like to be part of the "Matsuzaka Experience". The money spent by these fans would buy tickets to the game, a Matsuzaka jersey, early entrance to the park and dinner.

The Red Sox are also expanding their popular tours of Fenway Park to include Japanese tours.

A local bureau estimated that Japanese tourists could bring as much as $14 million in revenues to the city of Boston this year alone. Not all of this is due to Matsuzaka but a considerable amount is. While the money does not all go directly to the Red Sox, this is the beginning of opening a once very small minded team up to the rest of the world.

This is only the beginning of a worldwide integration in sports. With sports at a worldwide level instead of a national level, the potential for revenue is vastly increased. If a team wants to be competitive on a global scale, it has to make a commitment to being open and understanding of different cultures.

For More Information See:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/02/11/matsuzaka_factor_mobilizes_red_sox/