Guest Speaker: Greg Byrne – Arizona’s Athletic Director

Yesterday, the SMBA ’11 class had the pleasure of welcoming Greg Byrne, the University of Arizona’s Director of Athletics, to the classroom. Byrne, in town for the Wildcats football game against UCLA, talked about his time as Mississippi State’s AD and the type of culture he is trying to create in Arizona.

He said, “Passion, enthusiasm, and interest are the best things about college athletics, but they are also the worst things too.”

Byrne loves the fact that U of A is—really—the only game in Tucson and, therefore, has competitive advantage. But, still, he emphasized Arizona’s commitment to customer satisfaction and academic performance. He also discussed how he’s changing the atmosphere for athletics, which includes installing a large video board and implementing the Wildcat Walk to enhance the fan experience.

Byrne also discussed the popularity of women’s softball, the 1-and-done rule for basketball, conference realignment, how he deals with agents, advantages and disadvantages of social media, enforcing academic integrity, and paying student-athletes, and having his father as AD of Texas A&M.

SMBA ’11 thanks Byrne for visiting the classroom!

Guest Speaker: Michael Catanzaro – Vitro Agency

The SMBA ’11 class hosted Michael Catanzaro, a Group Account Director for Vitro Agency, today. One of Catanzaro’s clients is Asics, an account he has personally worked on for four years. He took us through an impressive Powerpoint that highlighted the global brand campaign and four pillars that Vitro Agency focuses on for all of its clients: awareness, familiarity, consideration, and purchase.

Catanzaro led us through Asics’ goals and the campaigns that his agency pitched to Asics, including the successful "Sound mind, sound body" campaign. He discussed the difficulties facing an agency, Asics future plans (including sponsoring the November 7th New York City marathon), how to get the most out of brand, television commercial production, and the future advertising campaigns for Asics.

It was great to have Catanzaro in the classroom and his first-hand experience helped the SMBA ’11 class better understand another side of the IMC process.

Jimmy Plays Games

As part of Marketing 729, the SMBA ’11 class is reading Digital Korea by Tomi T Ahonen and Jim O’Reilly. The book details how South Korea has become the world’s most connected country. And, since classmate Jimyong Moon (SMBA ’11) is originally from South Korea, he was more than happy to show us two of the book’s main examples of technological advancement: CyWorld and Kart Rider.

Guest Speaker: Laura Broderick

Today, Laura Broderick, Senior Vice President of Brand Development for the San Diego Padres, visited with the SMBA ’11 class. Broderick talked about her impressive background, which includes a Harvard MBA and hiring current Padres’ President Tom Garfinkel as an intern when she worked at DELL.

Broderick detailed how the Padres have changed their logo eight times in their 40-year history and, as a result, have had no unity behind the brand. To that end, when Broderick was hired last October, she put an emphasis on the “SD” because it unfies the city around the Padres. She also focused on all of the touchpoints the Padres weren’t taking advantage of, such as the promotional giveaway packaging.

Broderick also went through the Padres’ community outreach initiatives, which include Military Appreciation games and Stand-Up to Cancer. She also discussed measuring ROI on certain events, how other MLB teams operate their brand, the Padres relationship with BAM, dealing with current hurdles, and transitioning from a non-sports career. The class thanks Laura for stopping by the classroom.

Internship with SDSU's Women's BBall

By Danielle Arrington (SMBA '11)

Upon entering this program, it was my goal to find a way to get involved with my passion for basketball and my love for the women’s game. Luckily, an opportunity presented itself working with the Los Angeles Sparks on their first annual pre-season game at Viejas Arena and continuing throughout the season. As the Sparks season ended in August, I was looking for other potential opportunities. I found that opportunity with SDSU’s Women’s Basketball team.

After speaking with coaches of the team, I was offered the position of Head Manager. Although, the job doesn’t sound very glamorous, it has been the best learning experience I could’ve ever asked for. On top of that, I love women’s basketball, I get an insider’s look at the team because I’m at every practice, and I get to wear hoop shorts to work every day.

For those wondering what I do on a daily basis, the answer is any and everything the Head Coach asks me to do. Whether that’s setting up practice, participating in practice drills, analyzing and reviewing tape, or doing a statistical analysis on players’ shot selections, I’m involved in many aspects of the teams operations.

As the season progresses, I see myself, more and more, becoming a fan….and an Aztec.

Go Aztecs!

SDSU Upsets Air Force

SDSU football beat a ranked opponent for the first time since 1996 and SMBA ’11 was there. Joe, Peggy, Jodi, and Greg M. represented the class by assisting with game day activities, which included sponsor activation and T-shirt cannon duties. In fact, the crew was armed with Flip cams to capture sponsored events throughout the game.

Meanwhile, SDSU held off #23 Air Force to move to 4-2 on the season. The next home game will be against Colorado State in two weeks.

Guest Speaker: Jennifer Kurisu – NYCA

As part of the IMC, the SMBA ’11 class welcomed Jennifer Kurisu, Account Planner for NYCA, to the classroom. NYCA is a marketing and advertising firm that handles sport entities, such as TaylorMade and adidas.

Kurisu mostly works with brand planning and how to have NYCA athletes convey the vision of NYCA. Currently, NYCA is the largest Integrated Marketing Communication agency in San Diego with 41 employees on staff. They have a dozen clients, which include the aforementioned sport entities as well as The San Diego Union-Tribune and Barona casinos.

Kurisu discussed a TaylorMade case study, which included using athletes as all together to promote a trust in the brand rather than relying on one star athlete. She also discussed TaylorMade's "I am a golfer" ad campaign from NYCA. Kurisu also discussed her job duties, social media, NYCA’s vision, brand importance, her career path, and advice for the SMBA ’11 class. The class thanks Kurisu for taking time to visit.

Sandy Alderson to the Mets?

Friend of the SMBA, Sandy Alderson, has interviewed for the New York Mets General Manager position. While this would be a great hire by the Mets, it certainly would be nice if Alderson remained in his current position to help MLB labor practices in the Dominican Republic.

ALDERSON TO METS

Regardless, it’s a testament to Alderson’s credentials that baseball people believe he could succeed in yet another area within MLB. SMBA ’11 wishes Alderson all the best in his decision.

Globalization of Sport

Another class is done for SMBA ’11. As the class heads into the final weeks of classroom portion of the program, a number of final projects and presentations are finishing; including Dr. Francis’ Globalization of Sport.

Six groups presented their research findings, which were conducted through primary and secondary research, on a range of topics:

1) Professionalization of MLB labor practices in the Dominican Republic
2) Unions and antecedents leading to the 1994 MLB strike and parallels to a possible NFL strike
3) A case study of NFL Europe
4) Lessons learned from the English Premier League
5) Comparing the Internationalization efforts of the NFL and NBA
6) Community building through sports

All groups did a fantastic job and with a final lecture from Dr. Francis today, there now remains four classes for SMBA ’11.

Finance II Player Valuations

As part of Dr. Moon Song’s Finance II class, we read and analyzed the Harvard Business Case on Alex Rodriguez. More specifically, the SMBA ’11 class learned about the finances of the Texas Rangers 2000 decision to make A-Rod the highest paid player in MLB history at the time.

Using this case, SMBA ’11 put together player valuations for different players. Today, the first four of eight groups presented their player valuations to the class. The players evaluated were:

Cristiano Ronaldo
Matt Holliday
Troy Tulowitzki
C.C. Sabathia

The results varied, but it was fun to learn who was overpriced, underpriced, and just about right. Four more groups will present next week.

Guest Speaker – Steve Becvar, XFL

Remember when the XFL unapologetically introduced itself in 2000? Well, after a successful first week that produced large TV ratings on NBC, as well as an air of excitement, the XFL quickly lost its momentum. In fact, after only one season, the XFL shut down operations.

Today, Steve Becvar, who was VP of Corporate Sales and Marketing for one of the Memphis XFL team, discussed that one crazy year. Currently, Becvar is the Associate Athletic Director at the University of San Diego and he has spoken to past SMBA classes during the IMC class.

Becvar worked for the Memphis Maniax and moved his family for the opportunity to head the marketing department for a new League that was generating a lot of excitement. Even though Memphis averaged 21,000 fans per game and had 9,000 season ticket holders, Becvar admitted that there were some growing pains.

Becvar discussed those growing pains, the XFL corporation, working at the team level, the day he found out the League was shutting down, and shared some stories about his experience. He admitted that he was “intrigued by the unknown” and, unfortunately, the unknown ended up not working.

Padres Come Up Short

The San Diego Padres were picked by many to finish the 2010 MLB season at the bottom of the division. Instead, they spent 148 days atop the National League West. And, despite a low payroll, a Padres win on the last day of the season would’ve setup two one-game playoffs, which would have marked the first time in MLB history.

Unfortunately, the San Francisco Giants beat the Padres 3-0 and the ‘Little Engine That Could’ has to wait until next year. However, the Padres generated nearly 4,000 more fans per game in attendance and kept their two star players (Adrian Gonzalez and Heath Bell) throughout the season, despite rumors that they would trade them.

Regardless, even a Dr. Lackritz statistical analysis wouldn’t have predicted this sort of season for the low-payroll Padres. SMBA ’11 was happy to be a part of the fun.

WAC Sports Network

Greg Moore (SMBA ’11) is currently helping the Western Athletic Conference Sports Network. The new network debuted on September 18th with the Fresno State v. Utah State football game and is continuing with some exciting games this weekend. The regional network will feature WAC football and basketball games regionally on media outlets in the respective school markets.

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WAC SPORTS

Schools, as well as conferences, are continuing to use television to expand their brand and leverage their presence. Please follow WAC Sports Network on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the new network’s progress.