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Sagem Wireless, which provides customized connected lifestyle devices and services to consumer lifestyle brands and mobile network operators worldwide, and Agence France Presse (AFP), a global news agency, have announced that PUMA PHONE users will be able to enjoy instant access to international sport news and photos, through the Live Sport News service from AFP.
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StratBridge Inc. has just developed ground breaking software that should undoubtedly help professional teams in every sport to make better managerial decisions. StratBridge Inc. is a company that has developed software for both ticket sales (StratTix), and player analysis (StratEdge). The company was founded in 1999 by Mr. Matthew Marolda and made a name for themselves in 2005 with their ticket selling software. StratTix can be used in a number of ways to help teams gain valuable information about their ticket sales, as well as the people buying them. This software can help the team view up-to-the-minute seating charts to see which seats are selling, and which ones are not. It will provide the teams with information about the people purchasing the tickets such as their geographical area, what source they used to purchase them (Ticket Master, Stubhub etc.), and helping to predict attendance. This will help lead to teams to finding the best time to market, when the best time is to promote, and will help their yield management strategies to become more effective. The company's newest software breakthrough, StratEdge, will ultimately give an "edge" to teams that are scouting and looking to draft, or sign specific players. It provides teams with detailed information about trades, contract extensions, and how they match up to other athletes at their position. This company is in a niche of its own, and one of the best at what they do. These new tools that are now readily available for any team will help them make smarter business decisions that everyone knows will ultimately affect their franchise for years to come. StratBridge Inc. already has more then 100 deals with professional teams in the NHL, MLB, NFL, MLS, AFL, and minor league baseball. They hope to continue to build bridges with and for various sport franchises around the world.
Cisco Systems, Inc is beginning to venture into the very lucrative and fast growing sports industry. But wait a minute, who in all of corporate
The
Pioneers of TelePresence, Cisco have used this to equip and connect two separate rooms with video and audio capabilities. It is meant for users to be able to interact as if they were in the same room. This state of the art videoconferencing technology has been used for player "meet and greets" during both the NHL and the NBA All-Star breaks. Kevin Durant attracted quite a crowd as he was seen on a big screen high definition television using TelePresence to interact with fans and answer questions. Cisco has recently talked deals with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on a future partnership.
StadiumVision and Venue Management are the newest innovations being incorporated in the latest sports complexes. The new Yankee Stadium has installed the former, with 1100 HD monitors around the park, and IPTV phones in place within the fifty some luxury suites. Cameras are strategically placed all over the facility to help manage events. 
They can be used in combination with the televisions to provide live scores and updates around the stadium, assist patrons with stadium traffic flow, and can be used to regulate the flow of personnel and guests in the event of an emergency. One of the coolest things about this technology is how precise mangers can be in their control of events. For instance in 80,000 person capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium of
Cisco has been very successful in the past with communications products and employs over 64,000 people. It is now branching out into the wide world of sports and will register on the radar the next time you have the money and are thinking of investing.
It has always been known that fans like winners, but the extent of this may be surprising.
The Turnkey Brand Index survey was highly populated with winners with the top 15 of 20 top franchises making the playoffs in their leagues. Teams like the Boston Celtics who went from last to first saw their index almost rise 50 point, with the New Orleans Hornets rasing almost 25 points. Other side is though, teams losing also saw their index declining as well. This is all important to marketing executives because if they can identify a swing in an area so they can have an impact.
From: http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60748
As much as this information comes unsurprising that when a team is winning, the more people buy their products and support their team. the problem I have is that it shows how hard it is to be a professional athlete. When you're team is losing most likely you arent going to be seeing jerseys in the streets but when you are its like paradise. People may say winning isnt everything but this survey proves that for these athletes that saying may not be so far away from the truth than we think
THATS IT!!! its a done deal finally. ESPN has now been named the new home for the four big BCS bowl games. It has been talked about for weeks now and everyone has seemed to see it coming. FOX sports was outbid by ESPN by around $100 million posting a staggering $495 million big to be paid out over four years. The news comes from the SportsBusiness journal reporting that it did not take long for the BCS presidential oversight committee to okay the deal from ESPN. University Presidents were expected to make a big stink about the games going to cable television, but no such resistance was met for ESPN and the BCS committee. FOX was reportedly overpowered by the bid and was not able to conjure up a reason for making their bid any higher, they were just not going to win this battle.
The BCS bowl games are now going to be on cable television... Hmmm is that good or bad? For one thing, its going to make ESPN millions of dollars as it still has part of the rights to the Rose Bowl as well which is already aired on ABC. They are expected to make record revenue from this deal just in advertisements alone. However, 16 million fewer people have the ability to watch the newly cable televised bowl games, I guess we will see how people react to that. This has been an interesting story to follow as we slowly begin to see more and more championship games and matches go from over the air television to cable stations. Who's/what is next to go??????
Then it hits you, there's no music. No "CHARGE" bugle, not organ at the baseball game, nothing. Music and sound effects help pump up the crowd at any sporting event.
Teams do have streaming audio and video on their website of the game being played. But how great would it be to log onto Last.fm, and play "Shout!" at home every time the Bills score. Yeah, that would be awesome.
Having a partnership between a league and internet music site would be a huge boost in both of the companies. A Miami Dolphins fan can hear a talk show with Chad Pennington, even though they live in Oregon. Football, or as most Americans know it as soccer, can listen to live feeds of games. Baseball fans can listen into the game from their desk, rather than just watching a box score from their computer.
True: Most teams provide this for their fans already. But if partnered with Last.fm, one of the largest music based social networks, leagues would be able to get their sport out to more people. A simple idea would be to have users check off if they would like game feeds, if selected the user would choose which teams they would like to have feeds from. Every time the user is logged on, there would be an update sent to their Last.fm player. If they decide they want to listen to the game, a simple click on the score would transfer them to the audio feed for the game.
It is a no-brainer to have this partnership. And hopefully, we will soon be able to see this implemented in the near future.
--- Christopher Adamek, Joseph Cardinale, Mike Mendez
As I have talked about before, and continue to follow this story, it is reported that the major BCS bowls are ESPN bound. There is beginning to be a new trend in the sports world, that is moving from broadcast television, to cable television channels like ESPN. We have already seen it with the likes of "Monday Night Football," the Chase for the Sprint cup in NASCAR, and the British open starting in 2010. ESPN reaches 20 million fewer homes the
n its broadcast network partner ABC and other networks. This is why moving BCS bowl games, with such high levels of interest amongst the American people could be a gutsy move.
This has become just another case of looking for the highest bidder. Fox broadcast network, who has had the rights to these bowl games in the past has had the chance to match any offer given up until today. It is believed that they will not be able to afford the $100 million deal over four years which ESPN has posted to the BCS committee. It is obvious that the Disney Corporation is making out like a bandit who owns ABC, and eighty percent of ESPN. ABC still continues to own the rights to the all important Rose Bowl, and now Disney and ESPN may have all of the top bowl games on their cable network. If it is any consolation, the NFL, MLB, and NBA are not even close to being interested in making their post season championships to cable television networks. Who knows what the future has in store for championship play. Hopefully everyone will get to enjoy the excitement of big time games.
In this week's issue of the SBJ there is an article about the USOC starting its own TV channel. Due to the amount of viewer's for this year's summer games in Beijing, China they think that there is a market for the channel. The 08' summer games were the most viewed summer games since the 1992 Barcelona games. Officials are discussing about "flipping" another cable channel like discoveries fit TV into the Olympic channel or just making their own cable channel. They also are discussing having the winning bidder for the 2016 and 2020 games partner with the USOC on making the channel.
I think that this channel is a really good idea. Most people would say oh great another sports channel. But I think that this channel would teach a lot of people history about the Olympics that they didn't know and I find that idea very interesting. The channel will be like a yes network or MSG with a mix of live broadcasts and "classics". Another reason that I really support this channel is that they plan to offer it at a reasonable price unlike the overpriced NFL network. Overall I think that this would be a great idea and hope that it happens soon.
Over the past couple years it has become a trademark statement for when Manny Ramirez pulls a bonehead move either up at bat, in the field, on the base path, or in the locker room. Other situations involve, Manny refusing to play left field when he was acquired by the Boston Red Sox in 2001, demanding trades in the offseason for about his last 3 years in Boston, then come regular season denying all reports of it, and two all-time "Manny being Manny" events happened just this year. One being that Manny was criticized very harshly for showing a lack of effort in the field and while running the bases, as well as being accused of purposely striking out in a game against the New York Yankees, and for two, during a game against the Baltimore Orioles a pop fly was hit to him in left field, and on his retreat towards the wall to catch the ball, he hauled in the ball, hopped on the homerun fence, high-fived a fan in the stands, then proceeded to throw a runner out at first base. Sports reports around the nation simply described these as "Manny being Manny" moments. After the trade deadline though, many baseball fans will tell you who the real Manny Ramirez is, and that is a guy who hit .396, with 17 homeruns, and 53 RBI's, in the season's final two months. One newspaper report described the situation as, "Manny Ramirez, the man who has turned Hollywood into Mannywood..." No one knows which Manny will show up on any given day, but the results will always provide entertainment and will continue to bring L.A. Dodger fans to the stadium if he plays this way, and this can be shown by the new hit t-shirt they sell at games, with writing that says "We Love Manny being Manny". I guess we will never know who the real Manny is due to his sporadic behavior, but if something does happen, it's just Manny being Manny.
Over the past weekend the movie "The Express" hit theaters and was a hit in some people's eyes but, in the eyes of most critics the movie was just moderate. "The Express" is a movie of the Ernie Davis story which deals with segregation in the 1950's and 1960's. This movie is a compelling true story of the two-time All American Ernie Davis who was also the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy which is the most prestigious award in college football. The movie also includes Syracuse University's first National Championship for college football which came in 1960 with Ernie Davis as the team's elite running back. Since the movie is based on a true story it doesn't exactly have a happy ending. After Ernie Davis' last season with Syracuse he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns but was shortly diagnosed with leukemia and died within a year, never being able to play a snap in a Browns uniform. Over the movie's premiere weekend beginning Friday October 10 they have already brought in over $4.5 million.I myself watched "The Express" this past weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact I would grade the movie as a whole an A-.What I enjoyed most about the movie was that it was based on a totally true story and had real life events with some clips of those real events included in the movie. Watching the movie was also an eye opener to the segregation which surrounded college sports and the country at that time in the United States. One movie it reminded me of was "Remember the Titians" which became very popular and was another box office hit. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was how at times it moved quickly through Ernie's younger life and quickly through his senior year at Syracuse as well with little explanation. Overall I think the movie will be a major hit because it's a good time to come out with a football story during the fall and midway through the football season because it's a time when people are very excited about football. Another reason is because "The Express" is an inspirational true story about the first African American Heisman Trophy winner, although he died from a tragic illness at a young age before he could play a professional snap.
