Unlimited Upside Potential

On January 26, Full Sail University was fortunate to host the Founder's Dinner for the National Sports Forum, the largest sports marketing conference in the country.  Several of my colleagues and team members were then able to attend the conference itself over the following three days.  The Forum itself is an interesting convergence of sports businesses -- teams, marketers, agencies, college, technology companies and more -- all vying to create business for the business of sports.  One of my students, attending such a conference for the first time, met up with me at lunch.  "Josh," he said, with his eyes opened wide, like one of Willy Wonka's children visiting the chocolate factory for the first time.  "I never knew there were so many different kinds of businesses connected to sports."

I was thrilled to see that he got it.

The business of sports has never been more interesting.  The world used to be simply about the games -- how many people could you get into the stadium, and at what price per ticket?  Teams would play for three hours, add up the score, and tally the gate receipts.  The math ended there.  Front offices were filled with ex-players who had never been to college or studied much finance or business.  Businesses operated on salesmanship, charisma and intuition.

Now, the geeks run the show.  Big data rules the day.  Athletic performance is measurable by biofeedback rather than mythology.  Consumer behavior is trackable through RFID chips and GPS technology.  Businesses can operate towards maximum efficiency because they know when to push certain initiatives towards whom, as well as when to do it, and to what specific point inside the ballpark or stadium.

Franchises and agencies have the ability, and maybe the necessity, to be their own media companies.  To be relevant, they need to engage their fans 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  They need to create relevant content by converting old agate type box scores into modern visual infographics.  They connect by creating e-cards for posting on over 130 different media streams.  They make films, run events and productions, and create a variety of different kinds of engageable media that allows them to produce their own message, rather than run it through the filter of conventional electronic media.  The good ones see the interconnectivity between music, video, content, storytelling and the ultimate product on the field of play.  They understand how it drives business.

Because of these developments, sponsors have more opportunities to connect with properties than ever before, if the properties can figure out how to manage and sell them, and if potential sponsors, particularly those business that have never been in sponsorship before, can see the light shining on potential new clients.

Even at the Forum, supposedly a gathering of the elite of the business, it is clear that there are those who bask in the glow of these new opportunities, and those who are blinded by the brightness of the light.  It is obvious who truly understands the concept, and who is just selling something.  It is a time for the true standard bearers to rise and lead the industry into this brand new world.

I plan to be one of them.

Resources
Bradley, M. (2012, April 03). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/professional-sports-teams-becoming-their-own-media-entities/
Fischer-Baum, R. (2013, January 02). The best sports infographics of 2012. Retrieved from deadspin.com
Laird, S. (2011, December 02). How microchipped jerseys are changing hockey fans' experience. Retrieved from Mashable.com
Seaver, R. (2013, January 31). Retrieved from sports-forum.com
Tom, C. & Fienlieb, D. (2012, October 5). Big sports: Powered by big data. Forbes, DOI: Forbes.com

Live Strong or Die

The conventional wisdom is that Lance Armstrong has wrecked his once-sterling brand and reputation in the kind of crash that he used to avoid in his sport.  But how sterling was that reputation, really, before his Oprah confessional?  In the seven-plus years since he retired from the Tour de France and most of his competitive racing, Armstrong suffered through accusations, personal attacks and formal investigations, enough that any casual sports fan certainly would cast a jaundiced eye at any of Armstrong's significant accomplishments.  In other words, the brand had already taken a hit.

The argument is about what happens next to Armstrong's legacy, and it's a more difficult question than would seem on the surface, because despite the cheating, so much of Armstrong's story remains inspirational on its own, and because so much good has come from his now-tainted accomplishments.

The sport portion of the argument is somewhat easily dismissed.  Sure, Armstrong cheated, but he did so in a sport rife with cheating.  Cycling was -- and probably still is -- so filthy, that once the Tour de France stripped Armstrong of his titles, they couldn't award them to the 2nd or 3rd place finishers in ANY OF THE YEARS in which Armstrong one, because all of them have been found guilty of cheating, admitted to cheating, or are under serious suspicion of cheating.   In the eyes of many competitive cyclists, the moral decision isn't "to cheat or not to cheat", but rather how many people they are willing to hurt in order to avoid getting caught.  In a world full of cheaters, Armstrong was simply the best at it.  But now his name is no longer associated with the best of the sport.

The more poignant question is how Armstrong's admission cuts into the enormous success of the Livestrong foundation, the fighting cancer support and service group that Armstrong originally launched in his own name in 1997.  In sixteen years, the Livestrong Foundation has raised more than $470 million dollars, of which nearly 80 percent has gone directly to survivor support groups and programs.  And of course, Livestrong initiated the ubiquitous support wristbands, which have launched a zillion imitators from the serious to the sublime.  There's been a lot of good-doing here.  Does the end justify the means?

The answer, unfortunately, has to be no, and this is really the big swinging hammer that shatters the glass of Armstrong's image.  Armstrong simply hurt way too many people, encouraging some to make reckless moral decisions, and tarnishing the images of other noble champions.  Armstrong made other people look small and petty, when in fact they should have had the towering might of truth and justice on their side.  He made tons of money, and dated some of the world's most beautiful and talented women, entirely on the premise of a lie.  As a society, we simply have to be against this on principle.

The good news is that Livestrong should live on.  It has done so much good, and having replaced Armstrong's name on the letterhead a decade ago, it is such a brand name of its own that it should be insulated from Armstrong's demise.  It has even lent its name to a soccer stadium, nicely placed in the center of the country, perhaps geographically representing our national focus on curing cancer.  

The shame is that it didn't need to be this way.  Armstrong's recovering from cancer just to be able to compete in the Tour de France should have been inspirational enough.  Admittedly, his winning the Tour de France multiple times in dominating fashion called more attention to his accomplishments, and thus to the causes, but he gave up a good story and a good family in pursuit of legend.  He was Icarus on a bicycle, pedaling too close to the sun.

And in that way, we see the entirety of the value of Armstrong's brand.  It has been erased from the past, replaced in the present, and despite Armstrong's recent contrition, God only knows who would embrace it in the future.

Additional Resources

http://www.livestrong.org
http://examiner.com

Down the Rabbit Hole

Three weeks ago, we first visited the topic of how different CEO’s and potential investors may choose to focus on separate aspects of a business plan as a matter of individual style.  Having now completed the bulk of a first draft of my own business plan, I have a better understanding of how, why and under what circumstances some of these focuses are best applied, and why and under what conditions investors or analysts will choose to focus on certain areas of a business plan.

We first looked at ethnographer and motivational speaker Simon Shinek, who in his book, “Start With Why”, discusses the importance of a company and a leader being able to identify its core value.  The notion is that by defining its core values, the company can operate from the inside out and thus create loyal customers.

Having now written a business plan, it is easy to see how and why the person who leads the company and implements the plan is every bit as important as the numbers and the strategy behind the plan itself.  Even if the numbers add up, even if the plan seems flawless, it means nothing if the proposed leaders of the plan don’t have the ability to excite investors to help fund the initiative.  It means nothing if the leaders don’t have the ability to create a company culture that allows people within the company to complete plans at the granular level.  It means nothing if the leaders of the company don’t have the ability to execute the entire strategy of the company.

As I wrote my plan, I took care to identify and emphasize the strengths of the two principals, with special attention towards how our two skill sets work together.  Additionally, I have incorporated our professional values into descriptions about our various strategies.  For example, as we describe our competitive position within our industry analysis, it is clear that the values and skills of the principals reflect the core competencies of the company.  In short, the leaders’ strengths become the company strengths.  This is outlined at the beginning, repeated ad infinitum, and thus ingrained into the daily operations of the company.

My first blog also profiled Paul Ferris, founder and General Partner of the highly selective technology venture capital fund, Azure Capital.  Azure Capital is focused far less on the spiritual than the analytical.  On the front end, Ferris looks for data and research.  On the back end, Ferris wants to fund companies that acknowledge an exit strategy within the very beginnings of their business plan.

The above paragraph feels like the kind of philosophy we can all appreciate on its surface because it makes such simple, logical sense.  Obviously, we want some evidence that the plan is feasible.  We want statistics.  We want others in the industry to back what we believe.  And we want to have some sense of where the business is going to end up. 

That said, one has a much more tactile understanding of this concept on the other side of finishing a business plan.  One can see the gears all mesh together, and how things one writes in a certain section of the plan get reinforced in another written section of the plan and then reinforced again within the financial data. 

Three weeks ago, I wrote,”Sinek and Ferris stress different aspects of business plans, though both are important to the successful outcome.  Writers of business plans should heed the advice of both, and keep both elements in mind when self-evaluating their proposals.”  Though I have only written a first complete draft of the business plan, I think I have at least incorporated some of these values, and I will continue to do so in future drafts of the plan as I refine it towards something even more executable.

REFERENCES

1. CAA speakers: Simon Sinek, author of "Start with Why". (2009). Retrieved from www.caaspeakers.com/simon-sinek/bio

2. Ferris, P. (2012). Azure capital :: Paul ferris. Retrieved from http://www.azurecap.com/team/team-member/Paul_Ferris

3. Lester, C. (2009, July 27). Another view: A golden age for dcs. New York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/another-view-a-golden-age-for-venture-capital/

4. Locke, L. (2011, September 29). Twitter video-sharing service nabs $6.5 million. CNet News, DOI: news.cnet.com

5. Simon Sinek. (2009, September). [Video Tape Recording]. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action., Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Business Plan Expert Advice

Different CEO’s will focus on different aspects of a business plan.  Simon Sinek is all about passion and leadership.  Sinek is a trained ethnographer and motivational business speaker who studies why people and organizations behave the way that they do.  From his studies, Sinek consults with leaders and their companies about how to make their businesses better by understanding both consumer and managerial behaviors and by creating inspiration.  He is active in arts and not-for-profit organizations, and his book “Start With Why” was published by Penguin Books in 2009.

In a “Ted Talk” delivered in support of his book, Shinek discusses the importance of identifying a core value for a leader and a company.  The notion is that most companies operate outside in.  That is, they define themselves first by what they produce, then by how they produce it and then by why they are producing it in the first place.  That approach touches the customer first, and can (and often does) produce loyalty to an individual product.  But if the company can define itself first by its core value – by the why it operates – then it operates from the inside out, and creates not just consumers, but loyal consumers that will follow the company or the leaders just about wherever it goes.

Sinek talks about instilling this in every aspect of a business plan, as well as in business operation and workflow.  The primary notion: if a company can convey its sense of mission to itself, then it can convey that sense of mission to its investors in its business plan, which will secure funding and approval.  Eventually, it will secure followers as consumers.  This is a creative take on business plan writing, and it emphasizes the importance of establishing trust and confidence in those leading the project.

Paul Ferris is the co-founder and General Partner of Azure Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology companies that operate in sectors from cloud services to healthcare technology to gaming platforms to financial services.  His background is in investment banking.

Azure Capital is a highly selective firm.  The company receives thousands of pitches for angel investment funding every year.  The company will interview dozens of early stage businesspersons, but will only invest in four to six projects every year.

Ferris and his partners have a strategy within Azure that is essentially two-fold (with many subtopics), but unlike Sinek their strategy is far less emotional than it is analytical.  Ferris and his partners are looking for data to formulate a plan from the beginning of a journey to its very last step.  Up front, the primary focus is on research.  The research in technology subsectors helps Azure create its investment roadmap, increase their knowledge of any particular tech area, and identify whether or not a company has a real opportunity worth pursuing.

         On the back end, Azure operates with an understanding that the business plan needs an exit strategy.  In their industry, they attempt to fund little fish that they believe will become medium-sized fish that in turn pose a creative and market share threat to the biggest fish.  Thus, the strategy for most of their investments is that they will eventually sell to strategic competitors or partners.  As such, Ferris likes to see plans that acknowledge this outcome and that incorporate that as a strategy in the very early stages of company planning.  In short, under Ferris’ direction, Azure needs plans that will be clinical in their execution.

          Sinek and Ferris stress different aspects of business plans, though both are important to the successful outcome.  Writers of business plans should heed the advice of both, and keep both elements in mind when self-evaluating their proposals.

REFERENCES

1. CAA speakers: Simon Sinek, author of "Start with Why". (2009). Retrieved from www.caaspeakers.com/simon-sinek/bio
2. Ferris, P. (2012). Azure capital :: Paul ferris. Retrieved from http://www.azurecap.com/team/team-member/Paul_Ferris
3. Lester, C. (2009, July 27). Another view: A golden age for dcs. New York Times. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/another-view-a-golden-age-for-venture-capital/
4. Locke, L. (2011, September 29). Twitter video-sharing service nabs $6.5 million. CNet News, DOI: news.cnet.com
5. Simon Sinek. (2009, September). [Video Tape Recording]. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action., Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Who Makes Connections in Sports Team Sponsorships?

The world of sports team sponsorships is growing ever more complex.  In the old business model, going back 30 and 40 years, companies simply bought advertising time on television and radio stations that broadcast games and sent one message through one or two distribution channels in order to align their company and product with the team, or the sport, and its' customers.  Today, there are more and more opportunities for companies to reach potential customers, because there are more products available with which to associate through sports team sponsorships, and more opportunities to be able to reach to targeted audiences.  This offers companies the chance to be more efficient in their sponsorships, but it becomes increasingly difficult and labor-intensive for the companies and the teams to negotiate this new minefield themselves.

So with more and more frequency, both sides of these types of transactions are reaching out to middlemen for assistance.  From the team side, this is in part because they are working hard to create new revenue streams through products, merchandise, ticket sales, new media rights and more.  As an example, the NBA is in the process of becoming the first major American Professional sports league to allow jersey sponsorships (following in the path of MLS Soccer teams and European leagues of all sports).  The teams and the league have yet to figure out who controls the inventory, the potential value of the sponsorships or what kinds of companies and products would be interested in the sponsorships (Lombardo and Lefton, 2012).  This kind of uncertainty causes confusion, even though it is borne of opportunity.

Similarly, companies that wish to advertise through sports also have difficulty understanding all of the possibilities that are now available for them within sports team sponsorships, even as the technology to track the data can give them complete analytics about fan behavior and how fans interact with various parts of the sports viewing experience both in stadiums and at home.  Companies that are big spenders in title sponsorships, traditional and digital media strategy and more, such as Met Life for example, as well as smaller spenders like AAA Automobile Club that are slightly more selective about which properties they sponsor, all have vested interest in working these sponsorships efficiently, where they can get the best value for their money by targeting their audiences in areas and through products where they know those audiences are going to congregate (Ourand, 2012).

With more and more options available, and with more and more data available, the technology and opportunity is there to decrease the waste in the system, and to make all sides increase their winning percentages in these kinds of deals.  So it is little surprise that there is a business opportunity for agencies that can align companies not only with properties but also individual strategies within properties that can deliver business to them.  These agencies may be small, relatively new companies that employ no more than a dozen people and concentrate on a handful of clients on each side.  They may be design firms which have now incorporated their own brand activation departments, because stadium activation has become such an important revenue stream that it needs to be built into the design process.  Or they may be established marketing and media agencies that have simply recognized the opportunity and increased resources in this area.

Though a handful of metaphorical predators have entered this ocean, it is still very much a blue ocean because so much of it is unexplored and undiscovered.  In the next few years, those who follow sports business and sports team sponsorships are going to hear a lot from the big fish who spout their triumphs, but they should know there will be plenty of other fish under the surface getting fat on all the opportunities that exist.

Other References

Lombardo, J. & Lefton, T. (2012, September 24). NBA clubs hire firms to help sell patches. Sports Business Journal, DOI: sportsbusinessdaily.com

Ourand, J. (2012, May 28). What's worked. Sports Business Journal, DOI: sportsbusinessdaily.com

Photos:
1. From Sportsnetworker.com
2. From Freshnessmag.com

The Great Wide Open: A Primer on the Sports Digital Marketing

In February of 2010, I was recruited by Full Sail University to create a program for educating prospective graduates to have success in the sports industry.  We had to determine whether that degree program would involve sports management, sports business, sports production or something else.  We conducted a four month marketing campaign in which we talked to hundreds of people from the industry, who with near unanimity indicated that they were having all kinds of difficulty negotiating the digital landscape.  Similarly, they reported that they were having difficulty connecting their Generation X sales and sponsorship teams with the need to engage both their Millennial-aged fan base and their clients who want to engage that fan base.  Those businesses obviously include sports franchises, but also merchandisers, networks, agencies and their brethren.

The move into the digital arena, for nebulous topics like branding and engagement, as well as for specific initiatives like sales, is at once a thrilling opportunity and an enormous undertaking which is both inconvenient and expensive.  In the most broad definition of digital marketing, the topic covers an incredibly wide swath of areas for any sports businesses.  For businesses like a franchise, this is an intimidating gamut of possibilities to entertain.  It is problematic because the very idea of digital marketing runs counter to how their most experienced sales people have been trained.  And it is additionally problematic because any dollar wasted on a failed marketing campaign is one dollar less than that franchise can spend on improving the quality of its on-field organization.  It is more so when we think beyond the front line of major professional sports teams and start looking into minor league teams and less popular circuits that often operate with even tighter margins.

These kinds of businesses need counseling both for strategy and for specific activations, which is why some larger agencies have developed divisions exclusively dedicated to digital marketing and why other smaller agencies have popped up to fill different niches within the larger topic.  That said, there should be openings for new businesses to consult and connect sports properties with products -- and vice versa -- to help create strategies specifically designed to maximize exposure and revenue generation.  Those revenue generation opportunities could include traditional marketing options and modern online marketing techniques including "social media, blogging, SEO, PPC, branding, content marketing, video marketing and app creation." (Perrin, 2012).

Larger companies have faced similar quandaries, but have had better success entering the digital arena, in part because they have larger margins of error.  It is interesting, because so often when there are technological evolutions and revolutions, innovation comes from the ground up.  In the digital media landscape, market leaders like ESPN and Nike are leading the way, from different parts of the business.  Nike has reduced its famous television ad campaigns to reach customers through a variety of digital products that track analytics and communicate directly with users. (Image from Cendrowski, 2012).

ESPN is trying to lead the way in digital application of technology, and finding new ways to connect with fans through advances in production and collaboration, many of which give fans opportunities to have direct P2P feedback with the network.  (Videos from Lynch, 2012)

These ESPN innovations may not be digital marketing, per se, in that we aren't creating quantifiable metrics based on clicks and generated leads, but if we are considering digital marketing for sports in its broadest possible terms -- all of the ways in which sports businesses interact with fans and clients -- than we absolutely need to understand the importance of connecting with those consumers in this way.

What this tells us, as observers of the industry, is that there is little limit to what may lie ahead concerning the role of digital application for sports and sports marketing.  As the creator of a program which proposes to graduate future members of the labor force for this industry, my job is to continue to monitor and receive feedback from the industry, to make sure that the students who leave this program understand -- in the academic sense -- what matters in the industry and what skill sets are going to matter in the future of the industry.  Today's students need exposure to as many of these areas as possible, with the hope that they will discover their own particular passions and niches in which they can be successful.



REFERENCES

Cendrowski, S. (2012, February 13). Nike's new marketing mojo. Fortune, Retrieved from http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/13/nike-digital-marketing/

Lynch, C. (2012, June 11). Learn how ESPN tackles tech problems, fosters innovation. Retrieved from http://frontrow.espn.go.com/tag/espn-emerging-technology/

Perrin, J. (2012, July 23). How digital marketing is changing the sports industry. Retrieved from http://www.koozai.com/blog/branding/how-digital-marketing-is-changing-the-sports-industry/

The Perils of New Media: Who counts?

Issuing season-long credentials for sporting events used to be a relatively simple task.  Public Relations managers passed out press box, locker room and/or limited access badges for a handful of regular beat writers, reporters, television stations and radio stations.  Occasionally, they would hand out one-time passes to smaller publications from outlying communities, student magazines and newspapers and national outlets.  Without going into excess detail as to how this worked, the news outlets would submit written requests to the team or organization, which, if completed correctly and with the authority of station and newsroom management, would be rubber-stamped by the team.

That has changed over the last five to ten years, with the mainstreaming of blogs, internet columnists, and various other types of self-publishers who write, comment and consider themselves to be experts about a broad range of individual topics, including sports.  This has presented a dilemma for sports franchises and organizations.  On the one hand, the dilemma is philosophical: what is now considered to be an acceptable news organization?  Is a new blogger with a large following any less legitimate than a small suburban newspaper that may be long established but has a diminishing and older readership?  If the team considers the blogger to be simply an uninformed commentator taking cheap shots from the laptop in his basement, aren’t they doing their team a disservice by NOT granting access so that blogger can be MORE informed? 

The dilemma is also practical: press boxes and locker rooms have limited space, and especially when teams garner lots of attention, such as in the playoffs, how do the teams decide who has access and who does not?  There is then a third question, which is about the ethics of credential distribution: does a team that issues credentials have the right to bar members of the press, especially those that communicate through new and social media, if they write or report items unfavorable to the team?

There are several instances that involved this kind of ethical questions between organizations and journalists, including a highly publicized incident between a team and a mainstream traditional media outlet that occurred in the 2004 MLB playoffs.  But two even more recent examples highlight the difficulty inherent in these kinds of conflicts, and an industry that has been slow to respond effectively and efficiently to a new media world.

The first such example started promisingly.  The National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings have been among the most creative and aggressive early adopters of new and social media.  On their way to the Stanley Cup Championship this past June, the Kings’ often outrageous and snarky twitter feed gained rave reviews for its personality and its willingness to challenge the voice and tone of typical in-house communication mechanisms.  They mix that tone with a more traditional offering of game updates, collateral offerings and more.  In 2009, recognizing that that they had the ability to create their own messaging through their team-owned portals, they hired the former Kings’ beat reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Rich Hammond, to provide written content for their team website, essentially creating their own beat reporter.  Hammond told the regional webzine insidesocal.com that he was not pressured to follow a party line, and that the Kings had always told him “to report and write as normal”.

This past summer, however, Hammond felt he needed to part ways with his role.  Hammond wrote critically about the ongoing NHL lockout in a Q and A with Kings’ forward Kevin Westgarth that has since been removed from the Kings’ website.  The league itself said the post needed to be removed because as a team employee, he had to abide by the league’s rules of not discussing the lockout publicly.  Hammond stressed to insidesocal.com that the Kings did not pressure him at all.  Still, Hammond felt he needed to resign because he couldn’t do the job the way he felt was necessary.  The Kings, to their credit, thanked Hammond in a statement and said his performance "a partner in building a new platform for LAKings.com epitomized integrity, work ethic and vision, and at no time did he waver from his goals and commitment to his readership." (Hoffarth, 2012).  The team also put up a video tribute to Hammond on their website.

Contrast that with what happened a few months after the Kings hired Hammond.  In 2008, the New York Islanders and their Public Relations manager Chris Botta parted ways after he had served the team for 15 years.  With the Islanders blessing and financing, Botta started up a blog called NYIpointblank.com.  The team, which had been in dire competitive straits, benefitted from the additional attention and from the media void filled by Botta’s blog.  In 2009, the team stopped financing the blog, but Botta kept writing.  In November of 2010, the Islanders revoked Botta’s media credentials, for reasons that remain unclear.  Botta believes he lost his credentials because he had criticized General Manager Garth Snow.  He quoted the Islanders’ new Communications Manager, Kimber Auerbach, telling Botta that the team was concerned that Botta had gone from “publicizing the news, to making the news.”  (Sandomir, 2010).  The league declined to investigate or intervene, incurring the wrath of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.  Botta’s media brethren that follow the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils joined the Islanders’ beat reporting crew in boycotting the league’s 2011 Awards Ceremony and in refusing to vote for the league’s awards.

What’s interesting in both cases is that the NHL, far more than the other major professional leagues in the United States, has been at the forefront of exploring new media and in trying to find different streams to engage their partners and fans.  But their policies regarding media and how they operate in this stream is particularly draconian.  Award-winning writer and historian Terry Frei, columnist for the Denver Post and Vice-President of the PHWA, articulately wrote in a blog post (Frei, 2011):

Our concern is that this decision, if allowed to stand and become precedent, signals an end to the league’s agreement that independent and objective coverage not only benefits its fan base, but the NHL itself.

The PHWA’s position is absolute. The splitting of hairs about the circumstances of the Islanders’ decision is an irrelevant waste of time. We ask that the NHL disavow the Islanders’ capricious decision in this specific instance, but even more important, reaffirm that -– barring egregious actions that would cause the PHWA to expel a member, anyway -- PHWA members will be granted access to cover its teams.

Admittedly, the media world has become far more complicated.  We can only hope that the NHL and others who control media access can learn quickly from their mistakes.

RESOURCES

1.  Cohen, D. (2009, September 28). Los Angeles Kings hire former beat writer to cover team. Social Times, DOI: socialtimes.com

2. Frei, T. (2011, April 4). New twist in Islanders' decision to revoke credential from reporter. Retrieved from thepostgame.com

3.Hoffarth, T. (2012, October 11). Was the NHL about to compromise the integrity of Kings' "insider" Hammond. Inside Socal, DOI: insidesocal.com

4.Sandomir, R. (2010, November 18). Struggling Islanders revoke blogger's credentials. New York Times. Retrieved from nytimes.com

LINKS

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/daily-take/201104/new-twist-islanders-decision-revoke-credential-reporter

http://socialtimes.com/los-angeles-kings-hire-former-beat-writer-to-cover-team_b50694

http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2012/10/more-on-why-the.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/hockey/19botta.html?_r=0