Rob Robson's Blog: Sport and.. ..stuff.

My blog is mostly comment on what's going on in sport, but with other things thrown in...

The Super Bowl is big.. ..but how big?

It's Super Bowl sunday. The Indianapolis Colts take on the New Orleans Saints. It's going to be huge. It is big business, but is it the biggest annual sports event in the world?
Super Bowl XLIV logo

Before we answer that, let's look at some of the stats associated with Super Bowl XLIV (from the Sunday Times).

A 30 second ad for tonight's game costs $2.8m - almost 70 times the cost in 1967 ($42, 500).

4 million Americans have bought a new TV for the game.

An incredible 350 pizza slices per second, 11 million lbs of potato chips and 4, 000 tons of popcorn will be consumed! Andres Iniesta - Barcelona - Champions League 2009

Andres Iniesta - Barcelona - Champions League 2009

The average American will spend $50 on Super Bowl-related merchandise and food.

And over 100 million people will watch the game.

So, we're agreed, right? It's huge.

Indeed, in purely commercial terms it may be the biggest game of them all. But the BBC this week reported that in 2009, for the first time, it was not the most-watched annual sports event. That accolade went to the Champions League final (yes, soccer). 109 million people from around the globe watch the final between Barcelona and Manchester United (versus 106 million for the Super Bowl).

It's an interesting contrast because the tiny difference masks a huge difference in profile. The Champions League makes its numbers from global aaudiences, while the Super Bowl is much more limited to North America.

For marketers, the ability to reach around 100 million people watching in one country on one channel must account for the huge advertising premiums, whereas reaching a globally dispersed and diverse population must present real challenges - but also opportunities for global brands.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: advertising, audiences, brand, business, champions league, marketing, sports, super bowl xliv, tv

Posted Sun Feb 7 2010 11:52 AM by robrobson | Permalink | Comments(0)

Excellent sports business resource

I stumbled across these sports business pages on the BBC website today. I'm not sure if it is a permanent dynamic resource as it is labelled 'special report'.

Being the BBC it is inevitably centred around sports business in the UK and our favoured sports such as soccer and F1, but it does have plenty of international perspective, such as the impact of recent events on Tiger Woods' brand and a look at the development of the facilities for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Here's the link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/business/2009/business_of_sport/default.stm

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: bbc, f1, fifa world cup, sports business, tiger woods, uk

Posted Mon Jan 11 2010 7:04 AM by robrobson | Permalink | Comments(0)

Generating ideas for blogs on sport or exercise

So, at the start of this New Year (decade indeed) you've resolved to blog more to raise your profile as a sport or exercise professional. Right? Sure you have. Why wouldn't you?

Well, one reason might be that you think you've nothing to say. Well, you have. Trust me. Here are some thoughts that might stimulate blog ideas for sport and exercise professionals in 2010 and get people flocking to your blog, site or profile.

Major Sports Events

Major sports events generate incredible traffic. In 2008, when the Beijing Olympic Games were on we saw an incredible spike in traffic, often doubling our visitor stats and more.

We've no summer Olympics this year but of course the Winter Games are due to start soon, in Vancouver. That doesn't mean that London 2012 won't attract attention this year. Indeed, the closer the Games get the more interest will ramp up.

We've also got the African Nations Cup in football starting now - and if you didn't know that before the terrible attack on the Togolese team, you probably do now. But the big event in world sport will undoubtedly occur this summer, with the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Sports Stars

Predicting who's going to attract the most attention in 2010 may feel like crystal ball gazing, but it needn't necesarily be so. You and I may not have predicted Michael Schumacher's return to Formula 1, for example, but after his aborted 'interim' contract with Ferrari perhaps it shouldn't have been such a surprise and may not have been to those in the sport.

Indeed, if you are working in and around a particular sport you are likely to party to a lot more intelligence than you perhaps realise. With a little thought, you're likely to be able to come up with some names that have the potential to make an impact this year. Of course, they may already be doing so, but just haven't come into the public spotlight yet.

In 2008 I posted a short blog in which I wondered what it must be like to be Michael Jordan's son (Marcus). To be honest, it was a bit of a throwaway blog, and didn't get that many hits at the time. But then, all of a sudden, in March 2009 it suddenly got loads of posts. Why? Partly it was down to the double whammy of Marcus Jordan making an impact in a major event (college basketball's annual 'March Madness'). If you live outside the US and don't know it - this is a huge deal. But the other variable was that I had included an image (with Marcus Jordan in the alt text and title - easy to do with our editor) and most of the hits came from Google's image search.

Big Issues or Trends in Sport & Exercise

Again, you don't have to be a clairvoyant to predict which trends in your sport or area of interest are going to be popular in 2010. The 'super suits' issue in swimming was around for some time before reaching a peak at the World Championships in Rome last year.

Things to consider might be:
What new technology or scientific breakthrough will have an impact in a particular sport?
What foods or training methods will the public grab hold of and turn into the fad of the year?
What more controversial issues in your sport are starting to build?

How to Take Advantage

The first point to make is that if you don't predict these things, you can post reactive blogs to good effect. Posting in advance will allow you to get picked up in search more effectively. Posting at the time will allow you to take advantage of the trend through more immediate media such as Twitter and Facebook. Of course, there's nothing to stop you from doing both - posting in advance and reminding people of their presence.

However, once you decide to post consider the following:

1) Keywords are, well, key! I see cleverly titled posts on here all the time that don't get a lot of hits because they just don't show up for the terms that are being searched. You have to signpost to people what you are posting about - putting the key words into the title, text and tags of your post.

2) Include images or video. Embedding mutlmedia into your posts will help it to show up in more searches, for example video or image searches on google. There's more about this in the 'How to use iStadia' club on this site.

3) Remember that search engines and hits aren't the be-all-and-end-all! Write for, and choose keywords that will interest, your target audience. 100 views from people that are actually interested in the topic you are writing on will add more value to you as a professional than 1000 views from people that are not. This means relating popular themes to content of value - for example the psychology of a particular star or the marketing of a particular event - and including content / key words that relate to your particular niche.

4) Promote your content. You can use the 'Share' button on iStadia to email, or repost your content to social media or bookmarking sites. Only making your content accessible through one site is like only selling through one outlet. You are limiting people's opportunity to discover how great your service or product is.

Just do it!

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: blogging, blogs, content, events, exercise, ideas, issues, olympics, social media, sports, stars, trends

Posted Sun Jan 10 2010 9:45 AM by robrobson in Sports Social Media and Marketing | Permalink | Comments(0)

So what does Kenenisa Bekele know about training?

I was astounded by the great Kenenisa Bekele's statement after losing out to a Kenyan clean sweep today in the Edinburgh International cross country athletics race. "I am not in good shape," he said, in an interview with BBC Sport. "I arrived three days before the race and I could not train because of the snow. I missed two or three training sessions."

What? Two or three training sessions? And he's not in good shape? What kind of physiology does this guy have? I could understand if he said, "I didn't feel great today. I like to be able to run in the days before a race". But that's not what he said.

It seems like an incredibly ignorant statement for one of the greatest endurance runners of all time to make. It's the sort of thing I hear kids say. It's understandable that kids might obsess about how much training they've done and whether missing a couple of days might be the end of the world, but not a 27 year old multiple world record holder!

Indeed, I'd like to see kids have more perspective, and for a role model like Bekele to come out with this is only going to reinforce the myth that if they miss a couple of days of training they are suddenly going to lose fitness.

Oh - and I suppose no-one else in the race had their schedules affected by snow either?

What a nonsense.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: athletics, cross country, edinburgh, fitness, kenenisa bekele, training

Posted Sat Jan 9 2010 3:42 PM by robrobson | Permalink | Comments(0)

Breaking into Sports

Some excellent advice from Mark Washo on Lewis Howes' Sports Networker website on how to break into sports.

Mark Washo is an 18 year professional sports executive and author of Break Into Sports Through Ticket Sales. He is the current President of the Washington Freedom. Mark has experience in Minor League Baseball, the NBA, MLS and now Women’s Professional Soccer.

Mark's advice is good not only for aspriring sports professionals, but those looking to further develop their career.

Lewis Howes will be with as at the London Sports Networking event on January 19th.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: break into sports, careers, lewis howes, mark washo, sports networking

Posted Wed Jan 6 2010 4:26 AM by robrobson | Permalink | Comments(0)

The secret to Tiger Woods' return to Golf?

As you'd expect with the PGA tour's #1 draw and one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, speculation continues as to the timing of Tiger Woods' return to competitive golf. I'm not going to add to the speculation, but offer an observation about what might determine whether that return is successful or not.

Tiger Woods has been a man in apparent control since he arrived on the scene. His image has been closely managed, and he's managed to retain an air of complete authority on the golf course (most of the time - contrast what's happening now with this blog on tiger's psychology). So, I'd hypothesise that being in control is important to him.

I'd argue that, if the allegations are true regarding his private life, that he's managed to create a false sense of control. Somehow, perhaps with a lot of help from his management team, perhaps through charm, perhaps through financial incentive, the women that he is alleged to have "transgressed" with have kept quiet. Until now.

That cat's out of the bag and life is never going to be the same for Tiger. Tiger never was in complete control, though. He just believed that he was. Now I expect he knows that he's not. I'd also hypothesise that this is highly stressful for Tiger.

In my opinion, the only thing that Tiger Woods can now do is fully accept that he's not in control of his image, over allegations that might appear, and how people might talk about him. If he does this he can stay in control over what he does with a golf ball, and if he can realise that (for his career, if not his marriage) that's all that matters, then he can get to winning ways.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: control, golf, return, stress, tiger woods, transgressions

Posted Wed Jan 6 2010 1:30 AM by robrobson in Sport Psychology | Permalink | Comments(0)

"Most footballers are knobs"

So who do you think said that? Those of you that listen to Radio 4 (in the UK) might know already. The rest of you might be surprised to hear that it was Joey Barton, Newcastle United's "bad boy".

Barton was interviewed this morning because Tony Adams, former Arsenal and England Captain and founder of the Sporting Chance clinic, was the guest editor. Barton attended the Sporting Chance clinic to learn anger management.

He came across, as he has before, as quite forthright yet humble (and I think I said that before he got into trouble last time). It has now been two years since he has had a drink, having realised after attending his anger management course and still finding trouble, that alcohol was actually the common denominator.

He was asked why footballers seem to get into so much trouble, which was when he pronounced that basically "most footballers are knobs", which he explained as buying the flashest cars and changing them "like their socks", wearing ridiculous diamond watches, and so on. But he also raised the important issue, that footballers are not raised in the real world. Professional football in the UK is different to the big American sports, for example, that takes its pros from the college system which means that, at least to some extent, they have to give some attention to their education and mix with other students. As Barton explained it, in the UK, kids are taken into football clubs and treated as special from 8 or 9 years of age, and become extremely well paid, high performing athletes who are "crap at life". They never grow up.

I'm not close enough to professional football to know if the academy system is changing this, or whether professional football clubs are doing more to teach their young players social and personal skills, or to take responsibility for their behaviour, but if not they must.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: alcohol, anger management, behaviour, joey barton, life skills, personal skills, professional football, soccer, social skills, sporting chance, tony adams, trouble

Posted Wed Dec 30 2009 1:55 AM by robrobson in Football Psychology, Sport Psychology | Permalink | Comments(0)

What's your sporting memory of the decade?

As the end of the decade approaches, the media inevitably seeks to define the sporting achievement / person of the decade. Just because it isn't the most original thing to do doesn't make it less interesting, particularly as the community on iStadia consists of people that have a special interest in sport - perhaps even direct involvement in some of the more memorable moments that have occurred.

I thought that rather than being as specific about defining the person or achievement, I'd ask what your favourite memory in sport from the 'noughties'. Team GB beijing Olympics

As a Brit, and an avid follower of the Olympics since I can remember (whihc would be the Moscow Olympics), I'm going to put my favourite memory down as the entire Beijing Olympics. I know that's a bit of a cop out, but it had so many special moments. From a British perspective the Beijing Olympics represented the transformation of British sport from plucky also-rans to a competitive, highly professional group of athletes across many sports. Being more specific, one could point to the domination of the cycling team, or (I'm also a swimmer) Rebecca Adlington's two gold medals (our first in 20 years in the pool and the first women's gold since Anita Lonsbrough almost 50 years ago), or perhaps Ben Ainslie's 3rd gold medal in a row. But the Beijing Olympics were special not only from a UK perspective, and no more so than in the performances of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.

So there's my answer. What I love about sport is that everyone will have their own opinion, so I'd love to hear it!

What's your sporting memory of the decade?

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: beijing olympics, ben ainslie, cycling, michael phelps, noughties, olympics, rebecca adlington, sporting decade, sports, teamgb, usain bolt

Posted Wed Dec 30 2009 1:40 AM by robrobson in Olympics | Permalink | Comments(8)

Levein Raises Issue of Boredom in International Football Management

Unless you follow Scottish football, or are Leicester City fan, you're unlikely to know much about Craig Levein. But the Dundee United manager is a leading contender for the vacant position of Scotland's football manager. I was interested to note that his main concern the role was that he might get bored with the lack of day-to-day management required by the role.

For a young manager, who is bright and ambitious, to be concerned about the prospect of boredom in international football managers might seem crazy to most of us. I mean, who wouldn't jump at the chance - even to manage Scotland! But Levein is reported to want to take more responsibility than just the senior team, perhaps taking on a role to build the whole peformance system, more like a performance director in an olympic sport. Actually, I don't blame him.

To have your hands tied to only playing a handful of matches in a season, only having your squad together for small amounts of time, and having little no influence on the quality of players coming through the pip SFA logo - Scottish Football Association

eline might not only be a bit boring but also very frustrating.

Indeed, while we can probably all relate to the stress of not feeling in control, boredom is also a stressor in itself. For those that seek enjoyment, through such things as variety and challenge, in their work boredom is a real possibility if their needs are not met.

Any negative emotion, as boredom is, can be stressful both through the tension that is felt between the actual and desired state, and through effort expended to resolve that tension - particularly when it is unsuccessful.

I think that Levein, in revealing this side of his personality, is demonstrating a high degree of self-awareness that simply adds weight to his suitability for the job. But if the Scottish Football Association decide that he's their man they might have to make the job a bigger one.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: boredom, craig levein, football, international, management, scotland, sfa, stress

Posted Sun Dec 20 2009 2:34 PM by robrobson in Football Psychology, Leadership & Management in Sport, Reversal Theory in Sport, Sport Psychology | Permalink | Comments(0)

Hughes Man City Sacking Not a Surprise

Mark Hughes was a sacking waiting to happen. The announcement made on the Manchester City website stated that the team's results were not in line with targets set. Yet Man City are not far off Champions League qualification, so there wasn't a desperate need to act now.

It is often said that football is a results business. But that's true in all professional sports. Its true in business too. CEOs don't get long to prove that they are up to the job. Up to the job - that's an important statement to me. mark hughes sacked as man city manager

I don't believe that Mark Hughes was sacked because the team's results had not been up to expectations. I expect he was sacked because the owners didn't believe he was up to the job. He didn't have their complete confidence. I imagine that was true from the beginning. They didn't hire him, and I suggest that their decision not to replac e him immediately was a "let's wait and see" decision rather than "he's absolutlely the right man for the job".

And you know what? If they've taken a good hard look at his plans, his capabilities and - of course - his development needs in the intervening time and they're not convinced that he will deliver what they want, then he has to go. Whether they've really taken such a reasoned and analytical view is my only doubt.

What journalists would have us believe is that a good result in a particular game might have "saved" his job. That's no way to run a football club. You have to accept that you don't always get the outcome that you want, but you have to look at everything that might influence that outcome and ensure that you are doing everything that you can to control what you can.

So let's not kid ourselves. Mark Hughes has been a dead man walking. The only thing that could have saved him would have been if his team had surpassed all expectations, and possibly won the Premier League. But as we saw with Mourinho at Chelsea, even unprecedented success doesn't guarantee job security. Ultimately, Hughes (as a manager) isn't a 'marquee' name, and that's what a mega-rich owners tend to want for their newly acquired football club.

--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com

Tags: man city, management, manchester city, mark hughes, results, sacking

Posted Sat Dec 19 2009 3:15 PM by robrobson in Leadership & Management in Sport | Permalink | Comments(0)