Another Winter Olympics has come and gone, generating a lot of news worthy of discussion along the way.  Our interest, as always, is focused on a sports business perspective and the lessons the Games provide that can be shared in the classroom. 

While there are a number of highlights from the Games worth recapping, we will focus specifically on those lessons that will translate to topic areas you are likely covering in class. 

Broadcast rights

NBC paid a record $2.2 billion for U.S. broadcast rights to the Beijing and Vancouver Olympic Games.  Prior to the Vancouver Games, NBC publicly suggested they would lose $250…

There has been an awful lot of banter in the sports talk world of shifting the post-season model in college football from a series of bowl games (all 34 of them) to some type of playoff format.  Personally, I can see the arguments for both scenarios, but I think we all know a major factor in any decision that will be made will relate to dollars.

As many of you will inevitably be dissecting this argument in class, I thought I’d try to provide some resources to help fuel the discussion.  With that, I present to you in this week’s blog…

In the last blog post, we discussed the marketing efforts of Stanford football to expand their fan base.  Today’s post reviews another collegiate football program and their marketing strategies.  The Virginia Cavaliers campaign for this football season is the “Power of Orange” and provides an excellent case study in the efforts to build tradition.  Obviously, building tradition is often influenced by success on the playing field, and Virginia has certainly elevated the program’s status with the hiring of former NFL coach Al Groh back in 2001.  Heading in to this season, Groh’s record at Virginia was 51-37 and the Cavaliers had been…