Dan came across this article. The University of Michigan is doing something new this year to make their game programs more valuable to fans, and hopefully sway those fans to purchase a program. While something like this requires a significant investment, Increasing the value of print ads and game programs is something that HTM continues to review at the high school level.
Michigan Includes Audio Of "The Catch" In This Week's Program
Wednesday, 7 Sep 2011 | 1:56 PM ET
By Darren Rovell: CNBC Sports Business Reporter
When she was in high school, Barbara Cossman bought a magazine that had an audio chip in it. It was one of things that she never forgot. So when she came to the University of Michigan and became director of publications for the Wolverines, her dream was embed the audio file of a famous play into a gameday program.
Saturday, Cossman's dream will become a reality, as Michigan has printed 15,000 programs to be sold for its game against Notre Dame. Each gameday program includes an audio file of "The Catch," Desmond Howard's famous touchdown against Notre Dame twenty years ago.
But it's not just the audio of the call, from the announcers that day — Frank Beckmann for the Michigan Sports Network and Brent Musburger for ABC — it also includes the play call from Michigan's head football coach at the time Gary Moeller and sound from Michigan quarterback Elvis Grbac in the huddle.
Thanks to the Internet, gameday publications seems to be a dying business. But Cossman has just changed her approach to make sure she can still sell programs to at least five percent of the total audience in Michigan Stadium each game.
"People want fewer words and more images," Cossman said. "So we've included amazing photography. But we've also focused on having a commemorative issue. We did an issue for the 100th game between Ohio State and Michigan in 2003 and we did a special issue in 2007 for (former Michigan coach) Bo Schembechler a year after he died."
The commemorative issues typically cost $10, but to cover the cost of the investment in the chip, this program cost $15.
That's still an incredible price considerating the 30-second compilation of all the sound didn't exist before. Cossman said she's glad that the athletic department greenlighted the financial risk they're taking, though the athletic department's chief marketing officer Hunter Lochmann said they don't even have to sell out the all the programs to make money. If early sales are indicative, Wolverines fans are going to snap them up quickly.
They've already sold more than 1,000 online. IMG also sold the back of the audio card to Absopure water in order to make the deal more financially viable. Besides it being the 20th anniversary of the catch, it also comes at a time when Michigan is honoring Howard for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Howard will be on campus broadcasting with ESPN's College Gameday crew. Plus, it's the first game in Michigan history under the lights in Ann Arbor.
To give fans who buy the program a bonus, the card with the audio has a QR code to it that leads to a Web site that includes more audio. Prediction: Michigan sells out of these programs and college gameday programs around the country get revitalized by adding this feature.
We came across this interesting article written by Jay Mathews from The Washington Post
Education writers rarely examine high school sports, but something is happening there that might help pull our schools out of the doldrums.
In the last school year, a new national survey found, 7,667,955 boys and girls took part in high school sports. This is 55.5 percent of all students, according to the report from the National Federation of State High School Associations, and the 22nd straight year that participation had increased.
Despite two major recessions and numerous threats to cut athletic budgets to save academics, high schools have found ways not only to keep sports alive but increase the number of students playing. We have data indicating sports and other extracurricular activities do better than academic classes in teaching leadership, teamwork, time management and other skills crucial for success in the workplace.
Coaches may be the only faculty members still allowed by our culture and educational practice to get tough with students not making the proper effort. They have the advantage of teaching what are essentially elective non-credit courses. They can insist on standards of behavior that classroom teachers often cannot enforce because the stakes of dismissing or letting students drop their courses are too high.
I thought about this as I watched for the first time in many years my high school’s football team, the Knights of Hillsdale High, in San Mateo, Calif. It was an exciting, high-scoring game, even though we lost 49-35 to a team of behemoths from Mountain View. I understood why that sport is still number one for boys. Last year it had 1,108,441 participants, almost twice as many as number two track and field, which draws 579,000 students.
The other top ten boys’ sports, in descending order, were: basketball, baseball, soccer, wrestling, cross country, tennis, golf and swimming/diving. (I was a nerdish poor athlete, but participation helped me. I got a letter jacket I wore everywhere I went.)
The influence of sports on girls is growing even faster. Their participation is up 63 percent in the last 20 years compared to 31 percent for boys. Their top sport is track and field, with 475,265 participants, followed by basketball, volleyball, fast pitch softball, soccer, cross country, tennis, swimming/diving, competitive spirit squads and lacrosse in that order. (The survey missed some smaller schools which account for about 4 percent of the U.S. high school population, according to federation official Elliot Hopkins.)
We Californians can grumble about pigskin worship making Texas number one, beating us in participation 786,626 to 774,767 even though the Golden State’s population is 42 percent larger. (Virginia ranks 15th with 175,435 participants. Maryland is 22nd with 114,223.) But the fact is that all states would benefit from more after school activity.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has published a list of what it calls life and career skills, including flexibility and adaptability, productivity and accountability, leadership and responsibility. Many teens find the most congenial way to acquire such competencies is after-school activities.
A 2008 paper by Christy Lleras in the journal Social Science Research said students who participated in sports and other activities in high school earned more 10 years later, even when compared to those with similar test scores. A 2005 paper by Peter Kuhn and Catherine Weinberger in the Journal of Labor Economics found similar results for men who occupied leadership positions in high school. They cited evidence that leadership is not just a natural talent, but can be learned by participating in extracurricular activities.
Students do better in activities they choose. If we provide more of them, led by committed adults, maybe even part-timers or volunteers, that can make a difference.
We know the bad news about American education. SAT scores are down. Drop-out rates are high. But sports participation is going up, despite pressure to cut it back. Let’s cheer about that, and look for a way to draw more students in. With more depth on defense, for instance, Hillsdale might win next time.
Watching
the Monday Night game last night, I came away from the first half asking if
anyone logs onto the internet while watching the game and enters one of the
endless contests that seem to be running. While it would be cool to hang for a
game with Steve Young and crew, I just don’t really see that as being an
effective element of a partnership. For one it is not unique and to me
that is the biggest issue. All the contests just run together (like this
blog!). Secondly, the amount of effort (and that is code for $$$$$) they
put into these contests is huge and could be better spent in making the property
stronger. Is that to say that there is not a contest out there that is
not unique or appealing? No. Rather I think it is the answer of least
resistance when trying to make a partnership work. Because Associations
do not have a long storied history of executing superficial contests I believe
we are in a position to offer elements that emphasis the “partner” component
more than your traditional professional franchise or quasi-professional major
college program.
Now
the first reader of this blog to log onto www.winabigstupidprize.com and
enter your social security number along with bank routing number will win free
tickets to the HTM clambake this Saturday!
We came across this AP article and wanted to share it with you. It says so much about the power of high school sports.
Tornado-ravaged
Joplin unites around high school football game
Published: Sunday, September 11,
2011, 10:08 PM Updated: Sunday, September 11, 2011, 10:44 PM
JOPLIN, Mo. -- There's a scar through the middle of Joplin,
a mile wide and six miles long. All that's left are a few twisted tree stumps,
chunks of chewed-up pavement and the tattered remains of homes and businesses.
The football stadium still stands. So much of the town is
gone.
The tornado that churned through southwest Missouri on May
22 forever altered its landscape. More than 2,000 buildings were reduced to
rubble, 160 lives were lost, an estimated $3 billion in damage left in its
wake.
About the only thing the storm didn't destroy was the spirit
of the people who call Joplin home.
On Saturday night, they converged on Junge Stadium for the
first home football game. More than 10,000 fans jammed into a facility built
for 4,500 to watch their Eagles face Springfield Hillcrest, the biggest crowd
anybody could remember.
There were 22 seconds of silence, a bald eagle soared
overhead and a National Guard helicopter that assisted in the storm relief swooped
over the field. Then the game kicked off.
And for a few hours, there was a sense of normalcy.
Under the twinkling lights of a warm autumn evening,
teenagers forced to grow up too quickly played football. Coaches cried out
instructions, cheerleaders clapped, band members marched in perfect order. A
flash mob at halftime danced to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " as
the setting sun turned the clouds brilliant shades of purple and red.
Although the Eagles ultimately lost 21-9, in many ways they
won just by taking the field.
"They're going to be able to talk about this for the
rest of their lives," said Dan Hueller, Joplin High's assistant principal.
"These are the kinds of things we want our kids to remember, not the
disaster that's taken place. These are the kinds of memories you want to have
for your kids."
Determination
The fact that there's football this fall is a testament to Jeff Starkweather's
determination.
The longtime athletic director thought school officials were
crazy when, just after the storm, they vowed to start classes on time. The high
school had been gutted, practice fields were ruined, jerseys and equipment
simply gone. But Starkweather knew the best way to get over the trauma was to
get to work, so that's what he did.
"It was a lot of logistics, things you take for
granted, when you walk right out of school to your practice facility and there
you are," he said. "There was no practice field. There wasn't even a
school."
There are plans to rebuild the 50-year-old high school, but it'll
take time. For now, freshmen and sophomores have class at the old Memorial High
School, which escaped significant damage. Juniors and seniors attend a
makeshift school built inside an empty department store at the mall.
The temporary facility is tricked out with flat-screen
televisions and plush lounges, and every student has a laptop thanks to a
donation from the embassy of the United Arab Emirates. But all the technology
in the world doesn't make up for what's missing: walls that block out noise from
neighboring classrooms, a kitchen attached to the cafeteria, trophy cases full
of achievements and all those memories of students past and present.
"It's not ideal," Starkweather said, "but
really, what is about this? We're proud that we got that together. And we're
competing on time, and athletics are moving forward."
Josh Banwart wasn't sure that would be the case.
The senior linebacker was home with his two younger sisters
and a family friend when the tornado sirens went off. He didn't think much of
it at first -- happens all the time in the Midwest -- but as the rumble kept
getting louder, he headed for the basement. When an eerie silence finally
settled over town, he emerged to find almost everything in his neighborhood
gone. His own home had the roof and siding ripped off.
"We were hearing the windows breaking," he
recalled, "and you could smell the grass and the dirt."
Banwart's parents were celebrating their anniversary in
Jamaica and learned about the storm on television. They got a text message
through, but with cell towers down, Banwart didn't speak to them for six or
seven hours.
"We walked up to the high school that night,"
Banwart said. "You couldn't drive anywhere, so we kept walking into town,
and as you got further it got worse."
Banwart knew Will Norton, the teen who was driving home from
his high school graduation when the tornado sucked him through the window of
his truck. Norton's body was found in a nearby pond. He was one of seven
students and a school administrator killed by the storm.
"The first day of school, it was interesting to hear
the stories," said Dayton Whitehead, a senior wide receiver who scored the
Eagles' lone touchdown Saturday. "At practice, you see construction trucks
driving by all the time, and it helps to know that you'll have a football
season, just like last year, before anything happened."
Whitehead said there are still cliques like those found at
every high school, but the feeling in the hallways has changed. Athletes,
artists and everyone in between have been through something they'll never
forget.
"You still hang out with the same people you hanged out
with," Whitehead said, "but when you see people you didn't know, you
kind of try to take into consideration that maybe you should say 'Hi' to them
once in a while, because you never know what could happen."
Getting ready
The first home football game Saturday was a triumph for Joplin, said Chris
Shields, their 35-year-old coach. He was hired a couple of months before the
storm hit and hadn't moved to town yet. In fact, he had only met with his
players twice to organize summer workouts and fundraisers.
All of those plans went out the window when he heard the
news.
"The first few days, football takes a backseat,"
Shields said. "It's about finding loved ones, making sure everyone is
accounted for, seeing what you can do. Then you look around and figure out what
to do next."
The goal was to get back on the field as soon as possible.
Everyone knew it wouldn't take long.
"High school football is a way to get back to
normal," said booster club president Dan McCreary, whose three children
all graduated from Joplin. He lost his home and vehicles in the storm and could
be spending his time rebuilding. Instead, he spent Friday at Junge Stadium
stocking the vending stands with soda and chips.
"It's time to rejoice over something a little less
significant," McCreary said. "I mean, it seems really important when
you're a kid out there and you drop a pass or miss a tackle -- it seems pretty
big sometimes -- but I think it helps to get back to normal. It helps all of
us."
Everyone affected by the storm has a story, even if it hurts
to tell. They'd rather talk about the outpouring of support they received, the
volunteers who helped clean up, the rebuilding effort already under way.
Country music singer Kenny Foster grew up in Joplin. His
parents still lived in the same house near the high school that the tornado
turned to splinters. After the storm, he penned a song entitled
"Hometown" that can be purchased from his website, with all the
proceeds from its sale going to the relief effort.
Foster performed it for the crowded grandstand prior to the
game, in part because he believes something as simple as high school football
can help heal the scars the tornado left behind.
"Who from high school didn't go to football games on
Friday night? It's a pastime, a pastime anywhere in Middle America," he
said with a smile. "There's going to be a gap to fill here in the spirit
of the people. It's nice to bring that back into focus. If it takes football to
do that, so be it."
