I know what most of the prognosticators are saying:
- The Cardinals have never been to the Super Bowl,
- The Steelers are going for their 6th Super Bowl win,
- Arizona limped into the playoffs with a weak 9-7 record,
- Pittsburgh has the toughest defense in the league, all of which leads to
- The oddsmakers picking the Pittsburgh Steelers by a 10-point margin over the Arizona Cardinals.
I know, I know, I know! 
NEVERTHELESS . . . I still think it’s gonna be a closely fought, and therefore a great, game, with the final score something in the range of 30-28.
But although I feel the game will be super, I’m confident that most of the ads running during tomorrow’s game will actually be pretty weak.
For my take on what to look for in the game within the game (the game where advertisers are spending $3 million for each 30-second window of commercial air time), check out “Five Emotions to Watch for in this Year’s Super Bowl Ads” on TheBettyFactor.com.
And let me know what you think.
Last December David blogged about meeting US Ski Team mogul skier Shelly Robertson. Well, this weekend is the Deer Valley Resort Visa Freestyle Invitational and Shelly is in town.
When we first met Shelly she was returning home to Reno after taking 7th place in the women’s moguls competition at the 2008 World Cup season opener in Tignes, France. Since then we have traded emails back and forth with a plan to see her ski in person at the Deer Valley event.
After France, her next event was the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup on January 20 in Lake Placid, New York. I’m signed up for the US Ski Team email newsletter (You can sign up in the middle of the page at (www.usskiteam.com), and I saw that she took 5th place, so I sent her a congratulations email. She responded, “I was definitely excited about 5th- skiing really well- just went way too big on the bottom jump and almost over-rotated the backflip.” That statement turned out to be prophetic for her next event.
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For more than 10 years (1994 - 2004), I wrote a self-syndicated column called “Utah Tech Watch” that began as a biweekly column and six months later moved to a weekly schedule.
Over time this column was published by three papers — the Deseret News (now the Deseret Morning News), The Daily Herald (in Provo, Utah) and The Enterprise (Utah’s weekly business paper) — as well as being distributed for free via email to several thousand subscribers.
Each year, one of my most fun and yet difficult self-directed assignments was to identify the top 10 stories of the year.
I plan to resurrect “Utah Tech Watch” as an online media property in 2008, and when I do, I’ll also resurrect its annual Top 10 stories piece. But for now, let me transpose this idea to this SOAR Communications blog with what I propose are the Top 10 Global SOAR Stories of 2007.
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I’m a huge fan of college football! But there’s no week I love better than the week of Thanksgiving. It’s when almost every college football team plays their own rivals.
In Utah, it’s no different. The rivalry game between No. 23 BYU and Utah has come to be known as “The Holy War” for the connection BYU has with the LDS Church (Mormon). With the schools located only 40 miles apart, pranks from each school have heated up the rivalry to fever pitch for years. Last year’s late-game heroics by now-NFL quarterback John Beck has only added fuel to the fire. There’s been nothing but trash talk between SLC and Provo for almost 12 full months now.
Here’s the clip that fueled the fire:
This year’s game should be even better. Each team is riding a seven-game win streak, with BYU looking to secure the top spot in the Mountain West Conference with a win, and the Utes looking to share a piece of the top spot with a win and a BYU loss at San Diego State.
If this year’s game is anything like last year’s, it will be awesome! Go Cougs!
(This game will be televised live on CSTV at noon MT.)
So Chip and I were in NoCal this past Thursday to visit with new SOAR Communications’ client, Ritchey Design, whose sales and marketing offices are in San Carlos, California.
After our meeting, we headed east to Sacramento to attend a hotel grand opening with project client, Rim Hospitality.
On the way, we heard the breaking news on San Francisco sports talk show leader, KNBR-AM, that a federal grand jury had issued five indictments against home run king, Barry Bonds, accusing him of lying under oath.
By now, sports fanatics and non-fans alike probably know most of the details of the alleged crimes –
- four counts of perjury, and
- one count of obstruction of justice.
If convicted on all five counts, Bonds could spend as much as 30 years in prison.
As we drove east on I-80, we heard one of Bonds’ attorneys proclaim Barry’s innocence and predict that Bonds would not spend a day in jail.
The home run king is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on December 7 to answer the charges.
Nevertheless, as a player without a team, Bonds may have played his last inning of professional baseball.
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In an interesting turn of events, it now appears that Alex Rodriguez will re-sign with the New York Yankees.
The interesting aspect of the pending 10-year, $275 million contract is that the negotiations have apparently been conducted without the active participation of A-Rod’s agent, Scott Boras.
According to a detailed article in today’s “Wall Street Journal,” Rodriguez (and his wife) desperately wanted to stay in New York City, but A-Rod felt that option had been effectively been burned after he had declared free agency, with the strong urging of Boras. (The WSJ story can be found here; subscription required.)
A-Rod apparently shared this frustration (and love for NYC and the Yankees) with his friend, investing genius Warren Buffett, who advised the slugger to approach the Yankees without Boras’ involvement. Apparently, A-Rod did exactly that, reaching out to a Goldman Sachs personal wealth manager, who in turn reached out to a Goldman exec who had worked directly with the Yankees organization.
Even if an A-Rod/Yankees agreement is reached, it will still need the blessing of Boras. And why wouldn’t Boras agree to such a deal? He still gets his commission on any A-Rod deal.
Hmmmmm, let me see . . . an agent is supposed to represent clients to the best of his/her abilities, correct? Correct.
As part of such representation, an agent is supposed to negotiate with the client’s best interests in mind, correct? Correct.
And that usually means getting greater and greater financial consideration for a client, correct? Correct.
And if part of how an agent can create greater perceived value for his/her client is by creating a publicty firestorm for said client, shouldn’t the agent do that? Yes.
So why is Major League Baseball surprised (let alone upset) that agent Scott Boras chose the middle of Game 4 of the 2007 World Series to announce that Alex Rodriguez would opt out of the final three years of his contract with the New York Yankees?
Seriously? Are you joking? Get a life MLB.
Professional baseball is just that — a profession, a business, and Boras was only doing exactly what he’s supposed to do which is represent his client’s interests in the best way possible. And in this instance, that meant using the worldwide platform of Game 4 of the World Series to proclaim that A-Rod was back on the market.
Announcing Rodriguez’ impending departure from the Yanks a day earlier or later would NOT have had the same impact.
Would it have shown greater class to wait a day after the Series ended? Sure. But just because it would have been classier — or better for baseball (or Series’ winner the Boston Red Sox) — the MLB and BoSox are not Boras’ clients. Rodriguez is.
Strategically, the timing of the announcement was a PR winner.
I admit it…I’m a Red Sox fan. I was glued to the Series, to my wife’s chagrin. And I enjoyed watching the Sox not only get back to the Fall Classic, but winning it for the second time in four years. However, in the midst of the whole enjoyable experience, I found myself wanting the Rockies to win at least a game. The feeling was borne of nothing but the desire to see the Sox continue to play. The thing that is sad is to see the season come to an end. Even though they hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy, they have to pack up their things and hibernate for the winter. It’s a bittersweet experience, from this fan’s perspective. Granted, I wouldn’t want it to end any other way. But at the same time, it’s hard to see it end.
Regardless, congratulations to the World Champions! Well done! Let’s do it again next year!
Any question about whether Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is gaining greater visibility, acceptance and strength was erased this past week when MMA pioneer TapouT signed on with CAA Sports.
CAA Sports (a division of Creative Artists Agency), will represent TapouT in entertainment and licensing, with the MMA brand expected to launch its clothing line in more than 6,000 in the next 12 months.
CAA was formed in 1975 and is one of the top talent agencies in the world.
Sports Business Journal does an excellent job describing the relationship between CAA Sports and TapouT in this 10/24/07 article.
I’ve been putting off writing something for our blog for a couple of reasons. One, life here at SOAR has been incredibly busy. Our biggest client, Interbike, is having their annual bicycle tradeshow in Las Vegas in 4 days and we have spent the last couple of months ramping up for that. The other reason is, I’m new to blogging, and I wasn’t sure I had anything interesting or significant to post. Now I do.
I’m bummed. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found Landis guilty of doping (see AP story here). I haven’t ridden regularly in a while, but I’m still an avid fan of cycling and racing. My wife and I cheered loudly at the TV during Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour, only to stare silently again later while learning that Landis was accused of doping.
I’m not even going to pretend to understand the facts surrounding the case and spout my opinion here in this post. I’m just bummed for Landis, racers in general and for recreational cyclists and potential recreational cyclists who might think twice about participating in a tainted activity.
The news about Landis will make for an interesting next few weeks, especially with the industry’s largest trade show, Interbike, and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Championships taking place at the same time. I’m sure everyone will be talking about the verdict and will have an opinion.
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