LPGA Makes Bold, Reckless Statement

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Starting at the end of the 2009 season the LPGA will require players to establish English proficiency or face suspension. Golf, and all major individual sports, rely heavily on communication skills to engage fans and capture sponsors. Recently foreign players have dominated the LPGA, particularly South Koreans. However, the [...]

MLS Getting Expansion Happy

With new teams in Philadelphia and Seattle slated to enter MLS in the next two years, the league announced last month plans to expand two more by 2011 for a total of 18. Riding increases at the box office, new found popularity helped by the injection of overseas talent, and an incredibly successful expansion story [...]

High Schooler Not Sacrificing Education with Euro Venture

Brandon Jennings decision to skip college in favor of playing professionally in Europe until he becomes eligible for the NBA draft raises many issues and controversial topics. Len Elmore, the superb broadcaster, former All-American player, and lawyer, took a strong stance on why the Jennings decision is wrong on many levels in this week’s Sports [...]

Digital Industry Moving Slow on Wireless

Of all the breakthrough technologies driving digital media, wireless should be at the forefront. Consider that almost every family in the US has a cell phone (84% of households, over 250 million people). You can’t go anywhere, stadiums, subways, schools, sidewalks, movie theaters, cars, without seeing people, young and old, using cell phones. Text messaging, [...]

Cable Providers And Sports Networks Continue Stand-Off

In one corner stands the cable and satellite providers. Criticized for rate hikes, standing tall against adding niche sports programming to its basic package forcing further price increases by customers who have no interest in the programming. Across the ring, sports programmers, notably NFL Network and the Big Ten Network along with all other league [...]

Sponsorships That Caught My Eye

Crawling out of bed, still groggy, a simple radio sponsorship read caught my attention this morning on ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning radio show. Progressive Insurance, a Fortune 500 company based in Cleveland, bought naming rights for the former Jacobs Field in Cleveland before the season started, also buys ad time with ESPN [...]