NBC's NHL Coverage

So for the first time, I believe ever, every NHL playoff game will be nationally broadcast in the US. As a hockey fan I think it is the greatest thing that's ever happened, but in a country where hockey is considered a 4th sport, it was a gutsy move by NBC. My first guess would be the lack of NBA playoff overlap, but it also could be a set part of NBC's new exclusive American deal with the NHL.

Early ratings are showing the move as a success, as first round ratings are higher than last years', as high as 77% up when looking at individual games with comparable coverage. I know its been great for me, being able to watch a lot more games, and not having to do so online on illegal sites, but I think it will be a great help for the growth of the game. The NHL and NBC have really taken advantage of the spotlight opportunity afforded them. The NBA is having a ton of problems, and no playoffs at the moment, baseball is in the beginning stages of the season and isn't of that much interest to many people at the moment and the NFL has nothing happening besides the draft at present. The NHL has one of its first opportunities to be the star and the network and league are exploiting that. Maximum exposure and prime TV slots will help bring hockey to a broader audience and I think grow the sport.

This isn't necessarily an exclusively marketing topic, but how do you think the potential growth of hockey could affect the other major leagues and their advertising revenue streams? Might any major companies jump ship from other sports or shift advertising funds to the NHL?

Online Lottery?

Professor Micheletto mentioned on Monday that the Illinois Lottery is now available online. I was a little bit shocked that they were doing this, so I dug a little deeper into it.

I am by no means against gambling, I am an avid card player, can occasionally be found in the casino, and growing up in a town that pretty much shuts down at 7 PM, most summer nights you can find my buddies and I killing time at the convenience store buying scratch tickets in lieu of something better to do. The reason I was so surprised is the ease it allows tickets to be purchased. I couldn't find exactly what the verification process is, but I'm guessing it is probably something pretty simple like a credit card and license number.

There are two problems I see with this, the first being kids using cards to buy or gamble online. This to me, is admittedly not the worst thing in the world, I bought scratch tickets long before turning 18 and there are much worse things teenagers could be doing. The second is allowing purchases on credit cards. I don't know if there are actually a law prohibiting it or not, but I have personally never seen anyplace that sold lottery tickets via credit cards. I've only seen places ever allow you to use cash, it may not be the case but I haven't seen it done otherwise. The problem I see with this is for compulsive gamblers and this allows them to basically run up credit card debt on lottery. And yes, there are ways to do it that way anyway through getting out cash from the card or things like that, but this seriously simplifies that process.

For the Illinois lottery I'm sure it will create more sales, but I think it just creates more problems than its worth.

Do you think its a good decision for Illinois, or potentially other states that are closely watching the Illinois program's success, to continue this program in the long run?

Sitting in Burlington International

So I'm currently,as I type sitting in the middle of one of the worst customer service situations I've seen in a while. I'm sitting in the terminal waiting for US Airways flight 4553 to NYC LaGuardia. It's 7:07. Flight was scheduled for 6:35. They have one monitor by the gate informing us that the flight has been delayed until 7:20. Yes,13 minutes from right now. There is no longer anyone at the US Airways desk. There were 3 women there about an hour ago. One was making a clearly personal phone call for 20 minutes. The other two were talking. I approached the desk at around 6:20, asking if I'd be okay for my connecting flight to Baltimore and what was causing the delay. As I walked over the attendant who was standing doing nothing ( one was on her call, the other was working on the computer), she gave me a look that made me uncomfortable before I got there and clearly told me she was annoyed at the prospect of me possibly asking her a question. I got to the desk and was not acknowledged until I, waiting a second, said hello. I asked if she had any information on what the delay was. She responded with something so inherently stupid I was dumbfounded. "They're having weather". Oh they are? Do they not usually have weather in NY. If I asked a New Yorker what the weather is would they respond, "There isn't any"? Beyond the stupidity of her abrupt remark, it gave me no info, is the lane here and we can't take off? Is it on the way? On the ground in NY? Where is this mystical weather you speak of occurring?

I came to terms with how little this woman cared and asked if I would be okay for my connection. "Should be fine". She didn't look, didn't ask when/where I was going. Didn't even feel that my question deserved a full sentence as a response.

I returned to my chair and sat it is now 7:19. We have finally been addressed. The monitor still asserts I'll be in the air in 1 minute, I'm beginning to doubt it. They plane will be here in 5 minutes. 10 minutes ago. Then they will update us on when we will take off.

I'm so annoyed right now it actually inspired me to do school work.

7:25- I was just informed I'll need to gate check a bag I travel with constantly. Never had a problem with it. The coffee shop is closed and I'm in dire need. Apparently we will land in NYC at about 9:15. I'm connecting flight is 9:30 so chances I pull my groin jogging gate-to-gate is about 80%. They have still yet to change the monitor. Unless my plane is a time machine as well I don't think I'm taking off at 7:20.

I'm going to end my rambling but almost an hour past the scheduled departure and I still see no plane. I've been addressed once by a human.

I now know why I fly JetBlue or SW. But one doesn't fly from Burlington and
The other doesn't fly to BWI.

7:31 Plane has arrived!!!!!

I'll comment and let you all know if I make my connection. I know you're all in suspense.



P.S. Prof. M. Posted this from the Blogger app. Little slower to type out and tougher to edit but not too bad.

UPDATE-
8:15- I'm typing this part in the air. No idea if I'm on pace to make the connecting flight. Who knows.

I can say I was lucky enough to experience something new and unexpected for me tonight. I'm currently sitting on a puddle jumper. I'm confident that if I pulled out a tape measure I could confirm that as a kid I had RC airplanes bigger than this thing. It has propellers on the wings, planes still have those? I feel like I should be somewhere over Berlin in 1944. Jokes aside, I walked onto the Tarmac tonight, no jetway, walk down the stairs onto the pavement and back up into the plane. Caught me by surprise. To top it off the one time in my life I was willing to pay $9 for a half nip of alcohol so that the always courageous Jack Daniels could comfort me through this ride, they have none.

I enjoy looking out the window while flying, even during a flight like tonight when it's pitch black, I thought it would be fun, looking down as we flew into NYC. I was disappointed when booking the flight, I saw that the only window seat was at the wing. So I assumed I wouldn't be able to see. I am happy to report I can see, since the wing is ABOVE the window.

I apologize for whining via blogger from the flight, as I wrote this I feel like I'm writing the script for a Peter Griffin "You know what really grinds my gears" rant. I will update you all again soon.

How are Passenger trains still around?

The title may sound kind of silly, but its a pretty serious question. As a broke college student, who has friends at schools all over the place that I am seemingly constantly visiting, I try to look for the cheapest way to travel. I could afford to drive, but its slow, tiring and tedious plus I hate racking up the miles on my car (18 Months old with over 30K miles on it, don't ask how I accomplished that).

Common sense tells me if flying is a bit more than I want to spend, and I wouldn't subject myself to a bus ride, trains must be the solution? Wrong. Oh so very wrong. I imagined the trains had to be cheaper than planes. They are slower, less costly to run, and I always thought the industry was struggling. It may be, but prices sure don't reflect that.

A flight from Boston to Baltimore (one I make pretty regularly), is much much cheaper than taking a train the same distance. It shocks me still that a company can charge more money for a mode of transportation that is 5 times slower. The only advantages I see to train travel are that I don't have those to ten minute "Electronic Blackouts" like on planes, and I can walk around whenever I want to.

I know I am rambling a bit, but the only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that Amtrak has the best marketers in the world. I don't know if thats true, but its the only real answer I can come up with to explain what keeps an industry, that charges more money for what I believe most people would agree is an inferior service, running.

Any other ideas??

I am proud to say that in the past week I have officially been hired for a post graduation job, and will be doing marketing for at least the near future. I have worked for TSG Enterprises in some facet or another since prior to my senior year in high school and interned with them this past summer. TSG is the parent company of Pure Hockey and ComLax, the largest hockey equipment retailer, and one of the largest lacrosse equipment retailers in the country, respectively. I had worked in the store level for a few years and was luck enough to intern in the marketing department, doing some Facebook and other social media, creating online media content for customers, as well as some administrative work for our web retail. That is what the post graduation job will include, with some other things on top of it, but I also get some fun new things.

The big thing I am really excited about is I will get to do a bit of traveling. I was informed that my first trip will actually be during the school year. I will flying to Minnesota to attend the "Let's Play Hockey" Expo along with a few others to represent our company, network and preview some of the new stuff our suppliers will be releasing in the near future. This particular expo is a pretty cool event in my mind because generally, I have found many of these types of events are meant for either the final consumer, or those in the industry. In this case, the expo is open to all, so not only will I be there to interact and connect with our customers, but I also get to speak with our suppliers. Obviously the goal is to try to meet and build relationships with new customers, but we also get to talk to manufacturers about their newest products, the feedback they have been getting and business happenings, like new ideas for point of purchase advertising or product release dates.

As you can probably tell from this post I am really excited about this, and there are already several other trips that I know I will be going on.

Just to make you guys laugh, and so you can make fun of me, I will post some of the videos the other interns and I created this past summer in our "Off-Season" mini-commercial series.

Go ahead laugh it up. It was an interesting summer to say the least