Doing it for the fans

The new trend, when it comes to professional sports marketing, is to make attempts to help average fans out with their daily lives and expenses.  I would assume that this is due to the ongoing economic struggles which makes teams worry that their fan revenue might trail off. 

The NHL's St. Louis Blues have offered to pay for mortgages.

At every remaining Saturday home game this season, one lucky fan will have their mortgage or rent paid for four months! A fan will be randomly selected during the game, and all you have to do is be at Scottrade Center when your seat is called. Hold on to your ticket stub and watch for an announcement that you've won.

All right.  A pretty solid idea, but the NBA's New Jersey Nets have a better one.

Unemployed fans who submit resumes to the Nets Job Bank will receive up to four free tickets, plus access to a career fair at the Izod Center on Nov. 22, Nets team president and chief executive Brett Yormark announced Tuesday.

In turn, the team will distribute applicants' resumes to its sponsors.

Yormark told the Newark Star-Ledger he hopes fans helped by the team will in turn became regulars at games when the downtrodden economy rebounds.

"Hopefully they'll come out and experience the Nets, and then when times get better they'll invest in us, because we invested in them," Yormark said, according to the Star-Ledger. "No other team is doing that, and I think it's the appropriate thing to do, because times are tough."

I greatly appreciate seeing teams attempting to impact society.  I understand that they are trying to protect their futures as well, but, nevertheless, these are steps in the right direction.  If every NBA team adopted a similar program (estimating that each team will be able to get 200 fans hired throughout the season, which seems to be a low estimate) the NBA would find 6,000 unemployed fans work.  I'd say that's making a positive impact.

On the flip-side, some disturbing news concerning college footballl.  ESPN is reporting on their Web site that they have bid on exclusive rights to the BCS.  

The Walt Disney Co., the parent company of ESPN, is among the bidders for the five BCS games -- and according to reports in USA Today and SportsBusiness Daily, the company has bid about $25 million per year more than its closest competitor for the new BCS deal.

Fox's four-year deal with the BCS ends after the 2009 season. If Disney's bid for the new deal is accepted, then the BCS games and the national championship would be aired on ESPN starting in 2010, according to USA Today.

The first problem I have with this is how ESPN reported news that they were solely responsible for.  News reporters should never be the ones to create the news that they report on.  Usually, I'd say that would be the biggest problem, but if ESPN were to win with their bid a bigger problem emerges; college football sells out even more.

Apparently, having 30-something bowls, including ones such as the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, doesn't bring in enough revenue.  To compensate, college football officials must feel that blacking out and alienating millions of football fans by moving the "most important" games to a cable network and pocketing an extra $25 million dollars is worth it.

There are no other major sports that televise their championship game/series on non-cable channels.  The NHL is an exception because they have a deal with the Versus Network, a cable channel, that airs most of the Stanley Cup Final.  But, NBC shares the rights to the Cup Final, so the non-cable public still has a chance to watch.