Women in Sports Media: We've Come A Long Way

Picture from:  womeninsports.weebly.com

The topic of women in sports has been debated over the years and though progressing slowly, gender equality in sports media has come a long way.  Earlier this year National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) held its first Women in Sports Media Issues Forum discussing issues women in media dealt with in the past and are sometimes experiencing in the present.  Among the panelists were Lesley Visser (CBS Sports), Katy Brown (KATU-TV, Portland, OR), Jenni Carlson (Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK), and Mary Jo Perino (WLEX-TV, Lexington, KY). 

As Ms. Visser explained, she has been in the sports industry for 35 years and believes that compared to the past, “we have taken great strides”.  She began as the Boston Globe’s first woman to cover the NFL.  The credentials given by the NFL specifically stated no women or children in the press box.  She described it as “already being defeated.  You have the assignment but you don’t have the right to do the job.”  Today, women receive equal access as their male counterparts and while “you have to earn respect” (Visser), it is a different era where the “new generation of players are used to girls and sports coexisting” (Perino).

While there are definitely still obstacles to overcome, it can be said that this is only because as Ms. Brown describes, “we are different… Going to practice and there are 20 reporters and you are the only woman, obviously you stand out and over time coaches and players know who you are”.  And if you can overcome the obstacle of being different, then there are often great rewards and opportunities as a result.

There is no doubt that the members on this panel have paved the way for generations of women aspiring for a career in sports media.  While issues may still exist and there will always be skeptics, women have taken great strides in gaining respect and proving their ability to be leaders in the sports industry.

Watch the full discussion at:

http://nssafame.com/2011/06/03/women-in-sports-media-issues-forum/

http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/panel-women-sports-journalists-still-face-many-challenges/

http://www.sportstvjobs.com/resources/fa-women-in-sports-tv-female-sportscasters.html

Sports Unions 2011: The Year of the Lock-Outs

Picture Courtsey of Creative Unions.org

“Professional sports have always been big business. And just as in many other industries throughout history, athletes' labor unions came about as a quest for fair treatment from owners who wanted to retain as much control as possible”  (Daidone).  Since the formation of the first players’ association, the sports industry has evolved tremendously.  From the increase of media and corporate sponsorship to the unbelievable rise in players’ salaries, the question is often raised is it getting out of control?

2011 began with the question of whether the NFL Superbowl would be the last game we would see this year and is headed for an ending of uncertainty in the NBA.   The last NFL strikes were in 1987 and 1982 as players fought for revenue sharing for TV and better free agency rights.  The 2011 conflict raised issues of revenue and salaries, game schedule, rookie wage scale, and benefits for retired players.  After 127-days team owners agreed to end the 2011 lockout and approve a 10-year-deal.  The NFL was able to salvage their season with little impact on the preseason, surrounding economy, and reputation in the eyes of their fans.

The NBA, however, is facing a different challenge.  As we approach the four-month mark of the NBA lockout, they risk losing more than the preseason or regular season.  As fans grow more and more impatient with the unresolved conflict, they are becoming less forgiving especially in an economy where job loss is still a looming threat for everyone.  Were we in a booming economy, fans may be more apt to stand by the players or owners but as it stands, it is hard to be sympathetic to millionaires who on the surface don’t seem to be making the same sacrifices of the people buying tickets. 

Now, as the 2011 World Series approaches and the MLB season comes to an end, their collective bargaining agreement is on the table as well.  Although little media attention has been drawn, as of yet, it appears that the MLB wants to keep things quiet.  With no salary cap in place, the MLB has the highest payroll in professional sports and it is continuing to rise.  According to baseball commissioner, Bud Selig, “discussions on a new collective bargaining agreement have been very constructive and he sees no timetable for getting a deal done” (Associated Press).

The fact of the matter is, regardless of which sport we are looking at, the 2011 season has been a true test to fans.  They are after all, the ones paying the price as economy and jobs are threatened with the loss of games, ticket prices soar, and the rewards for fans appear to be dwindling.  While regardless of the sport there will always be the die hard football, basketball, or baseball fan, many have already begun to question when enough is enough.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7086176/bud-selig-no-timetable-mlb-labor-agreement

http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2011/10/nba-lockout-fans.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/nba-lockout-2011-training-camp-preseason_n_978329.html

Player Likeness and Intellectual Property Rights

The Electronic Arts (EA) Company is no stranger to lawsuits filed by both college and professional athletes claiming the use of their likeness without permission.  The EA Sports label produces games such as Madden NFL, NCAA Football, and NCAA Basketball.  EA claims that their games are expressive works of art and it is within their first amendment rights to create players with similar characteristics as celebrity athletes while the opposing side argues that “When doing a venture strictly for commercial profit, that’s not the First Amendment.  That’s just taking a guy’s basic identity and using it to make a profit” (Radd).

Court rulings appear to be inconsistent in their support of EA’s argument that the use of players based on appearance and stats without use of their names is a right of free expression.  The latest lawsuit filed by Ryan Hart accusing EA of using his likeness in their NCAA Football game was dismissed in favor of EA although a previous case filed by Nebraska quarterback, Samuel Keller resulted in favor of Keller.  “A range of U.S. states have devised legislation aimed at preventing unauthorized commercial use of an individual’s name or likeness giving that person an exclusive right to license the use of the identity for commercial purposes” (Caslon).  What complicates the matter with college athletes is the fact that they sign-off on their commercial rights when permitting the NCAA to use their images to promote the organization.  The questions that may be argued are whether EA’s agreement with the NCAA resulting in promotion or profit, and is the use of their likeness defendable under intellectual property rights?  On the opposing side, does the First Amendment protect EA’s use of their identity as a matter of creative expression?

“Intellectual property is intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights” (Williams).  One of the biggest issues facing an athlete is protecting their image.  Athletes, whether professional or amateur, should be careful in signing-off on rights for use of their image.  While the use of their likeness are protected under various intellectual property laws, such as trademarks or branding, once they sign a contract, it becomes more difficult to defend.  In the case of the NCAA and EA, it is clear that both organizations are making a profit at the expense of the athlete.  If the athletes are signing a contract with the NCAA to use images strictly for promotional purposes, the right thing would be to compensate them in some way.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in the June 2011 case, Brown, Governor or California vs. Entertainment Merchants Association, supports EA’s argument that video games are a form of creative expression.  Regardless, any sports fan who plays an EA Sports game can identify players with or without the use of their names, so at what point does the claim of creative expression become nothing more than a way to hide behind the First Amendment?  It appears at this point, the decision is still up to a divided court system to make the decision if EA’s protection under the First Amendment overrules the rights of athletes to control and protect the use of their image.

EA Has A First Amendment Right To Depict Real College Football Players, Judge Rules

Intellectual Property for Athletes

Caslon Analytics Intellectual Property

Lawsuit could bring NCAA financials to light

Electronic Arts Denied Request for Dismissal in Player Likeness Lawsuit

Madden Lawsuit From Jim Brown Dismissed

One NCAA Player Likeness Lawsuit Ends in EA’s Favor

Society’s Pressure: How It Affects Sports Biggest Stories

Image From:  quiltville.blogspot.com

Over the past decade, the sports industry has seen its fair share of memorable stories, which makes naming just one as being the “biggest” story in sports seem impossible.  From 53 of the 120 universities in the NCAA committing major violations to the record-setting salary deals and prize winnings of athletes such as Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods, no sport, professional or amateur was immune to controversy.  With the end of baseball’s regular season coming near, the steroids era of Major League Baseball when players were believed to be using performance-enhancing drugs is also brought to mind. 

Maybe the story that will forever remain unchanged in the sports industry is society’s increasing pressure and competition for athletes, teams, and leagues to provide bigger and better results and entertainment than in the past.  Alex Rodriguez, for example, denied using performance-enhancing drugs in his 2007, 60 Minutes interview, but later admitted to using steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers.  His reasoning was the increased pressure to perform.  Is this an acceptable excuse for breaking the rules? Of course not, but at what point do we as a society also take responsibility?  Let’s face it. Fans want to see their team win. They want to know that the athletes being paid these enormous salaries are earning it, and owners want to know that there will be packed houses and return on investment.  But, is the pressure to hit harder, throw faster, jump higher, and perform better so strong that athletes need that extra boost to excite the crowds?  Have we created an industry where it is no longer about natural talent?  Has the desire to break records, win medals, or be the best over-taken the youthful desire to just be a part of the game and made it impossible to meet expectations?

President George W. Bush once said, “Steroids are bad for sports, they’re bad for players, they’re bad for young people who hold athletes up as role models.”  From high school, college, Olympic, and professional athletes, the use of performance-enhancing drugs has plagued the U.S. sports history. As long as there is pressure whether it is to reach a personal goal or to meet the pressures of one of the most competitive industries, there will be new drugs and new challenges to face.  The question is, will the biggest stories of the next decade be the controversial, rule-breaking scandals, or will society finally say enough and change their expectations to one of non-acceptance.  Will we say it doesn’t matter how great an athlete you are, how many games you win, records you break, or medals you earn there are no second chances, no suspensions, you simply lose?

Related Videos and Links:

Biggest Plays in Sports Biz

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/02/07/ncaa_punishes_almost_half_of_members_of_football_bowl_subdivision_for_major_rules_violations

http://espn.go.com/mlb/topics/_/page/the-steroids-era

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/07/alex-rodriguez-steroids/

http://reliableanswers.com/med/sports_drugs.asp

Getting to Yes-Separating the People From the Problem

Image from http://www.hobo-bonobo.co.uk/newsdesk/news-07-2007.htm

Negotiation within any industry is a tricky business but when emotions and the human aspects of the process are involved, it becomes an even more complex maze to navigate.  Roger Fisher and William Ury, authors of the international bestseller, Getting to Yes, tell us of the importance of separating people from the problem to successfully move forward in negotiations.  I recently had the opportunity to speak with Vice President of Business Development at SoilPros and Associates and former Marketing and Promotions Representative at CBS Radio, Jay Stevens, about his experience learning to separate emotions and people from the issues at hand in negotiation.

Mr. Stevens brought up an excellent point that often when negotiations come to a stalemate, it not only takes remembering that the person we are working with is just that, a person, but also creativity to move past whatever is holding things up.  He shared with me a story about a time when he was working with a client whose previous salesperson had created a negative relationship.  This was a major client that the company needed to regain trust and business with.  As Mr. Stevens pointed out, they both had objectives.  His was just to have a conversation with the client while the client wanted to do everything they could to avoid it.  After all traditional means to contact the client were attempted, Mr. Stevens found an Indiana Jones bullwhip at a flea market over the weekend.  He stopped by the client’s office, laid the bullwhip on the client’s desk and bent over.  This was a bold move, but as Mr. Stevens put it, he had a choice, push back as hard as the client was and see who would be the first to break, or find some humility and recognize he needed to just fall on the sword and make it happen.  Mr. Stevens knew the real issue was not with the company and keeping that in mind found a way, though unconventional, to open negotiations again, regaining the client’s trust and business.

I also asked Mr. Stevens what advice he had for someone who is new to negotiations. He offered that it is important to remember to not confuse business with friendship.  That you will work with some people you like and some that you don’t like but in the end, it is all about making the best deal (on both yours and the client’s part). 

“You'll do a lot of business and it will be a real pleasure, business lunches, golf outings, baseball games, you name it. You give them a good price and they give you the business....until someone comes along with better box seats, or a bigger steak, or a lower price, and you're 'good friend and business associate isn't returning your calls anymore because he's jumped to a bigger fish. You'll be frustrated over all the time and effort you put in to developing the relationship only to see it washed away over (literally) two cents. You thought they were your friend!! What happened!? Turns out they weren't really your "friend" after all. They viewed you as a "supplier" and nothing else.”

You have to remove the personal emotion involved and remember that when you are in a negotiation, you have an objective.  The person sitting across from you has an objective.  The goal is to build a relationship with people so that they see you as a ‘partner’, never just a ‘supplier’ so that ‘two cents cheaper’ isn’t worth the savings. (Jay Stevens)

http://www.ted.com/speakers/william_ury.html

http://www.soilpros.com/

http://www.cbsradio.com/index.html

Soccer: The New U.S. Quick Fix

www.syracuse.com

The success of the 2011 U.S. Women’s Soccer Team has sparked an increased interest in a sport that in other countries is as big as “American Football”.  However, no one can really pinpoint why professional soccer hasn’t caught on in popularity in the U.S. and why each year it continues to take a backseat to other major sports.  CBSSports.com columnist, Ray Ratto, answers this question with, “Soccer as an event has made it.  Soccer as a sport…not quite so much” (cbssports.com).  As a culture of quick fixes, we will invest a couple of hours to watch an event where the best of the best compete and are guaranteed to be entertained.  But, it will take more than a quick fix like the one we saw at the Women’s World Cup to gain a permanent audience.

While Major League Soccer (MLS) and Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) have had difficulty capturing the attention of the majority of the U.S., youth soccer has found a way to hold its own.  Formed in 1974 with a little over 100,00 registered players, the U.S. Youth Soccer Association reported in 2010 growth of more than 3,000,000 registered youth players between the ages of five and nineteen.  The organization’s objective, “The Game for All Kids”, is to provide a “fun, safe, and healthy game for ALL KIDS…big kids, little kids, short kids, young kids, older kids…kids who want to play for one season, kids who want to play for twenty seasons, kids who play strictly for fun, and kids who want to compete at the highest level possible” (U.S. Youth Soccer).  They offer programs ranging from regional, state, and national tournaments to a development program designed to form a national team to compete internationally.  They also introduce soccer into communities that do not yet have a league through Soccer Across America as well as TOPSoccer, a training program intended to give children with disabilities the opportunity to learn and play the sport.

The unanswered question remains, what will it take for soccer to advance to the next level in professional sports? How will the MLS and WPS turn those 3,000,000 youth soccer athletes, their parents, their family, and their friends into more than short-term fans? While 2011 may not be the year that changes it all, each year of small growth brings the U.S. that much closer to making the international sport of football more than a must-see event.

Related Articles:

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/15330305/face-the-facts-soccer-has-found-its-niche-in-us

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/763489-soccers-popularity-in-america-still-likely-unaffected-by-wwc-win

http://detroit.sbnation.com/2011/7/17/2275146/womens-world-cup-2011-usa-mls-detroit

Coaching For Success

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”

Wilma Rudolph

It was a cold, snowy afternoon when their story began to unfold and the first crack of a bat was heard at the ball fields this season. With a young team, only ten players, and for most, the first year of kid pitch, the coaches knew there was a tough road ahead.  Practices started and no matter the unpredictable northeast weather, snow, rain, or shine, the team could be seen catching or hitting balls.  As games began, their dedication and determination continued.  And throughout the entire season, they practiced hard, gave it their all in every game, and never once stopped believing that they could and would win the next one.  When I asked one of the players on the team, what do you like most about playing baseball this year, his eyes lit up, he got a big smile, and he said “everything”. 

The questions many coaches in youth sports should ask themselves are what determines greatness and success and how do they guide their players to grow into not just better players but people too.  As Rutgers Youth Sports Research Council at the State University of New Jersey describes, there are two extremes when it comes to the topic of winning.  The first is the belief that winning is unimportant in youth sports and the other is that winning is the only thing. The ideal is to find a medium between these two extremes because the essence of sport is, after all, striving to win (Feigley).  When asked about what defines success, Jerry Saxion, youth baseball coach with the Southington Baseball Organization, had this to say:

“Success is about how you take losing and even more about how you act when you win.  It is not about beating the other team, it is about executing and playing the best you can.  You aren’t winning or losing to the other team, it is about winning or losing to yourselves.  If you do not play to the best of you ability and win on the scoreboard, you actually lose to yourself and the same is true if you play the best you can and lose on the scoreboard, you win. So when I say winning, it is not a score on paper or on a board, it is the accomplishment and knowing you did the best you could as a team.”

Most of all coaches of organized youth teams should keep in mind that they have the choice to be a positive or negative influence on their players.  Coaches need to remember that the lessons their players learn from them or the examples of how they act will be lessons players will remember their entire life and although players often do not understand why a coach has them run or do a certain drill now, later in life many realize the real meaning and how it not only made them a better player but a better person (Saxion). 

Inspirational Story

Bear’s Motivational Baseball:  The Father’s Eyes

http://www.infosports.com/baseball/arch/1511.htm

Earn Community Grants For Your Team Through Responsible Sports/Liberty Mutual

http://responsiblesports.com/community_grants/community_grants_closed.aspx

Resources:

http://youthsports.rutgers.edu/resources/general-interest/the-role-of-winning-in-youth-sports