My gut feeling about Lebron James or my hope

Lebron James is going to decide tonight at 9 ET on ESPN.

When I heard this, I thought, wow, it sounds like college football recruit, where 18-year-old kids try to play a super-star game. But, it might be much bigger, since those 18-year-old kids may not even play for at least one season and get a red shirt in their college, and very few of them become a real college football super star, and what Lebron wants is not a super-star game. Lebron is a super star already.     

I am hearing that he’s leaning toward Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls may also get him. But, I don’t know. I feel like there might be a big twist at the end. Or, that might be my hope, because of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.       

Michael Jordan won his championship with Bulls picture obtained from basketball-tips-and-drills.com

 

Kobe Bryant won Championship with LA Lakers picture obtained from NBA.com

 

Michael Jordan only played for Chicago Bulls and won six NBA championships. Kobe Bryant also played only for Lakers and won five NBA championships. People, especially, remember them as a leader and led the team to the championship. Kobe, especially, was remembered as a leader when Lakers made NBA championship appearance in 2007-2008 season for the first time after O’Neal left the team after 2003-2004 season.         

Once I studied hometown players’ impact on NBA attendance, one of the data I collected, actually, showed great impact of Lebron James. In 2003-2004 season, Lebron James brought 34% more on Cavaliers’ attendance.       

Cavaliers have not been very far from championship in recent years. I konw Lebron wants a championship ring. But, I think both Lebron and Cleveland need to know something. What do people want to have today? A hero or a super star? Kobe won the NBA championship in recent year and K.G. also won it three years ago wearing Boston Celtics’ uniform. Well, who do you think closer to Michael Jordan’s legacy? I don’t think it is K.G, even though I really think K.G. is a great player.       

Well, if Lebron chooses Heat tonight, he may get a championship ring with Wade and Bosh. But, media is weirdly quiet about Cleveland Cavaliers. Isn’t it the sign of Lebron staying? It might be good for Lebron, IF he wins championship someday soon before he wants to leave again. He may become much closer to Jordan and Kobe’s legacy with his championship ring with his hometown team, Cleveland Cavaliers. It might be good for NBA, who needs a hero and a cinderella team like Cavaliers badly. It should be good for Cavaliers to have championship in its history. Also, fans will love to see their local product leads a team to championship. It might be good for many American people, who will have observed the journey of a hero.       

I don’t know. But, I kind of feel that Lebron will sign with Cleveland Cavaliers, or that is my hope as a teacher of PR and I always wish the best to all sports organizations including NBA.       

And, unlike 18-year-old high school kids, who just wants to enjoy little bit of attention before they wear the red shirt as a freshmen in college, Lebron is already a super star and what he wants is, actually, not a championship ring, but a legacy, which Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird had, and Kobe now has. Or, that’s just my hope. Well, at least, if Lebron stays, I will be a die-hard fan of Cavaliers.         

 

Lebron wants to have a legacy that Kobe Bryant has picture obtained from CAVSnews.com

Why, Micheal Vick? What do you want?

Public Relations. I would like to define this as a facilitator of communication between organization and  stakeholders (publics). Publics include employer, employees, legal personals, customers (of course), media, and in sports, players. I firmly believe that PR in any organization is THE department, who handle those relationships, because, first, my students will be in those positions someday and second, it is definitely PR, who will control information delivered to the outside of organization. 

In sports, and any kind of entertainment industry, where PR needs to deal with “celebrities”, PR pros, well, actually, whole organization has a very unique public. Players are people, who usually have high self-esteem and a strong competitive characteristic. Without that, they cannot be in that place. According to NCAA.org, there are 119 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Schools. There are also 144 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Schools. FBS has 85 scholarship limits and FCS has 63 scholarship limits. That number gives me about 20,000 football players. Assuming that one-fourth of them are seniors, we will have 5,000 football players graduating and waiting for being drafted by NFL, if they ever want to make it to the NFL. Then, how many players are drafted in 7 rounds of NFL draft? Approximately, 250 players or less. Just itself gives me this stat. One out of 20 students will be drafted. This is not all. If you want to play regularly and make a good money in the NFL, the situation becomes bit more competitive. Assuming that only first and second round pick-ups will have a shot at the starting position, one out of 85 students, approximately, will have a chance to be rich. Well, considering minimum salary of NFL for first-year players is about $300,000, if you are drafted, it means, your wage is already higher than average people. But, before thinking about college graduates, how good and competitive you should be to be recruited by one of the FBS schools. Alabama High School Athletic Association, which is not the biggest high school association in the state, solely has 401 senior high schools, according to Wikipedia website.  Well, after calculating all these, I would like to tell my son, who wants to be a soccer player, don’t even think about it. He may even need to compete with people in Europe, Asia, South America, well, literally, everywhere. 

Hew… Well, then, What’s the problem, Micheal Vick? 

Why did you work so hard, Michael? Picture obtained from nydailynews.com

I know it is hard to deal with celebrities and I think they deserve it, since they worked so hard to get what they wanted to get. So, it is really hard for sports organizations to communicate with these celebrities, because, very often, they do not have to think about their future, because they already accomplished their biggest dream. 

When Roger Goodell introduced Tony Dungy as a mentor of Michael Vick and even invited Wayne Pacelle, the head of Humane Society, to 60 minutes interview, what he was doing was PR. In one of my research, I analyzed many crisis situations in newspapers, and many of them blamed a person and tried to differentiate him or her from the organization. I know NFL needed Michael Vick, probably, but, not really. I don’t think so. Atlanta Falcons already found their quarterback at Matt Ryan. Which NFL team really needed a player like Michael Vick? Philadelphia Eagles might not need him with Donovan McNabb, who won 132 games for 11 seasons with Eagles as a starter. Then, why did Roger Goodell have to protect Michael Vick? 

I, often, tell my students, PR is a mother nature, well, parent nature, I guess. I have a son and I apologize when he does something wrong in public. Why? Because I love him and I want him to be successful. And, also, he will be my future, someday. He will be my happiness in the future, in my 60s and 70s. So, I would like to protect him as much as possible. Sometimes, I give him a punishment, because I really care of him. That is PR. And, what Roger Goodell did was exactly PR. Anderson William, a scholar, wrote an article about NFL’s PR history in Public Relations Review (2008)’s special issue. He insisted that NFL values PR the most among professional sports organizations in the U.S. Roger Goodell just showed that. So, I often told my students NFL handled Vick’s case much better than other organizations did with their crises, such as Steroid issue in MLB. I don’t really think MLB was supportive to players. 

In this case, though, PR hurt itself, eventually. If you are a business person, you may say, show me the money, and will say, look at Michael Vick. You should just let him go. Well, it was a typical conversation with people in business when I studied for my doctoral degree in communication. Does relationship and good communication bring a profit? Well, maybe not. Or, it may not be measurable at all. 

When my son makes same mistakes over and over, sometimes, he hurts my feeling.  And, I am saying that you just hurt my feeling and are you happy when I am sad? When my students try to fool me, it hurts my feelings so badly. And, I also want to tell my students, if you fool me, you may get a good grade in my course, but, you may not be able to be successful in your life. I just don’t want to see that. And, I really hope students understand that. 

Michael, I know and I hope you are innocent and you are not really related with the shooting the other day. I want to believe in your comments. But, look, what did Roger Goodell do to you? What did Tony Dungy do to you? What about the NFL? What about the fans who accepted you in the NFL again? What about the children you gave a speech to? And, most importantly, what about yourself? Did you really have to be there? 

Well, this is very sad Sports PR issue. I really hope he is OK and Eagles gives him one more chance. But, it is very sad. Michael Vick worked so hard to go to Virginia Tech and competed even harder to be picked by Falcons. In PR, we need to deal with this kind of public. And, the most important thing is to understand them and really try to help them in person. And, that is clearly a job of PR, because PR is a parent nature and PR is a facilitator of communication. 

The day Michael Vick became a son of NFL, Picture obtained from Sports Illustrated

World Cup Soccer and the U.S. soccer

When Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy) scored a very last-minute goal against Algeria, the first thing came up to my mind was, “Can this will bring new chapter of soccer to the U.S.?” 

Let’s watch this one more time? One more time what? You know this, the most dramatic moment of U.S. soccer in 2010, or maybe in last decade. 

Click here if the YouTube video clip doesn’t work.

Isn’t it great? 

Well, I know the United States has the most lucrative professional league in the World, named “NFL”. It is bit out-dated now, but, in one of my journal submission (and, it will be scheduled to be published next year in Journal of Communication Studies), I found that NFL had the most valuable professional sports revenue in the world in 2007 ($5.3 billion). NFL’s combined revenue was worth more than the combined revenue of the top 25 European soccer clubs ($4.2 billion). 

But, let’s face it. I wiki for this info. Well, last Super Bowl game was watched by 106 million American people, which broke the all time TV record. 2006 FIFA World Cup final had 600 million viewers in the World. 

I know I should be pretty happy with my favorite team’s winning Super Bowl. I was really happy when my Alabama Crimson Tide won the National Championship this year in College Football. 

But, I would like to see my country South Korea goes to semi final or final in the World Cup, someday.

Well, I would like to ask. What do you like to see more in your life time? Your professional football or baseball team wins Championship or the U.S. soccer team wins World Cup? 

And, is it just me who thinks in this way? It is kind of weird that I don’t see MLS pushes soccer in the U.S. much harder. Come on. It is a great chance. You need to wait for four more years to get a chance like this again.  In 2006 World Cup, the U.S. team didn’t go to the second round. Now, all Americans have a great memory of soccer, thanks to Landon Donovan. This is time to bring Beckham. Donovan may need to go to The Big league, but, bring Tom Howard. He is 31 and he can be an icon in MLS.

Anyhow, I just want to know, which one do you want to see more? World Cup win? Or Super Bowl win?

Strasburg, Sports, and Community. Did hype work?

It has been a good run for Strasburg and Nationals.      

2-2, 2.27 ERA, 48 strikes outs in 5 games. He is a super star. He is the iPhone and the Android in Baseball.      

Hype worked and the story was spinning accurately. Many times, high expectation brings a big disappointment. So, people hate spins and many times, they hate Public Relations, and call them “spin doctor”.      

As a PR professor, I hate the word, “spin doctor”. I always teach students not to “spin”, and use facts. When I observed “hype” of the BIG Strasburg, I thought I might be wrong about the “spin doctor”, at least in Sports.      

I was just curious, so, I visited “google trends” site and compared web traffic of Washington Nationals and New York Yankees.      

Comparison between web traffic of Washington Nationals and New York Yankees

 

Red graph shows traffic of New York Yankees and Blue graph shows traffic of Nationals. And, of course, red graph beats blue graph almost every time, except for the beginning of 2005 season, when Nationals played its first game at RFK stadium. And, finally, Strasburg beat New York Yankees in Web Traffic.      

I was also curious about attendance before and after Strasburg.      

Before Strasburg, average home attendance of Nationals was 21,336.      

After Strasburg, average home attendance of Nationals was increased to 28,467 (130%).      

I also calculated home attendance without the games Strasburg did not start after Strasburg, and it was 23,942. It was little bit better than before Strasburg.      

It was little bit surprised even Strasburg’s the most recent home game draw just 31,913. It was not full.      

Did “hype” work? Well, after I observed one-month of Strasburg, I don’t want to say it worked. It might work if Nationals won many games after Strasburg. What was their records? 7-13 (0.350), which is worse than before 0.465 of winning percentage.      

So, now I am more confident to say that the hype did not work.   Then, what is Sports public relations? I strongly believe that public relations is a mouth of organizations. And, when whole body does not do a right thing, the mouth is useless. Whatever it says, it is meaningless. If the mouth does not have any words, still, it is meaningless.      

James Grunig, a famous scholar in Public Relations, talked about Excellent Public Relations, which is, sometimes, criticized by practitioners, because of its unrealistic nature. His first and the least effective public relations model out of four models is press agentry, so-called, “hype”.      

Bruce Berger, also a famous scholar in Public Relations, said Public Relations works only when the organization is doing a right thing. Is it too common sense? Is it too ideal? But, it is true.      

Arthur Page society suggested seven principles of public relations http://www.awpagesociety.com/site/about/page_principles. Its second principle is “prove with action”.      

Strasburg’s hype worked, because Washington Nationals proved with action. He was indeed a good product. But, in sports, what do fans want? One hero? Or a good team? Especially, in team sports, what do fans want? Chicago Bulls might not be that popular, if they did not win NBA championships, even though they had Michael Jordan.      

In a book, “Examining identity in sports media (Edited by Hundley and Billings), Jennings Bryant and Glen Cummings, scholars in entertainment communication, surveyed University of Alabama and Auburn University College football fans. Their answers indicated they felt more self-confident when their team won. There exists the secret of sports public relations. What do sports fans want? They want something to be proud of. Can one hero be a pride of whole team? I really doubt it.      

Did Nationals tried to make Strasburg a hero of Nationals? Or hype super star? Did Nationals think about a great opportunity for fans for a short period time? Did Nationals think about a community, which may need something to enjoy in this bad economy? Did Nationals think about other players? Can Strasburg win a game without other players? Can Strasburg win 162 games?      

Public Relations is a mouth of an organization. Professional sports organizations are filled with very expensive organs. But, regardless of the price of organs, the body only works when the organs are intimately connected and work harmoniously. Then, mouth can say something good. Can mouth control brain? Well, sometimes, it can.      

Can hype work? I, again, sit back and will say, it won’t. “Prove with action” is a golden rule of Public Relations. Can Public Relations do more than hype? Well, if organizations want them to say something good, they may need to listen to their mouths.     

Sports Commentary Research published

When a sport needs more attention, sports broadcasters should care of their style of broadcasting and commentaries. 

My research, which I published with my colleagues, Jung Kyu Kim, Dr. Cynthia Nichols (Oklahoma State University), and Dr. Lu Zheng (U of Florida), includes a result of analyzing commentaries of 2007 World Series game between Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies. 

Quick preview: 

Cover of International Journal of Sport Communication

 

World Series commentaries in Korea were the most biased and emotional. Korea was selected as a country, which had the least fandom of Major League Baseball, and predicted to have the most emotional commentaries. 

http://bit.ly/aLQB4D 

Then, now, let’s think about sports commentaries of non-popular sports. Do they have the best commentators? Do they have a same quality of broadcasts with major sports? 

It is irony, because broadcasters can never put the same amount of effort when they broadcast popular sports and non-popular sports. It is understandable, because we are living in a free market. Audience demands lead quality of broadcasts. 

But, unfortunately, we cannot broadcast NFL for whole year.

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