Week Four Discussion

As a professional in the marketing field I know taking care of your clients best interest is priority number one. When you are marketing a product you are playing off the mood of your clients. Studying what fab is in or what has the big spike in interest is what you can use to market to certain types of people.

So staying up to date with your client’s interests is a big factor, also keeping in touch is another big step to success. Sticking in the client’s head can have a huge effect on future sales. If you can reach out via social media or through email you can expand your reach to clients. Staying up to date and in touch are my two big keys of client/organization success.

Week Three Discussion

     Increasing the profit is always a main concern for a company.  Even more so, with an NHL team the same tickets are sold over and over each year. How you market the hockey tickets determines your success off the ice. Being creative with your marketing strategy is a major key. The main question is how can we keep bringing these fans back year after year and give them a better experience than the year before?

     The smart arena is a new fab in the sports world, and is quickly changing the fans experience at such events. This change is something I see being huge in giving a better access to season ticket holders. Because of a newer arena ticket sales will be increased. Every season ticket buyers will be allowed to download a team app on their smart phone and for home games they will gain access to highlights and halftime reports immediately to their phone. Giving a special access to buyers will drive the price and need for the tickets upwards.

Week One Discussion

 What wireless technology has had the greatest impact on society? As I read most of my classmates’ posts I see a trend that the mobile phone has been the greatest impact. I agree that has made huge strides in societies day-to-day life. I am going to go with the laptop as my choice to discuss.

 Laptops really brought together of the idea that using the Internet doesn’t have to be setting behind a desk. To me that’s ground breaking for some people it is no big deal. For those who thought why contain the Internet to just inside work started a new wireless world.

 Now that the laptop is just a normal thing for someone to have, it really started the wave of people wanting something smaller to take with them everywhere to reach the Internet. Now you have phones, tablets, and gaming systems that all can reach the internet wirelessly just like a laptop.

Week Two Discussion

Deciding on what wireless technology I would use to reach a stadium full of fans rooting for their team came hard to me. It was hard to choose because there are so many different routes of communication people use everyday with new technology. So after thinking about what the fan wants most, I chose the mobile app Instagram.

Instagram is an application available on both Android and Apple mobile markets. The application is a social media used for sharing pictures. You can design your pictures with different frames and adjust the color. A simple hash tag can share your picture to the world. So back to the idea of why this is great for a stadium full of fans—smart stadiums are popping up all over the country with massive video boards to entertain fans during games.

Say you’re at a baseball game where in between innings action can be slow and the fans attention is easy to catch. That is where a simple hash tag like “InstaRedSoxs” pops up on the big screen then proceeds to show all of the fan pictures from the game using the hash tag “InstaRedSoxs”. This would work great with catching the fan’s excitement of being on the same board as Big Papi. As well, it is very easy content produced by the fan for the team to show during games.  

Royal Struggles

             

espn.go.com

The month of May was looking to be great times for the team and Royals fans. It was the last day of April the Royals sit in first place of the AL Central. The team had just won a huge motivational game behind the arm of James Shields against his old team the Rays. Fans have to remember this game Shields was in a pitching duel like usual. He was facing Alex Cobb of the Rays who was on a hot start to the season. Mike Moustakas pulled a home run to right field in late innings to give the Royals and Shields the win against Tampa. The momentum from the big win continued on to the first day of May beating the Rays again pretty handily. Kansas City was excited about the Royals in early May. Fans felt for once the team wasn’t already calling it a season early after the first month. Some call it the wheels falling off a hot team. I am going to call it the raining out of the Royals. After the two inspirational wins against the Rays came the second and third rain outs in a week for the team. That is when the team started to fall apart going through May with a 6-15 record and 1-8 losing skid.

May was a really tough month for the Royals and created a lot of questions about the team’s future. Sure the Royals are only a few games under .500, but the thing that frustrates fans is during this losing streak the Royals can’t win the close games. Losing 1 run games with good pitching from Guthrie, Shields, and Santana has been the killer for the Royals. You have to look at the offense for the struggles of this team. When Dayton Moore traded away the farm system for James Shields and Wade Davis, he made a statement across baseball that this small market team is ready to compete now and willing to trade part of the future for wins now.  Making a big trade to win baseball now can close a window for a young team in a small market. Dayton is putting all of his chips in on Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer to have a successful franchise again in Kansas City. Finally the Royals have a chance to be the winning team they hoped to be.  Alex Gordon and Billy Butler are productive like usual for the Royals this year. The real problem lies in the future of this team. Yes Billy and Alex are a huge part of this teams future as leaders, but the guys who are supposed to be the studs making plays for the Royals are struggling badly.

Alex Gordon is having possibly his best year ever as a Royal and playing like what most thought he would be like early as a 1^st round pick. The sad thing about this team is Gordon is killing the ball hitting 3^rd in the lineup and hardly has runners on in front of him. Billy is protecting Alex hitting behind him in the 4 spot. With your best bats on the team batting 3 and 4 in the lineup puts pressure on the young guys to get on base. Problems like Moustakas pulling every ball to first base on the ground and Hosmer losing his power.  These two batters are struggling and need protection batting behind them and Jeff Francouer batting behind them isn’t helping.

How do you fix these massive problems that can really hurt this teams future? Ned needs to stop putting Moustakas and Hosmer in the 4, 5, and 6 spots in the lineup to drive in runs. Hosmer can’t pull the ball or hit home runs right now. So why not put him in the 2 spot in front of Gordon so he will see the best pitches? Hosmer’s average is ok, but not hitting for power shows a move up in the lineup couldn’t hurt. The real struggle comes from Moustakas who tore it up this spring in Arizona. Moose has been on a long skid of struggles dropping his average down to .178 under the Mendoza line of 200. You can see the frustration he has in his skills after every at bat that doesn’t go good for Moustakas. That is the first sign that a struggling player needs to be sent down. The way I see it is if Alex Gordon and Billy Butler can be sent down by the Royals so can Mike Moustakas. This team can rebound but major changes must come.

Fred White

www.kansascity.com

 The Royals won the series against the Angles with an emotional Wednesday night victory.  The Royals clubhouse came together in a tough time for the organization. Long time radio announcer Fred White had passed away back in Kansas City shortly before Royals game started in Los Angeles. From 1973 to 1998 the people of Kansas City invited Fred White into their house by listening to Royals baseball games. When someone calls baseball games for that long in a city the fans grow really accustom to hearing that voice talk baseball. Denny Matthews and Fred White to most Royals fans are the guys who told them about the games or even taught them about baseball. The Royals win last night against the Angles really was something special. Fox Sports Kansas City had a silent inning to honor the late Fred White. Also during the broadcast of the game Royals TV announcers Rex Hudler and Ryan Lefebvre talked about when they first joined the Royals. Both announcers experienced Fred's kindess and made coming to work great. Hudler the 1-year color commentator who took some heat last year from the fans shared how White was there to tell him the fans will get used to the “Rex style” and that he would succeed just fine as a Royal. Denny Matthews long time partner to Fred White in calling Royals games came on during the game from a off night to talk about his old partner. Hearing Denny go back and remember the famous calls was a real honor to everything Fred has done as a Royal. Being a Royals fan I would like to thank Fred White for passing down that Royals passion we still hear in games today.

The Start Up

   Sports Talk Matt O will cover your national sports topics along with a main focus on the Kansas City sports scene. This blog plans to bring readers many different and exciting views on sports. I, Matt O'Dell, grew up in the small farm town of Orrick, Missouri just a half hour outside of Kansas City. Coming up as a kid I quickly became a sports fan watching the Royals and Chiefs compete. I have learned the hard way about my teams losing in professional sports. I have also seen those magical seasons that bring a city together.

   After enjoying the small town life of Missouri I moved to Orlando, Florida to earn my degree in Sports Marketing & Media at Full Sail University. I have always had a knack for talking sports to pretty much anyone interested, so I figured I had a talent and a passion I shouldn’t put to waste. What I have learned about covering sports is you really have to listen and create a feel for the game. Listen because when a veteran player or veteran announcer covers a topic, they have the knowledge of the game to know how it usually plays out. Your personal feel of the game is how you can look at a player like LeBron James or Robert Griffin III and relate to how good that player really is at his sport. I say those two things because when covering sports you should be open to all kinds of different opinions and ideas. My goals are to have fun and extend your sports knowledge while covering your Chiefs, Royals, Tigers, Jayhawks, and Wildcats. That’s that and Sports Talk Matt O says go KC.  

StumbleUpon link:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/SportsTalkMattO/lists

Facebook Link:

https://www.facebook.com/MattOsportstalk

Twitter Link:

https://twitter.com/MaddOdell