Countdown to Tip-Off

Summary

The article at hand being critiqued is a selection of separate "mini" articles in the October 23-29, 2006, volume 9, issue 25 of Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal. The article is the in-depth weekly special, this one named "Countdown to tip-off," referring to the upcoming 2006-2007 NBA season. The journal previews each new season for the major sports in different ways and innovates separate styles of doing this. With this preview of the NBA season, they included lists of influential people, executives to watch, trends to monitor, things expected to flourish at retail, sponsorships, television ideas, issues facing the league, and also provided business previews of each team in the NBA. For the purpose of this critique, concentration was given to the more relevant lists given in the journal and provided by authors John Lombardo, Terry Lefton, and John Oarand.

To begin with, John Lombardo gives his take on Five Trends Worth Monitoring. Of the five trends, four deal with tickets and the ever-present need of selling them. One trend is the increase of more expensive courtside seats and teams can easily make room for additional front-row seats to make at least an extra $1 million in sales without harming the team. Another is the increased popularity of offering season ticket at an unbelievable $199 for upper deck seats. The goal with this offer is to actually make the customer that calls for those tickets to purchase more expensive, higher quality seats while trying to order the cheaper seats on the phone. Another trend that might start to take off is paperless ticketing. The Cleveland Cavaliers are the first team to try to incorporate that this year and other teams are waiting to see how they do before they make the transition. One of the broadest trends currently occurring throughout the NBA and the teams is the influencer events that are held for prospective season-ticket buyers. Teams are having players, coaches, and anyone else involved with the team to sugar up the clients for a closer relationship with the ticket holders. The last trend talked about is the emergence of digital scoreboard signage that was tested during the Finals last year with the Timberwolves using it this year.

Next, Terry Lefton gives a list of Four Things the NBA Sees Flourishing at Retail. Apparently the usual top teams in apparel sales have gone from three years ago just the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers to now include the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks. Another thing the NBA expects to do well this year is its trading card sales. It now only has two trading-card licensing deals with Topps and Upper Deck. NBA licensing chief Sal LaRocca expects sales to increase 15 percent in the next year. Also, LaRocca expects a significant overseas sales increase in the range of 18 to 25 percent. He attributes this to Adidas' superior overseas distribution compared to Reebok, the old lead-licensee. He points out that there are 300 million people that participate in organized basketball in China, the same number of people that actually live in the U.S. Finally, the expect unlicensed NBA branded activewear to increase as two years ago it only was available in 250 Wal-Mart stores and this year will reach 900 stores throughout the U.S.

Finally, John Ourand previews five things that