What’s a twittering sports fan to do?
As most of you know, or at least anyone who knows me or has followed me on twitter, I’m a huge sports fan. In particular Oregon State football is my passion. I have season tickets, my outside of work wardrobe in the fall is predominantly orange and black, and I get passionate about the ins and outs of the Beavers season, as well as other happenings around the college football world.
While this is who I am, and it’s not something I’m ashamed of, it has made me wonder how I should be tweeting during the football season. You see, I follow a few different groups of people on twitter. The largest groups of people I follow on twitter are my friends, the Seattle (and general) tech community, and Oregon State football fans. From the months of January until August my tweets are generally a mix of tech, sports, Seattle happenings, general life happenings, etc. but come September through December the balance of my tweets gets very skewed with Beavers football this, random Thursday night football game this, fantasy football the other thing. However, I also am interacting with many college football fans through the same medium, which has been alot of fun.
I know twitter isn’t about numbers, but I do like the fact that it allows me to interact with people who I don’t know that well. It allows me to keep a pulse on what is happening in different social circles and all together different areas of life. I don’t know who all follows me, but I do know it’s alot of people who don’t care about Oregon State football. They might find my tweets interesting from January – August, but I’m guessing I annoy them during any Saturday in the fall where I’m spouting off tweets every 5 minutes about this play or that call. While the same people who I share sports tweets with, probably don’t find the happenings of the Seattle tech scene very interesting in the football off-season. Do they unfollow me because of this? Some of them do. Will they re-follow me in January? Probably not without a reason.
So what’s the solution to make sure that I maintain an interesting tweet stream, show who I am, yet not overwhelm people with subjects that they don’t care about? There are lists to break up who I want to see, but no lists to break up who I want to see my tweets. Should I start a second twitter account for sports obsessed @otis and keep my main twitter handle for the more reasonable, well rounded @otis? Have any of you experienced similar issues about one of your passions overtaking your online presence where you want people to still know you’re more well rounded than that? If so, any suggestions for maintaining a balance online lifestyle?
When marketing and superstision collide
It was announced today that the Seahawks are retiring their lime jerseys. If you don’t follow the Seahawks, live in Seattle, or critique jerseys (uniwatchblog.com) you might not have even realized that these jerseys were actually worn. These jerseys were worn in one game, a humiliating defeat, and have now been put on the shelf er, taken off the shelf… presumably until the NFL wants a new marketing gimmick (see this years AFL jerseys).
I’m not necessarily a fan of the jerseys myself, but I have been intrigued by the newly found revenue stream of teams and leagues, the third jersey. Teams have found that if they wear a throwback jersey, introduce a new color jersey, or even re-brand their entire uniform that people will buy the jerseys and that these jersey sales are big money. Look at a team like the University of Oregon (Yes, it took alot for me to capitalize that) and the 5 jerseys their football team has worn this year.
However, with the Seahawks wearing the jerseys only once and announcing that they won’t wear them again, this third jersey may have been a Marcus Tubbs sized flop (I’m talking about the fact that we drafted him one pick before Steven Jackson). Around Seattle there have been billboards, bus ads, newspaper ads, basically a jailhouse blitz of advertising dedicated to these new jerseys. Without the Hawks wearing the jerseys I’m sure the sales will be drastically falling off and I wonder how long it will be until the only place to find your “Green with envy” jerseys will be the half-off rack.
I don’t have any numbers, but it appears that this third jersey may have been the first major failure in the “buy our new jersey” revenue stream. I doubt that the amount of money spent on advertisement has even been recouped in the few weeks since the jerseys were worn until today when they are retiring cutting the jerseys. You also have to consider the amount that Reebok spent to produce and distribute these jerseys (I wonder if the Hawks have a contract with Reebok into how much they have to wear a third jersey as players cannot change their name or number during the season unless they’re traded).
I’d imagine there were many meetings taking place after practices that involved the football operations saying that they don’t like the look and that the jerseys were bad (They were 0-1 in them) and the marketing department was saying that the team should wear them at least one more game to help recoup the costs. At the least I’m surprised the fact that the jerseys were being retired came out before Christmas and I’m sure the marketing team is not that pleased with Jim Mora for eating into the “Green for the Holidays” jersey sales. The advertising push, mixed with selling these jerseys off the sales rack ($25), rather than as one off authentic customized jerseys ($259-$309) is not a winning combination for anyone involved and I’m sure it will cause teams to take a longer time deciding which third/throwback jersey to wear, produce and sell.
Everyone’s getting into MMA these days.
This weekend will be capping off, what is probably the biggest 8 day stretch in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) history. Last week UFC 84 took place with three big fights and many other good undercard fights. Tonight Elite XC will have their first fight night on CBS, which will mark the first time MMA has been broadcast on network television. Then, to cap it all off tomorrow night W.E.C. (another MMA league) will have the biggest fight in their history on basic cable (at least I think VS is still considered basic cable).
All in all MMA is becoming more and more mainstream with the media, the sponsors, and even more so the participants. There will be girls fighiting on the Elite XC show tonight and this morning I just saw this piece from 20/20 with John Stossel looking into kids who are now getting into MMA.
I may be jaded as I don’t have kids, but I think this is actually great. Getting kids into the sport at an early age will help teach good technique, and really, how much can these kids hurt eachother. MMA has proven to be safer than many other sports and I think teaching kids how to take a hit at an early age will be a great thing in our current society. It’s refreshing to see some parents not get so scared for their sons and daughters to even play tag or kickball on the schoolyard.
Watch the piece above if you have a spare 6 minutes and let me know what you think. Is it to early to get kids into a contact sport?
Also, if you want a good little introduction on MMA check out this blog post. It doesn’t give you everything, but at least a good base to go off of. AOL Sports Blog
Hat tip: AOL Sports blog [Stossel looks at kids in MMA]
The Alp D’Huizze!
Know what I mean? Fo’ Sho’. Know what I mean D’Huizze!
Just a quick note on what I have been really excited about this week.
I recently figured out that my suit pants that I haven’t worn for the past 9 months, just don’t fit like they used to. Yes, I’m getting older and my activity level just isn’t matching my lifestyle anymore. So after buying a pair of new running shoes and remembering that I’m not a big fan of running I have figured out what I will be doing to stay active.
I bought a road bike! Yea, the LeMond Alpe D’Huiz you see there on the right is my new baby. I have my eyes set on the STP ’09 (Seattle to Portland in two days). I bought the bike last night and was already able to get myself out of bed early this morning to go for a four mile ride. It was a great way to start the morning and the bike was alotof fun. I can’t wait to ride it more and get to the point that I can start riding with some friends who are much more experiences, wear much more spandex, and are in much better shape.
OSU’s “Doin’ Work”
Do Work
If you’re a fan of OSU Football, you have probably heard that the defensive moto for next year is “Do Work” taken from MTV’s Rob & Big. I love the show, so seeing two things I really enjoy come together made me think that I had to do something about it. I made a shirt.
If you don’t know where I got the inspiration for this shirt at, check out Big Black’s clothing line. I took into account, Al Afalava’s initials AA, his number #9, and the fact that he will be one of the key contributors to OSU’s stelar secondary next year. All of these, mixed with the nod to the “Double B’s” makes it a must own for those Rob & Big or Afalava fans in Corvallis (or anywhere).
Here’s my store where you can buy the Afalava Do Work shirt. Let me know if you get one, and if so, take a picture and send it in.
At Oregon you can buy a job without a college education.
ESPN: Outside the Lines looks into u of o athletics
Because I think this is a very controversial issue that more people should look into. Glad to see ESPN doing a little “reporting” even though it’s tough for them to dig to deep in just under six minutes. There are way to many controversies with hiring the second biggest donor, who does not have a college education, and who basically bought the job. Although I’m sure it helps with donations, and it may be a good way to build up the infrastructure of the athletic facitilies (baseball stadium and basketball arena) it does not send a good message to the student athletes who need to remember that there is more to life than sports. The good ‘ol boys club in Eugene has got to be loving this amosphere, but it is not the right way to run an athletic department.
About Otis
I live in Seattle, Washington. I am passionate about working with and interacting with others. My work experience includes marketing, account management, and sales.
I am a huge sports fan who on top of cheering for my favorite teams (Go Beavs!) also appreciates coaching strategy, as well as the marketing behind teams, players, and events.
Personally, I enjoys exploring new cities and areas (particularly small towns) and getting outside and playing.