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...
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