USATODAY.com - Women grab NFL garb styled just for them

" The NFL is targeting a fast-growing market for gear: female football fans. Women consumers are snapping up NFL-licensed pastel jerseys, pink caps and other gear designed in the styles, sizes and colors they want.

Women's products will generate 15% of an expected $130 million-plus in retail sales around Super Bowl XL vs. 2% in 2005, predicts Susan Rothman, the NFL's vice president of consumer products.

Ladies' choice
Most popular NFL jerseys among women in 2005:
1. Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia
2. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh
3. Tom Brady, New England
4. Brett Favre, Green Bay
5. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis
6. Terrell Owens, Philadelphia
7. Hines Ward, Pittsburgh
8. Eli Manning, New York Giants
9. Chad Pennington, New York Jets
10. Brian Westbrook, Philadelphia
Sources: NFL and Reebok

Women's gear generated about 15% of the NFL's $3.4 billion in total merchandise sales for the 2005 season compared with 3% in '04. "

Want Super Bowl frenzy? Try Radio Row

"Chris Visser was here two decades ago when this bit of zaniness started. He watched it grow. He and a handful of other visionaries cupped their hands around it and nurtured its spark to a flame.

And this transcendent scene he absorbed three years ago before Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego filled him with joy and pride:
There was Jon Bon Jovi and Yanni. Just yonder was The Rock and Don King. Oh, and if real, live football legends are your thing, Joe Montana stood in the background."

ESPN.com - NFL/PLAYOFFS05 - Texas A&M unhappy Seattle fans called '12th man'

"FORT WORTH -- The Seattle Seahawks are facing the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl, but they have an off-the-field battle brewing with Texas A&M.

School officials are upset with the Seahawks' use of the '12th Man' theme to recognize their fan support. A&M has legal claims to the '12th Man' moniker, a school tradition that dates to the 1920s.

Texas A&M contends the 12th man lives at Kyle Field, not in Seattle.The Seahawks have celebrated their fans as a '12th Man' since the 1980s, when they used to turn the now-demolished Kingdome into one of the NFL's loudest venues. "

The business of fanaticism - Sports

"While town-gown issues can often be complicated, neither the town nor the University has problems with their town-jersey relationship.
Local businesses rely on Tar Heel teams to bring customers to Chapel Hill, and the school depends on local businesses for Olympic-team sponsorships.

Days such as Sunday - when both the Carolina Panthers and UNC men's basketball team brought droves of fans to Franklin Street - aren't the only times when local businesses profit from athletics.

'I think that the local businesses recognize that our events, more than any other event in the city, brings in visitors and dollars,' says Dick Baddour, University athletics director. "

ESPN Puts Sports in the Palm of Your Hand

"It comes packaged inside a black box designed with velvety red lining to look more like it contains fine cigars instead of the new ESPN mobile phone.

'To a guy, this is like a Tiffany's box,' said Manish K. Jha, general manager of Mobile ESPN.

The phone is the newest cellular man toy: It rings with the sports network's theme song and displays all the scores, trivia, news clips and fantasy football statistics that a guy could handle.

At least, that's the marketing pitch for the phone, which hits retail stores on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5, for $199 and will run on Sprint Nextel Corp.'s high-speed network"

Charlotte Observer | 01/21/2006 | He helped to bring NBA, NFL to Charlotte; now he's looking for fun

"Max Muhleman, a dean of Charlotte's sports marketing community, is leaving the company he helped create to start his own boutique firm.Muhleman recently turned 69, and he said he's looking forward to 'working only on things that are exciting and stimulating to me.

Over the years, there have been five or six that you wish you don't have to do for every one that's fun.'His contract with IMG/Muhleman Marketing ran out Dec. 31, and Muhleman said he's looking to start Private Sports Consulting Inc. by next month.

Muhleman, whose firm was bought by sports-marketing powerhouse IMG in 1999, is perhaps best known for helping bring the NFL and NBA to Charlotte. He's also credited with helping to create personal seat licenses, a tool sports stadiums have used to raise money for construction"

Just do it!

(Scroll to bottom of linked page) "Here's a tip: If you're cashing paychecks from the University of Oregon, treat Phil Knight with unabashed love; even genuflect at his Nikes if the occasion calls for it. Just don't tick him off or, heaven forbid, fall shy of grandiose designs for his beloved alma mater -- lest you might end up following Martin Smith down Interstate 5.


Phil Knight isn't subtle about the direction he wants to see the University of Oregon headed.Suspiciously, the longtime track coach resigned a day before the Ducks' season-opening meet this past March, leaving with three years on his contract. The $500,000 buyout he reportedly walked away with makes it sound more like a firing. If so, his testy relationship with the Nike co-founder didn't help. Nor did the almost sacrilegious idea that Smith, a prickly character who refused to seek input from Knight or former Oregon distance running star Alberto Salazar, delivered a successful program around a core of hurdlers, jumpers and throwers -- not seasoned distance runners like those who'd given legs to Oregon's storied track tradition and birthed a sneaker giant."

Panther fans prefer fancy coffee, cats

"Bears fans are smarter, richer and, well, maybe drunker than Carolina Panthers fans.

Just like you'd figure?

On top of that, Panther fans are more likely to prefer slurping specialty coffee drinks and to have pet pussycats, according to folks who keep tabs on such things. Bears fans are more likely not to have a pet and drink any kind of coffee you give 'em."

Success just the ticket for drawing fans

"USC point guard Tre Kelley said he has not bothered lobbying friends and classmates to join him for a night under the lights at the Colonial Center.

It is not his job to ask, the junior from Washington, D.C., said Friday. It is the Gamecocks' job to attract.

And so far, no good.We can't make (fans) come, Kelley said. But I think we will be able to make them when we win a couple of games in the SEC and people start opening their eyes a little bit. They know we've got a lot of talent

The Gamecocks (9-4), who open SEC play today against Tennessee, are on pace to draw the lowest average attendance to the Colonial Center in the arena's three-plus seasons. The team has attracted an average of 6,017 fans to its seven home games, nearly 12,000 below the arena's capacity."

Your logo on a Doran

Your logo on a Doran: "LEBANON - Among Cincinnati area sports teams, Doran Racing isn't on most radar screens.

Until recently, Kevin Doran, 44, who formed the motor sports racing team 13 years ago, liked it that way.

'Even people in Cincinnati motor sports didn't know we were here,'' said Doran, whose Doran Enterprises is in Lebanon.

'Our company was small, so I put all my focus into the technical side of the business,'' he said. 'Our strategy was to be low key.'"

The Free Press, Mankato, MN--Putting seats in the seats

"Perception: Attendance at Minnesota State revenue-sports events is disappointing in light of �all� those empty seats.

Reality: In light of the facts, empty seats shouldn't be grounds for despair.
"We're definitely looking to improve, but I wouldn't say we're disappointed with our numbers," MSU director of marketing and promotions Brian Gabel says.

MSU athletic director Kevin Buisman suggests that glass half-full/glass half-empty perspectives may be at play here. "

Marketers see green over Bush potential

Silly season arrives in interview sessions

LaMar Griffin hasn't been answering his cell phone quite as much this week.

After getting besieged by calls in the past few months by agents and marketing specialists, Griffin, Reggie Bush's stepdad, has decided recently to take a break from them because he said it's gotten 'overwhelming.'

'If I don't know who it is, I don't even answer the phone,' Griffin said. 'I'm just taking a breather from all these people.' "

Super Bowl sponsors: $1 million down, $13 million to go - Phoenix - MSNBC.com

"After locking up the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation as the first major corporate sponsor for 2008's Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, the game's host committee is entering a critical period where the bulk of its major partners will be courted and, it is hoped, landed.

The Super Bowl XLII Host Committee announced the $1 million Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation deal just days before Christmas, but a post-holidays push is planned to bring in a number of major corporate partners over the next six to eight months. "

montgomeryadvertiser.com�::� Selling the SEC: Schools take new approach to marketing sports

" Alabama has one of the country's top gymnastics programs and has found an enthusiastic following. The Crimson Tide finished second in the nation in attendance last season.

Suppose you had a product that generated $45 million a year. How much would you spend to market it?

If you're talking about college football in the Southeastern Conference, the answer is probably not one dime.

Though SEC football generates big revenues for the 12 members, few spend any money to market their most profitable sport. Those that do, don't spend much. Every league athletic department has a marketing director, but the commitment to sell football is almost nil.
The thinking is, there are more tangible things to spend money on."