Sports MBA students work the World Baseball Classic!

Since the Sports MBA Class of 2010 is on Spring Break this week, we're going to feature a guest blogger from the Class of 2009, Masanari Kawai. Nari penned the following piece after working as a media liaison for Team Japan, the winners of the 2009 World Baseball Classic...

The World Baseball Classic is an unprecedented baseball event that featured many of the best baseball players in the world competing for their home countries and territories. The inaugural tournament in 2006 gave fans around the world a chance to see the exciting, world-class baseball games. The 16 countries and territories selected as the first participants of this historic competition were chosen because they are among the best baseball-playing nations in the world and provide diverse global representation. The tournament was created to provide a platform that will increase worldwide exposure of the game and promote grassroots development, attracting new fans and players in traditional and non-traditional baseball regions.

In Japan, team Japan’s camp for the World Baseball Classic (Feb 16th-22nd) at Miyazaki prefecture created an economic effect of over $100 million USD. The first matchup between Japan and Korea earned a TV rating of 37.8 in Japan, with more than 45 million viewers tuning in nationwide. The game ranked as the highest rated sporting event of any kind in Japanese history, surpassing even the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, although the event resulted in record-breaking television ratings and larger crowds than the inaugural tournament held in 2006, I felt there was a great deal of growth opportunity among Japanese baseball fans in the U.S.

The last iteration of the event in 2006 saw disappointing attendance figures for Team Japan games in the U.S. For example, there were only 16,591 in attendance for team Japan against Mexico despite nearly 60,000 Japanese expatriates living in Los Angeles and another 11,056 in San Diego. I knew that the interest in baseball and national pride were strong within the Southern California Japanese community, but I felt that I could help MLB and the WBC by assisting with their Japanese outreach.

Therefore, I launched a ticket sales project for the 2009 WBC second round games, which were held in San Diego at PETCO Park. Since the SDSU Sports MBA program is partnered with the Padres, I was able to garner support from the club in securing tickets to specifically sell to Japanese fans. I launched a website (http://wbc2009round2.blogspot.com/) in Japanese to promote the project, and recruited Yuma Ono, a Japanese student in the Sports MBA Class of 2010, to assist me. Once the site launched and the tournament began, I was focused on my job working with the Team Japan as a media relations liaison for the tournament.

Yuma took a leadership role from the beginning, bringing on three assistants to help market the PETCO games for several weeks prior to the start of the tournament. Our plan was to attract Japanese fans to buy tickets through us for a number of reasons: first, our site was in Japanese whereas the MLB site sold tickets only in English, second, we charged no additional fees, third, the Padres had secured our group great seats for the event, and fourth, we were marketing only to Japanese fans, creating a vibrant atmosphere that helped give the team an advantage.

Yuma Ono (Sports MBA '10) developed a social networking and new media marketing strategy by getting support from the president of "San Diego Town," a local Japanese community website, advertising on "mixi," the biggest Japanese social networking site, and creating partnerships with local Japanese baseball teams. This project was covered and broadcasted by Japanese national TV program (Fuji Television and Nippon Television Network Corporation) and a Japanese sports newspaper.

This strategy, in just a few short weeks, yielded excellent results. In total, 201 tickets were sold and the project raised $13,130. In addition, this project resulted in 24 tickets sold to fans who flew to San Diego from Japan, increasing the economic impact of the event exponentially. The total attendance in game 1 of the second round (Japan vs Cuba) was 20,179 compared to 16,591 in 2006 (Japan vs Mexico). Both Padres executives and the international media covering the event noted that more Japanese fans were at the stadium this time, giving the atmosphere a boost for the Japanese team.

Although this project was a success, we feel that with greater time and resources, we could have done more to get additional Japanese fans to the games. We still feel it is necessary and there is a great deal of potential for MLB to expose and promote the WBC more on a global level to increase attendance. We also feel that MLB must measure attendees and fans from specific countries to have an accurate depiction of the sport's global interest continuing to build and grow beyond traditional markets.

For Yuma and myself, the opportunity to work with MLB on this major international event was a great experience. We have enormous pride for Japanese baseball and it was very satisfying to defeat our rival, Korea, in the final at Dodger Stadium. I really hope this tournament will grow and expand to more countries for the next World Baseball Classic. I see a lot of potential for the event, and although it has started small with 16 teams, remember that the FIFA World Cup started with only 13 participants in 1930!

Masanari Kawai (Sports MBA '09)

SMBA V at the MLB Umpires Camp

This past week, a number of SMBA V (class of 2010) students helped out with the MLB Umpire Camp for US Marines at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the SDSU campus. The camp is designed to give US Marines an opportunity to learn umpiring from the best of the best. There were 80 marines in attendance, taking instruction from some of the most prominent umpires in the history of Major League Baseball, most notably Hunter Wendelstedt, Ted Barrett, Bill Miller, Joe West and Bruce Froeming.

SMBA students helped with the pitching machines, took photos for the event and assisted with many other organizational issues. We also had the opportunity to speak with the MLB umpires, Padres CEO Sandy Alderson and MLB Executive VP of Baseball Operations Jimmy Lee Solomon. 

For the MLB.com recap of the event, go to http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090316&content_id=4000936&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnerId=rss_mlb

For a few videos of the event, go to our facebook page!

Following the days events, the students had the opportunity to take in the Cuba-Mexico WBC second round game at Petco courtesy of the Padres. The game was fantastic, ending in a 7-4 win for Cuba. All in all, a great day in San Diego. Aren't they all though?

Brewers Spring Training Trip

Who says road trips are just for undergrads?

This past weekend, members of our program's baseball committee made the trip from San Diego to Phoenix, AZ where we were hosted by Blake Schilly and the Milwaukee Brewers at the Brewers' spring training facility. Blake is the operations manager at Maryvale Baseball Park and was kind enough to give us a tour of the facility, which occupies 56 acres of land and consists of a main ballpark (10,000 capacity), five full practice fields, and two half-sized practice fields. 

Following the tour, we took our seats five rows behind home plate and watched the Brewers' ace, Yovani Gallardo, face off against the best of the Kansas City Royals' staff, Zack Greinke. Highlights of the game included Prince Fielder's impressive first-inning home run, Trot Nixon making it through the entire game uninjured, and our hosts winning 5-1. 

A big thanks to Blake for taking the time to introduce us to the business side of spring training baseball. It was a memorable trip for sure. 

Tyler Griggs, SMBA 2010

SDSU Sports MBA students help out at So Cal Action Sports Networking Event

Last weekend a group of students from our class, with an interest in the action sports industry, volunteered to help out Bryan Elliott (Chairman of So Cal Action Sports) with his networking event in Del Mar.

It was a great event which provided an excellent platform for networking for members of our class, as well as a very informative guest speaker. David M. Scott, a social marketing guru, gave an excellent talk on social media and how to use it when marketing a new product or service.

In addition to the many contacts that were made, the event was a great success as we were able to help Bryan with the event and get involved with So Cal Action Sports in its beginning stages.

So Cal Action Sports is a rapidly growing network of action sports professionals that is focused on connecting professionals within the action sports industry.

- David C., Erica D., Erin G., Andrew M., Lauren S. & Erika L.

USA Rugby 7s

This past weekend, about half of our class spent an awesome couple of days at the USA Sevens event at Petco Park (home of the San Diego Padres). USA Sevens is an international rugby 7s (that's seven a side) tournament, part of the IRB Sevens Series, the eight-leg world series of rugby. As the fourth leg of the series, San Diego played host to 16 teams from around the world, for 44 match ups over 2 days.

Our class volunteered all around the event, from acting as media runners and spotting results on the field, to staffing the information booth at the Fan Festival and running the central operations center. The weekend exposed us to much of what goes in to putting on a major sporting event, and we were thrilled to pitch in where we could. Thanks, Donal and Tara, for getting us involved!

I also can't say enough about the people who put this event on. Not only did they put on a world-class event, but everyone we met took the time out to talk to us about what they did, and to show us around. Between decorating the suites, "following the wires" from the press box to the stats room to the TV truck, and walking the sidelines with radio in hand and hanging out with the photographers, I saw about every inch of Petco Park this weekend. What a great experience!

The weekend also included some pretty great rugby matches. The US lost to Argentina (eventual tournament champion) in the semi-final round. While the loss was disappointing, the semi-finals was the furthest the US has advanced in and IRB series event, and the run included wins over some very good teams. Meanwhile, Kenya recorded its first-ever win over New Zealand, and boy were the Kenyan fans excited about it!

A couple of pictures are posted below, and hopefully there are a couple of more to come. Enjoy!
-- Meg



(Sadly, not the finals score; View from the press box.)

(Kenyan side takes a bow; Fijian fans.)

Hall of Champions

Last week, our class had the honor of visiting the San Diego Hall of Champions to meet with the President of the Hall, Al Kidd, and the Director of Marketing, Angela LaChica.

Al and Angela both took time out of their schedules to talk to us about their careers in sports, where they came from, how they got started, and what advice they have for us as we start out.

Al also talked about the past and future of the Hall, which just merged with the San Diego Sports Commission, and is charged with bringing sports events to San Diego, and creating San Diego-unique sporting events. The Hall also has taken on the challenge of creating outreach programs around San Diego, particularly focusing -- for now -- on children's programs. Al is particularly interested in reaching what he describes as "at need" members of the San Diego community.

Angela spoke at length with us about her experience as a woman in the sports industry, and about what has made her so successful. In addition to her work with the Hall, Angela works closely with area sports teams, and athletes across the country. Hers is a career many of us would love to emmulate!

Thanks Al and Angela, for meeting with us -- we look forward to working with you this year!

--Meg

Back in the Classroom

More on our outside-of-the-classroom activities later, but now that we're in the thick of our first set of classes, I thought I'd take a minute to update you on the academic side of SMBA V.

Our first round of classes consists of statistics, accounting and sociology of sport. Classes meet once or twice a week, for about three hours at a time. The schedule is nice -- it leaves plenty of time for guest speakers, field trips, and generally rounding out the Sports MBA with out-of-the-classroom experience (more on that later).

Later in the year, we will have visiting faculty, but our first classes are all taught by the home team -- SDSU faculty. And the caliber of teaching is excellent. Prof. Tinley (sociology) and Dean Lackritz (statistics) have been involved in the programs since its inception, and their passion for sports, and their desire to grow the program and the individuals in the program is evident in every class and every interaction outside of class.

Digging in to classes has also given us an opportunity to get to know one another as colleagues. Much of our work is done in groups, and -- at the risk of sounding cliche -- it's been a great way to network with and learn from one another.

A couple of programming notes: Now that we're settling in, we'll be updating more frequently, so please check back! Also, we'll be working in some better-than-cell-phone quality pictures, so you can see what we're up to, too. Any questions? Things you'd like to hear more about? Let us know!

-- Meg