Jimmy’s Blog

What a fantastic NHL game tonight!  The Capitals, in front of another sell-out crowd, defeated the NHL’s most famous team, the Montreal Canadiens, in an OT thriller.   But, it wasn’t just the victory that made it a great night, it was the spectacular goal scored by the world’s best hockey player, Alexander Ovechkin.

Words can’t do justice to this place.   If you haven’t seen it yet, please go to http://www.youtube.com and type in Alex’s name.  It’s simply an incredible play – from start to finish.  It might not be as spectacular as the goal he scored while on his back against the Phoenix Coyotes three years ago, but it ranks right up there as one of the greatest goals you’ll ever see.

Let’s go Caps!

I blog every Monday night or Tuesday morning during the Spring about the Sports Marketing Strategy class we teach at Georgetown University.  But, no class tonight since the campus is closed due to President’s Day.

This is probably a good thing we have tonight off, especially if I brought in a guest speaker tonight … who would have had the monumental task of being the guest speaker after Ted Leonsis’ stellar appearance in our class last week. I received a number of wonderful emails from our students about how much they enjoyed hearing the many fascinating stories and life lessons from Ted.  He knocks it out of the park each spring semester when he talks to the class.

So, instead of the regular Monday routine of working all day at AOL, then teaching a class on Monday night — I’m free today / tonight.   I did come back from NYC this afternoon on the train.   And, I guess I’ll watch 24 live tonight vs the usual routine of watching it on DVR.   Sweet!

NASCAR season kicks off today with the running of the Daytona 500, which is regarded as their biggest event of the season.  Unlike the NFL, which culminates with the Super Bowl or the MLB, which ends with the World Series, it’s interesting that NASCAR starts its 38-race season with their largest and most popular race.

Why?  Because Daytona Beach is where NASCAR got its start behind the brilliance of Bill France, Sr.  His grandson, Brian France, now is the CEO / Chairman of this hugely popular sport.

NASCAR took off in popularity about 10 years ago when they signed the major TV deals with Fox, NBC and Turner Sports.   Plus, they’ve done a good job by opening tracks outside of the Southeast, where the sport got its’ start.  They are now tracks in Chicago, Kansas City, Texas, California, etc.

I have a lot of friends that say they don’t watch NASCAR on TV or won’t attend a race in person.  But, I encourage you to try to attend a race in person.  It’s exhilirating — the power of the cars, the sounds, the smell of the fuel and tires — and, of course, the devoted passion of its’ fan base.

At AOL, we sponsored the #30 car with Richard Childress Racing (one of the greatest people in the sport), for three years.   Plus, we had a three-way partnership with NASCAR and Turner Sports to promote NASCAR.com.   So, I got quite a bit of NASCAR experience earlier this decade.

Who do I think will win today’s race?   My choice is Carl Edwards, who should probably battle Jimmy Johnson for the crown.  But, with major wrecks often occuring in a super speedway like Daytona, one never knows since so many cars can get knocked out.   Fortunately, the safety of the drivers has increased dramatically after the tragic accident of the sport’s most popular drive, Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Time to go watch them “tradin’ paint!”  “Rubbin’ is racin'”  🙂

I’m heading to New York City this weekend with a few good friends this weekend.   I haven’t been to NYC since early November to attend the Asian Leadership Summit.   And, this will be my first weekend there in nearly a year.

I used to work at least one day a week in our AOL office NY for over 3 1/2 years.  I went there for staff meetings as well as to meet regularly with my primary accounts — the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, NHL, Sports Illustrated, etc.   Sometimes the trip would be two days but normally it was back and forth onthe same day.

But, things have changed over the past few years … we longer have the strategic sports partnerships with the leagues (mostly due to our change in business model).  Also, with a keen eye on expenses, business travel has been reduced dramatically.

NYC is definitely one of my favorite cities in the world … other fave’s are Tokyo (where I grew up), Paris, Hong Kong and Montreal.   I used to fly there regularly but I’ve become much more of an Amtrak Acela user the past couple of years.   It takes 2 hours, 45 minutes vs a 45-minute flight but you don’t have to deal w/ airport security … plus the flights delays and the cab ride from LaGuardia to mid-town.

NYC is electric … and, there’s always so many things to do.   One of my closest friends and his family live there as well as a number of other great friends.  So, I am looking forward to the visit this weekend (and some NY pizza, too)!

Washington, DC has been regarded as the most powerful city in the world while NYC has been regarded as the financial center.  But, times are changing, especially with the Wall Street firms needing desperate financial assistance from the gov’t.

I feel fortunate to live and work in a wonderful city while also being located a short distance from one of the greatest cities in the world.    But, I’ll never be a Yankees fan — especially with all the crazy money they throw each year at free agents.  Go Nationals!!!  🙂

Although we’re only about a 1 / 3 of the way through our Spring semester at Georgetown, last night’s class was the highlight of the semester.  Why?  Because Ted Leonsis spent over 2 hours with our 45 students.

Ted, who is one of my primary mentors and a long-time friend, speaks each Spring to my Sports Marketing Strategy class.  And, he always knocks it out of the park.   It’s such an honor having someone with his background share his life story and life lessons with the class.

With his background of running AOL when we were the world’s hottest company; operating as the Majority Owner of the Capitals and Mystics (as well as interests in the Wizards and Verizon Center); producing two stellar documentaries – “Nanking” and “Kickin’ It”; serving as one of the DC area’s leading philanthropists; investing in new hot companies and ideas such as ClearSpring and Snagfilms; and being a terrific family man, he has so many wonderful experiences to share.  And, that’s exactly what he did to our class last night.

He talked about coming to Georgetown as a 16-yr old freshman — his mentorship with Father Durkin — his initial job right out of college at Wang — to successfully selling his company for millions of dollars before the age of 25 — to the plane crash he fortunately survived at the age of 25 (very similar to the story about the recent crash on the Hudson River) — to his days at AOL, including the rise which led us to the largest merger in corporate history  — to finding out the truth behind real happiness in life — to running and operating professional sports franchises (and the successful turnaround of the Capitals — to producing documentaries and coining the term, “filmanthropy” — and, much more.

(To learn more about the life of this terrific person, please go http://www.tedstake.com.  Also, please take a look at http://www.snagfilms.com.)

Each year, after he speaks to the class, I get a few emails from students that tell me how they were blown away by the stories and life lessons; how they called their parents after the class to share some of the stories; to how some of them say that the class where Ted spoke was their best class in their 4 years at Georgetown.  Those type of compliments say it all.    Thank you, Ted, for giving back so much to your alma mater.  We are all better for it.  Go Hoyas!

Another good, productive night on the Georgetown University campus.

First, I delivered a guest lecture at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Education’s Sports Industry Management program.  I spoke to about 30 – 35 students about the importance of networking, mentoring, relationship building and the value of community service and “giving back.”  Unfortunately, I didn’t have too much time to address the group since I had to hustle to teach the Sports Marketing class at 6:15 pm.   I’ll back there in a couple of weeks for a follow-up session.

I sound like a broken record, but we had another terrific class tonight.  For the first half of the class, we did a quick review of the Super Bowl commercials, then a review of a case study about the famous Real Madrid futbol club.    Then, for the 2nd half of class, our guest speaker was Steve Trax, co-founder of MTX Wealth Management (they’re a full-service financial and investment advisor to over 70 professional athletes and entertainers).

In arranging the schedule of guest speakers for the class, I try to provide the class with a wide variety of executives and experts from the various facets of the Sports Industry.  Thus far, we’ve had the President of a top Sports Marketing agency; a TV Sports programming executive; and now a financial services expert.  Coming up will be a professional team owner, a top national sportswriter, a leading sports agent and a chief marketing officer for a team.   This way, the class will have the ability to listen and interact with many of the leading figures in the sports space.

Since this class is part of the business school, I brought in a financial expert to present to the class about about managing the investment portfolios for high net-worth individuals .  Steve’s firm represents a number of top athletes, including Roy Halladay, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero,  Justin Morneau, etc.

As usual, the class was engaged and the students asked a lot of terrific questions.   Steve also left them with a couple of key pieces of advice, primarily the importance of life-long savings, even at their young age of 21 – 22 … and to not run up massive debt on credit cards.   Hopefully, the advice will sink through.  After all, there’s nothing like the magic of compounding interest to build up your savings over the long term.

Next week’s class will be the highlight of the semester — I’ll write about it in detail next week.   Cheers.

What a great Super Bowl!  Clearly, it was one of the best ever — well-played and back and forth in a riveting 4th quarter.  Wow, great action.

So, if Big Ben doesn’t make that phemonenal and clutch throw to Holmes near the end of the game, my prediction would have come true — a victory by the Cards and the MVP award to either Fitzgerald or Warner.

But, I’m pleased for the Steelers, their organization and their fans.   The Rooney family is clearly the class of the NFL.  What a terrific family — that cares deeply about the team and the impact it has on the city of Pittsburgh.

As for the SB commercials, overall they were pretty entertaining.  Plus, it’s actually neat to watch a sports event without clicking to other channels during the commercial breaks (as guys do so frequently).

My hats off to the NFL for a superb game … and, kudos to Steeler Nation for a record-setting 6th Vince Lombardi Trophy!

Super Bowl Sunday!   The day is often over-rated and the game ends up being a blow-out but we have been pretty lucky the past few years with a number of games that went down to the wire.  Let’s hope that’s the case with today’s game.

So, for the second straight year, I’m so very, very happy to be watching the game at home with a couple of good friends.

For 12 straight years, I was fortunate enough to attend the Super Bowl since I managed AOL’s strategic partnership with the NFL.  It was a wonderful 4 days of attending the game, networking, business meetings, schmoozing, parties, community service, etc.   But, it was also stressful at times because we had to deal with so many details — flights, hotels (who stayed where), tickets (who sat where) — plus the long lines to get into events and the massive traffic jams.

On the other hand, there are so many great memories, including the Super Bowl in New Orleans in 2002 — where U2 played a memorable set at half-time — which was sobering and riveting as the backdrop contained the names of the 9/11 victims.

There was also the Super Bowl in Houston where AOL sponsored the half-time show — it looked like a great marketing move until the the Janet Jackson / Timberlake disaster.

I’m sure I’ll be heading to future Super Bowls, but for now, I’m looking forward to watching the big game w/ my boys, Rick and Rick, ordering take-out, eating chips and salsa, etc.  Oh, and of course, watching the TV commercials (which I asked my class to watch so we can discuss during tomorrow night’s class).

Who do I think will win.  All indications are the Steelers will win because 1) their great defense, 2) experience from playing in the Super Bowl (just 3 years ago), 3) good combination of pass / run game.  But, as I did in predicting Manny Pacquiao upsetting De la Hoya, I’m going to go with the Cards upsetting the Steelers because of the brilliant play of Warner, Fitzgerald and Boldin.  One of those three will be the MVP.

Hope everyone enjoys the Super Bowl!