tagged: charlie villaneuva, communication, sports, sports business, twackle, twitter

The Future of Sports & Sports Business: Communication

Posted by Emmett Jones in Miscellaneous

The “twit read round the world” occurred last week and was “tweeted” by Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva.  For those who didn’t catch the insider info,

In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We’re playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.

And apparently, the tweet worked because Villanueva led the Bucks to a win, scoring 19 points to accompany his 7 rebounds.  But wait! Did he tweet during halftime of a game? He must not be focused on the game itself, right?

The firestorm had begun.

Although Villanueva tried to clear up any misconceptions about his tweet with a post game tweet,

By the way, lets just get the record straight, my halftime twitt had no interference with what goes on regularly during the locker room.

It was too late, and the Bucks had banned the use of twitter or any other form of social media while on “company time”.  Questions about Villanueva’s dedication to basketball aside, what did his tweet really show?

That the divide regarding contact between the athlete and the fan, normally mediated by the sports reporter, is beginning to crumble.

Actually, you could argue that the death knell has been sounding for traditional media for quite awhile now.  The advent of blogs brought about the idea that the lay person could at least do the job (write articles, research, etc.) of the traditional sports reporter.  The one thing the average person was missing was the network of access that reporters had.  But these new forms of social media have quickly broken down that divide.  Sure, maybe I can’t interview Tiger Woods directly, like Rick Reilly could, but I can read El Tigre’s blog and possibly have a leg up on even the best reporter as to whether or not he’s going to play next week.  I couldn’t interview Charlie Villanueva about how he felt at half time of the game last week, but thanks to his twitter, I’m connected to his intimate thoughts in a few seconds.  It’s almost like someone turned the light on and revealed the secret…

The sports world does not need so many sports writers.

This social media outbreak really is perfect for sports, when you think about it.  Sports fans want to feel a certain level of intimacy with their sports heroes, and the athletes no longer have to worry about having their words misconstrued (because they’re saying them themselves) or worry about the wrong message getting out there.  The middleman, the sports reporter, is cut out of the loop.

Does this mean the complete death of the sports reporter? No, but if definitely signifies a shift in consumer demand.  Sarcasm and parody over profound prose.  Athlete’s raw, inter-most thoughts over excessive, grammatically correct criticism or accolades.  Adaption is the key if the newspaper, or the traditional sports reporter is to survive.  To their credit, some have recognized the shift, and have done different things to change with the times (i.e. digital content, hiring “average joe” bloggers to write for their sites, etc.) but many are still hesitant about “using the google on the internet machine (c) Will Ferrell.  It is that hesitancy that will spell disaster for traditional media outlets moving forward.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

So what does sports communication look like a few years from now? I expect the shift to digital, instaneous, communication to continue, in part because there seems to be nothing present to slow it down.  Players and teams have already started setting up team twitter accounts (some of them are even using Twitter to sell ticket packages), and I could easily envision a future where each player conducts after game interviews using web cams and social media sites.  Viral videos of coaches press conferences? Sure, why not.  Imagine if Denny Green’s “They are who we thought they were” went directly to YouTube, bypassing ESPN and the other sports networks?  Who would lose out? Dennis Green? The Fans? or the reporters and the networks?  And that scenario is certainly far from being impossible, as its already happening (see Lance Armstrong choosing to bypass a post-race interview, and instead twittering his thoughts on the race or Curt Schilling’s retirment announcement on his blog, or even Octagon’s decision to work with Twitter to create Twackle).  The internet has allowed the average person to get the information they so desperately crave without having to pay for or watch the informalities (commercials? skip them. pay premium cable prices to get info from your favorite “inside source” *cough* Jay Glazer *cough*? check out his blog).

So, what’s the question that should be everyone’s mind when it comes to the future of communication and its effect on sports business?

Will anyone pay for this content I just created, or did they already learn about it 10 minutes ago on the internet?

Once you’re able to answer that question, feel free to post the response on Facebook or Twitter…or maybe you can do it the slow way…and send me an email?