SportsHoncho

MST (Mountain Standard Time) - The most important Sports Demographic

The MST is the most critical sports demographic in sports.  For those who have not lived here (MT,ID,WY,UT,CO,NM), you don't understand the significance on the timing of sporting events.  Everything, I mean EVERYTHING, starts at a good time.  Major events are aired so that we have enough time to get home and end so we can go to bed at a normal time.  I was reminded of this during the World Series, when Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd ("The Herd") were both complaining about how late they had to stay up for the end of the games.  The games start around 7-8pm MST and finish around 10-11pm.  Which means we don't have to leave work early, like Pacific Standard Time-er's or stay up late to catch the end, like Eastern Time-er's. 

Therefore, ergo facto, the MST must be the most important time zone for the sports demographics.  The East Coast (ET) and West Coast (PT), just isn't that important, apparently.

In more important, and relative information, ZipCodeSports.com will be relaunched (seamlessly) as a FREE site by the end of this week (11/2).  That's when we will start marketing and driving traffic to the site.  Please invite all you know to check us out.

Trade talks break down, both parties opt for free agency and land their 'Dream Job'

Dan Patrick, formerly of ESPN, and Rick Reilly, soon to be formerly of Sports Illustrated (SI), have both landed their Dream Job's.  It just so happens that it is pretty much Each Other's old job.  Wouldn't this have been easier, if ESPN and SI had just traded them straight across?  Funny thing is that each had to get the other's job, to get more freedom, higher exposure and more outlets for their ideas and stories.

Luckily, fans of each (which are pretty much the same people) will get to listen and read each more-than-ever.

NCAA Men's Basketball Schedules have been loaded on ZipCodeSports.com!

9,600+!! games for all divisions of NCAA Men's Basketball were loaded into the database over the weekend.  Unfortunately, the source of the information is incomplete at this time.  I believe there will be another 2000 added when the complete data is received.  I thought it best to publish what I had now, so search results on ZipCodeSports.com will start including college basketball games, since College Basketball starts in less than 2 weeks! If you are like me, you are ready and excited for the season.  Sign-up and search for the games, here.

As a fan of the Runnin' Utes, we have the added excitement of a new coach, long time Izzo (Head coach of Michigan State) assistant, Jim Boylen.  He has given the program energy and excitement, and seems to be trying to build a long-term successful program (what a great concept).  Go Utes!

ZipCodeSports.com is now FREE!... No subscriptions!

When I started researching, designing and developing ZipCodeSports.com, I wanted to make it useful and used by everyone.  I struggled with what "website" business model to follow.  I could go subscription or FREE, and went back-and-forth for several months.  (I actually didn't decide which way to go until about a month before launch and thats why we are going to be able to quickly switch to the FREE model).

From a revenue standpoint the subscription model is straight-forward, especially for me, a first-time website owner; customers pay for the use of the website.  I admit that I did not understand the FREE business model.  It includes driving traffic, website marketing and advertising space, and not completely about providing a great website or service (which we have worked hard to develop).  No matter how many books or marketing blogs I read, that said otherwise, I was convinced that people would pay for the service.  So I choose the safe, easy to understand subscription model.

Well, through some market research in the first month, we have come to realize that the website can be very successful, based on the positive reactions of the people we talked with, but it must be FREE, based on the same people's reactions to a "subscription."  Everyone loved the idea of ZipCodeSports.com and said they would use it, but weren't willing to pay for it.  The funny thing is that I even looked past myself as a consumer, because when I surf the internet, I want FREE websites and information.

The functionality, copy and graphics on the website will be changed within the next week to reflect this change.  So stop by, signup and enjoy the games... now for FREE!

Graphical innovations in Sports

Dan Patrick wants to know the graphic innovations in sports that we like or dislike.  Actually, I like them all and like to see the new places they come up with to advertise on.  Of course some of them bug me, the "Red Zone" in football is one, as Dan talked about.  I think its just too much red on the screen, they should change it to a red zone border.  But, thats whats great, they can try something out, see if consumers like it and easily change it to what we do. 

How horrible would it be if they took the yellow, first down marker away from us?  I remember when it first came out and how amazed I was with how well it worked.  I remember seeing it showing up on some of the players, especially those with green uniforms.  You now expect it and really can't live without it.  When you see a game that doesn't have it, you know its low budget.

I like the banner behind batters at home plate, its almost never an actual banner anymore.  Its a weatherman's green screen, with the ads superimposed on it.  I like the NASCAR tag, that hook to cars with specific stats; speed or race-spot.  I like the baseball strike box, and the lead off length.  I like the graphics thrown on the NHL ice with stats and explaining the rules.  The strange thing is that I can't remember seeing stuff like this imposed onto a basketball court?  Is the NBA falling behind in advertisement streams?

Cincy-Louis(y)-Indy, the Midwest Football Triangle, Part III

Day 3 - 10/6/07
Unfortunately, after a late-night game, we had to wake up early and drive a couple of hours to  Bloomington, Indiana for the Minnesota at Indiana game at noon.  On our way we waited in one McD's drive-thru (pic) for several minutes, drove away and looked at the line in two others before we found a fourth with no line.  This is only important, because they were only serving breakfast for another 10 minutes.  It took us a little under 2 hours to get to Bloomington and the last 45 minutes was on a windy two lane highway.  There was no scarcity of flea markets or opry houses along the way.  When we were almost there, I asked my nephew, Jaxon if he had seen the camel a ways back.  He asked me, "Was it peeing?"  "No." "That's not interesting then."  Now I know, a camel is only interesting to Jaxon if it is peeing.  We made it to the stadium right at kick off (pic), and it was a little bit different atmosphere.  Less people and a much quieter, calmer crowd.  Indiana is having a great year at 5-1, and 2-1 in the Big Ten, but the place, even with a conference rival in town, was not close to sold out.  Kellen Lewis, Indiana's quarterback, is amazing, very athletic and accurate thrower (pic).  During the game, a commercial was played for the Big Ten Network, and the crowd booed.  It made us laugh since the Big Ten and Mountain West fans are having similar problems with their ability to get games on TV.  (Both conferences have signed contracts with their TV networks for exclusive distribution on either cable or satellite, and they can’t come to terms to distribute it on the opposite form.)  We did ask the fans sitting in front of us, what a 'Hoosier' was…We left the game without an answer!  After the game we stood in the exits and handed out ZipCodeSports post cards, around 100.  We were very tired from sitting in the 90 degree and 90% humidity for 4 hours.   Once we got the sicky Bruce to bed, Wayne and I took Jaxon to experience White Castle sliders.  We forgot our camera, but he made some great faces as he choked down 2 of them.  Sliders at 9:30pm, nothing better.  Oh, I did some research and the Indiana University website had this answer for the term Hoosier, I will not comment.

Day 4 - 10/7/07
Since the Colts played the late Sunday afternoon game, we again slept in.  We walked around downtown  Indianapolis (pic) for a little while and ate at BadaBoomz (pic), it had great food and atmosphere.  The Colts are moving to a new stadium soon, but I didn’t think the RCA Dome looked that old and thought it was a fairly nice stadium.  We were 3 rows from the top and the view was still great (pic).  The new stadium is huge and from the brochure we saw in the game program will be very, very nice.  This is only my second pro football game, the other being a Arizona Cardinal game at Sun Devil stadium, but I could not believe how many jersey’s were being worn (pic).  I would guess that at least 80% of the people (men, women and children) had a jersey on.  Watching Manning pick apart and destroy the Tampa Bay defense was amazing.  He takes the entire play clock to figure out the defensive setup and positions and it seems that he knows exactly where he is going, to exploit the defense, when he finally snaps the ball.  The game was completely dominated by the Colts.  After the game we all stood outside of the stadium and handed out ZipCodeSports post cards, around 250.  We left the game and drove to Cincy.

Day 5 - 10/8/07
Since we all booked Super Saver flights, we had to get out of bed way too early.  Another uneventful flight, until we landed and were informed that there was a minor medical emergency and paramedics will need to board the plane and take care of it, before we can deplane.  I always think this is funny, not because someone is sick, but because everyone on the plane turns to see who the sick person is.  They are already embarrassed and self-conscience about the experience, why should we heap on some anxiety by staring.  Great weekend, great football and a great way to have a tax deductible business trip.

Cincy-Louis(y)-Indy, the Midwest Football Triangle, Part II

Day 1 - 10/4/07
We left SLC and had an uneventful flight to Cincy.  As we landed a guy asked us if we were going to the Utah/Louisville game, since both me and Wayne had on Utah hats.  He turned out to be a huge sports fan and as we walked out of the terminal, I pitched ZipCodeSports.com and gave him a postcard (Booyah! Its now a business trip!).  He loved the idea and said he would check it out, he especially liked the included map and ticket links.  We met Bruce and Jaxon at the curb (they had taken an earlier flight), made a quick junk-food stop and drove to Louisville (Louisy).   (Selecting any of the links with (pic) will take you to the trip's photo album, here.)

Day 2 - 10/5/07
Since we didn't get into Louisville until 2am, we slept in a bit and were in desperate need of nourishment in the morning.  We chose a Waffle House (pic) and, in hind sight, it was probably a mistake, since both me and Wayne felt sick during the game that night.  We made it to downtown Louisville and the Louisville Slugger Museum (pic).  We met people we knew coming out of the museum/factory tour and they advised us not to go through the tour.  So we spent an hour at the batting cage in the back and walked to the Muhammad Ali Museum.  Due to time constraint and Bruce not feeling well, we weren't able to go on this tour either.  However, the lobby exhibits were intriguing and interesting (pic), and if I am in the area again I will take the entire tour.  After letting Bruce rest a bit, we went to Wayne’s cousin’s house; ate pizza, played pool, watched ESPN on a huge HD projection TV and putted on the indoor green, all in his “Man Cave” in the basement.  After visiting for a while, we made it to the game, and were warmly welcomed, I can't tell you how many people we walked by, who said "Welcome to Louisville."   The Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (pic) is a very nice stadium, has a great surrounding area for tailgating and although we were two-thirds the way up, the view was great.  Similar to our own Rice-Eccles Stadium, I doubt there is a bad seat in the stadium.  That night, a thousand, or so, cadets from Fort Knox were in attendance (pic), and were given 6-7 standing ovations throughout the night, even when they were simply filing out of the stadium.  I was able to meet and discuss ZipCodeSports with a couple of guys at the game, both sounded excited about the idea and would use it.  What a game to be at.  Great fans and great atmosphere, even when the Cardinals were down by several touchdowns, the entire crowd rose and cheered when it was a defensive third down.  It was a dominant first half by the Utes, ending 27-7.  In the second half, Louisville fought back into the game creating energy in the stadium and got the fans rockin’.  Luckily, the Utes settled down, made some plays and sealed the win with a field goal.  We made our way down to the Utah fan section and the team came over to celebrate (pic).  After the celebration we handed out ZipCodeSports.com post-cards to Utah fans leaving the stadium.  It was great to see that only 2-3 of them were thrown on the ground as we walked out. 

Back from the Midwest

Holy crap, its hot out there!  They had record breaking heat all weekend and its really nice to be back in the dry air of the Wasatch front.  The Sports Honcho Crew (my brother Bruce, his son Jaxon, and my brother-in-law Wayne) had a blast; went to three different football games, met some great fans and passed out ZipCodeSports.com postcard fliers.  Unfortunately, it did not work out to post each day's events while there, but within the next couple of days, I will post a full trip report.

Awesome vacation coming, but today was crappy...

I thought I was starting a good day when I got my son to school on time, which I hadn't done for two straight days, but it was to be one of the few bright spots.  Following is a quick run down of the crappiness (is that a word?):

1. Vendor shorted a shipment of parts, that we were to modify and ship today,... didn't happen,
2. In my frustration, I grabbed the phone from my desk to call the vendor, it slipped and broke my engineering calculator, which I had had for 15 years*,
3. I designed the packaging for the components to ship based on a known box size, and cut the foam pad thusly, and then couldn't find the box size in any nearby supply centers,
4. While cutting the foam on our laser, I started a fire, which is common inside the laser chamber, but this one was a little out of hand and required the extinguisher,
5. I had to spend 30 minutes cleaning the laser, before it worked properly again,
6. When I got home, I started the wash, so that I could take some clean clothes on the trip, and the washer stopped working, full of water...,
7. Instead of paying the $180 bill, like last time, I unplugged the pump myself, but in the meantime, cut my hand several times**,
8. While talking with my wife, she laughing during most of it and singing "Ryan started the fire..." from The Office, I tipped over my drink.

I am going to bed before anything else can go wrong.  Tomorrow will be a good day, it has no choice; by then end, I will be in Louisville to start the football weekend.  The next part in the Midwest Football Triangle series is coming shorty, I will try to post nightly about the days events and then do a full trip report, with pictures when we return.

* - This makes me a nerd, which is not the Sports Honcho's way, but...  The calculator that an engineer chooses to use through college, is a prized possession and it almost becomes an appendage.  I am use to my calculator, the HP 48GX, and don't really want to learn how to use a different one.  Before you stop reading this and never come back, most engineers feel this way.  Case in point, my calculator is selling on Ebay for around $140, which is more than the original 1992 price I paid and is more than the latest engineering calculator offered from HP.  Wow, that was really nerdy, I explained the lose I felt over my calculator.

** - There was a little sharp piece of sheet-metal right above the pump that I had to unplug.  As a design engineer, I would like to point out that not all of us make poor stupid designs like this.  I almost took my hammer and modified it myself.

"It is, what it is" - quoted from a lot of athletes

"It is, what it is"

No sentence has explained more things away.  Its the end-all, to end-all.  Its the last, of the last.  Its... well... its as stupid as the last two sentences and doesn't exactly explain anything.  I wish I could use it in my everyday life, like;

My Wife - "Sports Honcho, why can you take work off for golf, but not a school play?" (Yes, I make my wife call me the Sports Honcho.)

Sports Honcho - "It is, what it is"

My Wife - "Oh, Okay"

Life would be great if we could get away with this argument and it would prevent me from further incriminating myself.  For the record, it took me forever to come up with an example to apply it to... I think because its such a stupid thing to say in the real world.

Andrei Kirilenko is the latest to use the phrase, to explain away his off-season trade comments.  If you listen to the interview, he was asked repeatedly about his comments/demands for a trade.  Of course, Kirilenko continually explained the situation as "It is, what it is" and he was there to "work hard" in camp.  I know that he doesn't have to say anything further on the matter to the media, but please, come up with something smarter than "It is, what it is." It makes you look like as if you don't remember or understand what you previously said, that you don't understand the question posed and you don't know how to make normal conversation.