USATF Crippling Part 2

U.S. 800 meter champion Nick Symmonds is taking on governing bodies USATF and the IAAF, saying they are crippling the sport. Symmonds wants to bring in more sponsors to the sport of track and field, but he feels the current logo regulations that are in place are preventing that.

"It's unfair and I think the free market system would allow some of these injustices to be worked out and allow athletes to pursue alternate sources of income," Symmonds told KVAL Sports.

As it stands right now, the IAAF and USA Track and Field allow just two sponsorship logos to appear on athletes clothing at any competition site governed by either of the two organizations. Symmonds wants that changed in order to grow the sport and he thinks he has a solution.

"I propose four to six inches of skin be allowed to market to corporate sponsors and perhaps four to six inches on the back of a jersey," said Symmonds. "The backs of jerseys have no corporate sponsors right now and that's prime real estate for advertising."

Symmonds contends that the current rules are crippling track and field because they limit how many sponsors an athlete can have. That means less money in the pockets of the athletes.

"There's thousands of companies out there that would love an opportunity to advertise in track and field," said Symmonds. "But as it now they're not able to because they're not a clothing manufacturing company and they're not allowed to have their corporate image displayed anywhere on an athlete during competition."

"It's not just the USATF and the athletes," said USATF spokesperson Jill Geer. "The apparel companies are very much a part of it also. Until you get everyone in the room at the same time talking to each other, there are an infinite number of possibilities for ways to work with each other and hopefully a couple of those can stick."

That could happen in early December when the Athletes Advisory Committee will meet with the USATF and the apparel companies to attempt to find a solution.

"If everyone approaches it with an open mind, there's no reason why we can't come up with something that works for everyone," said Geer.

"There's some athletes out there who don't land shoe deals right out of college and they need the chance to pursue their Olympic dream as well," said Symmonds. "If they're not going to land a shoe sponsorship, then they should be allowed to go to any business out there that has an interest in track and field and would like to invest dollars in the growth of the sport."

Location : "http://www.kval.com/sports/local/134089273.html?tab=video&c=y&fb_source=message"

UNI Track and Field T-Shirt SALE

Myself along with the rest of my Track and Field team are selling UNI Track and Field T-Shirts!!! Let me know if you are interested in buying one. Design #1 and #2 are $10 each, and Design #3 and #4 are $15 dollars. Available in the following sizes (S,M,L,XL,XXL,XXXL) 


We are selling T-shirts to help fundraise for or program. It will help us with travel expenses along with equipment. Great way to get geared up and then come out to the UNI Dome and watch the Panthers in an indoor Track and Field meet this winter!


Go Panthers!!!

USA Track and Field "Stop Crippling"

Recently, Nick Symmonds has attracted alot of media attention with his campaign to challenge the national and international governing bodies of track & field to “stop crippling” the sport by limiting an athlete’s ability to feature the logos of multiple sponsors on the competition uniform. This raises a bigger, more general question about the marketing and promotion of the sport that USATF addressed this week in a move that has, itself, has gained a lot of attention.

After years of issues and difficulty between the governing body of USATF and the Athletes themselves, the athletes are starting to take actions. With the very minimal commercials lately and drastic drop in popularity of the sport, officials at USA Track & Field have decided to take a new approach by hiring an external firm to restructure its marketing and communications efforts. Some have questioned the way they went about hiring Max Siegel Inc., as well as the potential conflicts of interest with the principal, Max Siegel, being a recently departed board member. Still, the more important question for USATF members and athletes is, can this move finally put track back on the map?

You don’t have to be a professional track & field athlete or even a serious fan to know that the marketing and promotion of the sport and its stars has been a challenge of late. Gone are the days of national advertising campaigns that featured our sports biggest names. With the exception of one or two international athletes, the average citizen wouldn’t the recognize images of America’s track stars, even when they consistently top the podium in major competitions.
Four-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist Dwight Phillips, he said he is optimistic that any change is good change.

“I think it’s going to work. When I travel to other countries what I notice is that no matter if someone is a runner or a thrower, if they’re winning they are on everything. The more the public sees us out there, the more interested they will become in watching and supporting us.” While Dwight did mention that moving toward the NASCAR blueprint of numerous sponsorships for individuals would give us a shot at the earning potential of other professional athletes, he also concedes, “We’ve got to start somewhere, this is a positive step.”

Following Post came from here:
http://blog.gotracktownusa.com/2011/10/24/dwight-phillips-weighs-in-on-usatfs-bold-bid-for-change/

Nick Symmonds created a Facebook group about crippling Track & Field:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/162889787132224/

Nick Symmonds FULL Argument:
http://www.flotrack.org/blog/38650-Im-Tired-of-USATF-and-IAAF-Crippling-Our-Sport

UNI Panther Town Hoops

http://www.panthertownhoops.com/
 (Visit this site first)

This interactive micro site put together by UNI's marketing department is being used to build excitement for the Men's basketball season along with selling season tickets, group tickets, and mini-plans. On the posters this year they put a bar code that leads you right to this site if you have a smart phone with a bar code scanner. The video that plays when you first get to the site was produced by Mudd Advertising (@MuddInc to follow them on Twitter). They have been alot of help with Panther Athletics and their marketing campaigns in the recent years. They have helped build the "Panther Town" campaign dating back to last year. It is nice to be able to work closely with a local advertising agency. Even though Mudd is know more for their car commercial advertisements they sure do a great job with athletic promo videos as well. The women's basketball have also been able to work with Mudd this season and last. Last years video involved both men's and women's teams in the same video, now this year they have separated them and made two separate videos.

Last years video:


The making of the the 2010-2011 Basketball Panther Town video:
Bryan McCarty (Copy righter, Creative Lead)
Aaron Smock (Motion Graphic Artist, Animator)
Jason Fiehler (Post Production Coordinator, Editor)

Informational Video for UNI by Coach Dan Steele

Living in Iowa people know about the University of Northern Iowa and are able to visit campus, and see what it has to offer. If prospective students are from other states or countries they might not know of UNI or may not be able to come to visit. These prospective students most likely want to know what life would be like at the University of Northern Iowa. The best way is to come to campus and find out for yourself, but with a informational video like this, students can see what it would be like from the comfort of their home. This doesn't mean this video is more effective then going on a campus visit or coming to Cedar Falls to see what campus is like. Coach Dan Steele is informing those interested about why he likes UNI and the Cedar Valley so much. Pieces like this can be very good informative tools for the program and University as a whole.

Dance Craves at Universities in the Midwest

Now a day kids like to move, and grove to music which some people call dancing. In the past couple years dance phenomena's have poked up at different universities such as Wisconsin with "Teach me how to Bucky" and at University of Northern Iowa "The Interlude". These dances quickly caught on and spread across campus like a wildfire.

Myself being a student at UNI the Interlude started out as a crazy dance a few friends came up with, then blossomed into a crazy dance that we now do at MANY home sporting event, Volleyball, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, and now Football games! At first it was just a few people in the student section participating in the dance, then the whole student section, and then a couple of kids and other fans in the arena, but NOW almost EVERYONE gets up and does "The Interlude". The dance has been spotted on YouTube at other campuses across the country, the military people in Afghanistan, Germany, China, and many other countries around the world.

This may not seem like Advertising for sports, but it has help bring the excitement of UNI athletics to a new height that it has never seen! Attendance has increase especially in the student section along with the general public. It is amazing how such a simple little dance can bring so many people together.

Take a look at how the Interlude Began:



Interlude at UNI Men's Basketball Game



Interlude Dance at UNI Football Game:



Take a look how Teach Me How To Bucky:



Official Music Video of Teach Me How To Bucky:

Live Twitter Updates During Sporting Events

Twitter has become very popular for different athletic teams to help update their fans about how the current game is going. Less televised schools and sports can utilize more then more popular sports, and bigger schools. Many times university sports such as volleyball, soccer, hockey, tennis,track and field etc aren't televised and with the power of twitter and its ability to have live updates helps keeps fans in the loop. @Flotrack uses this to update its followers about track meets that their staff are at all over the world. Also @UNIathletics uses this to keep fans informed throughout various sporting events.

Along with live updates, you can also advertise an upcoming event with twitter. Hash-tags (#) and shout outs (@) are a great way to reach out to different groups and audiences.

Athletic programs can also interact with their fans if they hire a Digital Advertising person to manage Twitter and other social media networking tasks. This could be very beneficial to an organization because followers really like to interact with their favorite teams. Twitter can be a benefit but also takes a lot of work to keep it updated and effective.

Follow me @unitrack08