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Siguenza on Sports

Football or no football?

We are at roughly the halfway point between when COVID-19 was first declared a pandemic, leading to the cancellation or postponement of major sporting events, and the expected kickoff of the football season. From the beginning, I have questioned the feasibility of holding games before a vaccine is ready. And it turns out, I’m not the only one.

CNN on Twitter

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man who has been at the forefront of the U.S. response to the coronavirus, expressed doubts about football taking place this year unless personnel is frequently tested and kept away from the general public. His comments were met with pushback from the NFL, whose chief medical officer stated the league intended to forge ahead with the season as planned (CNN, 2020). Twitter users also have plenty to say, as you might expect. Some have dismissed Fauci’s claims, some are demonstrating schadenfreude over players potentially not seeing action this year. I won’t share specific comments, except for one individual who has a pretty good attitude about the possibility of no football.

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Siguenza on Sports

‘Game’ over

Some sad news to share on the sports media front: Boston NPR station WBUR today announced it would discontinue the national program Only a Game as part of cost-cutting measures that will also see over 10 percent of its workforce lose their jobs.

WBUR on Twitter

Only a Game wasn’t only a sports radio show; it was a sports radio show on NPR, which right there suggests that it had to be truly different from other content across the landscape. It didn’t rely on the traditional high-energy formula of endless debate on trivial matters between personalities more interested in being popular than informative. What Only a Game offered instead was discussion rooted in NPR’s greatest strength: good old-fashioned journalism.

If you check the show’s website, you’ll find they’ve given much of their time lately to the issue of racial injustice and how sports fit in. An entire program was once spent on amateur athletes in the big-money NCAA. Then there are the long-form stories from an Antarctic expedition to a Russian community with architecture paying tribute to the game of chess. You have to ask yourself: is that gonna be on SportsCenter?

It is, I suppose, a sign of the times. There’s more money to be made off those in-your-face shows on basic cable than a public radio program appealing to the mind. And yet, it’s unfortunate because there are so few sports shows out there that appeal to the mind in the classic NPR style as Only a Game does. This is a true loss for the curious sports fan.

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Siguenza on Sports

Take me out of the ballgame

Is a Major League Baseball season going to happen? Should it at this point? We have reached the sixteenth of June, less than a month from what would be the halfway point of the season, and players and owners are at a standstill over compensation, writes the Associated Press.

AP Sports on Twitter

Sound familiar? Then you lived through the summer of 1994 when the season abruptly ended without a World Series for roughly the same reasons. What I remember from the last time was how angry the fans had become over the spat between employer and employee. I’ve seen a lot of the same threats of walking away from the game should the Major League season not happen.

But you have to remember: these are different times. There was no major health crisis to deal with in 1994 (no, OJ Simpson’s high-speed chase across the freeways of Los Angeles was not a major health crisis). The AP report mentions that tests on several MLB players for coronavirus came back positive. With that in mind, do we want to put more players at risk for our enjoyment? And do we want a season that goes into December? The idea of playing baseball in the middle of the holidays just feels wrong.

I’m not in the position to make this sort of decision, but no matter what anyone else says, it doesn’t seem worth it to even have a 2020 MLB season. The league should cut its losses and work toward possibly coming back in 2021.

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Mentorship Journal

#16 June 16: Video promo – 3 hours

Screenshot of "Life After the Games" video promo. (Photo by Pixabay from Pexels)

I took a few days “off” from the ICC to focus on the current class that I’m taking, Communication and Fundraising in Sport, but I did get back to it this evening with a visual promotion I am working with another student in that class on. There was a bit of misunderstanding, as one person thought it should be informational, walking a prospective consumer through the process of using the product and the other heard “commercial” and wrote ad copy. We found some middle ground by combining both ideas for what is referred to in the broadcast industry as a donut. Basically, we took the ad part and split it into two, creating a gap that would be filled by the instructional portion. It’s a little too long for television, clocking in at over four-and-a-half minutes, but might make for a good sales presentation at some point.

When it comes to editing video, I guess you could call me McGyver because of my ability to work with what I have. The tools at my disposal are generally my iPhone and MacBook. I use iMovie for editing, as it comes standard with the MacBook as opposed to Final Cut Pro, which costs $300. Long-term, it may make sense to move up but for now, iMovie meets my needs. My experience with television production also comes in quite handy because I know where to cut to another shot and if my audio levels are suitable. Once we get closer to rollout, I’ll be glad to share my work with you.

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Siguenza on Sports

If it’s in the game…

We’re going to switch gears here a little bit to talk about the collision between virtual and actual sport, and how the former can help the latter get back on track in the absence of fans. The Associated Press writes that crowd noise for soccer matches in England and Spain will come courtesy of Electronic Arts, maker of the popular sports video game franchise based on FIFA as well as the Madden NFL series.

AP Sports on Twitter

Per the report, the media partners for sports organizations began approaching EA Sports about the use of ambient sound from their games to resemble some sense of normalcy in the pace and energy of play. So networks are gaining access to a library of more than 800 cuts which are customized according to the home venue.

A separate AP story ponders what the game atmosphere in North American sports will look like during the pandemic. Perhaps EA will bring its archive to NFL broadcasts in the fall. One thing is certain: the way we consume sport is changing out of necessity.

AP Sports on Twitter
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Reflection

Week 5

I shouldn’t say that I have never attempted to prepare a budget in the past because just living life, you have to make sure that you can purchase what you need to. Still, I have never done it on a formal basis until just recently, when I agreed to do so for the class project I’m working on. It is a little intimidating at first because you don’t know what you should be putting money in for and how much. It became a little bit easier when narrowing the focus of what we wanted to spend money on. This exercise involves targeting a specific market, so it made more sense to reach that audience directly through digital advertising than it would through traditional methods like the newspaper or television. I’m working with other people on this project, so I’ll also need to take their ideas under consideration before it can be finalized.

Meanwhile, I have my hand in another project that is close to completion while still finding time to comment on what’s happening in sports. I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this until in the middle of writing this reflection, but I have decided to follow AP Sports on Twitter. Most of my ideas come from scouring social media for the latest and greatest and hopefully I’m able to inject a little bit of my own style into what’s being reported out there. The blog process can be quite time-consuming, which is why it has been an on-again, off-again activity for me over the years. I liken it to a jigsaw puzzle where you have so many pieces that you have to fit together. And much like my experience in Journalism, there is a short window of time to work with. I do enjoy being able to share my interests with others in a single location, though.

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Siguenza on Sports

As the Ball Dribbles

Lost in all the news of late were announcements by the NBA and Major League Soccer to return to action later this summer at Walt Disney World in Florida, music to the ears of fans desperate to see live competition after the coronavirus suspended most leagues for three months now. But tonight, the NBA’s grand reopening has taken an unexpected turn.

Shams Charnia on Twitter

This comes on the heels of an earlier report stating that players expressed unhappiness with not being consulted before the decision to restart was made. According to Yahoo Sports, players were already hesitant about the plan to self-isolate with the pandemic still in effect. Then came the death of George Floyd. With protests calling for racial harmony intensifying, sources tell Yahoo, some players feel it’s not a good look for a mostly-black group of athletes to risk their health just so fans can be entertained and the NBA can stop its financial bleeding from not holding games.

Chris Haynes on Twitter

Legitimate concerns, to be sure. Also quite predictably, there is a lot of mixed reaction on Twitter to these reports. Just another episode of the soap opera that is 2020. Be sure to tune in next week.

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Mentorship Journal

#15 June 12: Brochure redesign – 1 hour

White United Airlines plane. (Photo by Pascal Renet from Pexels)

I spent this Friday evening making the changes that were requested for the brochure we want to distribute to potential consumers. For all the suggestions, it surprisingly did not take very long to complete. This probably means it still is not perfect and we will have to modify it more. I use a software called Canva for designing flyers, you might be familiar with it. It is a rather inexpensive product compared to Adobe products, but does have its limitations. Josh mentioned, for example, wanting to use a typeface that is similar to what the television series Space Force has. Canva has a lot of fonts available. Unfortunately, it does not have that exact font. I probably spent most of my time looking through fonts to see which one was the closest to Space Force.

Consistency is very important to marketing. You think about any kind of brand out there, whether it’s Nike, United Airlines, CBS, or whatever, they all have guidelines that must be followed and the primary guideline is that the look of their communications has to be uniform. Of course, the companies named above have all been established so people have an idea of what to expect. We aren’t there just yet but the hope is to build the ICC brand to a level where we are associated with what we’re doing just as much as Nike is to shoes, United to air travel, and CBS to broadcasting. A lofty goal, to be sure, but those are the kind of results to strive for.

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Mentorship Journal

#14 June 11: Conference call – 1 hour

Black pencils and Design word. (Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels)

Thursday means another conference call with Dr. Tiell, Liston, and Josh. The brochure that I spent a couple of days creating earlier this week was among the topics of discussion. It was a good start, but they want a different look from what I had come up with. My first draft alternated between black and yellow to make it stand out. It stood out a bit too much, so they have requested different colors. A different font style was brought up also, one that is similar to the ICC’s logo.

So I will be going back through the recommendations that have been made in this meeting and redesigning the brochure accordingly. As I said in my previous post, I have no delusions about my product. Nailing it on the first try wasn’t likely and after I make the changes, there will be something else. It will take some fine-tuning to get it as close to perfect as it can be. And make no mistake, there isn’t such a thing as perfect when it’s open to interpretation. That’s just how it is.

All that said, it is good to have constructive feedback so that you have guidelines with which to improve upon your work. I stress the constructive part because there have been situations where warranted criticisms were taken a little too far. That serves neither the sender nor the recipient well, in my opinion. Of course, that is not the case with the ICC. They made sure to explain why they felt the changes were necessary without coming off as condescending, a group of consummate professionals, to be certain.

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Siguenza on Sports

Landmark day for NASCAR

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death is a self-reflection on long-held beliefs and customs leading to a massive overhaul in the way Americans conduct themselves. We have discussed some of those changes in this blog–the NFL overruling its previous stance on player protests and diversity initiatives at Adidas. While these are certainly key to the larger discussion that we as a society must have, the steps taken today by NASCAR are nothing short of seismic.

It was already to be a big night for the stock car association with a race at Martinsville Speedway including a Black Lives Matter-themed car from driver Bubba Wallace.

NASCAR on Twitter

As significant as that was, it wouldn’t prepare us for the news that dropped just hours before the first lap regarding a symbol that has been associated with NASCAR.

NASCAR on Twitter

There are, of course, detractors to NASCAR’s announcement. You can click the tweet above to see the responses that users left if you think you can handle them. In all, the move from NASCAR indicates a turning point in race relations that is long overdue.