Happy Fourth of July

While you're enjoying the firecrackers, we'll be taking 360-views of athletic facilities for the new Arkansas Razorback website. Oops. Did I say that out loud? Delete that. Instead, enjoy a quick take on Fan First philosophy and how that relates with the presentation earlier this week at CoSIDA.

The internet is a community, and the community grows through sharing. At the same time, through sharing others may profit from our creative work. Protecting digital rights and monetizing the eyeballs are the immediate goals, but if we place too many restrictions between our institutions and our constituents we stand to lose more than a few bucks in on-line memberships.

Who do we want to win? In a free market, the consumer wins. In a restricted market, the producer wins. Here’s the problem – tribal loyalties aside, the internet is never a zero sum game. There is a delicate balance between being first with information, becoming the messenger your fans trust and come to first, and shutting out others in exclusivity agreements that alienate the media. The corporate media made sports what it is today by using it as a vehicle for commerce, but it is not permanent. A century ago, professional bicycle racing was among the great spectator sports and an African-American cyclist, Major Taylor, was the highest paid athlete in America. Half a century ago, professional basketball was nothing, a fringe small market entity. A quarter century ago, who paid attention to stock car racing outside of the deep South. A decade ago, a half-pipe was something you bought at the plumbing supply – now it’s an Olympic venue.

Nobody said we couldn’t compete with the media. Actually, I have heard leadership of the major sports writer’s associations make the claim that because most of us work for state entities we should not be allowed to sell advertising and break stories against their newspapers. Nevertheless, the very heart of our business is competition. As athletic departments, we seek to win games, to sign recruits, to hire and retain the best coaches, to build facilities – why don’t we compete to make sure our fans read our copy, view our shows, listen to our broadcasts.