Zetterburg: A Wing For Life

It's official! On Wednesday, the Detroit Red Wing's announced that the Wing's assistant captain, Henrik Zetterberg, will be with the franchise for the rest of his career. The 28 year old Sweden native signed a 12-year contract extension worth $72 million on Tuesday, which will allow him to stay with the club through his 40th birthday and the 2020-21 season. However, the thing that interested me the most was that, Zetterberg's contract was the most lucrative contract in the history of the Wing's franchise. You would think with players like Steve Yzerman and Gordie Howe that the Wing's would have signed them for more money and for a longer period of time being that they were two of the greatest who ever stepped on the ice. The Wing's franchise seems to be overly happy about the deal and with Zetterberg's preformance on the ice. In his sixth season with the Wing's, Zetterberg has 17 goals and 43 points in just 45 games. Wing's General Manager, Ken Holland, stated that, "He's a guy we want to build around. He always plays at both ends of the rink and goes to all the hard areas. He gives us flexibility and is a leader, a guy who, when Nick Lidstrom retires, is certainly someone we'll have to consider as the next captain for the Red Wings." Along with Zetterberg, Holland is also trying to lock in contract deals with either Marion Hossa or Johan Franzen, which are both impending unrestricted free agents. If Holland could get Hossa to stay and with the help of Zetterberg's new contract, the Wing's long-term star power would increase enormously.

Read the story at...

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=406630

Reebok's Sleek Innovation Debuts at All-Star Game.

On Tuesday, Reebok and the NHL announced the official debut of the new and improved NHL All-Star referee and linesman jerseys, which will be used at this years historic NHL All-Star Game. However, these jerseys are not your average sports officials jersey. Unlike the regular NHL referee and linesman jersey, Reebok has used its product innovation technologies to construct a jersey that is 18% lighter in weight and is customized to fit the specific needs of the officials. With this, there are a few unique features that make this customized jersey much different from the current officials jerseys. These features include stretch mesh in the underarm and back of the jersey, a zipper-less neckline, numbers on the back and on the sleeves, and an enhanced referee arm bar designed to allow for greater on-ice visibility. The uniforms also include a microphone channel that allows the officials to maneuver seamlessly across the ice with their microphones securely fastened. According to Stephen Walkom, NHL Senior Vice President and Director of Officiating, "The uniforms were designed to offer a lighter and more comfortable fit, which provides officials with and increased range of motion and better moisture management." But do you think the NHL and Reebok stopped there? Of Course not.

Along with the introduction of the new and improved officials jerseys, the jerseys that will be worn by the Eastern and Western conference teams have also been refurbished. The All-Star jerseys include Reebok's patent-pending Smoothfit™ performance name and number technology, which eliminates 35% of the weight inherent to traditional name and numbering systems. This new technology allows for players to move more competently on the ice and also contributes to enhanced moisture management. However, the aspect that I found most interesting about the players jerseys is that they pay a tribute to the history of the game through the use of color and symbolic references. The Montreal Canadians colors (red, white, and blue) are present in both the East and West uniforms symbolizing the celebration of the organizations 100th anniversary. Also, the three stars etched on the sleeves represent the three most recent NHL All-Star games held in Montreal. According to Keith Leach, Director of NHL Merchandising, Reebok, "The uniform is a deliberate break from traditional hockey uniform patterning and symbolizes the revolutionary advances the sport has made in both technology and popularity." He also proposed that, "The asymmetric cut lines are meant to create visual motion in the uniform, which is both a literal reference to the speed of the game and symbolic reference to its evolution into the future."

Reebok has truly provided itself with a sufficient marketing image by innovating these products for an event this size. With the introduction of these new and improved products, Reebok will now have the opportunity to potentially compete in new markets ( Ex. innovating umpire uniforms/baseball jerseys, football officials uniforms/football jerseys, etc...), which could then help them gain a competitive advantage.

Check Reebok's jerseys out at...
http://www.nhl.com/

2009 NHL AllStar Game, Players, Price, and Promotion

Yes, yet again, Alexander "The Great" Ovechkin has been selected to play in the NHL All-Star Game for the third time in his four years of playing in the NHL. The 23 year old Washington Capital assistant captain will try to lead his Eastern Conference team to victory as they take on the Detroit Red Wing's, Pavel Datsyuk, and the Western Conference. He will not only try to lead his team to victory, but will also try to defend his Breakaway Challenge title in the All-Star SuperSkills Competition. Last year, heads turned and jaws dropped as Ovi dribbled the puck like a basketball on the end of his stick, smacked it high in the air, spun around while the puck came down and took a mighty baseball swing, which won him the 2008 Breakaway Challenge. WHAT A MOVE Eh? Aside from the Stanley Cup finals, the All-Star SuperSkills Competition and the All-Star Game are the biggest and most popular events in the NHL season.

Even though these two events are highly entertaining to the hockey world, think about theses events from a marketing point of view. Promotion and price are key here. Honda will be sponsoring the 2009 Honda/NHL All-Star SuperSkills Competition giving them an excellent opportunity to promote their brand name and image. However, the kicker is that within the SuperSkills Competition there will six events all sponsored by a different company or organization. The events consist of the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater, the Scotiabank Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge, the Upper Deck NHL YoungStars Game, the McDonald's Accuracy Shooting Competition, the Cisco Hardest Shot Challenge, and the Gatorade NHL Shootout Elimination Challenge. Wow, alot of promoting going on huh? But get this! This year fans will be the judge of the Scotiabank Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge by voting on there favorite breakaway move via text message through companies like Varizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Can you say "MORE PROMOTION?" Now lets take a look at how price influences these two events. A ticket to a regular NHL season game can range from 30-90 dollars depending on the seat, venue, and team's playing, but a 90 dollar seat is totally unheard of to get into these two events. As of right now and according to ticketsnow.com, tickets are ranging from $370-$3210. I know, pretty outrageous huh and your probably asking yourself why? Being that these two events feature all of the superstars from around the league, prices are high because the demand to see these stars play is high while the supply of tickets is low making it easy to sell tickets to hockey fans at outrageous prices. Watching it on T.V. sounds good to me! These are just a few examples to get you thinking about how one event can effect the marketing and economic factors in sports.

Read the story at...

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=403814