Washington Nationals – enjoy the run!

The Washington Nationals are bringing joy and smiles to a lot us in the greater Washington, DC area.  A number of us have been season ticket holders since they moved here to DC in ’05.  Yes, they played in an old stadium, RFK, but it didn’t really matter.  After not having MLB here in town for over 30 years, it was so wonderful to watch baseball played in the Nation’s Capital.  It didn’t matter to me who the Nats were playing — it was joyous to have pro baseball played here in DC.

I also bought into their long term plans near the beginning of their tenure here — about replenishing the farm system and building the team with young talent and a long-term vision in place.  I’m fortunate to be friends with the Nats ownership group as well as the team president at the time, Stan Kasten.

I know Stan from our AOL / Time Warner days.  He’s the legendary sports executive who at one point was in charge of three professional teams at the same time — the Braves of the MLB; Hawks of the NBA; and Thrashers of the NHL.  He’s a true legend and visionary in our field.

So, yes we bought into the long-term vision, similar to what the Capitals have so successfully accomplished.  But, it’s been an up and down couple of years as the Nats struggled on the field.

We did start to see the improvement in play in the latter half of last season.  And, we know the team has drafted very well under the great GM leadership of Mike Rizzo.  But, none of my friends and I expected the fantastic success that Nats are displaying this year.  It’s getting near the end of August and they still have the best record in the MLB! 

I’m working out of LA this week so I’m missing the big series vs the 2nd place Atlanta Braves.  But, I’m following the games on my iPad.  And, I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming series against the defending world champion, STL Cardinals, next week and then the Cubbies.

The team is definitely built for the long run.  They have a great foundation in place and should be in contention for the playoffs for the next few years.  Pitching, timely hitting and defense — the keys to a winning team.  Of course, injuries can and will play a factor,  So, we’ll keep our fingers crossed as DC gets to enjoy its first pennant race in a long, long time in the coming months. 

As for the Strasburg issue, I could write an entire blog about it but I’m 100% behind the decision made by Nats management. 

Nats fan — enjoy the next couple of months — we haven’t experienced this in a long time and it will be fun.  Of course, the experiences at the Caps playoffs are through the roof.  Looking forward to some raucous nights at Nats Park!   Let’s go, Nats.

Brilliant 2012 Olympic Games

Congratulations to London and NBC Sports for a fantastic 2012 Olympic Summer Games.  London was a terrific host city — this was definitely one of the best run and most entertaining games (similar to the successful ’00 Sydney Olympics and ’96 Atlanta Olympics).  We were in London with 20 of Sports Industry Management students from Georgetown.  We toured the Olympic facilities and attended a swimming trials event.  There were a lot of people predicting massive traffic problems and security concerns but those were alleviated and the Games were a smashing success.

I also nothing but superb praise for NBC Sports’ coverage of the Olympics.  During my 14 years at AOL (’95 – ’09), we were constantly in discussions with NBC about a strategic partnership but we could never come to terms.  I was a strong advocate of NBC as well as the IOC doing a better job of embracing the internet.  I knew that we could create a win-win partnership where we could have helped drive our massive audience (in late 90′s thru mid 00′s) to the NBC coverage of the Olympics.

The first time this topic became an important was in ’00 for the Sydney Olympics.  The IOC hastily put together a New Media Summit for the Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland in Dec ’00.  I was on a panel at the summit strongly arguing that the internet can and will improve the coverage of the Olympics, including helping people find the events on TV (including cable networks), watching some of the sports that don’t prime-TV coverage, helping people track the medal standings, etc.

But, back in ’00, the TV broadcasters looked at the internet as  a threat and didn’t want anything to do with it.  They claimed as long as they were paying the massive TV rights fees that they would call the shots.

Well, it’s now 2012 and things have changed dramatically, especially the huge uptick in usage of Social Media and mobile devices.  Twitter and Facebook are obviously game-changers — just look at the increased usage from the ’08 (Beijing Games) to this year.  In addition to those two platforms, YouTube continues to also be a game-changer.  And, NBC did a great job in creating a partnership with Google’s YouTube for their NBCOlympics site.

Social media will continue to increasingly change the viewing habits of sports fans.  With Tweets, FB updates, text messages, etc, it’s no longer easy to try to watch a delayed broadcast of one’s favorite sporting event.  You now literally need to shut off the devices to try to watch your DVR’ed game or event.

I loved how NBC changed its strategy — showing events live on NBCOlympics,com ended up not hurting the TV ratings.  I know some people complained about NBC’s coverage during prime-time but I liked they way the packaged the events.  Also, if you watched it via your DVR, you could easily speed through events that were not of interests.

Although I knew the results, I still watched nearly every night.  And, I shook with excitement or shed a few tears watching so many great athletes perform so well.  My favorite highlights were Gabby and US Women’s team winning the gold, Mo Farah winning the two big running events, the joy of the Missy Franklin and her teammates, the US Women’s basketball and soccer teams winning Gold, Jessica Ennis joyfully winning the heptathlon, Kerry and Misty sweeping their matches, etc.  There’s too many to list. 

This.again reinforces to me the wonderful success of the Olympic Games.  Many Kudos to London and NBC Sports.  I am very much looking forward to the 2016 Olympics in my beloved Rio de Janeiro.  There’s only a 1 hour time difference from US EST so some of the tape-delayed and timing issues won’t be as relevant.  But the inclusion of Social Media will be that much more integrated in the ’16 Games.  What’s interesting is that there will very likely be another major social media platform that launches in for the those ’16 Olympics — it’s hard to say what it’ll be but surely some young and brilliant entrepreneur will develop the next big idea.  Cheers.

JLynn: Update

I have not done any blogging over the past few months … I got caught up too much in the ease and simplicity of Twitter as well as Facebook status updates.  But, the space is quite limited.  I get emails and texts from various friends and students about what I’m up to … so I figured it’s best to write a blog and point to it rather than trying to email a lot of different people. So, here it goes.

In regard to work, I’m focused on three specific buckets — JLynn Associates, Georgetown University and Human Equity.  Here’s the quick updates:

- http://www.JLynnAssociates.com — a strategic advisory business focused on Sports and Entertainment.  I’m now in my fourth year and things are going well.  Working with 15+ clients, including Under Armour, MicroStrategy, x2impact, Audax Health, SportsVite, StatSheet / Automated Insights, SpotLight Ticket Management, MTX Wealth Management, etc.   It’s primarily an advisory / connector role with a focus on digital, social, mobile, global, diversity and marketing.  Speaking of global, strategic partnerships and alliances have been formed or will be formed in Brazil, China, Mexico, Israel, UK, etc.

- Georgetown University — this upcoming Fall semester marks my the beginning of my 8th year at teaching at Georgetown.  I’ve taught a Sports Marketing Strategy course in the McDonough School of Business (MSB) undergraduate marketing program for the past seven years; I’m continuing my role as the Visiting Professional in our graduate Sports Industry Management program in the School of Continuing Studies; and I’ll start teaching a MBA course, Social Technology Marketing, in Sept.  I very much enjoy teaching, advising, interacting and mentoring so many wonderful students.  I’ve also struck a number of terrific friendships with faculty throughout the campus.

- http://www.HumanEquity.com — this is a new digital media solutions business we’ve launched earlier this year.  We have a terrific staff, based in NY and Washington, DC.  I’m very proud that our DC office is comprised of three of our former graduate students from Georgetown Univ.  It’s not easy launching a new business in these tough times but there’s clearly a need for social / digital media strategy help.  It’s an exciting venture with much upside.

So, those are the three areas of focus but I also do make sure to continue to spend a fair amount of time with philanthropy, mentoring and community service.  And, lastly, one of my long-time friends, Chris Tavlarides, and I are co-producing a boxing documentary that will be released this fall — http://www.thegoodsondocumentary.com/.  Much more info will be coming out soon about our movie project.