If you’re watching one of the many Peanuts holiday specials, you might wonder why ice sports show up often. Charles Schulz, the creator of the comic strip and animated cartoon “Peanuts,” was born in Minnesota and fell in love with the game of hockey at an early age. His father took him to St. Paul Saints and Minneapolis…
The debate on whether it is better to be a specialist or a generalist might never be resolved but competitive sports provides us with a useful insight: If you choose to specialize, be careful to keep your options open. We can learn this lesson from renowned strength coach Shannon Turley. During Turley’s 7-year tenure with…
The phrase “bring home the bacon” is commonly understood to mean to earn money. But where did the phrase come from? The answer might be surprising. Most on-line sources claim the phrase originated in 1104 in a small town in Essex, England. A local Lord and his wife dressed themselves as common folk and asked…
With more than 114M viewers, Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 was the most-watched broadcast in the U.S. according to Nielsen ratings. The next four Super Bowls had declining ratings, with 2019’s Super Bowl XLII yielding only 98M viewers – the lowest since 2009. The overnight ratings for this year’s Super Bowl suggest the trend was…
Struggling with the pun in the title? I’ll start with some background… SEAT is an annual conference for sports & entertainment professionals, focused on whatever is top-of-mind in the industry. It distinguishes itself from other conferences by strongly emphasizing networking and relationship building. This year’s event was held at the Daytona International Speedway, the first…
One of the things I love about my job is the unbridled passion of our fans. I’m continuously in awe of the many ways people express their love for the San Jose Sharks. When was the last time someone tattooed the logo of a technology company or bank on their body? Being a supporter of…
Research shows that businesses with more diverse workforces perform better financially and are more innovative. Similarly, diversity and inclusion is good for the business of sports. The more that sports teams embrace the diversity of the community they are in, the more likely their fans will embrace them back. The National Hockey League (NHL) uses the international reach of the…
Years ago, ESPN assembled a panel of experts to determine which sport demanded the most from the athletes who compete in it. The experts ranked 60 sports on 10 different skills, including endurance, speed, agility, and hand-eye coordination. Their verdict: boxing is the most difficult sport while hockey is a close second. These are the…
Ever since I became an executive in sports & entertainment, people started sending me examples of over-the-top uses of sports jargon. From every unnecessary quip like “Please quarterback this project for me”, there’s also the poetic usage such as “The candidate won by a nose.” My slam-dunk favorite sports jargon gone too far came from…
The law of small numbers (or hasty generalization) is the tendency to jump to a conclusion without enough evidence. In statistics, it’s called bias from insensitivity to sample size – generalizing from a limited number of events (a sample) selected from a much larger number of events (the population). For example, if a mutual fund…