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• Radio Cost Cutting Continues: Students To Call Islanders Games Friday, 8 Oct 2010 | 11:00 AM ET

  

  For years, college students have called their school's games alongside the broadcast crews that get paid to do it for real. Now, some of those college students will have a chance to call professional games while still in school.

• Moving Athletes Has Become A Big Business Thursday, 30 Sep 2010 | 10:50 AM ET

  

  I love stories about people who identify a niche and succeed at developing that niche. That sums up Chris Dingman’s business. As founder and CEO of the Dingman Group, Dingman takes care of athletes on the move.

• The Top 5 Best Selling Playoff Gimmicks Thursday, 23 Sep 2010 | 4:52 PM ET

  

  After clinching their sixth playoff spot in the last nine years, the Minnesota Twins announced they are bringing back the “Homer Hanky” for home playoff games. The Homer Hanky has been a part of Twins playoff lore since its debut in 1987. While immensely popular in Minnesota, the Hanky is not the most popular playoff gimmick of all-time.

• Is Cornerback The Next Great Money Position? Tuesday, 31 Aug 2010 | 11:36 AM ET

  

  After reading “The Blind Side,” you might have brought your son up to be a tackle. After all, the impression at least was that’s the position where NFL teams were dishing out the money.

• Why MLB Financial Leak Matters Tuesday, 24 Aug 2010 | 1:51 PM ET

  

  Over the past couple years, Major League Baseball has called attention to its extensive revenue sharing plan that distributes the wealth from the game’s most well-heeled to those less fortunate.

• Plenty Riding On Under Armour’s Basketball Shoe Friday, 20 Aug 2010 | 12:22 PM ET

  

  As expected, getting into the shoe business hasn’t been the easiest for Under Armour. They quickly took significant market share in the first year in football and baseball cleats, but decided to slow down their move into the category after investing heavily in the training and running shoe markets and not making as much noise.

• Sports Teams: SpongeTech Owes Us More Than $9 Million Thursday, 19 Aug 2010 | 1:03 PM ET

  

  Almost a month ago, I wrote about the story of SpongeTech, the “smarter sponge” that spent all its money on sports sponsorships. The creditors in the bankruptcy proceedings have finally come forward with how much money they have owed and the carnage, as expected, is in the millions. Below is the list, in order of how much they are owed.

• Team Asks Fans To Name Their Ticket Price Tuesday, 10 Aug 2010 | 11:46 AM ET

  

  You’ve heard of teams going with variable pricing or last-minute gameday pricing, but you’ve never heard of teams asking fans to name their price. That is until this week, when the Florida Panthers announced their "Perfect Plan." Pick a place in the arena where you want season tickets. Take a look at the retail price. Then, just like Priceline, name your price. Within 24 hours, the team will get back to you to tell you if it was accepted or not.

• RIP Cooperstown? Friday, 23 Jul 2010 | 12:39 PM ET

  

  This weekend, Andre Dawson, umpire Doug Harvey and manager Whitey Herzog will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Not exactly a group that will draw a crowd. And that's Cooperstown's problem.

• SpongeTech Story Becomes A Cautionary Tale Wednesday, 21 Jul 2010 | 1:38 PM ET

  

  In the midst of the economic crisis, sports teams were in need of sponsorship dollars. So they jumped at a company that was willing to bail almost all of them out. The deals came at a recessionary discount, in some cases with a generous payment plan and, perhaps most importantly, with very few questions asked about the company. The story isn’t completely over yet, but in the annals of sports marketing, it’s pretty apparent that the SpongeTech story will go down as one of the industry’s most cautionary tales.

• Islanders Sign Official Cupcake Deal Wednesday, 14 Jul 2010 | 3:38 PM ET

  

  Among the standard sports sponsorship categories it is not, but the New York Islanders have signed an official cupcake supplier. The tale is, as you might have guessed, not as vanilla as most sponsorship deals.

• Big Hot Dog Gaining Traction Friday, 2 Jul 2010 | 2:49 PM ET

  

  Dan Abbate is a fan of the grill. What he’s not a fan of is having his hot dogs roll off the grill. So the entrepreneur came up with a wacky idea: A Big Hot Dog.

• In Titus, Globetrotters Might Have Secret Weapon Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010 | 4:13 PM ET

  

  For the past four years, Mark Titus has done a great job becoming the world’s most famous walk-on. When blogs got hot, he was there with Club Trillion. When lack of playing time didn’t allow him to display his skills, he took to YouTube with one of the most hilarious videos you’ll ever see.

• Publication: MLB Will Beat NFL In Licensing Revenue In ‘10 Monday, 14 Jun 2010 | 3:38 PM ET

  

  For the fourth straight year, Major League Baseball will beat out the National Football League in licensing revenue this year, according to Ira Mayer, publisher of The Licensing Letter, an industry trade publication that focuses on the licensing business.

• Panini Includes Me In Their World Cup Sticker Set Monday, 7 Jun 2010 | 5:07 PM ET

  

  Last month, I wrote about how companies and PR executives weren’t making the cut when it came to getting the attention of reporters in this world of increasing clutter. As an example of a company doing it right, I talked about Jack Daniels announcing its new partnership with golfer Trevor Immelman by putting my name on a bottle of Gentleman Jack, with a note from Immelman himself.

• Business Of Tiger Woods: Six Months Later Wednesday, 26 May 2010 | 12:37 PM ET

  

  Tomorrow marks the six-month anniversary of Tiger Woods’ car accident and the revelation of the affairs that followed. With the half-year mark upon us, we take a look at Brand Tiger and the companies that are and were affiliated with him.

• SportsGrid Debuts With A Robust Offering Tuesday, 25 May 2010 | 2:10 PM ET

  

  Sports fans love lists and that means that a new offshoot of Dan Abrams’ Mediaite site called SportsGrid has a pretty good chance of being a highly trafficked site. SportsGrid.com, which will launch Wednesday morning, borrows the PowerGrid system built for its sites like Mediaite, the main site that includes rankings of media members and Styleite, a fashion and beauty culture site, and translates it to the sports world.

• The Horrible Idea of ‘Premium Ticketing’ Tuesday, 25 May 2010 | 1:18 PM ET

  

  I get it, selling tickets is tough. Tougher in a down economy, and worse yet if you’re a bad team in said down economy. dd an existence in a small or mid-market and a job in the ticket sales department can be akin to selling funeral plots. The Cleveland Indians know this all too well.

• Could A Freemium Model Work For A Professional Sports Team? Monday, 24 May 2010 | 3:27 PM ET

  

  To date, no major sports franchise has implemented a sustainable business model where they give away a substantial portion of their tickets away for free to all of their home games. Here are the reasons why I think it could work.

• What Will The Sports Stadium Of The Future Look Like? Monday, 24 May 2010 | 3:25 PM ET

  

  As the cost of constructing these buildings continues to climb, how do you offset the need for greater revenue generation when there is an inherent lack of ability to accommodate additional event days for other uses in these custom, single purpose designs?