Facilities Management In Hard Economic Times

       
        This paper will discuss creative ways in which to attract fans to a facility in a down economy. The article begins out by stating that even though we are in a recession, sports still draw crowds to their events.  There still is fan loyalty to the larger collages and pro levels however; smaller teams are not doing so well in this economy.  It is found that Southerners stay passionate about football even during hard times as Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Alabama, and LSU brought in a combined $303 million.  Therefore, it appears that these teams and their rivals will continue to be successful in ticket sales, and T.V. contracts. 

         The devotion of the fans still attending events explains why television network ESPN and CBS have agreed to pay the Southwestern Conference $3 billion to broadcast football games over next 15 years.  Thus, ESPN and CBS remain positive that there will be a tremendously huge turnout for all the events still despite a crippling economy because people still need to see their favorite teams play and to support them. 

          

Biggest Sports Story of Past Decade

CNBC VIDEO- "The Biggest Plays in Sports Business"

        Alex Rodriguez was born July 27, 1975. He is a known as the best all around professional Baseball player, and plays third baseman for the NY Yankees. This is the biggest sports business story of decade as Alex, known as A-Rod, secured and finalized a $275 Million dollar deal with the Yankees.  Thus, this makes A-rod the highest paid Baseball player. 
          A-Rod deserves all this money as of Sept. 2010 he hit a home run surpassing Sosa's mark of 604 home runs.  Also, he was the youngest player to hit 50 home runs.  This is a remarkable story as he beat his previous mark or deal that agent Scott Boras helped him achieve with the Texas Rangers of a $252 million dollar deal.  This was due to the fact that A-Rod always wanted to return home to play with the NY Yankees but his agent told A-Rod that the Yankees did not want him back. However, this turned out not to be true and A-Rod found himself negotiating a deal by himself with Steinbrenner and his brother Hal, an executive vice president with the Yankees.  A-Rod knew what he was worth and is a very valuable player even thought never won or reached a World Series yet. He negotiated with the Yankees and after 2 conversations the  deal was made.  The deal was as follows: A-Rod is to receive approx 32 million a year for 10 years, a sign on bonus of 2 million, and 6 million each for five milestones that team designates as historic achievements.  As well, there is a no-trade clause in that A-Rod can not be traded without his permission.  This is a great contract in that it allows A-Rod to earn $30 million more for reaching historic milestones.
      

Negotiating The Deal

       
        

          Negotiating a deal maybe very rewarding if one knows how to prepare oneself prior to negotiating.  In my Interview with Reina Orozco, Agency Director for BMG Talent Agency, I asked her the following questions relating to how to negotiate:

1.  The first question is with your expertise in working in the entertainment industry for a huge talent agency how do you separate the people from the problem when negotiating with the client a rate for the models? Reina stated that she keeps the talents best interests foremost to get what they are worth regarding hourly and day rate.  As well, Reina emphasized that it is important to keep the client happy to within the negotiation but not to undersell her talent.  Thus, the client pays the talent based on his or her experience. 

Lady Gaga The World's Most Powerful Celebrity 2011

       Lady Gaga just hit number 1 on Forbes 100 list for being the highest ranking celebrity.   She is as eccentric as she is incredible.  As well, Lady Gaga beats out Oprah's number one spot on Forbes because Lady Gaga made a reported 90 million on her Monster Ball Tour.  She has an astounding 32 million fans on face book, 10 million followers on Twitter, and Born This Way single had 1 million digital downloads in five days.
       Although, 25 yr old Lady Gaga has shown to be very wild wearing a meat dress, and another time an egg at the Grammy's earlier this year yet she claims to be very traditional.   She was inspired by her parents Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta who bought her albums such as: Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. As well, she grew up listening to Bruce Springstein, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Elton John all whom had a big influence on how she is today.  She says she wants to have children someday but for right now she quotes,"I'm giving birth to lots of little monsters so I need to keep clear of stretch marks."  Thus, she refers to her fans as "Little Monsters".
     

Warner Music Sells Itself to Access For Billions

Warner Music sold itself to Access for $3.3 Billion dollars.  Warner music is the worlds only publicly traded major music company. WMG, was involved in the recorded music business and the music publishing business.  As well, WMG is recognized as holding the best known labels such as Asylum, Atlantic, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, and Rykodisc.  Also, WMG was involved with artist services as the following: artist management, merchandising, touring, fan clubs, VIP ticketing, sponsorships, and brand endorsements. Therefore, one can see how WMG was the world's largest recorded music business, and one of the musics most successful companies.
       On Friday April 29,2011 Warner Music Group (WMG) agreed to sell to the investment vehicle to the Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik for approx $3.3 billion dollars.  Therefore, Access Industries will pay $8.25 a share for WMG and this is a 4.4 % premium to company's closing price of $7.90. Also, its 34% higher than WMG's avg share price over last 6 months.
      

James Cameron & the Inspiration Behind Filmmaking

 

   

       James Cameron, a writer and director, of The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, Titanic, and Avatar to name a few has dominated the movie industry for the last twenty years. 

James Cameron gave a speech on his life and his inspiration on making various movies.  As well, he stated his personal interests and love of scuba diving.  His speech was very inspiring to hear as personally for me it gives me insight into the making of movies, as I want to represent actors/actresses.

     He first started out  by  explaining how he has always had a passion for reading science fiction books and a curiosity of science.  He loved to go hiking and collected snakes, and pod water to take back and analyze it under a microscope.  In doing so he was curious to understand about the world and it’s possibilities.  As well, James took this passion, and curiosity of robots, aliens, spaceships to draw and paint them –these were the images in his mind and the only way he knew how to express them was to put them on a movie screen. 

 

Motion Picture of Assoc. of America and Campaign on Public Awareness

      The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), is a professional association that is very interesting, and awesome.  This association began in 1922, by the presidents of major motion studios-Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayor, Jesse Lasky, and Joseph Schenck.  Their goal was to form an association to resist the demand for government censorship of films, and to provide a better image for the film industry while protecting the silent films in mainstream America.  Thus, this first association was called,"Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Assoc. of America before it became to be known as MPAA. Thus, this Association was led by General William Hays to create what is known as the, "Hays Code." This code protected the public from never seeing offensive material, as the Hays Code was enacted by the studios for self censorship-there was a review of all manuscripts to ensure of the viewing safety for the public. However, in 1960 there was major change bringing a new revision to the Hays Code so that film makers would be given freedom to their artistic creations. The new system flourished in 1966, by Jack Valenti, who was named the next president to the now MPAA.  
      This new system consisted of a voluntary rating system, it protected filmmakers so that they could create what they liked and also, protected the minors because their parents could be the judge of what their kids watched.  Today, the MPAA is represented under the leadership of CEO Chris Dodd, who is dealing with the positiveness or this digital age, but also the drawbacks such as copyright theft.