Cleaning House

Welcome back to The Sports Ace, where we always enter the playoffs playing our best ball of the year.

You may have read that the Minnesota Wild, in the span of a single week, lost their coach and fired their general manager. The beat reporters covering the Timberwolves also believe that the long-suffering Wolves will have a new GM and coach by the time they tip off the 2009-10 season. This is not surprising - of course, both teams have been associated for some time with sustained mediocrity. The Wild haven't been past the first round of the playoffs since 2004 and have botched some personnel decisions, and the Wolves have been even worse to the point that apathy runs rampant through their supposed fan base.

These changes mark seminal moments in the life of both franchises, but to me these decisions go beyond wins and losses. Decisions like these are big risks - it doesn't seem like things could get worse, but wrong hires could send the franchises into absolute disarray on and off the ice/court. But the owners are taking these risks (finally, some would argue) to try to inject life in their fan bases and, even more fundamentally in my opinion, bolster their bottom lines.

Fans in Minnesota seem more forgiving than in other areas of the nation, but they've been growing weary and apathetic lately. They feel their teams underachieve, and that ownership has ignored them and their wishes when making big decisions. Now teams shouldn't automatically do everything fans say they should do, but the lack of success resulting from the decisions that have been made hasn't exactly quieted the doubters. Plus, you don't want to consistently alienate fans to the point where they grow apathetic.

So these moves, to me, are examples of the owners telling fans that they do in fact matter and that they're trying to put a winning product on the ice/court. Sales of just about everything have been down, and buzz/interest around the teams have dropped. When this happens even with the Wild, a very popular team that's sold out every home game it's ever played, that's something definitely worth noting. Changes at the top will give team marketers a powerful new tool with which to reverse these trends: optimism.

Plus, teams need to show they're making an effort to win in order to keep the big checks coming in from sponsors, etc. As I've written before, companies with winning brands want to associate themselves with winning teams, and the closest thing to a winner in Minnesota winter sports this year was the Gopher mens' basketball team. With the Wolves especially, simple supply and demand economics would dictate that the quality of sponsor hasn't necessarily been high lately - and that sponsorships the team does have might not be earning the same dollars that similar deals may be with higher-performing teams in the NBA. It's just good business to make changes that improve your ability to compete and monetize/maximize your assets, and new leadership and resulting sucecss changes the complete landscape from ticket sales to TV contracts to in-venue advertising.

The Wild and Timberwolves, like any other business in these tough economic times, are doing what they feel they need to do to make the most money they can: cleaning house in the front office and injecting buzz/optimism back into their franchises. For the good of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I hope it works...oh, and a few more wins wouldn't be too much to ask either, would it?

That's all for now. I'm out like the entire Washington Natinals organization (no, that's not a typo...that's really what their jerseys said. Honest).

It's Opening Day!

Welcome back to The Sports Ace, where the Big Ten Conference and its teams always get the respect they so rightly deserve.

Opening Day in Major League Baseball is one of the greatest days on the sports calendar every year. Maybe I feel that way because I grew up playing the game, and I’m a die-hard Twins fan. But on this day, every year, even fans of the Royals and Pirates can realistically dream of a World Series run. They have the same record as everyone else, after all…

On this Opening Day, I’ll be watching two things:

• The Twins (duh!). My local nine seems poised (on paper) to win another division title, as long as they can beat back the injury bug and hit well with RISP like they did last season. The fact that Sports Illustrated picked them to win the AL Central has me a bit worried (that magazine’s curse, especially for NFL teams, is legendary). But, worst case scenario, this has been a fun team to watch pretty much every day because of their lineup, pitching and defense. I expect more of the same this season.
• The economics of the game. This economy has seemingly impacted everyone, unless you’re John Calipari or Manny Ramirez. Will teams – especially the smaller market ones – continue to draw well, or will this be the dreaded sport/season when economics catch up with pro sports leagues? MLB is the first league to start a new season in this recession, yet the Twins have already sold 1.2 million tickets for the 2009 campaign. That’s a strong number of pre-sales, and presumably there will be many more at the gates if the team can make a run. But Minneapolis/St. Paul, like many other markets, has been hit hard – and could still fall harder. Will the Twins be a rallying point for the community, or a luxury area residents can’t afford? And what about teams/markets like Pittsburgh, or Kansas City, or Seattle, or heaven forbid – New York?

It should be another interesting season in MLB. I’ll be tuned in, that’s for sure. My World Series Prediction: Twins over Cubs, in 7 games. And there will be much rejoicing.

And – I haven’t forgotten – my NCAA Title Game Prediction: North Carolina 82, Michigan State 80. Sparty is a heckuva lot better than anyone gives them credit for, and they’re a far better team than the one that played UNC and lost by 35 earlier in the season. Plus, they’re playing at home. But UNC, led by the Chosen One himself Tyler Hansbrough, is the 2008-09 Team of Destiny. The Tar Heels are one game away from another title, and this is exactly the game that Tyler and company deferred their millions to come back to school and win. All season, they’ve wanted it more than any other team in the nation, and they surely have the talent. Don’t expect them to choke now after coming this far.

That’s all for now. I’m out like the Minnesota Wild.