The Boston Globe reported this week that NESN color commentator and former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy’s new restaurant across from Fenway Park will offer a ‘Season Pass’ to patrons. For the one time cost of $500.00, pass holders can show up for any Red Sox game and skip the line at the door to an open table, complete with one free beer and $25.00 of food.

A personal seat license for a sports bar?

At first blush, any fan of the show Cheers might laugh. Shell out half a grand to be Norm — the guy with the best seat at the bar. The manager of Remy’s describes the program as Red Sox season tickets at a fraction of the cost of real Red Sox season tickets. Anyone who can not afford (or get access to) season tickets to attend a live game can be guaranteed a front row seat to the televised game.

The problem lies in the fact that most of the fans that head down to Lansdowne to enjoy the Red Sox game experience aren’t able to afford the toughest ticket in baseball. Now these same folks are standing in line while wealthy VIPs skip right past the velvet rope? With an already existing divide between haves and have-nots in the sports fan community, this plan will only build another wall between the fans and access to the team they support.

For those that can pay, prime seats to watch their favorite team on television may be worth the investment. But for the rest of the Sox fans (and Celtics and Patriots fans) living in Beantown, let’s hope that other area establishments do not go the route of Remy’s. Or, much like Fenway Park, there won’t be a seat for you on game day.

[Kelty Carpenter is a graduate of Wake Forest University and soon-to-be graduate of Georgetown University's Sports Industry Management program. She currently serves as Sports Business reporter for SFC & Social Media Assistant for LinkStar PR. She loves Red Sox baseball and Deacon hoops.]

Since it worked so well for the BCS, Tiger Woods has hired Ari Fleischer to run interference on all the negative attention he is receiving for his philandering. The world’s first billion-dollar athlete tarnished his pristine clean brand on Thanksgiving with a car accident that led to the unravelling of a superstar.

Tiger’s campaign to control his image’s steep decline has failed in every category setting a new low for mismanagement of an icon. His entire team is to blame for such bumbling idiocy. 

The only glimmer of poise was shown almost a month ago when Woods delivered a seemingly heartfelt speech admitting his wrongdoing, pushing for fleeting privacy for his wife and family, and claiming he still has work to do.

Now there’s a new kid in town. The same media maven behind selling the War in Iraq to the American public. The spin doctor behind the BCS’ futile efforts to sell the BCS to college football fans claiming fans can’t even decide how many teams should be allowed to participate in a playoff. The same PR impresario who advised Mark McGwire to claim that steroids never helped him hit a baseball out of the park.

Ari Fleischer will attempt to not only keep the Titanic from sinking, but seek to get it back to the port before the band plays its swan song. Ultimately, he’ll fail. Sports fans will never view Tiger the same even after the late night shows move on to a new butt for their jokes.

There is such a stigma attached to hiring Fleischer that Tiger will suffer today. In two weeks, when Tiger will reportedly compete at Bay Hill, it will be the beginning of the end of this tragic saga for the Woods family.

The best and only tactic Tiger should implement is to ‘hit golf balls’ according to James Carville.  ‘As soon as Tiger wins on the golf course, the public won’t care about any of this.’ This cajun wisdom may fall short of reality, but you can’t argue with the fact that unpopular athletes who have performed well on the field, course, or court have drastically improved their public images.

Concerning the big business of the PGA Tour, the face of their sport has taken a hit, which directly affects their bottom line. Tiger’s return may have hurt the sport’s marketability, but his return will bring more reporters than the red carpet on Oscar night (sorry you missed it, Cablevision subscribers).

In the eyes of sports fans, Tiger Woods’ sold an image that was far from reality. Using Mr. Spin to stabilize his footing may improve his ability to stonewall and send the ‘right’ message to the press, but it’ll never repair the trust.

The public won’t buy into all the predictable ‘he’s been through so much’ commentary on TV either. As much as America loves the comeback kid, this kid should’ve grown up a long time ago.

SFC Sports Business reporter Kelty Carpenter shares her experience from this year’s SSAC in Boston:

This past weekend, I attended the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston. ESPN and MIT joined together to host the one day event devoted to the business of sports.

While much of the day was spent discussing the science of statistics in sports (i.e. how the number of blocked shots in a basketball game directly correlates to the outcome, how to develop consistently good pitchers, etc), the fans were not ignored. The first panel of the day included a wide range of heavy hitters from the industry: President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs Brian Burke, Managing Partner and Executive Committee Member of the Boston Celtics Stephen Pagliuca, NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver, President of the Tampa Bay Rays Matt Silverman, and President of Game Plan LLC Randy Vataha.

What struck me about this insightful discussion about the best practices of management in the sports industry was not that of the analytical or crunching numbers necessarily. Rather, the message that resonated was the importance of the fan experience.

The first thing any student learns in a sports management program is that selling tickets to a sporting event is just like selling a concert ticket — it is about an entertainment experience. Success on the court/field/ice is not an element of the experience that the management can control. What each team must do is make the experience enjoyable for the fan regardless of a win or loss.

Brian Burke described his managerial style as making the fans’ investment worthwhile. He wants his team to play hard, hit, and score as often as possible. Burke referenced that NFL offenses that let the clock run down almost to zero prior to snapping the ball as a tangible negative. Burke’s contention was that it wasted the fans’ time.

Any fan that pays $100 to see an NFL game should have the benefit of seeing as many plays run as possible. Its a refreshing perspective from a GM who understands fans can spend their hard-earned money on a variety of entertainment options in Toronto, but choose instead to spend it on a Maple Leafs ticket for that live game experience.

The most interesting panel of the day was the discussion amongst David Holland of Cisco, Peter Moore of EA Sports, Tim Romani of ICON Venture, David Samson of the Florida Marlins and Alec Scheiner of the Dallas Cowboys.

The Marlins and Cowboys are at opposite ends of the financial spectrum. Alec Scheiner extolled the virtues of the new Cowboys Stadium, which David Samson explained was the investment equivalent of 3 new Marlins parks.

The bells and whistles of the new stadiums were dramatically different as it relates to the fan experience. Scheiner described the enormity of the new structure in Dallas as a way to accommodate the number of fans who want tickets. Samson explained the reasoning behind the intimacy of the Marlins field as a way to drive up demand for tickets.

While Scheiner believes the technological improvements such as televisions on the backs of seats are clearly fan-friendly, Samson countered that they pull the fan away from the live event they are attending. Samson wants fans to spend as much time watching the product on the field as possible.

At the new Marlins structure, lines for parking, restrooms and ATMs have been designed in the same manner as Disney properties — the fan always feels as though he or she is moving. The debate was healthy and provided proof that every market has different fan demands teams seek to accommodate.

How do sports organizations best attract our money? While winning is the great equalizer, sports is a zero-sum game. Every win means another team has to lose. By putting together a top notch fan experience, teams are able to obtain and retain the fans that will stick with them no matter the final score.

What does one take away from all of this? The bottom line is that these organizations need us to survive. Due to the economic downturn, what was already stiff competition for the fan dollar has become more rampant. It is up to sports fans to organize their efforts to demand results from the sports industry or this fierce competition ends up harming fans rather than helping the group.

[Kelty Carpenter is a graduate of Wake Forest University and soon-to-be graduate of Georgetown University's Sports Industry Management program. She currently serves as Sports Business reporter for SFC & Social Media Assistant for LinkStar PR. She loves Red Sox baseball and Deacon hoops.]

Despite the FCC’s ruling that no local sports exclusives should exist providing both standard and HD sports to competitors of cable and, in turn, fans who subscribe to alternate providers, Cablevision, Comcast, and Cox (to name the big players) haven’t moved a muscle to straighten up their act.  Rather, they’ve taken the FCC to court appealing the decision – making false promises to U.S. Representatives- continuing to abuse sports fans across the country by withholding access to games.

Below is a note from one of our intelligent members about the seemingly endless struggle to supply fans with their sports on TV:

The on-going story of Cablevision holding back its High Definition sports channel MSG-HD from some providers (Verizon) while giving it to others (Time Warner) still seems to be dragging in the courts.

Despite the ruling by the FCC on January 20, 2010,  stating that “incumbent cable television providers that control unique, regional sports programming can no longer unilaterally refuse to provide access to that programming, including high-definition feeds, to competing providers.”, it seems that the ruling means very little until the appeal process runs its course. 

Unfortunately, it seems there is little that can be done to speed this process up – after all, it’s been going on for years now.  Perhaps the FCC should enforce the new ruling NOW.  Let the appeal process proceed – perhaps it will move faster when Cablevision isn’t dragging their feet.  Should the ruling be overturned (unlikely), then and only then can Cablevision refuse to provide its HD feed. 

An alternate interim solution might be to prevent Cablevision from providing their HD content to anybody else (including other cable providers like Time Warner).  This would then force these other cable providers to join the battle against Cablevision.

SFC loves the educated suggestions. Let’s start this process by signing the petition stating that the FCC should enforce their rule immediately. Letting Cablevision get away with this white collar crime is unacceptable. Let the FCC know you want your games, and you want them now!

When the Tiger Woods scandal broke, many were shocked while some were unfazed by the news that another hero had fallen from grace. Woods, the first billion-dollar athlete, had chiseled out of gold his pristine image for sponsors and fans to embrace wholeheartedly.

Charles Barkley once famously asked the question, ”A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?”. Shortly thereafter in 1993, he wrote the text for his “I am not a role model” Nike commercial which garnered national media attention. The concept rings true although society will always idolize successful athletes. USA Today found that close to 66% of fans say athletes will influence kids more in the years to come.

It all seems rather inevitable. Sports Marketing companies like Octagon help their clients (both leagues and superstars) sell sports to fans. These organizations target our sports fan dollars with whatever means is available to them.

SFC argues that the real heroes are the fans. Those who speak up against the powers that be to make it better for their fellow sports fans. Tiger Woods sold out a long time ago, but more recently his actions have disappointed his fans to the extent that even Gatorade has dropped him. While it would be nice to believe that professional athletes are professional off the field and heroes on the field are worth that hero worship when they shed their sweaty jerseys and throw them into the crowd, it’s just not worth it.

Rather, it’s worth our time and energy supporting our own collective cause. Our cause is holding our representatives and favorite teams accountable for their actions. If they take tax money, we should be able to find affordable seats in stadiums, we should be able watch the game on TV, and we should see the college champion decided on the field. Nothing less.  That’s worth our attention and support.