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Urlacher's marketability still strong — if he wants to use it

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:00:00 EST

Brian Urlacher's NFL career may be over, but he's well-positioned to launch a second career in Chicago, if he so desires: marketing.

The former Bears star announced his retirement from the NFL on Twitter today, ending his 13-year career while he sits atop Nielsen Co.'s list of Chicago's most marketable athletes.

The eight-time Pro Bowler, who holds the Bears' franchise record for tackles (1,779), had the highest "N-Score" among active Chicago athletes in 2012. The score tracks both awareness and likability among the public.

As of last summer, Mr. Urlacher's score ranked behind only those of Michael Jordan and Mike Ditka as the most widely known Chicago-tied sports figures. Bulls star Derrick Rose ranked second on the active list, while Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews ranked third.

The Bears offered the linebacker a new contract this off-season, but he turned it down in March, calling the compensation a "slap in the face" and creating a strange awkwardness between the team and one of its most famous players.

Had he signed with another team, his local cachet might have taken a hit (think Brett Favre after becoming a hired gun after his Packers career) or remained strong (think Michael Jordan after his Wizards days), but Mr. Urlacher only strengthened his local profile with comments like one he made this morning on "The Dan Patrick Show," that "I'm happy I don't have to wear another jersey."

Bears fans gush.

With his playing days behind him, Mr. Urlacher has set himself up for a new career as a marketing dynamo around town — like Ditka, Butkus, Sayers, Pippen, Jordan and others before him — if he really wants it.

"He has a lot of longevity in the marketing industry if he sticks around Chicago," said Doug Shabelman, president of Evanston-based Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing. "If he's open to broadcasting opportunities that guys like (former Bears) Dan Hampton and Tom Waddle and Steve McMichael have done, he could do that."

The longtime face of the Bears franchise has never had a reputation for self-promotion, but he was active in the commercial space during his playing career, appearing in ads recently for brands like Comcast Xfinity, Old Spice and Coke Zero."He's got incredible awareness nationally and particularly in the Chicago area," said Stephen Master, senior vice president of Nielsen's sports division, citing research that 88 percent of respondents to Nielsen's N-score polling said they "like" the linebacker. "He's not polarizing like many football players."

That likability will certainly be tested now, just months after Mr. Urlacher ripped Bears fans for booing during a loss to Green Bay in December.

"Two of the people I don't care about: fans or media," he said at the time. "They don't know what they're talking about."

Surely, such incidents won't have any lasting effect, and you'll continue to see retailers hawking No. 54 jerseys for years to come.

"Time heals feelings," said Mr. Shabelman. "People who (were offended) will come around and think of him as a sports legend.

"Everything depends on if he sticks around the area," he said. "If he comes to Chicago just once or twice a year, it's a different story. But if he's seen at clubs and restaurants, or even buys in on a restaurant, he can do well."

Will we eventually see Urlacher's steakhouse pop up somewhere in the city? Time will tell.

The more likely scenario, in my opinion, is a sort of Urlacher-themed "barcade" with as much Big Buck Hunter as you could possibly handle.

VIDEO: CSN Chicago targets content with new green room

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

As the unofficial mouthpiece for four major Chicago sports teams, Comcast SportsNet Chicago has special access to players, coaches and other resources with which it can generate original team content.

Last month, the nine-year-old network took steps to try to squeeze more out of those assets by building the AT&T U-Verse Lounge, a tricked-out version of what used to be a glorified waiting area for guests that is now a new hub from which it can produce original content.

"People always want to know what's going on behind the scenes," said Phil Bedella, who was named vice president and general manager of the network in 2011. "That was the genesis of this idea — delivering content, but doing it in a less formal way."

The network, which is co-owned by the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks, as well as NBCUniversal, frequently hosts current and former players in its studio for interviews but wanted to capture the extra content to help meet the demands of viewers who are increasingly getting their sports content from mobile devices.

"They're watching on their mobile phone while they're watching TV, or they're out on the go and they want to see our product wherever they are," said Mr. Bedella, citing a recent report from NBCUniversal showing that during the the 2012 Summer Olympics, as many as half of all viewers after 7 p.m. were watching events on either a tablet, phone or other mobile device.

"It's the biggest shift right now in our industry," he said.

CSN added a number of amenities to the room, including a 72-inch plasma television, a PlayStation 3 console, a beverage-stocked mini-fridge and a few reclining leather seats.

But perhaps the most significant additions are two built-in cameras on the walls that rotate and pick up sound. They will record guests and analysts such as Frank Thomas, Bill Melton and other frequent visitors watching and discussing games as they prepare to go on the air.

"Some of the best stuff happens in here," said CSN Chicago anchor David Kaplan, whose hosting duties include the station's daily guest panel show "Sports Talk Live," which regularly receives big-name guests from around the sports world.

The new room paid a quick dividend for Mr. Kaplan.

One of the first two guests to come relax and chat in the lounge before taping interviews was former NFL stars Napoleon Harris (now an Illinois state senator in the 15th District) and Terrell Owens.

While hanging out in the room, Mr. Harris began pressing Mr. Owens about making an NFL comeback, leading the former wide receiver to say he would be up for it.

That "led to me talking to T.O. about that, and him saying, 'You know, I played for (Bears head coach Marc) Trestman. That'd be a great idea.'"

Mr. Kaplan wrote a blog post about the discussion, which spread quickly around the sports media world, and said that had Mr. Owens "walked into the building and gone in there and taped his quick interview and left, (the idea) probably never comes up."

CSN Chicago has already used the room for extra interviews with guests including former NBA star Alonzo Mourning, former NHL head coach and Blackhawk Eddie Olczyk and new Northwestern basketball head coach Chris Collins, as well as segments for on-air and online shows like "Sports Fix," which recaps a given night on the local sports scene, and "Pulse Update" segments during games.

The station also plans to incorporate content from the lounge into shows that are in the works, including "The Rundown," in which CSN producers discuss and debate the day's top stories, as well as as "Top Five," a daily countdown of a handful of topics of discussion in Chicago sports and pop culture.

Chicago Sky land TV deal with WCIU parent

Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 EST

For the first time in the eight-year history of the Chicago Sky franchise, nearly an entire season of games will be broadcast on a ratings-earning television station, the team will announce today.

The Sky struck a five-year agreement with Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting Co. to air 24 games a year on its family of networks, including two games this season on WCIU-TV and 22 games on Weigel's U Too station.

For the past three years, most Sky games have aired on Comcast Network's CN100 channel, which is available only to Comcast subscribers in the market. Under the new deal, games will be available in more than 8 million homes in the greater Chicago area.

"It's the biggest piece of advertising we're doing," Sky President Adam Fox said. "TV is still the great validator. You can talk to people until you're blue in the face, but until they see it and get a feel for it and see a good-looking broadcast — only then they'll realize it's something worth coming to see."

Prior to the team's deal with Comcast, which expired after last season, handfuls of Sky games had been broadcast on Weigel-owned stations, with six games apiece in 2006 and 2007 and eight games on its Me-TV channel in 2008.

The Sky also will announce a new broadcasting team for its games featuring Big Ten Network reporter and former Northwestern basketball player Lisa Byington on play-by-play, accompanied by ESPN college basketball analyst Brooke Weisbrod with color commentary.

LANDMARK VALIDATION WIN

The new deal is a landmark win in validation for the team, which has taken steps to build its brand and business operation over the past year.

The Sky launched a "Legacy Partners" program last summer that brought together about 50 Chicago-area companies to each contribute $5,000 a year for five years in exchange for various marketing opportunities.

"Being on a station that gets ratings is important," Mr. Fox said. "It's a great anchoring point for any company to understand what they're buying. We've moved from a concept buy to a legitimate ratings-point buy."

A number of WNBA teams, including Los Angeles, New York, Minnesota, Atlanta and Connecticut, have agreements with local stations to broadcast games, while others have aired portions of their seasons on TV locally.

Those complement the league's broadcast rights agreement with ESPN, which was recently extended by six years, through 2022, and nets each franchise an estimated $1 million annually in revenue.

Mr. Fox's aim with a more substantial broadcasting partner goes beyond helping increase attendance, which was roughly flat year over year last season at about 5,500 fans per game, but to also get more sponsors to jump on board and potentially lure a highly coveted jersey sponsor, which Sky owner Michael Alter calls the franchise's "top priority" from a marketing standpoint.

"We've had people sort of kick the tires (on a jersey sponsorship)," Mr. Fox said. "Absolutely our first priority is that now, with this platform available to us, we can secure our own presenting sponsor."

Sky jerseys don the Boost Mobile logo per a leaguewide agreement with the company. Individual teams, however, can negotiate their own deals, which are far more lucrative.

The team opens the 2013 season against Connecticut on May 31 at Allstate Arena.

The Wrigley Field parking puzzle

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:46:19 EST

While the Cubs await the results of a traffic study they've commissioned as part of their renovation agreement with the city, Lakeview and Wrigleyville residents are waiting to hear just how the team plans to address their parking concerns.

The framework deal the two sides reached last month called for the Cubs to develop an awareness campaign with the office of Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, to better educate fans about remote parking options and alternate ways of getting to the park, like bikes and public transportation.

In the meantime, I set out to paint a picture of parking capacity within a mile of the Friendly Confines.

The first step, of course, was to determine how many attendees actually drive to games.

Based on recent Cubs and neighborhood surveys, here's the breakdown of how fans got to Cubs games in 2012:That 36 percent driving group, based on 2012 average attendance (35,589), represents about 13,000 fans per game.

Using an average of 2.6 passengers per car (the rough fan-to-car ratio in the Cubs' lot at DeVry University last season, according to the team's 2012 Neighborhood Protection Report), 13,000 fans make up about 5,000 cars each game.

So, where can those vehicles park?

To no surprise, it's an extremely fragmented answer.

There are the Cubs' official lots; public and private lots and garages; residents who rent out whatever space they have to offer, and local businesses and schools looking to make an extra few bucks with their slots. And that doesn't account for drivers who opt for one of about 250 street meter spots within a mile of the stadium (despite their time limits) and those who roll the dice on parking in neighborhood permit areas and, depending on that day's enforcement, can get away with it.

For perspective, compare that jumble to the White Sox, which have ample room for about 7,500 cars in the parking lots adjacent to the South Side stadium.

I pulled data from five or six different sources (like I said, it's fragmented) to find that current capacity within a mile of the park is sufficient, based on last year's attendance — but not by much:(View a larger version of this graphic in a scrollable window.)

According to Los Angeles-based real-time parking tracker site ParkMe.com, 4,785 parking spots are within one mile of Wrigley Field.

Those spots are spread out over 31 public and private garages and lots and do not include residential spots or the 500 available spots on the DeVry campus on Western Avenue, more than a mile away.

Of those 31 locations, 16 are non-restricted public lots and 15 are privately owned, such as the Taco Bell parking lot kitty-corner to the ballpark near Clark and Addison streets. Eight of the 31 are within a quarter-mile of the stadium.

Digging a little deeper into that 4,785 figure: About 1,000 of those spots are in official Cubs lots (green, purple, brown, yellow, blue and orange lots), while the rest come from an array of locations.

As shown in the graphic, those lots and garages combine with private residence spaces on game days to total roughly 5,300 spaces within a mile of Wrigley.In recent weeks, the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce has polled several nearby garage and lot owners and managers to find out how many spots they could carve out for Cubs game attendees.

The findings so far: Among the nine largest garages east of Clark Street, owners say they could spare a total of 350 to 400 spaces for Cubs parking.

"There are some public garages here that are not filled to their capacity," said Maureen Martino, the chamber's executive director. "We're hoping (the Cubs) might partner with them to solve the congestion problem."

The Cubs say they're open to that idea, but it's important to remember that a number of the largest garages in the area — including some in the chamber's survey — aren't dedicated to Cubs parking.

The garage across the street from the Vic Theatre at the corner of Belmont and Sheffield avenues splits 230 spots between Cubs fans and its own customers; the 175-space Sports Authority parking garage at the corner of Clark Street and Barry Avenue has a similar situation, and the largest garage in the area by far at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center on Wellington Avenue typically only frees up for Cubs parkers on sporadic evenings and weekends.

Another large public garage in the neighborhood, near the corner of Clark Street and Diversey Avenue at the Century Shopping Centre, has a capacity of close to 400 spaces, but it's more than a mile from Wrigley.

"The convenience of a short walk trumps cheaper rates," said Stephen Strong, vice president of marketing at Chicago-based parking reservation site ParkWhiz.com. The site, which allows drivers to reserve spaces posted by garages and residents, sold an average of 100 spaces per game around Wrigley Field in 2012.

Half of all Cubs game reservations on ParkWhiz last year were made within a third of a mile of the stadium, while 80 percent of reservations were within a half-mile, Mr. Strong said.

Within two blocks of Wrigley Field in either direction, parking on average costs $30 or more, depending on demand for the particular game. The second price tier, ranging from $20 to $30, generally applies to spaces beyond that two-block radius but within about five blocks, roughly bounded by School Street on the south, Irving Park Road on the north, Southport Avenue on the west and Lake Shore Drive to the east. Beyond that, some game-day parking can be found at garages and lots for $10 or $15.

"We're going to try to see if there's a solution that includes existing parking assets in the neighborhood," said Cubs spokesman Julian Green, who notes that some schools in the area have shown interest in renting out their lots to raise money. "But just because it's available doesn't mean people will park there."

As a part of the Wrigley Field renovation framework deal, the Cubs will add 500 spaces to the satellite DeVry lot (for a total of 1,000 spots) and make them all free, down from $6. They're also seeking to add 100 spots to a reconstructed lot on Eddy Street — adjacent to the Taco Bell lot — to help relocate about 200 spaces that would be lost to the team's proposed triangle plaza development.

The Cubs also say they've started early work on developing a smartphone app that drivers might use to find available spots in the area in real time.

The bigger challenge, however, is in changing parking behavior.

"The biggest problem with urban parking is perception," ParkMe CEO Sam Friedman said. "Many garages aren't full. It's a matter of direction and guidance."The cottage industry of Wrigley Field neighbors selling their parking spots for games has almost as much history as the 99-year-old stadium itself, and its role in accommodating incoming cars remains as important as ever.

Whether drivers find such "EZ in, EZ out" spots online or from neighbors holding signs to lure them in, parking in someone's garage or alley space remains the most convenient option.

That's what helped spur companies like ParkWhiz and its Chicago-based rival Spot Hero to form in the first place, in an effort to better organize the market. And both companies continue to see increases in the number of people posting their spots on their sites.

Fans who park in residential spots within a mile of the stadium frustrate garage and lot owners that must pay parking taxes (which are about to increase this summer) while spaces sit empty on game days.

"I can handle 100 cars a day if they would come to me," says Mid City Parking Inc. president Bill Summerfield, who manages the garage at 3440 N. Broadway adjacent to a Best Western hotel. "(Residents) aren't paying taxes on their spots."

Mr. Summerfield say he'd be "all for" partnering with the Cubs to try to relieve some of the congestion, especially if the team's attendance kicks up again with improved play. "I'm ready for business," he says.

DePaul aims for new era with new arena

Fri, 17 May 2013 04:00:00 EST

The last time DePaul basketball was relevant on the Chicago sports scene, Walter Mondale was running for president, the Portland Trail Blazers were about to pass up Michael Jordan in the NBA draft and 25-year-old Rahm Emanuel was earning a master's degree in speech and communication at Northwestern University.

A full generation has passed since then, while the city's sleeping giant of college basketball lost its luster in Rosemont.

Finally, nearly three decades after legendary coach Ray Meyer's final season with the Blue Demons, the school has taken a major step toward returning to the local sports conversation in a town that puts pro teams first.

"This is one of the key ingredients, one of the key recipe parts that's been missing from DePaul for the last several years," Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto said yesterday at the school's first news conference since announcing it will be the anchor tenant in a new $140 million, 10,000-seat arena and event center next to McCormick Place starting in 2016.

"Major colleges and universities the size of DePaul have spectacular facilities for their student athletes and for their students on campus. From that perspective, we're probably a little bit behind," she said.

No longer.

The new facility, complete with 22 suites, 300 club seats and likely a swarm of advertising opportunities, not only catapults the Blue Demons into the mix for better recruits, it means a shot at larger sponsorship deals from Chicago's wealth of corporate players.

Obtaining that revenue will be a key to its plan to raise the $70 million it has promised for its share of the arena's construction, Ms. Ponsetto said, aside from ticket sales, naming rights fees and increased revenue from the Big East Conference through its new broadcast deal with Fox Sports.With an attractive new venue (and a high-profile new basketball conference) in place, the recruiting game will get a lot easier.

Make no mistake — playing in the suburbs is the single biggest obstacle that stands between the program and a return to relevance.

"One of the first two things that I hear from either prospects, coaches, friends of prospects is, 'You're doing a really good job, you're developing.' And the next thing I hear is, 'Boy, if you only played in Chicago," said men's head coach Oliver Purnell, who took over the program in 2010. Even rumors of the new building have "already impacted our recruiting," he said.

The Blue Demons recently signed Morgan Park standout Billy Garrett Jr. (whose father is a DePaul assistant coach), the program's first ESPN Top 100 recruit since 2007.
In the meantime, nationally ranked high school stars from the city's top programs have left every year (read: Derrick Rose, Evan Turner, Anthony Davis, Wayne Blackshear and soon-to-be Duke Blue Devil Jabari Parker, to name a few).

"It will be one of the major selling points, without question," Mr. Purnell said.The most immediate improvement with a new arena will be easier access for students.

As the crow flies, the distance from DePaul's Lincoln Park campus to the Blue Demon men's basketball home at Allstate Arena in Rosemont is about 15 miles, primarily a trek students make via shuttles on the Kennedy Expressway. Lincoln Park to the new arena site is just more than eight miles and just a 20-minute el ride away.

"I think that the flexibility in being able to access this facility is better," said Caroline Winsett, DePaul student body president. "You can come after class and take the train or cab or bike as opposed to the venue to the north, where it's trickier at times."

Of course, getting college students to commute to the Near South Side in the middle of winter is no easy task, but if the team begins winning more with improved exposure and recruiting, perhaps casual fans in the city will make a DePaul basketball game part of a night out downtown.Regardless, a 10,000-seat arena will look a lot better for a school that draws just north of 8,000 fans per game instead of the bad optics that come with playing in 18,500-seat Allstate Arena (where they'll continue to play until the new arena is done) with more seats empty than full.

The next steps in the process will come this summer as the school begins fundraising efforts and lines up what will likely be a private donor for naming rights to the new event center.

Ms. Ponsetto tells me that a number of notable, philanthropic alumni have expressed interest in previous years "if we ever got a building" to name, which suggests that they might be in for a healthy chunk of change to help get them to $70 million.

In the meantime, Mr. Purnell has a valuable bargaining chip to help lure top recruits.

Realistically, a DePaul basketball program that has won only seven conference games over the last five seasons won't turn around overnight. But a major hurdle is almost clear, and the program will be far better positioned to grow.