Offering Additional incentives to financial investors

State film credits and grand-father scripts of section 181 of the Internal Revenue Code can offer investors a added incentive to invest.  If you are not familiar with Internal Revenue Code section 181, as a film maker shame on you. Federal job act allows for a production tax incentives. Section 181 allows for a 100 % tax deduction for motion pictures and TV series, oppose to film amortization over a 15 year period.

Section 181

An investor will be able to make an investment with your project for a great ROI without giving up the 100% immediate deduction in the current year committed. Here are some of the guidelines to follow to become eligible for this deduction. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/blog-post/grandfather-your-section-181-benefit-today-32265

“75% of the motion picture must be shot in the US to qualify for Section 181.
- There is a 15 to 20 million dollar budget cap.
- There is no minimum film production budget cost.
- TV pilots, TV episodes (up to 44), short films, music videos and feature films all qualify for Section 181.
- Section 181 can be applied to active income or passive income.
- Investors can be either individuals or businesses.
- Section 181 is retroactive.
- There is no expectation for film distribution or film completion. 
- The motion picture’s corporation issues Schedule K-1’s to the investors so they can take advantage of Section 181”.

For an investor the qualify deduction allows tax rebates and incentives, additional federal and state incentives, may have NOL to carry-back two years or carry-forward for twenty. If investors are set with this years tax incentives, make sure you take advantage of the grandfather rule in section 181 benefits.  Every dollar counts, so think like an investor.

State Tax Credit

Most states like, Louisiana offer tax credits up to 30% of the production budget and additional city or parish credit that may be used to offset tax liabilities. There are standard applications to apply for these credit and they are disbursed first come first served.

http://louisianaentertainment.gov/index.php/film/news/

Louisiana guidelines and clear and straight to the point. Production must be held in the state of Louisiana, a minimum of $300k and above and below the line cost are included. If your not happy with that, after an CPA audit has taken place, the production company may request the state of La. To purchase the film credit for 85% of the certified value. How is that for incentives!

What are the correct steps to finance your indie film?

With the current US finance market and economy in turmoil and sputtering on the road to success. Now is the time to convince alternative financial sources to think out side the box on what is the next boom to invest in.

There are hundred of private investment firms that are commissioned to select wise investment to grow funds and create high level yields and strong return on investment. Can your indie film be that investment?

What types of financing opportunities are available?

Two alternative funding sources I would like to recommend are, AKAMAI Capital,

Website (for more information): http://akamaicapital.com/ and New Market Growth, Website (for more information): http://www.newmarketsvp.com/.

Each of these funds offers financial options from equity; loans, hybrid financing and gap loans for specialize funding, such as film.

• Companies unable to qualify due to stringent underwriting from traditional loans
• The funds target capital needs from season companies
• Companies that will assist socioeconomically distressed area’s

Your financing should include Print and Advertising to let the investor know that you are thinking about repaying the investment.

Sounds exciting, next you need to know how to qualify?

Before turning in your financial package for consideration, the company should take the following example as the investment criteria:

• Management Team
• Business model
• Competitive Advantage
• Market Solution
• Current Sales & Marketing
• Project Sales & Marketing
• Exit Strategy

The above criteria should be address in your company business plan.

 Other helpful information

What ever your company lacks on paper or experience, each of these financial partners can help you build a strong and reliability business that can grow the company assets and profits. Each provide a season management team with a wealth of general and specialized business to meet your needs.

Each company will support management from beginning to the very end of the venture.

Listen to your customer, therein lies the truth

MARK CUBAN

Through out Mark’s twenty-Five plus years of business he has faced a muiltude of challenges from investors to sales and customer service. When purchasing Landmark Theater chain, Mark has set up a blog to find the answer from customers like you and I to come up with a solution to place body in the seats of Landmark movie theaters. http://www.businessinsider.com/james-harden-got-where-he-is-today-thanks-to-a-great-cover-letter-2012-5

As a customer and connoisseur of the film experience, I think what is missing is the basic ideal of business; product, pricing and marketing. Like many film exhibitors Landmark depends on studios to provide a complete product that consumers want to view.

Product

What’s missing is the studios no longer have the glamor of hollywood in corporated in their film. The scripts lack sustains and what was once a world to escape, even just for a few hours, we as customers are left without imagination as if we wrote the script ourself.

Hollywood has failed the theater exhibitors in providing film characters we idolize and reverence on the big screen. Instead we are left with weak dialog and special affects for our money. There’s no longer anticipation for the next 007 film with the latest gadgets and smooth words of flirtation with Ms. Moneypenny.

 http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Exhibition.html

Pricing

Although major studios no longer control and own the film exhibition market, there are some signs of influence. One can suggest there seems to be in place still to this day “the run-zone-clearance system”. It’s what the oil companies call zone pricing. Ticket prices in one area is higher than another area for the same exhibitor chain. Role out release date, from cities to states all under the direction of major studios prividing films.

Marketing

In recent years exhibitors have tried to fill seats by offering everything from live concerts, special events and give-a-ways to draw viewers. US theaters viewership has dropped over 24% since 2010. The only thing that makes sense is that, each market is different and there is no longer a cookie cutter nation wide plan for most film content.

http://www.baselineintel.com/research-wrap?detail/C8/film_exhibitors_getting_into_the_acquisition_and_release_game_will_squeeze_

Oprah Winfrey

It’s ironic how one business like Landmark Theaters, have a direct affect with the Oprah Winfrey Network. Once again let’s start with product. The OWN channel have selected twenty-four hours of networking programming to build viewership. The larger the viewership the more advertisers are drawn to the channel. Which results into more marketing or sales dollars, more job security and opportunity for public stock growth to investors.  http://www.oprah.com/own

Prior to purchasing content for “OWN” there is an indicator to measure how viewers will react to schedule programmed TV shows. Buyers of the network should ask? were they theaterical releases? How was the film attendence and how long was the run? These questions will help determine what percentage of viewers will follow the film to “OWN”.

Thus begins the negotiations process to buy product you can make money off of and add value to your film library, increasing the company asset and make investors happy.

 http://madamenoire.com/111321/why-isnt-oprahs-own-channel-a-ratings-success/

Conclusion

Create a successful business plan that includes a strong product, sales and marketing section that details how one supports the other. These are all key ingredients that provides a blueprint to a successful business.

Just recently, the history channel partner with Kevin Costner production to create a mini-series of the Hatfield and McCoys.  http://www.history.com/shows/hatfields-and-mccoys

The mini-series drew more than 14million viewers. This long standing american folk legend brough to life showed film and TV executives that, “If you build it, they will come”.  A quality scripted product; excellent price, monthly cable cost for the hole family to view and marketing. The reward for this winning formula is equal to $114m, if view at theater near you, at a $8 ticket price, executives, listen to your customers, therein lies the truth.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/05/31/historys-hatfields-mccoys-shatters-records-with-14-3-million-total-viewers-on-night-three/136394/

Two Experts share their business blue print in Media Success!

MARK CUBAN

A native of Pittsburgh, Pa. Mark Cuban attended Indiana University were he major in Business Administration. Inheriting entrepreneur spirit from his grandfather Morris Chobanisky, Mark chose to put his business skills to work and rent the Bloomington National Guard armory to promote parties and used the profit to pay for out of state tuition.

After graduating from I.U. in 1981, Mark accepted a position at Mellon Bank located in his home town of Pittsburgh. It did not take long for Mark to establish himself by studying machines and networking as Mellon was updating their system to computers.

A year later Mark took his energy on the road and landed in Dallas, Tx were he open a business consulting firm specializing in computer software called MicrosSolutions. A short time later Mark and friend, Tood Wagner wanted to listen to their beloved I.U. basketball games. What came next was the birth of online radio, AudioNet. After renaming the company to Broadcast.com. The company went public and was sold to Yahoo for $6B.

In 2000, Mark was the proud owner of NBA franchise, Dallas Mavericks, other ventures of Mark’s were the purchase of Landmark Theaters, alone with a healthy stake in Lions Gate Entertainment. http://www.biography.com/people/mark-cuban-562656

Oprah Winfrey

In her early years Oprah Winfrey showed signs of outstanding achievement by learning how to read at the age of three. Oprah was surrounded by God fearing followers of the faith, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Her grandmother, alone with church community sensed her anointment to greatness.

Once her mom became settled in Milwaukee, Oprah moved in with her mother. Within time young Oprah found herself alone due to her mother long working hours. Oprah was repeatedly molested by male relatives and family visitors from the age of 9 – 13.

Attempting to escape, she found herself moving in with her father in Nashville, Tennessee where under her father strict discipline, Oprah began showing signs of exceptional fortuity and endurance of strength. Oprah accomplishment were just beginning, at the age of 17, Oprah won Miss Black Tennessee. Prizes included scholarship to Tennessee State University, on air job at radio station WVOL.

Oprah, leveraged her life experience and moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a young co-anchor. A natural in front of the camera, Oprah hosted “People Are Talking” a local talk show. Next stop, Chicago where Oprah “turned AM Chicago into the hottest show in town”.

From 1985 to current, Oprah has developed into a world wide brand that is known today only as OPRAH.    http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0bio-1




Critical & Key components:
Control and passion in life will transfer to business, are both philosophy that Oprah and Mark Cuban live by. Mark suggest that each entrepreneurs should know how the company will make sales and profit. Additionally, the entrepreneur should no their core business or objective and stay the course.

Although, Oprah has over 500 employees, she control her brand name, direction and future projects as the CEO of her empire.

Why are these considered Key:

Every business expert will mention that your business plan should have an mission, objective and know were profits will come from. That is the core blueprint to all business plans.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222524

Using RSS to target indie film to distributors

To the technology world, RSS means, “Really Simple Syndication” not sure what that means? Well, let me say if excused correctly, it will mean additional traffic or attention directed to the target of your choice. Hopefully, that’s your indie film you’re bring attention to.

Digital Marketing

The internet has allowed indie filmmakers to advertise their film to the world and optimize their project to viewers for a minimum cost. By syndicating your film website with the following internet social media tools like, facebook, google plus, twitter, linkedIn, youtube, viemo and Imdb, filmmakers can grab the attention of audiences for a fraction of normal print and advertising cost of traditional film marketing.

Film Applications

Movie goers no longer rely on the weekly Friday or Saturday night to seek there entertainment, now there are mobile apps, laptops, iPads, Kindles all equipped with software that allow fans to download the film of their choice. Connecting to the audience is the objective, for distributors of the digital market. Reach them where they are, on the phone or searching the web using the tool of choice and converting apps to VOD on mobile device.

Independent Monitor

Never fear, free internet application are here, that allow indie filmmaker to monitor the movie “Key Performance Indicators” (KPI) campaign. If your objective is to increase awareness or prompting a product purchase, they can all be monitored by placing KPI’s goals in place, generate a KPI target and agreeing to the target goal.

Filmmakers can use college interns to set up and maintain the digital marketing campaign, list the duration, channels. Interns can suggest the online objective KPI goals and target. Improve the “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) a webmaster tool that help fans to find your project and offer strategies that will maximum the conversion rate.

Self Film Distribution made eaiser

Self film distribution is on the move, no longer is the platform limited to showing your project at film festivals in hopes of sales agents offering negative pick up deals.  The digital marketing world can help establish independent filmmakers with online opportunities increasing public awareness.

Self-Distribution Websites:

With the help of sites like, SnagFilm, Open Film and Indie-A-Go Go for example, these sites raise revenue, sell ad space and share the revenue percentage with the licensee keeping all rights. SnagFilm and Indie-A-Go Go, also offer the filmmakers to earn full revenue from any DVD distribution deals.

Mopix is the newest addition to the self-distribution world and it’s currently in a beta stage. It’s an application-based platform for content. Filmmakers or distributors can upload all content they would normally put on a deluxe DVD. The price is set by the filmmaker and is made available for viewing using the Mopix application.

Launched recently, Stonehenge Production’s Film applications are also custom designed for each client and include such features as social media integration, social activism components, games and in-application purchase options. The filmmaker maintains 100% of the revenue generated from a Stonehenge developed application and is only charged a startup cost of $680. 

Egg Up, is an online media distribution application that facilitates both film rentals and sales by enabling a filmmaker to distribute films on multiple platforms and websites with creation of what they’re calling an ‘egg’. The filmmaker is able to distribute the film on one’s own website and other online retailers without any set-up fees. Their plans range from a free, 8GB storage plan to a larger storage space offered at $99.99 a month. 

Each year there are more and more website dedicated  to launch film projects to assist indie filmmakers with distribution. Filmmakers no longer need traditional distribution method with the advacement of technology. 

How to select the correct sponsor for you?

Weather you’re the local Boys and Girl club or the next number one draft pick preparing for the professional level of your sport, beware of your agent sending out generic sponsorship packages that are lacking strategic alliances.

In the past corporate marketing and advertising departments were unable to quantify the value of sponsorship packages they were asked to participate in, they were given the sky the limit pitch for providing a check for the event. That is no longer the case, advertiser have learned to calculate the value of the marketing and able to determine the rate of return for each sponsorship campaign.


What's your strategy?
Strategic alliances are something that is over looked on both sides of the campaign. Both must do their homework and research to consider the lifestyle, target consumer, emotional connection, but more importantly, what is the impact their market share. The main questions are how do you know if it’s the correct fit.

Before the sponsorship package reaches the potential client, the brand value must match and meet the value of all parties connected with the project. The athlete must have complete by in and have corporate loyalty for maximum results. Is this a product that the athlete will use if he does not receive any benefit or compensation?


Blue Print to Activate Plan
From a corporate perspective, the opportunities to build a stronger brand alliance value with the event or athlete they are partnering with. Linking or collaborating brands can be brilliant or it may show a flaw and misconception to the target consumer. Prior to any contract signed, corporate analyst review the economic cost and effective measured by increased sales, additional exposure and over all brand achievement.

Entertainment marketing has evolved to a detailed scientist research database of reliable information of do’s and don’t. IEG sports sponsorship report provides audience research newsletter discussing everything from sponsorship strategies, selling points, associations and who is seeking deals. IEG sponsorship content is subdivided into industries, property types and sponsorship topics. As a novice, you can now speak the same language as professional advertising marketers and branding companies. Consider this the equivalent as the, Internal Revenue Code book used by the IRS. A subscription is just a click away!

Should Professional Athletes be paid for participating in the Olympics?

In recent weeks there have been a major controvesy over professional athletes being paid for participating in the Olympic games. The Ray Allen and Dwyane Wade interview with reporters agreeing that NBA players should be compensated for giving up there summer vacation.
Most Americans are upset with the Miami Heat star for not being considerate of the economic woe’s that most americans are feeling these days. The compensation that is provided for the players bring home the gold is, $25k per player, free promotion and advertising that leads to additional endorsement and the opportunity to go down in history as the 2012 gold medal winner.

Ever since the US Olympic committee were allowed to include professionals in Olympic basketball there has been a fear of players putting money before the game or country. In the early years the Olympic basketball team were decided by the US olympic committee selecting the coaches and the coaches inviting the best college players to tryout for the team and represent America.

My memory of the 1972 USA Olympic basketball team against the then, Soviet Union. The championship game with three seconds remaining, Doug Collins made two free throws to put the americas in the lead by one point. The Soviet’s were given three chances to win the game with one after another, do overs. After the third attemp the Soviet’s won as time expiered. That was the one final moment the sealed BASKETBALL and USA, synonyms in my heart. The 1972 team played with moxie, each of them aged 19 – 22 of age going against grown men of the Soviet’s team. Every collegiate viewing that game wanted to stay in college for the opportunity to wear the uniform of team USA.

To play for your country is an honor, to where the red, white and blue is a dream come true.

What is not discussed is the sponsors of the US Olympic team. Nike is one of the largest sponsors. The USA Olympic basketball team have more than half their roster endorsing Nike products. Dwyane wade made just over $26.2m in total wages, $13m from the Miami Heat organization and $12m from Nike. Part of Dwyane’s endorsement contract is appearance fee, he should look at performing in the Olympic games as a paid appearance fee from US Olympic team sponsor, Nike!

Women holding the locker-room interview with coaches and players!

Is gender the key to writing sport interviews of athletes and coaches? There are still some professional athlete with an prehistoric mind set that women are not allowed in the holly grail of post game interviews, the locker-room.

As a whole, female reporters have been given a difficult time when entering not just the locker-room, but also the practice field. The more attractive the women the less attention they receive as the sport reporter. Females are asked to meet for exclusive or boldly requesting that the female reporter join them for an evening out on the town. Since when is the job description of any reporter, dating!

Women and the Jets!
In recent years no franchise has been on the defense more than the New York Jets, of course the owner of the team put out a press conference apologizing for the misconduct of their soon to be hall of fame player, Brett Favre. Favre allegedly sent cell-phone pictures of his private parts masturbating, to a female reporter that he met during the Jets 2008 preseason.

If that was not enough, in September 2010 reporter Ines Sainz of the TV Azteca in Mexico was in town to interview quarterback Mark Sanchez. During the interview there were reports of sexual harassment from other players and coaches from the Jets organization.

Males flirting with females are nothing new, in fact most of us would consider it normal, however when professionals are at work there is a certain manner we are expected to conduct ourselves. Take for example the Rampage Jackson interview listed below.


In todays corporate human resource departments have several sentivity courses for managers on sexual harrasment, race and gay conduct. I think it’s time for american sport franchises incorporate these policy for female reporters in the locker-room. After all gender have no barring on the words listed on the page of a newspaper.
http://theothermccain.com/2010/08/08/female-reporter-claims-brett-favre-sent-her-photos-of-himself-masturbating/

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-09-13/sports/27075155_1_jets-fans-rex-ryan-jets-organization

NBA new union agreement

2011 National Basketball Association Labor Dispute
At the end of the NBA 2010-2011 season was the labor dispute between the NBA team owners represented by David Stern and the National Basketball Players Union, lead by Billy Hunter and Derrick Fisher. The two side were not in agreement with several issues listed in the collective bargaining agreement and the owners wanted to take this opportunity and revise the union-management agreement that was in place.

Until a new agreement was reached, the NBA owners locked the players out of the corporate location and pervented players from working. A complete stoppage until a new agreement could be reached. At issue was the revenue share of the NBA revenue from TV, cable rights and merchandise. This was a complete interruption of employer's service and employee revenue.

Due to unfavorable negotiations on both sides, the players filed antitrust action against owners and were at the brink of disbanding the union. As both sides continue to negotiate to no avail, there was the potential of the 2011-2012 season being cancelled. Players agents negotiated contracts to play in other countries giving the players the options to return to the NBA once a tentative deal was reached and the new CBA was ratified.




Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)
The CBA is a agreement between employers and employees regulating work conditions. In the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement includes, but is not limited to basketball related income shared percentage, length of time or expiration date between the current and new agreement, minimum team salary and free agents and restricted free agency. There are winners and lossers in each of the cases, none the less the NBA as a league is the clear winner. Both sides are allowed to share in the fruits and labor of the long and gruley process of improving the terms of the CBA so that it will benefit all parties.





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/14/nba-lockout-players-reject-offer-disband-union-antitrust_n_1092994.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sam_amick/10/29/nba-labor-proposals/index.html

The NCAA Licensing Lawsuits

The NCAA is being suied by former student athletes, lead by Ed O’Bannon for not requesting permission to use the former student-athletes images and likenesses. According to Ed’s attorneys, the NCAA is profiting about $4 billion a year of sales of DVD, video games, books and poster of past performances. The federal district court is reviewing the case to determine if it qualify for class action against the NCAA. What’s at stake is the profit sharing with former student-athletes whom images have been violated and the NCAA paying them compensation.



NCAA Licensing Agreement
Currently, the NCAA is requiring Universities to include with their scholorships, licensing agreement giving the university and the NCAA the right to use the player’s “name or likeness in merchandise or advertising for fee or royalty”. Are parents selling their kids future royalties?
http://www.amazon.com/1995-NCAA-Division-Basketball-Championship/dp/B000NPP9IU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1250702774&sr=8-7





Oscar Roberson
http://thesportdigest.com/2011/01/oscar-roberson-and-ncaa-the-big-o-says-no/
NBA Hall of famer and NCAA All-American, Oscar Robertson announced joining the class action suit as a plaintiff. The Big “O” blame the NCAA for intellectual property and anti-trust violations, by using his signature, image and name in cards and video games without compensating him.


Michael Jordan Sues Qiaodan Sports
http://www.ipbrief.net/2012/02/28/michael-jordan-sues-qiaodan-sports-to-reclaim-his-name/
Michael Jordan Sues Republic of China company for trademark infringement of his name and image without permission from him or Nike, Inc., which owns the name and identity. For years Qiaodan Sports have been using Michael Jordan’s trademarks, photo’s, “Jumpman” logo and other commercial products for profits.


Conclusion

A issue that comes to mind is should the NCAA be allowed to own the rights and profit from all former student-athletes images, names, television broadcasts, DVD’s and video games without compensating the athletes.

In my opinion, the NCAA is illegally profiting from former student-athletes, in the same maner that Qiaodan sports are infringing on Michael Jordan’s trademarks. Monies are being earned by the NCAA from older student-athletes performances without paying the former athletes. Past games are licensed by the NCAA and being sold on Amazon and other outlets. No additional scholarships are offered as compensation. Fans are purchasing DVD’s and video’s games with the former players identical likeness, uniform and number, not because it say property of the NCAA. If Ed O’Bannon’s attorneys are correct and the NCAA merchandising profit is $4 billion a year, the NCAA can offer licensing agreements for all former student athletes whose images are used.

Increasing the Los Angeles Clippers fan base using social media

Increase revenue on that old arena

Fan Attraction
The article, “Sports Still Draw Fans Despite Recession” shows the importants of the fabric of sports in America. In my humble opinion, the reason most fans are drawn to the traditional sport of football, baseball and basketball can be summerized into one word, reminisce. Former players, parents and friends are allowed to bond and reminisce once again of the days of family members dead and alive participating and representing their schools, town or state for that championship season and the great old days of glory.

When we consisder the economy of sports and weather we have reached a recession in sport and how do we turn it around. We only need to return to basic. Support our local sport teams and players. It’s our local hero’s that motivate us to watch and see if the current athlete can duplicate what our childhood idols have engraved into our hearts and mind. Is that player making us stand to our feet with reverence and admiration, do they give their all and leave it on the field or court. Sports in america, is what oprea is in europe. It’s the moment that allows us all to escape our everyday life worries of bills, health care and political belief.

For that time we are fans, cheering as one for the same team and players. We all have our stories of how and when we first saw that player and knew he or she would be the anointed one. How many of us remember Michael Jordan making the winning jumper at the Louisiana Superdome in 1982. Did we know he would become the Hall of Fame superstar he is today. What about the time that Magic Johnson carried the 1996 Olympic flame into the Atlanta Stadium just before Mohammd Ali lit the torch.

What about the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid, New York. When the USA ice hockey team beat the USSR for the gold medal and Al Michaels saying “Do you believe in Miracles”. Weather a hockey fan or not we were all americans standing up and cheering our college boys of winter ice. As you consisder the arenas over the year that have been witness to one great event or another, it’s that passion for our sports that allow us to continue to renovate or build new arena’s for the next generations to witness the next great sport event of there time.


Increase Profit
Since we understand why it’s important to have sporting arena’s we need to make them more economically viable to the times. My recommendation is to create arena diversity or a muilt-purpose arena that will be used for more than just the purpose of one team. In Los Angeles, the Staples Arena is used for the home games of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings, music concerts, Disney on ice, etc. The Staple Arena has corporate suites, private and public restaurants alone with a store that license local team merchandise.




All arena’s are over size apartment buildings that need tenants to occupy the rental space for monthly revenue and annual profits. If we limit the days unoccupied we can maximize the profits from concessions, license merchandising, arena parking and other goods and services.

Where there are limited major professional sporting teams in the market, offer a co-occupy agreement with college or high school organizations and conferences. For example, the Louisiana Superdome is the home of the annual Suger Bowl, the Bayou Classic and the Louisiana mens and ladies state football and basketball divisional championship games.

Local, regional and national sponsorship is always appealing when you have a full house to advertise and market too. Live sport blog revenue from live games are a way to include national audiances.

TV, Cable and paid for TV can also be obtained when you maximize the arena attendence.

Revenue can only be obtained by filling the arena. A empty arena or unoccupied arena can only bring more expense with maintence and up keep.





http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/economic-values-professional-sport-franchises-united-states


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2009-04-01-marketing-cover_N.htm

Fantasy Football, the new business in sports

In the decade of cyber space and internet host websites, there can leave no doubt that the passion for fanasty football is the biggest new sports business in america. With over 1 billion dollars in revenue, over 27 million participants in the US and Canada, from celebrities, former professional athletes and the regular joe or joyce that have the obsession for fanasty football are actively participating in the league today.

The humble beginning’s of fantasy football league was formed by Oakland Raiders limited partner, Wilfred Winkenbach, Raiders team managers and sports journalists in 1962. Over the years various leagues and team drafts have taken it’s own shape and form. By the late 1980’s the fantasy football league’s grew to more than 100 thousand participants meeting in local bars and resturants in america.

The platform of today’s fantasy football league was launched into orbit in 1997 when internet sites like SportsLine offered a 24/7 talk show of fantasy football. It allowed passionate participants to voice there opinion’s of drafts, trades and game plans from week to week. Now, with the purchase of SportsLine by CBS and the launch of competitors fantasy football website, their’s estimated more than 36 million people currently participating.

Fantasy football has become so popular that Las Vegas casinos have gotten into the action by hosting fantasy football annual drafts, offering the in-game betting and advertising a prize pool of $2 million, with the winner walking away with $300,000. Like the actual NFL games, Las Vegas have pre-game and halftime entertainment. Last year the Palms enlisted the performance of Snoop Dog Dog for “2700 VIP fantasy football owners attending special events surrounding their draft party weekend”.

The growth is so overwhelming that, Yahoo have set up a dedicated web platform that offers various game format, play calling and real time broadcasting with statistical analysis of the football coverage of players. Yahoo is the largest single-source provider and collects revenue form entry fees, advertising and technolgy upgrades.

Fantasy football is apporching 50 years old and only 10 years of cyber platform. The industry boost of annual revenue between, $1-2 billion dollars and growing. The league have incorporated rules set up by the “Fantasy Sports Trade Association”. An equilient of the NBA, NFL, NHL and Major league baseball commissors. It has the star power, the passion and a world wide audience, all equal to a formula for growing success.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fantasy-footballs-1-billion-a-221105


http://news.yahoo.com/fantasy-football-big-revenue-generator-las-vegas-225000945.html


http://www.informationweek.com/news/201804513

DeForest Mapp: Building on Mutual Benefit

As a trained musician, actor, director and producer, Mr. Deforest Mapp has managed to enhance his professional entertainment career by reinventing himself and creating solid common relationship that offers a mutual benefit for all parties involved.
As I embraced his words, I could not help but to think, Deforest is completely confidence of his ability of creating value in art. Deforest has learned a long time ago that studios treat art solely as a commodity for marketing and promotion. His value as an actor is determined on the previous ticket sales of his last film. However, he as a person loves to be in front of the camera and could not relate to the ideal of someone else deciding his future in acting. Consumed with auditions and perfecting his craft, someone adviced him to seek directing and producing. Shortly after receiving this advice he enrolled in film director and producer boot camp. His dilemma, is which to chose, so he embraced mutual benefit.
Deforest ideal was to brand himself as a triple threat entertainer that works in front and behind the scenes. Triple threat may sound peculiar but very necessary to continue this path called art. In 2003, Warner Brothers Studios contracted Deforest for various projects as a producer. Arraying himself with the skills that would grab the attention of investors, Deforest casted, directed and produced short films, reality television and feature films that made investors pleased with there mutual arrangement.
He continued to share his wisdom of black Hollywood and the best way to keep oneself relevant and attractive to investors that are prepared to offer agreements that make both sides happy. He smiled at the ideal of both sides making money and generating a mutual benefit. After all it’s about making money first and art second. The exception to the rule is becoming your own executive producer or investor. The moral of the story, keep you relevant by being skillfully versatile in the world of entertainment.