Crawford's Golf and Sports Biz Combo, For March 15th, 2015

By Gregory Crawford--- COO of Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management--- on twitter @kcsportsmgmt @crawssportsbiz @wchoops

NFL--- The facts are the facts. While many people thought that the National Football League would have a down year in 2014, because of so many highly publicized off-field horrible incidents, the league actually had the best year ever financially.

Revenues were up for all teams, the NFL did not lose one single sponsor, 45 of the 50 most watched TV programs in the fall were NFL games and the Super Bowl was the most watch ever in its history.

More good news on the business side came this week for the NFL, when VISA, the highest valued sponsor of the NFL up for renewal, just renewed for 5 more years, with a big increase in payment to the NFL.

Growing Golf---- You are going to hear a lot in here from me about growing the game of golf. If I am the last man standing, I am not going to let the game die. Here are nine, pretty easy things to do to grow the game.

1. Courses need to reward golfers for playing fast.

2. The game needs a whole new marketing plan, not led by the major golf organizations, but by top flight marketing people who know how to think outside the box.

3. The price of clubs, golf balls and rounds of golf, need to be reduced. Volume always wins out.

4. Just one PGA Tour winner or LPGA winner needs to say during the trophy presentation, "Hey I won this cause I just got out and played the game of golf, now you out there in TV land need to do the same."

5. There needs to be more driving ranges, who does not want to just get out and hit some golf balls and it brings them to the course.

6. There needs to be more places to learn the game, short courses, where people can feel free of pressure to learn the game.

7. Politicians need to promote the game much more, the economic value of golf and jobs it creates are really underrated.

8. The game needs to be marketed to women on a much higher level. Women who play the game love it.

9. Anyone teaching the game needs to emphasize to players, just go out and have fun, instead of worrying about your score. Having fun, will lower your score.

Note: For people who own or run golf courses, please feel free to get ahold of us at Kiyokawa Crawford Sports Management, on how we can increase your golf revenue stream. email--- kiyokawacrawford@gmail.com

NCAA Tournament---- A great sports business fact is that since 1995, every school that has been to the Final Four has seen a spike in their overall fundraising the following year, not just for athletics, but academics as well. Sports count.

Fred Hoiberg---- Yesterday, Iowa State won the Big 12 championship, allowing them to go to the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year.

By doing so, per his contract, head coach Fred Hoiberg picked up another $50,000 bonus for making the NCAA Tournament. The average wage each year for Americans is just over $42,000.

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://gregcrawfordbasketball.blogspot.com