YO BRO IT’S ME LITTY

I’m spending more time thinking and writing about the intersection of sports, digital media and business. It seems like a no-brainer as these are probably my three favorite things to think about in this world (who knows what I’m up to in my flash-purgatory).

I do realize that all you Littyhoopsters are not necessarily as fascinated by the blending of jocks, geeks and suits. So I’ve attempted to venture out to find the right audience for these posts.

I syndicated my post on March Madness on Demand to The Wire blog that is part of the Business Insider Network. This is one of the top digital blogs on the web and is a neat way to get my name and ideas out there. I’m planning to write more about sports and digital for them in the future. It was pretty simple to set this up as I reached out directly to the Deputy Editor, Dan Frommer, and after swapping a few emails we had a basic arrangement in place that allows me to contribute. My first post was read over 250 times and retweeted 48 times. My friends Pete, Blake, Ellstein and Matt M. all spotted it on their own and it made me feel big time!

This week I (or whoever is Brian Litvak – without a “c”) had my blog post on a Freemium ticket model idea posted on CNBC’s Sports Biz Blog with Darren Rovell. The blog announced a contest last week to publish guest blog posts. Over 100 submissions were sent in and Darren and team published 14. My post was lucky enough to be selected. This post dissected the idea of a professional sports team giving away tickets in order to increase game attendence and fan base which a team can then monetize in other ways. I’m not sure if this plan makes economic sense right now (and no team has yet to try it) but it’s an interesting thought exercise especially since I believe sports is shifting from an event dominated medium to a media dominated medium. I received a bunch of comments and it was cool to see how people reacted. One guy commented that this was a bad idea because “half of the stadium is filled with homeless people, most of whom aren’t wearing team logos, don’t spend any money on food or parking, don’t smell very nice, and who beg from the other half of the crowd?”. I think this guy might be confused between my idea and the fans of Philadelphia.

By the way, Darren Rovell is from Roslyn (town next to Great Neck) and is just a few years older than me. I give him lots of credit as he single handedly created a niche in sports business reporting (first for ESPN and now for CNBC). He’s been super responsive the few times I’ve reached out to him over the years and therefore I’m not just a fan of his reporting but as him as a person as well. Plus, the Sahn brothers say he is a good dude.

Look forward to sharing some more of my ideas, theories and findings on digital sports business. Even if you don’t read it here, perhaps you’ll see it on the cover of the Wall Street Journal one day. I hope that black and white sketch of my face is pimp