Yesterday I had the great priviledge to spend about an hour on the phone with Sports Marketing guru Dan Migala of The Migala Report. Dan is our guest for the August Interview on Gameops.com and without over-hyping it….I think this could be the best interview on the site.

We chatted about sports marketing, giveaway items, game promotions, mascots and much more. This long form interview is something I have moved away from in recent years on the site, since they are much more time consuming to write, transcribe and create….but it was a reminder of how enjoyable it can be to hear from some of the industry leaders. I am looking forward to working more on the story and posting that next month.

We also talked briefly about Dan’s book Dugout Wisdom, which is getting rave reviews on Amazon.com. I just ordered a copy as well and I will certainly review it here after I get a chance to read it.

“In Dugout Wisdom: Life Lessons From Baseball, author Dan Migala finds the heart in baseball, collecting and sharing words of wisdom from 55 greats of the game. These first person accounts of baseball’s pivotal life moments feature noted players such as Sparky Anderson, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew, Whitey Ford, Goose Gossage, Monte Irvin, Kirby Puckett, Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg, Ron Santo and Mike Schmidt.”

–Cudo

With the summer months sliding by I finally had a moment to look back at this month’s update tonight.  Sometimes as I piece together content over a month or so it is hard to tell how well it all comes together until after it’s posted.  This month was stacked with a slew of projects, leaving the update to seem like a bit of an afterthought.

The update features a new “Pro Panel” discussion.  Five industry pros shared their take on how they might handle a potentially offensive giveaway.  It’s always fun to get the creative juices flowing with a handful of people who know their stuff.

Pat Walker also jumped back in with another column and I think this is his best yet.  Pat looks back at the NBA playoffs and the balance of entertainment during the playoffs.  It’s a great read.

While we continue to add products to the new Store on Gameops.com, this month we spent all our efforts on the Shirt Launcher and Cannon pages.  A couple new cannons and accessories are up now and there are still a few more coming soon.  Our goal has been to be one-stop shopping with great pricing and the shirt launcher page is on target for that goal.

Finally we spotlight the Schedule Keychain.  This keychain unrolls to reveal a full color pocket schedule.  Many of our hockey team clients from last season are raving about this product, and it’s sister product the Schedule Pen.  Its a great alternative to the popular schedule magnet for opening night.

As noted a couple times, we are in the final stretch of a huge site overhaul.  You will see some significant changes to Gameops.com in the next two months as we invest in keeping Gameops.com the #1 resource website for game operations and entertianment.

Enjoy the new content and have a great 4th of July.

–Cudo

Apologies for the lighter blog schedule this month, we have a lot of things happening behind the scenes at Gameops.com and the summer just tends to be a little slower.

One aspect of the site we have been working on (and that is up and running) is an enhanced section on The Store featuring Shirt Launchers. We have had always had a couple options for shooting shirts on Gameops.com, but our new store has brought a new products and accessories making Gameops.com an unbeatable resource for cannons and launchers.

We now have three manufactures of shirt launchers represented. Each has been tested by us. Over the last few years we have had a couple manufactures come and go, some having guns that are great, but service that we were not 100% comfortable with, or slow delivery, or higher prices. I now feel like we have the best options, pricing and service all flushed out for our readers.

We also have options for shooting Stress Balls and Pucks, as well as offering the ammunition for the launchers. And, as always, the ever-popular Sling Shots.

Check out the new options in the Gameops.com Store.

Enjoy the weekend.

–Cudo

This is my 300th blog entry, and as is the tradition I take this opportunity to rib my friend Ed who initially suggested the blog idea.

While I love the blog, it has emerged as a large chunk of my efforts….so I like to make sure I thank him on the milestone posts for adding to my workload. (see post 200)

If you like numbers we are approaching another milestone at Gameops.com. Sometime around June 10th we will post the millionth banner ad view. To offset some of the costs of maintaining the website we have an ad banner on the top of each page (going back many years). I religiously track the number of views and was excited to have done a million of anything (but not excited enough to give that it’s own blog post).

So, thanks a million Ed. I look forward to giving you more grief in post number 400.

–Cudo

The May update is live and we still have more coming this month.

For starters we look back at last summer when we reviewed a CFL game in Calgary.  Their dance team (the Outriders) provided an interesting point of focus for game operations.  They perform all game long, but never lose sight of what’s important….the game.  Take a look at how they do that and how that can improve your dance team, scoreboard or mascot performance.

We also partnered with the Fort Wayne Komets on a new twist on the FanRavel…the Design Your Own FanRavel.  For a recent playoff game, Komet fans were given a FanRavel (Rollabanna) with one side primarily blank (the backside featured sponsor logos and white space).  Fans then could add their own message at design stations on the concourse.  We have some photos from their promotion as well as tools to help you create a similar promotion (including FanRavel quotes and FanRavel Boards).

The Store also has a couple new products (the aforementioned FanRavel Boards and blank banner material) and discounts for May.

Coming later this month Pat Walker returns with his popular column (we will feature that link in the blog and on the home page when he returns).

Don’t miss the blog the rest of the month.  I have been busy trying to go from our twice a week postings to three times a week…just to keep you busy.

Thanks for your support.

–Cudo

I mentioned earlier this month that we have a new store, and I want to thank everyone for stopping by and giving it a test drive.  Thus far it’s been a great transition for users and for us.  While there are literally dozens of new features, I did mentioned I would mention a couple as we continue the roll out this month.

After your order our back-end is now more powerful than ever, and package tracking is one of the tools now integrated into the site.  So place your order with confidence, communicate with our service team and have a simple click and track for most items.

Once you log into your account and visit your account page, you can click on any order and see the status.  For most items we also have your tracking number included on your record and you can click to see the exact delivery status live from UPS.

It’s another way you can order with confidence, follow the progress of your order and know when your product is due to arrive or has arrived.

If you haven’t seen the store, take a look.  We are proud to have over 70 products for game operations, event entertainment and mascots. Place any order this month and get a free Gameops.com T-shirt with your order.  I am wearing one right now (I promised not to send you this one).

–Cudo