Inquiry >> Sporting Event Commencement Times

It's on...

I was having dinner with family recently and the topic of “Why do some sporting events start at such strange times? Kickoff at 12:09, tip-off at 3:07.” I reached out to Managing Director, Paul Swangard of the world renowned James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. I have more info about them below, and below that is our email conversation and the answer to the question about sporting event commencement time.

Established in 1994 and now graduating its eighth M.B.A. class, the James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center is the premiere sports education and research program in the world and has become a model for sports-business programs in schools across the country.

In fact, Sports Illustrated recognized the University of Oregon as home to the best sports business program in its October 7, 2002 issue. That program is the Warsaw Center.

Now the answer:

Josh,

The primary reason for obscure start times is driven by television.
Networks seek to delay the start slightly to capture and build an
audience that isn’t necessarily always tuning in at the top of the hour.
Some teams have also tied their times to particular sponsors. The best
example of this is the Chicago White Sox starting games at 7:11 as part
of a promotion with 7-11.

Hope that helps.

Paul.

—–Original Message—–
From: Josh Kitlas
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 4:35 PM
To: Paul
Subject: General Inquiry >> Sport Commencement Times

Hi Mr Swangard -

My name is Josh Kitlas and like so many I am a sport enthusiast. That
said, I was having dinner with my family one evening and the following
question came up, “Why do some sporting events start at such obscure
times? A playoff baseball game may start at 8:07 PM, a kickoff for a
Collegiate football game may start at 12:58 PM. Why don’t they just
start games at even or rounded up (or down) times?”

So, I’m familiar with the Warsaw school as being the best, and seeing
as you’re the MD, you’re clearly the best leading the best and I’m
sure you can shed some light on this for me. I did a fairly exhaustive
search on Google but couldn’t come up with anything.

My questions are – Why are the factors that lead to sporting events
starting at ‘obscure’ times, and, who are the people or institutions
that influence this?

Thanks in advance for helping to shed some light on this.

Best,

Josh Kitlas
j...@kitlas.com

www.kitlas.com