Introduction to Sport Business: Good to Great Research Paper - Essay Example

Introduction to Sport Business: Good to Great Research Paper Introduction to Sport Business: Good to Great Research Paper The history and the background of the organization The New York Mets is a veteran baseball team located in New York. The team was founded in 1962 as a replacement of the New York’s departed national team, the Blue and Giant Orange. The New York Mets is a professional baseball team that held the baseball single seasons attendance record for 29 years in a row, an aspect that motivates its players to improve on their playing skill in order to enable the team to continue holding the title (Cooper, 2004).

The SWOT analysis of the organization The SWOT analysis for New York Mets provides a number of strengths and weaknesses for the team. As for its strengths, the team enjoys an unwavering support from its loyal fan base within the United States. This countrywide fan base is important because it encourages the players to play even better with the cheers from their fans pushing them to put every effort to win the game. Additionally, it motivates them to practice vigorously so that they do not disappoint their fans during a game, such as attending all practices religiously, as well as working on their teamwork and coordination, which is very imperative during the game.

The loyal fan base makes the team players feel appreciated and loved by their supporters, hence the need to strive harder and better in order not to disappoint them while in a game by winning all the games that they engage in with the support of their fans (Robinson & Robinson, 1998). The more fans attending the games played by a team, the more revenue the team gets to collect through selling tickets to the spectators on entry to the stadium to watch a baseball game. Therefore, the team has to keep its fans entertained by playing well and winning all their games.

Another strength of the New York Mets baseball team is its high quality home stadium. A home stadium is like a lion’s den whereby, a lion knows every corner and hideout in which to hunt its prey. Similarly, a home stadium is a den for the baseball team as it gets to know all the corners, features, as well as tiny aspects of the field that affect their play during a game. Furthermore, a home stadium also instills confidence in the players because they enjoy home support, especially from their loyal home ground fans and supporters.

On the other hand, the SWOT analysis also provides a number of weaknesses for the team, which to some extent reduce on its chances of becoming successful when engaging in games with opposing teams. For one, the team has won very few finals. This is a critical issue for the team as it demoralizes its players, as well as its supporters and fans. The fans tend to shun away from a team that is performing poorly and winning no cups. Consequently, they stop subscribing to the team’s games, as well as put an end to their attendance to the team’s games whenever they have a play off.

Similarly, the players’ morale goes lower and lower such that they fail to give their best in every game. In fact, some players may even opt to sign out of the team and move to another team that appears to be performing well in the league. Other detrimental effects of low performance by failing to win a cup final is that sponsors shy away from associating themselves with a team. This means no endorsements, grants, and other form of support from sponsors such as corporate companies and or, rich aristocrats.

The united states as seen a number of billionaires shopping for well performing teams and buying them. This is a good move if it were to happen for any baseball team because it comes with an assured security of employment for the players, as well as access to a large pool of funds from the billionaire’s deep pockets. The billionaire will avidly sponsor his or her team with all financial resources to ensure the team wins the league and all the other games that the team plays. As such, such poor performance by the New York Mets denies them an opportunity to attract prospective investors and sponsors, even in the name of rich billionaires (Watson, 2007).

How the organization meets the good to great criteria Normally an organization that is doing well is considered as a good performer. However, this is not enough, it needs to improve its performance in order to grow, develop and become better. Otherwise, this organization will fall, collapse or lose customers because of high competition from other market players. It will lose relevance in the market, as well as customer attraction. In moving from good to great, the organization has to capitalize on its strengths, improve on its weaknesses, eliminate its threats, and take advantages of its opportunities.

This will enable organization to develop competitive edge that will spur its movement from ‘Good’ to ‘Great’ (Cooper, 2004). For the New York Mets to meet the good to great criteria, they have to improve on their weaknesses such as by winning a cup final. The organization needs to make sure that players win in every game they participate in. Taking part in community activities such as attending to the sick, garbage collection and voluntary work will improve the image of the team before the supporters and fans.

This team also needs to capitalize on its strengths such as high quality stadium to so that it can move from being just good to great. History and background of Jay Horwitz Jay Horwitz went to New York University and specialized in journalism. He wanted to be a press secretary when he got out of school but he turned to sports in the year 1969-1972 where he was the director of sports information. Jay has been with the Mets since April 1, 1980. He schooled at New York University specializing in journalism.

Since he was in the college during the stone edge days, there was no internship but he did work at the Herald News covering his high school sports. His first job was as information director at the New York University being responsible for covering 15 varsity sports (Robinson & Robinson, 1998). While in school at New York University, he knew the athletic director who connected him on getting his job. Balancing out his obligations to ownership is the toughest aspect between, players and media.

Being a people person, not to be a clock-watcher and not to lose temper I stressful times are the most important skills he need to have in his job. Here is the advice for the person who is currently in school waiting to get into sport industry ‘The more on the job experience you can put on your resume the better’. In conclusion, it is evident that in order for an organization to move from ‘Good’ to’ Great’ it has to eliminate its threats, improve on its weaknesses, capitalize on its strength and take advantage of is opportunities.

References Cooper, D. (2004). Improving People Performance in Construction. New York: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Robinson, D. & Robinson, J. (1998). Moving From Training to Performance: A Practical Guidebook. Hamburg: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Watson, G. (2007). Strategic Benchmarking Reloaded With Six Sigma: Improving Your Companys Performance Using Global Best Practice. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.