A couple of weekends ago the NFL’s New England Patriots held a jersey swap, where owners of the team’s number 81 jersey for tight end Aaron Hernandez could swap the jersey at the team’s pro shop for a similarly styled jersey for another player. This event was held in reaction to the arrest of Hernandez for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a friend of Hernandez and a semi-pro football player in the Boston area. I won’t recap the entire story here, which has transcended typical sports news channels, but if you are unfamiliar with it you can start reading about it here at USA Today. The graphic below was taken from the Patriots Web site.

This unprecedented event garnered many headlines in itself, including this one from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which questioned and challenged the swap event. Where wonder over such an offer to fans is not unsurprising, this story by Kyle Stock missed the main points for why the team may have made such a move, and to a reader who was unfamiliar with the team, story or the league itself, it would give them an incomplete story. After reading it I was compelled to write this post.

Let Me Be Completely Transparent

Allow me to provide my background and interest in writing this, which I believe provides greater context to this story. First and foremost, I am a Patriots fan, and as someone who grew up in Massachusetts I have followed the team since I was a kid. I am also a 19-year season ticket holder of the team, which goes beyond the current ownership of the team by Robert Kraft. My fandom also extends online to the Web site GoPats.com that myself and a friend have run since the mid 1990’s (though it has lagged the last several years, but I digress). All of this said, I have no special insight or relationship to the team. I have met Kraft before, but I don’t even have a picture to capture that moment.

Beyond my interest in the success of the team, I am looking at this jersey swap story from the standpoint of a business owner, and someone who has followed not only the team on the field but the off-field activities of the team, from their then record-setting sale price 20 years ago to the new stadium and retail and entertainment complex that surrounds it south of Boston, and all that went into taking this losing team to 3 Super Bowl championships in a decade.

I have tapped into both of these points of view in the writing of this post.

A Little Pre-Reading

Before you read on I encourage you to read the article from Bloomberg BusinessWeek and this is a link to a PDF capture of the story in the event the article link does not work. I also encourage you to read this article from the Patriots own Web site about the sale – this is a link to the page and this is a link to a PDF capture of it. As well, this is the terms of the jersey swapped, with both a link to the Patriots site and a copy of it here at The Hot Iron.

Let’s begin!

(Re)building A (Patriot) Nation

In the third paragraph of the story a comment is made to the jersey swap having “been lauded by much of Patriot Nation as ‘classy.’” The quote of classy came from a comment posted on the Patriots article page by a reader, but the more important mention is of “Patriot Nation.” Where this may have been written by the author as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Patriots fans, it certainly should not be dismissed as it encompasses all of the reasons for why this jersey swap happened.

Prior to Kraft’s purchase of the team, even despite an appearance in Super Bowl XX, the Pats would rarely sell-out a game and were a regarded lower than the other Boston sports teams. People wouldn’t openly brag about being a fan, let alone a season ticket holder. The efforts made by Kraft and his team both on and off the field were the rebirth of the team, making them the competitor they are today and elevating the team’s value to second among all NFL teams at over $1.5 billion dollars according to Forbes magazine. Fans of the team are proud to call themselves a member of Patriot Nation, whether they are from the US or internationally.

The terms of the jersey swap stated the swap must be in person at the Patriots Pro Shop adjacent to the stadium in the complex called Patriots Place in Foxboro, MA. This move by the team was brilliant, as the pro shop is a gleaming, several thousand foot complex that sells everything from jerseys and hats to furniture with the Pats “flying Elvis” logo. Though I did not see any numbers on additional sales, it would not surprise of any numbers of how many people bought additional merchandise – at full price – when they swapped their Hernandez jersey. The article reference the sales of Tim Tebow jerseys, for the quarterback which recently signed with the team, but this was a pure outsider’s assumption as the top selling jerseys were for veteran players Vince Wilfork and Tom Brady, according the Boston Globe.

The timing of the jersey swap also couldn’t have been any better, as it followed the announcement of the new typeface to accompany the team’s logo. What a better way to move “old” merchandise, especially in the off-season in preparation for the new styles – and typeface – to stock the pro shop.

By The Numbers

The article then gets into justification for why this could be a bad move, first talking about how many players have been arrested – “almost 30” – and the average length of the career of an NFL player – 3.2 years. To begin with, you will never fins a jersey or t-shirt with the name and number of every player. Only the top starts of the team are ever prepared and sold. As of this writing, on the Patriots Pro Shop’s Web site you can get prepared jerseys for 20 players, of which a few are for players who are no longer on the team. Sure you can get a custom-made jersey for any player or number (or your own name) but you will pay a premium for one. If someone is going to the extent to custom order a jersey for a particular player, they really want that player’s jersey and most likely wouldn’t be looking to return it.

Arrests are not the only reason a player’s jersey would be taken off the shelf. Retirement, injuries, free-agency signings and trades come to mind. These actions don’t typically call for a recall of jersey, and in many cases if someone doesn’t want to wear a player’s jersey, they would just leave it in the back of their closet and buy a new one. Another option I have personally seen in the past is putting duct tape over the name over the player’s name.

When considering costs associated with the jersey swap, there is no mention made in the article of actual cost. Does a jersey that retails for US$100.00 cost that much? Half that? A quarter of that? Of course the cost is nowhere near the retail cost. I do not have specific number on the average actual cost of a jersey, but recalling the experience of my Aunt (full disclosure – also a Patriots fan!) who worked in the headquarters of a retail department store for many years, she said there is plenty of markup on all clothing, which allows for plenty of markdowns as well as profit.

Following the jersey swap, the Patriots reported that it cost them US$250,000.00. The report doesn’t include any actual costs, if they were included or not, nor what they will do with the jerseys they collected. I sincerely doubt the team will sell the jerseys on eBay, as the article insinuated, as Kraft did not make his billions by such petty means, plus such an action would completely negate the “classy” goodwill the team garnered from the swap. If you simply take the $250,000 and factor it into the “more than US$3Billion” NFL merchandise market, and it is not a “pricey” percentage. By factoring where that cost of $250,000 will be charged in the team’s accounting – in marketing, merchandise or somewhere else – and the actual loss is not as large as it may appear.

Decisions, Decisions

This is not the first time the Patriots have taken action due to a player’s reputation. In 1996, the Patriots drafted and then released Christian Peter after rape allegations were found out after he was drafted by the team. A controversial move, as well, but one which the ownership felt it had to do.

Over the years I have heard sports team owners say you don’t buy a team to make money. Granted most team owners have other income sources so we should not pity them, but it takes a large investment, time, and granted some luck for a team to payoff. This eventually happened for the Patriots.

At the end of the day, any decision made by a business comes at a cost and some with a benefit as well. In the short term, these costs can have a negative impact, but as long as the overall, longer-term impact is positive, then the business will not only survive but thrive. If it doesn’t, then someone else can take over the business and continue it. This is exactly what happened with the Patriots.

I welcome your thoughts on any of this – the original article in Bloomberg Businessweek, my analysis, the Hernandez case – please leave them in the comments to this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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To all my fellow Americans and to those who love the United States as much as I do, a happy Independence Day!

For the second year in a row, my family celebrated the Fourth of July with friends in Indiana, where we experienced what I consider an old-fashioned celebration with fireworks and a kids bicycle parade, where everybody decked out their bikes in red, white and blue. It reminded me a lot of the celebrations I had as a kid, especially the fireworks. In the town I grew up in, we lived next to the high school where they launched the fireworks from every July 3, so whenever I see fireworks, I always think of the Fourth of July.

Now before you make a comment on how I am forgetting the true meaning of this holiday, I am certainly not! As a US history junkie who grew up in Massachusetts, where you can barely spit without hitting a historical marker I know well about the roots of this nation. Growing up a few miles from the first US armory and the site of the first revolt against the newly-formed government I know well what effort and sacrifices went into making this country, greatly appreciate them and am taking every opportunity to teach my little ones today. So the meaning for the celebration is not lost in me, but neither is the celebration either.

However you celebrate Independence Day, even if you were working, I hope you had a great day and got to enjoy the symbols and remember the deep meaning behind them.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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In this hyper-connected, telecommuting, Internet-enabled, outsourced, offshored, cloud, remote-working world, it is not uncommon to never meet people you work with. In some companies it has become almost the norm, and it is only rare exceptions where people see even a live video stream of someone, let alone meet them in the real world. For many people, this is ok.

As you may have guessed from the intonation of the previous paragraph, I am not one of those people. If anything, I make the extra effort to go out of my way to meet people whenever possible. It’s something I learned early on in my career, and it has worked not only to my advantage, but projects I have worked on over the years as well.

To Utah Or Bust

Back in the late 90’s I was consulting on what I would call the most unique, fun, learning and dynamic project of my career. Put it like this – I had over an hour’s drive each way to work and it never even phased me! Where I could write many posts on that project in itself, the project was my first end-to-end Web and service project, and eventually I was the manager of the entire technical environment.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and in this case, the client was closing their business unit I was working at and my project was sold to another company. That company had its own development and technical resources, and my job was to transition everything from knowledge to software to hardware to the new company. To add to the logistics, the new company was outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, where I and the project was south of Boston, over 2,000 miles away.

After the client manager informed me of the changes in the project he paused and asked me what was the first thing I needed to do for the move.

I said, “I need to book a flight to Utah.”

When the client manager pressed me for details, my response was straightforward and convincing. We needed to first ship the software and data to the new company, all over the Internet, and set it up on temporary servers. Then once done we’d literally pack and ship the servers to them, then move the data back onto the old servers. Not only had none of us – the current client, new company, or me – done something like this before, but it was 1997 and not many had done something like this period.

Therefore meeting the staff at the new company that would be on the receiving end of this was crucial. It was my job to ensure that the move went smoothly and we were up and running right away. I had to know what – and who – was on the other end and that they shared my commitment to the project, were capable of working on it, and if there were issues, they shared my dedication to resolving them.

Meeting and Believing

So I booked a flight from Boston to Salt Lake City and spent a week south of the city with the team. Following our initial meet and greet, we got down to business, including touring their facilities, reviewing the project plan and made some changes based on their feedback, and discussed the transition and longer term for the project, namely as I would not be a part of it any longer. We also had lunch together and a couple of dinners and got to know each other better, along with sharing stories of past tech projects. As my flight took off for my return trip to Boston, I felt very good and confident the project would be extremely successful.

When I returned to the client the following week, the client manager asked me how it went. I first showed him a list of everybody’s name, email address, and work, home, mobile and pager numbers. Needless to say he was pleased as I went into further details on the trip and overall plan.

In the end, the transition went off smoothly. We had a few issues, such as the data transfer taking longer than anticipated, but in the end everything was up and running over the course of a weekend. The following week there was an issue with one of the temporary servers on the other end, but I worked with their team and reported back the status to the client’s client to ensure everything was under control, and soon after I reported the good news we were back up and running.

Following the transition of the server environment came the transfer of the software development, and my role on the project came to an end. Where it was bittersweet for me, I was more concerned for the people who worked for the client who were losing their jobs. Another project for me was followed by a job change and onto even more adventures.

To this day I strive to meet the people I work with in person. What worked well in 1997 seems even more important sixteen years later.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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I took this picture below of the Chicago skyline from south of the city along Lake Michigan last night at 8:17 pm CDT.

As I turned to make the return trip home on my bicycle (a newly reintroduced activity in my life) I was taken by the beauty of the sky and the skyine… and so were the 2 other people near me taking the exact same picture. I was about 6 miles south of the Loop. You can click on the photo above to see a full-sized version of it.

Contrast this to this past weekend, which was one of the bloodiest on record in Chicago. Over 40 people shot and 7 killed. Much of the sadness was also within 6 miles of where I took the photo above. That is certainly a picture I don’t want to post here on The Hot Iron, but also one I cannot ignore either.

Before some of you think this post is another blogger complaining about something, hear me out. Yes, I have something to complain about, and it is those whose job it is (and by job I am saying my tax dollars are going to pay their salaries) to deal with the crime in Chicago on a day-to-day basis. Recently these people have been spouting about lower “percentages” of crime. Where that’s all well and good, the average person measures crime in whole numbers, like 7 people killed this past weekend, not to mention the money not spent in the city by those afraid to come here.

Of course I don’t have all the answers for this, and most likely nobody does. This situation did not happen overnight and won’t go away as quickly. We are already spending money on it, and may have to spend more, the question is where. Allow me to make one suggestion here – we need more organizations in Chicago like YouthBuild Boston.

I know about YouthBuild Boston as I have been a supporter of them for years. Granted in recent years that support has been more moral and pro bono support of their Web site, but had I stayed in Boston I might have taken a larger role in the organization. YBB, for short, is an organization who works with young people, giving them the skills to make it on their own in the world, from hard, vocational skills in construction and landscaping to softer people skills, and they even work with young people to help them get their GED if they didn’t complete high school. Their tagline, “Strengthening Youth, Rebuilding Communities,” is literally what they do! Fueled by amazingly strong and spirited leadership and young people who want to make more of themselves, YBB is growing and thriving in Boston, and even if there are organizations like that in Chicago, we could use more of that here.

For when you come down to it, the beauty of Chicago is in all of the hearts, minds and faces of its people and all of its buildings, whether an apartment on the South West side or the Trump Tower.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Typically I close posts here on The Hot Iron by asking questions. This time, I am opening by asking one, and it’s personal.

Please support me in the Liver Life Walk on June 22, 2013 in Chicago to support the American Liver Foundation (ALF). This great organization uses money raised to fund research and provide support services for patients and their loved ones who are affected by the many forms of liver disease.

Sadly, liver disease can affect people from newborn to the elderly. Yes, even babies can be born with a form of liver disease, with many being autoimmune and even acquired later in life. Some are curable and some are not, and that’s where the research comes into play. As well, many patients need a liver transplant as their only option. There are even some liver diseases that affect certain demographics, for example women only,

Why My Family And I Are Walking

I will be at the Liver Life Walk with my lovely wife and my little ones on June 22 in the memory of my Mom, Adeline. It’s in her memory in spirit that we call our team The “A” Team and we will be walking.

My Mom was diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis, or PBC. PBC is an autoimmune liver disease that afflicts women. Earlier in her life she actually had been tested for some of the warning signs of PBC, but as liver tests are expensive and not routinely given to patients (not to mention needing to be justified to the nth degree for health insurance, but don’t get me started there!), it wasn’t until it was almost too late that she got the diagnosis. Her doctors did much to comfort her and cure the symptoms, but ultimately there wasn’t anything they could do to cure the PBC.

When she was diagnosed in Boston, the ALF chapter there was a great resource for us to learn about the disease. My family became active in the chapter there and my wife and I were proud to be asked to be the co-chairs for the Walk for Research (as it was called then) in Boston in 2004, which was shortly before we moved to Chicago. When we arrived here we were introduced to the local Illinois chapter and participated the the Walk here, and I was honored to have been chair for the 2005 Chicago Walk.

Join Us, Donate or Both!

We would be honored to have you be a part of The “A” Team by donating, not to mention joining us on June 22 as we walk along Lake Michigan.

Any size donation is welcome, and your presence there as well will be a great support for the cause.

Back in the Saddle for Liver

With participating in the Liver Life Walk this year, it marks our family’s “return” into the fold of the local ALF chapter. A few weeks ago I literally ran into Jackie Dominguez, who has returned as the Executive Director of the local chapter based in Chicago. Her spirit and leadership energized my lovely wife and I to register us for the walk and we are excited to be back on the overall team. Go Liver!

Thank you in advance for your support!

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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