Best Practices in Sports Marketing

The business side of sports marketing that I am pursuing is representing basketball players that play overseas and in the NBA. I am going to discuss the best practices in sports marketing. A concept that I learned earlier in EBMS masters program is the law of contraction. Ian McClurg lists narrowing your focus as the number one practice in his blog entry for the best marketing practices in sports organizations (2010). The law of contraction means that I should narrow my focus. A prime example of a successful company that narrowed their focus is Starbucks. The main focus of Starbucks is coffee. The sport that I am focusing on as a sports agent is basketball. I want to make as many connections as I can to give my clients’ the best opportunity to succeed.

In order to gain contacts in the sports world it is important to create opportunities for yourself. A great way to create opportunities for yourself is through social networking. I made an important contact in Lee Melchionni through facebook. Mr. Melchionni is well connected in the sports agent industry and is currently working for Waserman Media Group. Mr. Melchionni explained to me that it is important to stay up to date on the new technologies and always think of ways to improve your marketing techniques. Social networking is a great way to gather a following for your clients. I feel that it is important to be a creator on the social technographics ladder. The creator will publish blogs, web pages and videos. The blogs and the You Tube will be an effective way to keep my clients followers up to date on their progress. Twitter, blogger, facebook and You Tube are social networking sites that allow you to promote your business. Major sports groups meet on networking websites like Linked In. Social networking is a cost effective way to market your business.

The next best sports practice that Mr. McClurg discusses is the value of the organization. The value of my organization will be based on the concepts of hard work, dedication and discipline. The clients’ that I choose to represent will develop those three qualities. My goal as a sports agency is to build my agency’s reputation through my clients’ satisfaction. A great way for me to maximize my clients’ salary potential is through market research. It is important that I find out the salaries of other basketball players whose talent compares to my client. The most important information that I need to gather through my market research is how my client benefits the team that I am negotiating with. It is important to conduct market research of all of the NBA teams because each team has different needs. Therefore, my clients’ would get their maximum salary based on the market research that I conducted. The best practices in sports marketing are narrowing your focus, social networking, building a good reputation with your clients and well-documented market research.

Reference:

http://www.sportsmarketing20.com/profiles/blogs/marketing-best-practices-for

CBS and Turner NCAA tournament deal

A major deal in broadcasting that was just finalized is the NCAA tournament is being held on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TRUTV. The broadcasting deal is for 14 years and 10.8 billion dollars (Flint 2010). My goal throughout this masters program is to run my own sports agency. I felt that the NCAA tournament expanding to four networks is major news in the basketball world. This is meaningful news for me because I want to represent basketball players that play overseas and in the NBA. 2011 will be the first time in 73 years that CBS will not have the complete television coverage of the NCAA tournament. The key aspect of the television deal is that it

allows student athletes on the division one level to gain more exposure. This helps me see more players play and find a player that can play overseas or in the NBA. All the NCAA tournament games will be on television, which will be more exciting for the fans. The main objection that people have about the new broadcasting deal is that a majority of the games will be on cable. My suggestion for people that do not have cable and want to watch all of the NCAA tournament games is to go to a friends house that has cable.

The agreement between Turner and CBS begins next year and expires in 2024. More NCAA tournament coverage means the NCAA tournament will be worth more money. The television stations are rewarded with 771 million dollars in revenue from advertisers and subscribers (Sandomir&Thamel 2010). The revenue ensures student athletes across all three NCAA divisions will be supported in a broad range of championship opportunities and scholarships for divsion1 and division 2. The money earned by the NCAA tournament will help students in 23 sports compete and learn. CBS will have final four games through the year 2016. After 2016, TBS and CBS will alternate championship games. Turner is very excited to broadcast NCAA tournament games because of the tournaments rich tradition.

The reason that CBS gave up their full coverage of the NCAA tournament is the costs of covering the games were beginning to outweigh the benefits. Therefore, sharing the load with Turner, CBS can hold on to a big chunk of marquee games with fewer financial risks. The television deal pushed the NCAA tournament to 68 teams. Three more teams mean three more teams will be happy on selection Sunday. I liked the idea of 96 teams making the tournament, which would make more money for the television networks

CBS Sports, Turner Boradcasting, NCAA reach 14-year agreement Retrieved from

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042210aaa.html

Flint, J. (2010). CBS cuts in Turner on NCAA basketball tournament, LA Times retrieved from:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/23/business/la-fi-ct-turner-20100423

Sandomir, R&Thamel, P (2010) TV deal NCAA tournament closer to 68 team tournament retrieved from;

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/sports/ncaabasketball/23ncaa.html