John Kuhn talks about how his minor league career was built on learning from the best, that being Mike Veeck. Kuhn discusses how it is more than just sales and promotions in the stands that drives out fans, but also how the experience extends to the bathrooms and concessions stands. Kuhn talks about the differences between affiliated and independent ball, as well as the Fort Myers market, home of the 4:30 buffet.
The evolution of college athletics into the world of building proper sports revenue has been a quick one in the last few years. David Frost talks about how Total Sports Entertainment has helped university athletic departments build out their revenue streams, as well as enhance the fan experience beyond the game play. Frost also talks about how crucial that internships and connects are to getting a job in sports for young professionals.
Building a crowd isn’t easy, but the Orlando City Lions are doing that in the USL with an MLS launch date in 2015. Kelly Worthen runs a skeleton crew of four full-time employees, trying to develop a crowd in the only outdoor team in Orlando, despite the turbulent weather changes, tourist environment, and a 70,000-seat Citrus Bowl. Worthen talks about how the team achieves a solid price point with its customer base, including using the weather to sell a higher price point in specific areas of the stadium, and developing a great B2B atmosphere for corporate sponsors.
Idol Sports Marketing is responsible for some of the largest one day non-conference college basketball games in the country. Jon Hines has developed a great strategy of bringing some of the top teams in the nation together to face each other, including Gonzaga’s basketball Comcast Battle In Seattle and the Washington State Cougar basketball Hardwood Classic, both at the Key Arena. Hines talks about the implementation and planning process of putting together such a large event, what it takes to ensure that each ticket that can be sold it, and how he prevents losing the college atmosphere by eliminating some of the higher price point seats in order to allow student sections to exist and thrive. Twitter: @IdolSports
Just because a team wins back-to-back FCS national championships doesn’t mean that the job ever ends of the marketing department. NDSU Director of Marketing Justin Swanson discusses some of the issues with being sold out, and maintaining the atmosphere if and when the NDSU football team doesn’t return as national champions of the FCS. Swanson discusses his career choices, how jobs at other schools prepared him along the way, and what he took from each stop along the road. Twitter: @SwanyND
The Danbury Whalers are minor league hockey at its core. CEO Herm Sorcher comes on the podcast to discuss how the Whalers have survived in a league that has seen several members fold and is down to four total for the 2012-13 season. Sorcher talks about the applied sciences of ticket selling and sports marketing, getting into the world of corporate sponsorship as well as community relations, especially when dealing with family fun entertainment.
David Cieslinski has witnessed just about every type of revenue stream that a minor league franchise has to offer while in Rochester as Adirondack Sports owns both Rochester Rhinos soccer and the Rochester Rattlers lacrosse. Cieslinski talks about stadium operations, marketing and even concessions in terms of how each revenue stream wraps into team’s bottom line. Cieslinski talks about his past experience with the Carolina Railhawks.
After 42 years, the CCHA is closing its doors in July 2013, and its member schools will be placed in four different conferences. Rob Murphy has been responsible for the league’s sponsorship growth over the past few seasons and shares some insight into how to achieve activation in amid the economic downtown. Murphy talks about how to engage corporate sponsors, as well as ensure communication with each of the smaller schools about why some of the larger members of the conference such as University of Michigan are gaining more traction with sponsors.
To say that Thomas O’Grady knows about brand indentity is an understatement. O’Grady discusses his thoughts on branding, logo identification, and how important creative services is to any professional or college team. From 1990 to 2003, Thomas O’Grady served as Sr. VP of the NBA’s Creative Services Division, responsible for a 25-person in-house team that orchestrated the creation of 20 of the 30 NBA team re-branding identities, helping propel NBA licensed product revenues from $180 million in 1990 to $2.5 billion in 2002. O’Grady also was the brand architect behind the WNBA launch, the entire brand identity of the 1995 NBA expansion Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies, the NBA.com website launch in 1995, and the 1992 USA Basketball “Dream Team” marketing, sponsorship and brand initiatives.
David Haney is the branding genius behind the NHL’s “Coolest Game On Earth” campaign. Haney discusses how to develop a good brand or repair a sick one. This is very key in the modern age of social media and among fragmented platforms of messaging. How do you get people to feel the right away about your brand? Haney leads with the way with an amazing episode of digging deep into the heart of what branding is, and some of the misconceptions about brand in general. Haney finishes the episode by offering a gift to the podcast and its listeners. Twitter: @DFHaney