What Sports Events Taught Me In 2011

In reviewing 2011 recently, here are 11 things I learned from sports events I either attended or participated in…

 

11. Good SWAG Gets Good Results, Awesome SWAG Gets You Sold Out!

The Seaside Half Marathon in Seaside, Fla., sells out in days because it is a beautiful course in a destination area and also because every participant gets a free Vera Bradley Bag. Find a cool sponsor or find something really unique to give and people will flock to your event.

 10.  Pick A Cool Name

Tough Mudder, Warrior Dash and Urban Disturbance sounds way better than “Roll In The Mud” or “Run And Jump Around The City.” I know traditionalists would want you to carry on the same name but if your event is dwindling, re-naming it could be the spark to catch it on fire again.

 9.     Use Facebook

I love getting Facebook updates on my Ironman events. I love having my friends know that my big day is coming. I love getting training tips through Facebook.

 8.     Use Twitter

I would love to know the official story and timetable of my daughter’s swim meet when there is a thunder delay or the morning session has run long. If I’m at a softball tournament, I would love to have updates about what inning the preliminary game is so I don’t have to hang out at the hot field all day!

 7.     Attract At Least One Unique Food Vendor

Families are more likely to want to come back to an event they remember, and people remember food. “Ooh, yeah I want to go back there because that’s where they had the best snow cones!” Or “Oh, yeah, let’s go back there! Wasn’t that where that awesome chicken and waffles food truck was?”

 6.     Great T-Shirts Are Your Best Free Advertising

If you have great T-shirts, you have the best free advertising possible. I have been to enough athletic events that now I am very selective about which T-shirts I wear, even if they free. So take a look at your style, your slogan, and your color and make it something so cool that people will want to give you free advertising!

 5.     Be Flexible With Your Schedule

Yes, you want that date to stick with people. But if you have an event in Alabama and Auburn and Alabama re-schedule their football game to your event weekend don’t try to stand up to Goliath and get your event squashed because you were there first. Same thing if you look at some other scheduling conflict is brought to your attention. Don’t kill your event with stubbornness.

 4.     Be Creative

When your climate, location, or time of year doesn’t exactly fit with your traditional sport make up an alternative. Marshall McLanahan of Panama City Beach, Fla., puts on a couple of traditional triathlons but in the winter puts on “The Frozen Floridian.” He gives athletes an alternative by giving them 45 minutes between the bike, the swim, and the run to thaw out and put on warm enough clothes to not get frost bite. It also builds a relationship with athletes, new and old, that brings them to his other, more traditional events.

3.     Merchants Beware!

At least a month ahead of your event, tell area merchants that you have a bunch of hungry athletes coming to their area. That way they can offer specials and stock up on sports drinks, bandages, and wait staff. If they put a “Welcome…” and the name of your event on their sign, all the better.

2.      Use Free Air Time

Radio and television stations have airtime to fill and a legal obligation to use some of it to promote community events. Our local television station has to fill four hours of local news every single day. They are happy to have some help filling that time with your event.

1.     Brand Your Brand So Strong That People Want To Be Branded With It!

Yep, my wife is branded by Ironman. She has a pink “M-Dot” tattoo above her left ankle. That is the logo for Ironman triathlons. It is something of a tradition and a rite of passage for many Ironman triathletes. Sure, it helps that once a year the Hawaiian Ironman World Championship is broadcast on NBC. But, at least, consider promoting your event so hard, so thoroughly, so creatively that people would be proud to have your logo as a permanent ad on their skin!

Make friends with mental health therapist and athlete Paul Peavy on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=667771430. Contact SportsEvents at info@sportseventsmagazine.com.

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New Year’s Resolutions For Amateur Sports Leaders

By Wanda Rutledge

Each January offers us an opportunity to start the new year with a clean slate. It’s a time of resolutions and new beginnings: a time to “do better.” Quite often, the very best of intentions turn into resolutions not kept and into promises we made that are broken within the first few weeks. Studies tell us that the resolutions most likely to be kept are those that are supported by clear and concrete goals with specifically outlined steps to be taken to achieve them.

Tom Peters, a well-known writer on business management practices, and perhaps best known for his book “In Search of Excellence,” once said, “Celebrate what you want to see more of.”

In that spirit, I am proposing 12 New Year’s resolutions for the leaders of amateur youth sports programs. These resolutions are child-centered and are proposed to enhance the youth sports experience for all of the young athletes in our care, as well as for our organizations. In the coming months, I will examine some of these resolutions and provide practical tips for implementation in the printed issue of SportsEvents. Since we are listing them all this month, I will tackle the first two in greater detail in February.

• Drink right: Choose water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages.
• Move more: Boost movement and physical activity in all programs.
• Snack smart: Fuel up on fruits and vegetables.
• Screen volunteers: Protect children from predators with background checks and more.
• Educate coaches: Provide the proper tools for your coaches to succeed.
• Expand program: Include more women, girls, and minorities as athletes, coaches, officials, and leaders.
• Address parental behavior: Adopt a Code of Conduct.
• Choose safety: Identify injury prevention techniques and post-injury actions.
• Diversify fundraising: Go beyond “can shaking” and candy sales.
• Be a good event partner: Use your events for the mutual benefit of your athletes, your program and your host.
• Stay current: Do not stop learning, growing, and networking with others.
• Keep children first: Develop an athlete-centered program.

The first three resolutions relate to the recent collaborative national initiative of leading out-of-school-time organizations to combat childhood obesity by adopting unifying principles of nutrition and physical activity. The next four resolutions relate to the “others” in your programs – volunteers, coaches, parents – and how to maximize their value, while minimizing their negative impact. The next three resolutions relate to specific programmatic activity that can prove to be beneficial. The last two resolutions are personal and may influence how you react to, or interact with, all of the other resolutions.

I welcome your feedback and your suggestions. After all, the best resolutions are those that are shared with others. By discussing our intentions, and exchanging ideas, best practices, and challenges, we develop a support network of colleagues who will help us keep those resolutions all year long. Let’s get to it and find ways to follow the words of Tom Peters, “Celebrate what you want to see more of.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wanda L. Rutledge, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor, Business Administration at New Jersey City University (NJCU) in Jersey City, New Jersey with more than 30 years of experience as a senior national non-profit sports management executive. An entrepreneur, sports management and sports marketing consultant, she is the former Deputy Executive Director for USA Baseball and the current Special Events Director of the National Amateur Baseball Federation. She has been president of the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) since 1990. Her doctoral dissertation was a baseline study about leadership in amateur sports entitled, “Who is Leading Amateur Sports in America Today and How Well Do They Practice Exemplary Leadership.” Contact Wanda at wanda.rutledge@gmail.com.

Let’s Talk Prevention, Not Revenge

By Paul Peavy, MS, LMHC

I hear a whole talk lately about ways to seek revenge against Jerry Sandusky at Penn State for his alleged sexual abuse of children. Now, Bernie Fine of Syracuse also faces charges of sexual abuse. People are mad, as well they should be. But I believe it’s more appropriate to discuss prevention.

I heard one male teacher say he is thinking of getting a T-shirt with his security clearance on it. While people try to make sense of how to spot a pedophile, the truth is that getting an official security background clearance from law enforcement simply means a person has not been caught, arrested and convicted of a crime.

So the question is, what could you as you as a sports event planner do to prevent child sexual abuse?

The only solution I can think of is to create a policy whereby no child is left alone with a single adult. To me, that means there should be two adults whenever a child needs a ride home. Two adults when the child needs medical attention. A child can go to the bathroom by himself. A child cannot go to the bathroom with only one adult.

Does this sound radical? Does this sound too expensive? Not to me, when I’ve seen the cost. If you have been sexually abused and you have worked through it and are cruising through life just fine, I applaud your strength and perseverance.

As a psychotherapist, I have seen the lifelong scar sexual abuse leaves on people who continue to guess emotionally at whom they should trust, whom to become intimate with—and just what that all means.

I have even seen child sexual abuse affect the hard wiring of the victim’s brain forever. Again, to those who have bravely overcome this I applaud you, but I hope you respect that I am simply trying point out the severity and the human expense of this problem.

Since I have always been such a sports nut, I cannot imagine that there is a bigger imbalance of power than a kid hanging out with a sports figure or person in authority who could help him achieve his dream of playing in the “bigs.” So, something has to be done to keep predators from being able to have such free access. From what I know, abusers prefer to act alone in a very isolated environment, but this access could be significantly limited with a two-adult-with-a-single child policy.

It’s time we stopped looking backward in anger and started looking forward in taking responsibility of the young lives we’ve been entrusted with.

What are your ideas on this topic? E-mail me at info@sportseventsmagazine.com.

PEAVY

Connect With Partners Who Share Your Passion

By Paul Peavy

One way to build your event is to develop a relationship with a passionate, caring business owner who provides a resource and an inspiration for your athletes and events year round.

One such business is Freedom Sports in Panama City Beach, Fla., owned by Marshal McClanahan. The beautiful beaches of Florida create a natural draw for triathlons—the crown jewel being IronMan Florida held in Panama City Beach every November. But if you look on the triathlon calendar, there are events sprinkled throughout Florida practically the whole year.

Marshal has made sure to seed the triathlon and running community with support and education. He has also created his own fun events such as a winter triathlon that is divided into a pool swim, a bike time trial, and a short run with about an hour-long break in between to give athletes enough time to change clothes and thaw between events.

He has held a “Skirt Chaser” Triathlon where the women start five minutes before the men, and it’s a pretty fun, “Game on!” event from there. He offers free triathlon clinics for newbies.

He also sponsors weekly runs over the big bridge to Panama City Beach that includes a costume run near Halloween. It’s very much a family atmosphere at his store where he even offers an after-hours Christmas party for his customers.

So, what’s the lesson for sports event organizers? If you have someone like Marshal McClanahan in your life, then you will have a wealth of positive publicity. You will have a valuable resource to grow new athletes and offer people encouragement and opportunities to try something new. You will even have sources for volunteers as families and friends of these athletes feel a sense of ownership and community so that they volunteer when they are not participating.

If you do not have a golf shop, a sporting goods store, a tack shop, or a running store in your area that is 1,000 percent behind and in front of your event, make copies of this article and take it to them. Simply say, “We can make sure that each of us thrives for the next 20 years.” Tell the owner that all you need is for him to be your Marshal McCLanahan.

 

Get Restaurants Behind The Team!

The athletic experience is made up of many different components. Two necessary components of athletic success are rest and nutrition. Socialization is also important. We came across an event that maximized all three of these factors in a magnificent way.

At the Florida Age Group Championships in Florida at the Orlando YMCA, the organizers had invited three different restaurants to come in on three different days and set up a booth. The trade off was that the restaurants had to offer reservations for team parties to get them in and out well fed—quickly.

One of the bigger problems is figuring out how to get teams fed so that they have fun together but get to bed in a reasonable enough time that they perform well the next morning. Many teams try to eat together but learn that it will be well over an hour’s wait and even then the restaurant is not able to turn out the food very quickly.

Here’s what one restaurant offered to the swim teams, “You can come in, and we will have a banquet room available to you for no charge. If you want us to cater it to your hotel, we will be there with plates, cups and serving utensils. Here’s our menu, if you want something not on our menu let us know enough in advance and our kitchen will prepare it for you.” Well, jeez, they might as well have offered to swim our kid’s toughest events for them and give us a chauffer driver for the four-hour drive home!

The YMCA even got a deal from them that the restaurant would give them back 15 percent of the tab. Proceeds to the sponsoring facility, speedy service, great nutrition, fun fellowship, leaving with endorphins a poppin’ looking forward to great competition the next day! I believe that’s called a win-win-win-win-win situation.

Share this idea with your restaurant partners for your next event. Believe me, your participants will thank you later.

Post by Paul Peavy. Contact Paul at paul@paulpeavy.com. Contact SportsEvents at info@sportseventsmagazine.com.

Matchups Matter

By Phil McCarn, Director, Property Consulting, Career Sports Entertainment

The 2011 Final Four matchup was something out of a Hollywood storyline, a perfectly balanced David- and Goliath-type showdown. While UConn defeated Butler to win the tournament, giving people across the country a chance to take home their winnings from their office pools, the real winners were the fans.

Whether they tuned in to cheer on their favorite school or to potentially watch history in the making, the drama was palpable.

While bracket events like the Final Four don’t allow property owners the ability to guarantee a Cinderella story like this one, there are times when you can in fact be strategic in selecting matchups.

Properties such as pre-season college basketball events, Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Classic football games and others have the advantage to pre-select the teams, guaranteeing a matchup fans want.

For the Nation’s Classic, an HBCU football game designed and negotiated by Career Sports Entertainment (CSE) in conjunction with the Washington Convention and Sports Authority (WCSA), we used our analytics to determine the teams fans would be most compelled to come out and see.

Howard University and Morehouse College were ultimately selected based on research that showed fans wanted to reignite this longstanding historic collegiate rivalry.

Once announced, the response was overwhelming.

These types of fan-anticipated events benefit not only the teams but their sponsors, vendors and host city, in this case Washington, D.C.

Elements we consider when assisting clients in the selection of teams for these types of properties include:

1.     Understanding the intent of the event.

2.     Creating selection criteria to ensure the teams align with the event’s positioning and what they stand for.

3.     Fully examining and understanding the economics involved.

4.     Researching the marketplace demand for the matchup recommended.

While the final act won’t play out until the selected teams take the field, having a strategic and thoughtful approach will ensure the success of your event.

About Career Sports Entertainment:
With a list of clients ranging from Aflac and the state of Arkansas to the Outdoor Channel, Versus and Town House, Career Sports Entertainment provides a range of services including helping sponsoring brands navigate, activate and measure their sponsorship investment; production; and individual sports client representation. More info: www.groupcse.com