Sports Marketing . . . What Should I Teach?
If I can be so bold, allow me to offer some suggestions for you as a sports marketing teacher.
For the sake of credibility--I have taught sports marketing since the early 1990s, wrote the first sports marketing book for high school students, and am still active in the profession.
In addition, I have had students graduate and become employed in sports marketing at the college level (DI, DII, DIII), baseball (minors and majors), Team Tennis and MISL.
When I first wrote Sports . . . More Than Just the Score, I shared my thoughts and received feedback from professionals at all levels of sports. I based my book on that feedback. Over the years I have (painfully) observed a fairly significant misunderstanding of sports marketing from high school teachers.
Two of the most common “projects” are Fantasy Sports and Stadium Design. With almost no exception, the purpose of those projects is to consume instructional time because teachers are often unprepared for a full semester of content.
The biggest culprit is fantasy sports. In all my years of teaching, and with all of my graduates, I have never had a student responsible for picking a city for a team, developing a logo, designing a uniform, etc. These may be “fun” but they do not teach what our students need to learn. You can imagine how few have designed a stadium or venue!
In my experience and after significant work with professionals, I recommend you divide your course into two parts: 1) the marketing OF sports and 2) the marketing THRU sports. In other words, your students need to learn about generating partnerships and revenue through sponsorships and filling seats with great marketing.
Obviously, I have materials available for purchase through TheMarketingTeacher.com. Having said that--regardless of what you use for your curriculum materials, please do not fall victim to “I need to do something fun.” Focus, instead, on what can you do to make your course meaningful. You will be surprised how fun that can be!
Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. I am always willing to help.
"The most beautiful thing in the world is a ballpark filled with people."
We're looking for something to have some fun again with, something that stretches us a little.
-Mike Veeck
“So that morning in 1962 I told myself: Let everyone else call your idea crazy . . . just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop.
-Phil Knight
Have a question? Call me at 801.540.0977
1. Where Did it All Begin?
2. Sports Marketing Defined
3. Need a Partner?
4. It Keeps Getting Bigger
5. Why Companies Sponsor
6. Deciding What to Sponsor
7. What's this Going to Cost?
8. Leveraging Sponsorship
9. Ambush or Creative Marketing?
10. So, Did it Work?
11. What Went Wrong?
12. Rights and Benefits
13. It Starts With a Sale
1. Plan on It
2. In Summary
3. Analyze This!
4. Ready, Aim, Fire
5. Setting Goals
6. Achieving Goals
7. Just Do It
8. Fan Fun Events
9. Read All About It
10. That's Entertainment
11. Event Management
12. After All is Said and Done