Sports Writing and Promotions

During my time of studying the elements and examples of sports writing and promotions, I have realized how complex it can really be.  There are so many elements that go into marketing an event of any size, weather it be the Super Bowl or a local charity basketball game, every element and characteristic of the event must be considered.  After doing my own marketing plan in this class it helped me gain a new understanding that an event must be marketed to the correct market segmentation and at the appropriate time.  Any flaw in the marketing plan could lead to the disapproval of the event and the worst outcome of the event being a complete failure.  That point brings me to the next thing that I have realized after this class, you can't be afraid of your event or idea failing.  There are hundreds of thousand ideas and events that have failed, do you think that Bill Veck was afraid of his corky ideas failing?  Of course not!  He had confidence in everyone of his ideas because they were well planned and well marketed.  This leads me to the my last point and that is about sponsorships.  The last part of the semester I have realized that companies are more than willing to sponsor just about any kind of sporting event, as long as the benefits fit with what they are trying accomplish.  While the size of the event does matter in how much the company will be willing to pay, it does not affect their decision on wether or not to sponsor the event.  The key is to make sure that they know the value they will get with the money they will be spending.

Aside from what I learned from the material that was covered in the book, I have recieved real world knowledge of sports writing and promotions through the various real marketing plans and promotions we got to talk about.  Along with the links that Dr. Tiell put up on the course page, she talked about her experiences of being on a committee planning the Women's Leadership Symposium that is associated with the NCAA.  Not only is this a huge event for the NCAA, but to have someone who is in charge of gaining sponsorships and marketing the event really adds to the complete experience that every student in the class will leave with.  Learning happens every day, but learning through real world events and happenings is the best way to obtain knowledge about a given field.  I feel that given the oppurtunity to do a real marketing plan or given the task of gaining sponsorships, I would be able to succeed after what I have gained from this class.