Applied Sports Marketing & SalesFront Office Simulation

9/28/2015The Dark JugsMike Lambiaso, Jenna Merica, Connor Dix, Gabe Zemach-Stoval

Project #1

1. The Director of Sales is responsible for overseeing a sales team of approximately two people. This position also relies on developing relationships with clients as well as developing different strategies and sales plans to maximize profits. The positions that would be working under the Director of Sales would be the Manager of Sales Account Executives and Manager of Group Sales Account Executives along with one Sales Account Executive and two Group Sales Account Executives, one who speaks Spanish and one who speaks English. We realize the majority of the Cortland area is Caucasian and only 2.6% of folks are Hispanic but we figured it’s the customer service that would really help generate our clientele in the case there is someone or a group of people who are Hispanic and are interested in buying tickets. The responsibilities of the account executives are to develop and execute sales strategies in order to meet certain quotas as well as maintain relationships with prospective clients. The Manager of Group Sales and manager of sales account executives are responsible for maintaining and developing new relationships with customers, setting weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals for the sales staff whom they would oversee, and making sure everyone is working within the realms of the budget as well as keeping track of expense reports. We pay our directors a salary of $29,000 a year and each employee under them a salary of $20,000 a year. This would leave a total payroll of $129,000 allocated towards the sales department.

The Promotions department is in charge of finding ways to get the fans to the games through various types of promotions. The department head will find a niche within the target area and come up with daily promotions to get fans in the stands. The department head will make a salary of $29,000 a year and will oversee the three directors below him. The Director of Game Day Promotions, Promotional Marketing Director, and Finance Director will make a salary of $24,000, allocating a total of $101,000 for payroll in this department. This area of the front office must be in constant communication and always on the same page because everything runs through each other.  

The Promotional Marketing Director will be in charge of getting the word out to Cayuga, Tompkins, and Cortland County. He will also be in charge of research development and examine where our target market should be. He will gauge community interest by coming up with surveys providing relevant information.  Then distributing those surveys to the communities through email and handing them out at local places of interest. Once the information is found he will come up with a strategy on the best way to use that information to get more fans in the stands. This person needs to be very proactive, pay attention to detail, and able to think outside of the box. He also needs to be professional and have excellent customer service skills as he will represent our team while in public. The information he finds is the given to the department heads so they can use that knowledge to the best of their abilities.

The Director of Finance makes sure the company stays within the budget when making decisions. Every department will go through the Finance Director to make sure their ideas are within the budget. He/she takes into account the operating budget of $1.8 million for the fiscal year, which runs from October 1 until September 30. The worst problem an organization can have is prematurely running out of money. This person needs to be stern, experienced, and good with numbers. He is going to be consulted for every decision and can’t be afraid to say that idea is too expensive, this way the team won't run out of money with some of the season left to play.

The Director of Game Day Promotions is going to be the man in charge of carrying out those daily promotions within the stadium. He will get in touch with the promoters and make sure game days run smoothly. For example, he will prepare concerts before the game, book the person who throws out the first pitch, and come up with between inning events. He must have excellent customer service, organization, and communication skills. On game days he will greet the promoters, make sure they have the necessary equipment and are ready to perform in a timely fashion.

The Director of Communications is responsible for managing and directing the internal and external communications. This consists of public relations, sports media, journalism and mass media. Public Relations are going to be managing how to enhance their reputations for our team into good media stories. Our journalist is essential to our team and organization because he/she will be writing about our games and our organizations through newspapers, magazines, television, etc. When we hire someone to manage the sports media section their obligation is to get our team and organization on the air for people to watch our games. Not only are they responsible for getting people to watch our games, but they also are in charge of radio, internet, billboards, etc. Lastly our mass media department is responsible for broadcast media, digital media, outdoor media, print media, event organization and public speaking. All these categories have to do with getting our organization and team out there for people to hear and see and mostly recognize. There will be four job openings in this department; public relations, mass media, journalism and sports media. All positions will have a starting salary 25,000 a year. Total, this makes the Communications departments salary $129,000.

The Director of Marketing is responsible for figuring out the target market and to draw more fans to the games. This will involve conducting market research to find our target market. For example, the Director of Marketing will have to look at the demographics for the area. The Director of Marketing also has to negotiate partnerships and sponsorships with businesses, to grow the fan base of the team. In this position, the salary is $29,000 a year. There will be three job positions under the Director of Marketing and all will have a salary of $22,000 a year. The Marketing Department’s total salary is $95,000 a year.

The Sponsorship Manager is in charge of finding local sponsors to support the team. This person has to be a strong communicator, presenter, a strong sales person, and persuasive when trying to convince other businesses to partner with our organization. The Advertising Manager is then tasked with creating advertisements for the team and our sponsors. The Advertising Manager will also be responsible in managing the team’s website and social media pages. The advertisements will range from stadium billboards, social media advertisements, and TV ads. This person has to be creative in making the advertisements. The final job position is the Merchandise Manager. The Merchandise Manager’s job is to increase merchandise sales and find out what items fans want the most. This person will have to keep an eye on inventory and create questionnaires or surveys to see what fans want to buy. For this position, the person has to be good with customer service. The Merchandise Manager will constantly talk with customers to gain an understanding of their wants and needs.   

We expect all of our staff members to maintain a positive attitude as well as being committed to our new team. All applicants would have to be available to work most nights and weekends during games. With our entire payroll accounted for, the final budget we would have allocated to paying our employees comes out to $454,000 leaving us with $1,346,000 for other amenities we may need to purchase in order to grow our fan base.

2. One of the larger dilemmas we would face as a new organization coming to Cortland would be if the New York Jets do not come back to practice at the college over the summer, how else would we attract fans? Being that the Jets are an NFL team bigger than the small market of Cortland, we have no control over whether or not they come back. With this, we would direct our attention towards a more family oriented view by going to local little leagues and schools in the area to attract a fan base.            Another issue would be the fact that the Cortland market is rather small. Because of this we would advertise heavily around Cortland County, Cayuga County, and Tompkins County along with promotional packages which would entice people to come to our games. This relates to what Spoelstra stresses when he challenges the reader to “identify a market where we can win”. A big thing that we would have to implement would be the pricing of tickets and concessions. The fact that Cortland has a per capita money income over the last 12 months of $23,179 tells us that Cortland must spend their money wisely because of their low income, so why would anyone want to come to a minor league baseball game? With cheap ticket prices and quality service, we believe that it is the perfect family oriented activity to attend over the summer and might give fans an alternate option to do instead of spending thousands of dollars on a vacation during the summer. As Spoelstra refers to “the good in every product”, we believe our affordable ticket prices and family fun experience will be our jump start to well run business in Cortland.           A third problem that we might run into would be the fact that the season starts in early June and only lasts until early September. Because of this, college kids would not be here during the season, so we would have to reach out to other demographics. Since we have no control over when college is in session, we feel it is best to ignore college kids as a possible target market and focus more on reaching out to the people who live here year round. 

3. What is our market? As Spoelstra refers to in Ice to the Eskimos, it is important to stay away from the “sirens” of your market. What might be an enticing area to focus our attention on might also be an area that we should not pay attention to, hence, putting wax in our years. Our market that we are focusing on is Cortland County, Cayuga County, and Tompkins County. With Syracuse and Binghamton being larger markets with already existing minor league teams, these can be the sirens, so to speak, that we should ignore when trying to determine our market.

The way we would market our new product is through multiple interactive events. We feel the best way to get our name out there and to spread awareness of our new organization is to connect with the fans. We plan to go down to local little leagues and introduce the players to the kids. This also connects with our family oriented target market. We also plan to put on promotional events at the games such as having birthday parties at the game or giveaway nights. Just as Jon Spoelstra marketed the Nets opponents, we would market Cortland’s first professional affiliate team. The fact that Cortland has always been heavily dependent on college sports creates an opportunity for fans to see the next level of play. With this marketing strategy we push the fact this the first time Cortland has ever had their own professional team and the fact that fans have a great opportunity to come and see future major league baseball players right in their own town.

Lastly, Spoelstra asks the question, “What would we focus on?” As mentioned before, we are focusing on a family oriented target market. Where big corporations in central New York are not a big facet to the market, we figured looking at family oriented and family entertainment would be the best course of action. In order to reach out to our fans we would need names,

addresses, and emails. We feel the best way to attain this information would be to get out into the community by setting up instructional camps at local baseball fields in which people would pay a small fee and write down they’re information in order to register for the event. As Spoelstra stresses in his book, it’s important for our organization to know “who in all billy hell we are”. With staying true to our marketing approach and valuing family entertainment, we assure that we can take our first steps in the right direction to becoming Cortland’s first professional affiliate organization.          

Project #2In-Game Promotions

1. We have generated four promotional ideas that we think will bring our new organization an electric energy in the ballpark along with a consistent, yet growing fan base. Our first promotion we decided to implement was Family Night. This would take place on Saturday, June 27th. We felt that doing a family night is a great way to appeal to our target audience of a family friendly environment. This, also being our first promotional night early on in the season, would give the whole family an opportunity to see the new product we have to offer to Cortland County. Having this event on a Saturday also allows for the opportunity for more parents to attend because of the fact that it’s on a weekend. We came up with this idea because we thought it would be the best option for getting more of a crowd early on in the season. We chose this idea because it gives families the opportunity to spend time together and is something new for the whole family to do and enjoy together. We believe conversation and curiosity throughout fans and attendees will be high because it is one of the first series of the year at home and families will have a memorable time together.

 Another promotion we were able to come up with is Superhero Night. This will be our second promotional night that takes place on Saturday, July 18th. With the release of blockbuster hits like Batman vs. Superman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being released within a month of the event; we thought this would be a family friendly way to involve fans in a unique way. This idea will be a fun and interactive night for participants in that it gives them the opportunity to dress and act like their favorite heroes for a night. We will hold a contest for participants in which the final five best costumes will be voted on by the fans by texting their votes into our stadium system. This is a mutually beneficial promotion in that fans get the experience and interaction while we get multiple numbers of fans, which can be used for future sales tactics. We believe this night will create great excitement and anticipation amongst participants because of the promotion’s uniqueness and creativity. As Veeck says in his book, The Hustler’s Handbook, “When the fan goes home and talks about what he has seen, he is getting an additional kick out of being able to say he was there.” We feel that this promotion will do just that for the viewers.

Our third promotion we will be offering this year is our Trivia Night. This will take place on Friday August 18th during the series against the Hudson Valley Renegades. All participants are given the opportunity to answer questions during the middle of every full inning by texting in their answer. At the end of game, contestants who had the most answered questions right will receive a medal and will be placed in a raffle where one lucky winner will get to win a brand new car, courtesy of our main event sponsor Chrysler. As Veeck states, “When you give something away, give it away. Freely and open heartedly.” With this gesture, we believe fans will be excited and anxious because of the opportunity to win something as big as a new car.

Again, this will be a mutually beneficial sponsorship in that we get more phone numbers from fans, while fans get the interactivity and possibly even the grand prize.

Our last promotion will be held during our last home stand against Batavia. This promotion will be themed around the college kids around the Cortland area. We will give away free t-shirts from the local bars in downtown Cortland when you show a college ID at your point of entry into the stadium. This idea was thought of while keeping the college demographic in mind in an attempt to market to kids of that age. This is a different idea because it takes a look at another area of customers rather than our original family oriented scene. This will create conversation throughout the SUNY Cortland campus and Tompkins Community College campus because of the promotion’s ability to create anticipation and excitement amongst college kids. We hope to make this an annual event and create a lasting legacy within the college community.

2. For family night who better to have sponsor the promotion night than Friendly’s and Crown City Little League? Friendly’s is a popular food chain in the area and well known for its family friendly environment and kid friendly menu. They would provide excellent advertising opportunities for the event and team. They could possibly hand out napkins with the event date and time leading up to the game. During the event they could set up booths and sell food at the game. They would be a part of the food package as well. The event is an exciting possibility for Friendly’s as well. They will have the opportunity to get their food out to potential customers. Every fan that goes to the game is going to eat their food. They should be pleased with the bet-on-yourself mentality. As long as the foods tasty the fans could make Friendly’s their restaurant of choice. Kids are within their target market and after the game they could try to get the kids to come have some ice cream after the game. It is a win-win where friendly’s gets their product out to the town and the kids come out and have a fun time.        Crown City Little League is Cortland’s little league system. It consists of 3 divisions and lots of kids that have a passion for baseball. They would be a perfect sponsor for family night. It meshes with our target market perfectly. Kids wearing their jersey would get in for a discounted price and would have a chance to run the bases with their team after the game. They would bring their friends and family who would come and enjoy the game. This would be a great way for the Crown City Little League to promote grassroots baseball initiatives and give baseball a more nostalgic feeling for their young players. The kids would get a chance to meet professional athletes and run the bases in front of a packed crowd. The kids would be wearing their Little League jerseys, displaying the league's logo and uniform to the community. The kids will bring their friends to the game and, in turn, see the fun the league provides and possibly choose to play the following year.

Our Sponsors for the college night would be the SUNY Cortland and Dark Horse Tavern. SUNY Cortland would be one of the main sponsors by sending out an email to all SUNY Cortland students as a fun event for the students to do on a Monday evening during syllabus week. This is an attractive option for SUNY Cortland because it promotes a fun entertainment opportunity for new freshman and shows some of the fun things to do in the town. The college always has promotional events like 5$ movie night, Mini Golf, or a trip to the Syracuse mall. This would be another addition to those types of events that students can go to. They can come see the local minor league team and watch the sport they love. It gets the students out of the sometimes-boring dorm rooms and into the community for a fun family friendly event everyone can enjoy.

        College students love the local bar scene in Cortland. Dark Horse Tavern is possibly the most popular bar in town and would be another sponsor for college night. They would provide t-shirts to the first 500 students that come into the game. We would also have the t-shirt cannon launching shirts into the crowd between innings so fans still have a chance to get a shirt. Distributing t-shirts is a cheap way to get Dark Horse’s brand out to the rest of the college and students love representing their shirts. Our pitch to Dark Horse would detail how big the audience is that will see the t-shirts once they are given to the fans. They would be worn for years to come and provide constant advertising for the bar.         Our Sponsors for Trivia night are Chrysler and Bernard’s Custom Logo. Chrysler will provide the car for one lucky trivia winner. He will receive a Chrysler Town & Country. The Town & Country is a minivan that is perfect for parents that have two or three kids because it is large and dependable. This would be the toughest sponsor to pitch to because of how expensive cars are nowadays. However Chrysler is already the official car sponsor of Minor League Baseball and they could generate some buzz for their new car through this promotional event. We would place it out in front of the stadium and show it off during the month leading up to the event. That would be maximum exposure and advertising. Having their name as the major sponsor would showcase the roomy Town & Country minivan to families with the need for extra seating and possibly compel them to buy one in the future.

Bernard’s custom logo is a local printing company that puts logos on clothing, promotional products, plaques, trophies, awards, and more. They will be a strong sponsor to have in the community because we can use their business in a bunch of ways. They will create the trivia medals. The trivia medals will be given to the fans that were able to guess all of the trivia questions correctly. They can create signs and set up a booth to sell them during the game. Fans love foam fingers and strikeout signs during games. Bernard’s Custom Logo would be free to sell those types of things before and during the game. These are all ways to get their logos and medals out to the public.        Our Sponsors for Super Hero Costume Night will be Marvel Comics and GameStop. Marvel Comics are the main source of superhero entertainment. It is the perfect sponsor to provide some funding for the small-scale costume contest. They could provide mascot costumes for a mascot race. Marvel can use this event to get the word out about Comic-Con 2016, which is happening in New York City a few months later. Seeing all of the interesting costumes and fun mascots might compel somebody to want more information on the event. All comic book fans know what Comic-Con is, but this could entice them to buy tickets and take a weekend to go witness the event.        GameStop, the popular video game store, would provide the costume winners a free Game for a console of their choice. They will have some Marvel games that will be released at the same time as the movie premiere. Video games are always marketed to teenagers and it would give them some incentive to be in the contest. In exchange we could let GameStop put up posters around the stadium. These posters will consist of new releases that will come out in the near future. That’s a good way to present some popular games to an audience that could be enticed to buy a certain game when it’s released.

3. For our first promotion Family Night, the organization wants to target families within the area. Baseball is an American pastime, and what a better way to spend a hot summer night than watching a baseball game. Families could see attending a minor league baseball game as a cheap night full of entertainment. The organization is offering a meal package with the purchase of four

tickets. Families will receive four Friendly Franks and four medium drinks. Our proud sponsor, Friendly’s will provide the hot dogs, while our organization will provide the free drinks. The organization has also decided to offer half price tickets to parents whose children wear their little league jerseys to the game. To top off a great family night out, children will be allowed to run the bases at the end of the game. Allowing children to run around the bases is a cheap, yet fun incentive and it will not cost anything for the organization.  As mentioned in project one, the organization is trying to target families. This promotion is made specifically to reach the families within the area. It will cost Friendly’s a total of $11,461 for their Friendly Franks. This number came from our seating capacity of 3,650, times by the average cost of a hot dog, which is $3.14. It will cost the organization a total of $10,950. The cost came from taking the seating capacity 3,650, times the average cost of a soda, which is $3.00.

In 2016, the summer is packed with major blockbuster superhero movies. The organization wants to capitalize on the superhero craze. Therefore, the team will host a Superhero Night. Fans will be encouraged to dress up as their favorite superhero for the game. Marvel Comics will provide some costumes for fans that didn't know about the promotion prior to game time. They will also provide superhero mascot costumes for a superhero race during the third inning. During the game, five fans will be asked to participate in a best costume contest. There will be two contests, one for adults and another for children. During the seventh inning, the five contestants will be brought onto the field. The fans will then vote via text message on who has the best costume. The winners will be rewarded with a free superhero game from our partner GameStop, and two free tickets to another game. The runner-ups will receive a $20 gift certificate from GameStop as well. It will cost GameStop a total of $220 for this promotion; the $220 will cover the costs of the game and gift certificates. A brand new video game costs $60, and all the certificates will cost $160. However, we would sell to GameStop that each runner-up would have to spend another $40 to buy a new game. Therefore, GameStop will easily make their money back and some. GameStop will also gain more customers coming through their doors. The free tickets given away to the winner will cost the organization about $16. The average ticket cost for an adult to attend a Minor League Baseball game is around $7.34.

For our third promotion, Trivia Night, fans will have the opportunity to answer a trivia question between each middle inning. The topics of each question will include sports, history, music, movies, and pop culture based questions. All answers must be submitted before the start of the bottom of the inning. Fans will have a very short period of time to answer, to limit fans from just Google searching the answers on their phones. At the end of the game, the fans, with the most correct answers will win a Trivia Medal and be placed into a raffle. Bernard’s Custom Logo will provide 50 medals for the possible winners. Those medals will cost a total of $145.00 at $2.79 per gold medal. Then one lucky individual will be selected and will be rewarded a brand new Chrysler Town & Country. The winner will be given the option between choosing the brand new car or money that is equal to the cost of the car. Chrysler and our organization will split the cost of the car. Therefore, it will cost both organizations a total of $15,000. The organization has decided to use our text-based system for Superhero Night and Trivia Night because it is a good way to gain our customers’ contact information. Now the organization is able to keep track of who attends our games and how often they attend our games. For example, the organization can see which fans showed for both Superhero Night and Trivia Night. The team is now able to contact our customers.

To wrap up the season, the organization believes it is a great opportunity to go outside of our target market and attract the college students who are just returning from summer vacation.

The organization believes this is an opportunity because the majority of SUNY Cortland students have a history and an interest in sports. The majority of these students are studying sports related majors. For example, sports management, exercise science, and physical therapy. Therefore, the organization has proposed a college themed night. The promotion is to give out free t-shirts from the Dark Horse. The first 600 students who show their student IDs will receive a free Dark Horse t-shirt. The Dark Horse is well known for their t-shirts and they are very popular amongst college students. For example, one of the front covers of the Daily News depicted a picture of Rex Ryan wearing a Dark Horse t-shirt. It will cost Dark Horse $3,000 for this promotion. The shirts will cost $5 and there will be 600 shirts.

In total the promotions will cost the organization around $26,341. The organization had an original budget of $1.8 million. After taking out all the employees’ salaries, the budget was at $1,346,000. Now subtracting the costs for the promotions, the remaining salary for the season would be $1,319,659.

4. As an organization we came up with four different kinds of promotions and theme nights to better our team and stadium. As we said in question number one, our first theme night is Family Night. For this certain theme night one obstacle we may run into is injury when kids run the bases. Will we be responsible? Our Second theme night is Superhero Night. We believe that a problem we could face is having people not dress up. Without costumes there is no contest, which means no promotion. The third promotion we came up with was Trivia Night. The number one problem we will face with this certain promotion is people looking up the answers to all of the questions on Google. To make sure participants will not do this is have a time limit to answer the question and send it into our texting system. Lastly, our fourth promotion/theme night is focused around the college demographics and focus on the college students. As stated above we will hand out t-shirts from local bars with the show of the student’s ID at the entry of our last home game against Batavia. One obstacle we will face is handing out these certain t-shirts and the students just take them and leave without even watching the game.

Project #3: Ticket and Sponsorship Packages

Changes to Ron Tonkin Field1. Change party deck to “Bears Den”2. Change premium seating on right field line to Field Box Seating3. Change field box seating on right field line to Bleacher Seating4. Extend Bleacher Seating on left field line to foul pole5. Sections 8-13 are now all Premium Seating and the only Premium Seating sections

Single Game Ticket Prices:Our reasoning behind our prices compares to that of other minor league ballparks in the NYPL. Prices might seem a bit higher compared to these other stadiums however this is going to be a brand new stadium so we feel the prices represent our state of the art facility and our teams recent success (current NYPL Champions). Children 10 and under and seniors 55 and older get $3 off of the ticketed price.

$13 Premium Seating $11 Field Box Seating

$8 Bleacher Seating $5 Berm Seating $10 Bear’s Den seating

Season Ticket Prices:For our season ticket prices we deducted 50 cents from each ticket price and multiplied that number by 38 for the number of home games that we have. We will also give our season ticket holders multiple perks to entice them to buy at that price. These added values can be found below the group plans on page 4.

$475 Premium Seating $400 Field Box Seating $245 Bleacher Seating $170 Berm Seating $360 Bear’s Den seating

Mini Plans:Our various mini plans are strategically picked to tailor to certain audiences to get them to go to certain games. Each of the packages will include at least one fireworks show. The packages are based on bleacher seating and will be raised accordingly if fans want a different seat type. The half season package receives half of the firework nights and half of the giveaways.

Half Season Package: 19 Games $245 Premium Seating $210 Field Box Seating $135 Bleacher Seating $100 Berm Seating    $175 Bear’s Den Seating 

TV Package: $30 Shark night Game of Thrones night Parks & Rec night Breaking Bad night

Movie Package: $30 Pitch Perfect night Superhero night Star Wars night Marvel Superhero night

The Kid Friendly Package: $45 Disney Night Madagascar Night Family Night Water Gun Day Toy Story Night

Billy Madison “Back to School” Night

The Giveaway Package: $40 Jersey Giveaway night National Ice Cream Mini-bat Giveaway Trivia Night Hat Giveaway

Pick 5 Flex Plan: $50Each fan gets to try out all of our seating options once over a 5 game span. They pick the game and the seating location for each. Some restrictions apply. You can choose 1 of the firework nights and 1 giveaway night.

Group Plans: Groups must purchase 20 tickets or more to reserve one of our group rates. They have various meal choices and pregame/ post game events that they can pick from that are fun activities for anybody involved.

Birthday Bonanza at the Berm: $15 per personKids will have the opportunity to have their birthday parties in our picnic area with free access to our berm, which can be rented out for your party until the end of the bullpen. This includes a cake and appearances from our mascot. You can also purchase a birthday shirt embroidered by our sponsor Bernard’s custom logo with the birthday girl/boy's name on it for only $10.

Little League Team Packages under our Picnic Pavilion: $15 per personAny Little League Baseball team can rent out our Picnic Pavilion, which is located down the third base line. For $15, each little league baseball player and parent/spectator will be able to get a meal choice of hot dog/hamburger with chips and a drink plus a Cortland Bears Baseball t-shirt or mini-bat.

1a. We will have a limited variable ticket pricing approach. We will have slight increases during certain promotional nights and during some weekend games.We will leave ourselves the right to raise or lower ticket prices for certain circumstances. There will be a slight price increase on some games that are more desirable. However our ticket prices will never drop lower than the minimum prices we have projected above. This way the price of a single game ticket will never drop below the value of what a season ticket holder paid for the same game. This method will allow the team to maintain its loyal season ticket holder’s trust while still being able to raise the prices for high interest games.

1b. Each ticket plan will be unique in its own way. With the season tickets the added value comes with the included features. Gift giveaways promotions and firework nights come standard without the raise in price. You also get invites to team events and batting practice. Fans get a $5 concessions coupon on game days and preferred parking for our Premium and Field Box seating. The mini plan gets half of the giveaways and firework nights and the convenience of being able to chose what other games they want to go to. Both will also have the first chance at playoff

tickets. The Giveaway package is self-explanatory as they are guaranteed a gift. The Movie, TV, Flex Plan and Kid package are all conveniently themed events where parents and fans know exactly what they are going to get. They will also be given a $5 concessions coupon for each game (limited 2 per party). The Flex Plan has extra added value because you are able to get the most expensive seat type for what seems like a cheaper price.

2a.Step 1: Identify the Prospect        The Cortland Bears wanted to find two sponsors with a similar target market, which are families in the Cortland area. The organization believes Cortland Regional Medical Center and J.M. Murray Center are the right two sponsors. Cortland Regional Medical Center has agreed to a sponsorship worth $10,000. The organization was also able to land the J.M. Murray Center to a $3,000 sponsorship.        The J.M. Murray Center was established in 1966, and was created to provide employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. To this day, the organization still provides job opportunities for individual with learning disabilities. The organization teaches individual's, important life skills that are needed to live a happy and successful life. The J.M. Murray Center also provides support systems for the individual and their families.        The Cortland Regional Medical Center first opened on April 1, 1891 and has been around ever since. The hospital’s goal is to provide the most advanced and highest quality of health care to all citizens in the Cortland area. Cortland Regional Medical Center provides pediatricians, breast cancer care, nutrition therapy, mental health services, and much more. The hospital was awarded the gold seal of approval, for their excellent standards.

Step 2: Prepare How-To Guides        As a part of the sponsorship package with J.M. Murray Center, the team would like to provide employment opportunities for individuals enrolled at J.M. Murray Center. These individuals will be able to work all 19 home games. The individual will be chaperoned by an employee from J.M. Murray Center and an official from the team. The jobs available include ticket voucher, concession, merchandise, and maintenance.        The sponsorship will include foul pole signage, ticket backs, public address announcements, and pocket schedules. The foul pole signage will remain up for all 19 home games and will cost around $1,000. On the very back of the ticket will be a picture of their logo and a brief description of the organization. The ticket backs will cost $500 and will cover 10 of our home games. The dates the ticket backs will feature their logo will be June 22, June 24, June 25, June 27, July 18, July 25, July 29, August 9, August 28, and September 5. The J.M. Murray Center will receive a public address announcement during all the home games and cost $285. The package also covers a pocket schedule. These schedules will be handed out around the stadium and local business within the Cortland area. The costs for the pocket schedule are a total $1,250.        The sponsorship package for the Cortland Regional Medical Center was a total of $10,000. The package will include a scoreboard sign. The scoreboard sign will be a total investment of $4,000 and will cover the entire season. The team has decided the hospital would be the official sponsor for one of the team’s firework nights. The scheduled night for the fireworks is Saturday, July 18, 2016. The cost to host the fireworks is $2,000. Third, the sponsorship will include a daily program insert and will cost $1,800. The daily insert is

comprised of rosters, player stats, and standings. The Cortland Regional Medical Center will have a concourse sign located within the stadium for $2,000. Finally, there will be a public address announcement for the organization. This will cover 15 games for the final $200. The costs for the sponsorships are based off of other minor league teams.

Step 3: Partner with the Prospect        The initial plan is to call both organizations regarding our proposed sponsorship packages. Then the next step is to try and setup a meeting with both organizations. For the meeting, the Cortland Bears would like to take the businesses’ representatives out to lunch in order to help establish a relationship with the organizations. The team owner, Bob Rich Jr. will also attend the lunch. It is also a time to sell our sponsorship packages to the businesses.

Step 4: Schedule a Product-Sampling Experience        The Cortland Bears want to invite the sponsors to a scrimmage before the season to check out the sponsorship packages they might buy. The scrimmage will be scheduled before the regular season, in case there are changes to be made. The sponsors will be welcomed to invite family and friends out to the ballpark. The new employees from the J.M. Murray Center will have time to practice before regular season games. This also allows sponsors to check out the signs and samples of the sponsorships they bought.

Step 5: Design Follow-Up Procedures        After the scrimmage, the Cortland Bears would like to evaluate what worked and did not work. The team would then like to meet again with the sponsors to discuss the scrimmage and gain feedback from them. The team also wants to hear what the sponsors liked or did not like as well. Therefore, the team can make adjustments to satisfy the sponsors.

2b. Landing the J.M Murray Center as our first sponsorship will help land attention to our team the Cortland Bears and themselves. Since J.M Murray welcomes employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, the Cortland Bears would like to benefit J.M Murray and welcome employment opportunities for individuals that are enrolled at the J.M Murray Center. As included above, these employment opportunities will consist of ticket voucher, concessions, maintenance and merchandise. A major benefit for us as an organization would be giving individuals with disabilities a fun atmosphere to work and earn money somewhere they will enjoy working. This will make our organization look good.

The J.M. Murray Center will receive a public address announcement during all the home games to announce our promotion deals with our fans/spectators. This includes foul pole signage, ticket backs and pocket schedules for 19 home games. By putting J.M Murray Center’s logo and brief description on the back of tickets and pocket schedules will help advertise for the center and get their name out there within the sports industry.

Landing our second sponsor Cortland Regional Medical Center was another way to land attention to the public for each of us. Exposure is the best way to get your name out there. Using other companies is strategically a good move based on exposure they already have. Cortland Regional Medical Center (CRMC) will be the official sponsor for the Cortland Bears firework night Saturday, July 18th 2016. We will have a designated spot on the scoreboard to give them as much exposure as possible during our home games. As an added bonus we will enter them into the daily program that holds player rosters, stats, and standings. Lastly, the Cortland Bears will

host public announcements for 15 home games. This will help CRMC get exposure and will help us in the community.

3. The way our sales staff will be taught to handle customers is through customer-focused selling. First we will teach our staff the difference between the different types of customers (i.e. potential customers, butterfly customers, past customers, etc.) in order for them to understand the different needs of each customer and how to approach each customer. Motivating our staff will be a two way street, meaning, it is just as much up to them to be motivated and willing to give one hundred percent day in and day out, as much as it is our responsibility to maintain a positive sales culture within our business each day in order for our employees to feel like they should be motivated and trying their best. A few ways that we can ensure a positive and comforting sales culture is through the experience of the sales managers. Managers should be a teacher to our clients and direct them in a way that they will improve each day. Other factors include things as simple as the aesthetics of the work place and up to date technology in order to complete work faster and more efficiently.  

According to Erwin et al., one way we can make sure our staff is motivated is by hiring the right people. These people should be motivated from the start before they even get the job. Making sure they continue to be motivated after they get the job is not only up to them, but also up to us. We feel the best way to keep our employees motivated is to continuously stress certain goals as well as treating the employee’s needs more importantly than the customers’ needs. The reasoning behind this is when a staff member is rightfully motivated and happy working, his or her emphasis is directed towards helping the customer better. An unhappy employee is more likely to deal with customers in a way that they feel they have been treated.

We feel that upselling is a process that should not be used to frequently until frequent clients have emerged. The term upselling refers to talking up a certain product and trying to sell your client a better package or better area of your product or even just more of a certain product. Successful upselling occurs mostly when dealing with consistent clients because they know the product and are satisfied with the product. Being a new product in the Cortland area, we feel that upselling should not be our primary way of selling our sales packages because of the fact that we are an unknown entity.

It is important as a new product in the area to continue to be creating rather than closing. Closing refers to closing a deal with a client. Although this is the goal of a sales person, we never want to close a deal end our relationship with that customer. By our sales team constantly creating, they will be trained to constantly follow up with their clients whom they are selling packages to. This builds a relationship with the client and our business which benefits us because current customers are what we strive to have and maintain, which at that point, will allow us to use upselling.

Lastly, our sales strategies and methods that we will use consist of direct mailing, building relationships through relationship marketing, and through benefit selling. Direct mailing is something that will help us reach out to prospective clients and fans in hopes of them coming to see our organization play. As mentioned earlier in our first project, the way we plan on attaining email and home addresses is through interactive community outreach programs such as autograph signings at local little leagues, camps and lessons taught by players and coaches, and other various forms of player-fan interaction. Relationship marketing is something that will not only be used during our first year of business, but during every year we are in business. The point of relationship marketing is to establish a trustworthy and mutually beneficial relationship

between our sales staff and our client. This sales tactic is imperative to pleasing our clients as well as increasing revenue. Benefit selling will be done through our multiple promotional nights and group sales offerings. The point of this is to have the customer feel as if he or she is getting the most out of their purchase. If we can accomplish this in a professional manner, we believe with all that our promotional nights and group outing packages have to offer, we will consistently see fans coming back and buying our product.

Project #4

1. Our team name is going to be the Crown City Royals. Some other teams have used nicknames for their teams’ cities like the Hudson Valley Renegades and Golden State Warriors. We feel Crown City is unique to the Cortland area and many entrepreneurs in Cortland have adopted the name Crown City into their businesses. The name Crown City Royals brings everything together. We are going to push the medieval theme of kings, queens, and nobles. Our fans will be known as the Royal Family. We will try to push that all our fans be treated like royalty.

Our main slogan is going to be “Help us fight for the royal crown.” This conveys the point while not being too long or too short. Our team won the New York Penn League last year and we want to continue that success into the Crown City Royals’ inaugural year. #Fight4TheRoyalCrown is going to be the hashtag we use as our battle slogan. The hash tag incorporates the team name as well as the name of the city in a way that is unique and motivational.

Our motto can become one of our slogans which leads to an amplitude of apparel, opportunities, and revenue streams. Shirts, hoodies, mini bats, hats, bracelets, magnets, drawstring bags, bumper stickers, banners, etc. will be sold at our stadium complex and some surrounding businesses. They will show our team logo and team motto and symbolize the brand of the organization for years to come. Fans, as noble Royals supporters, will come to the Royal Palace, wear their licensed Royals gear and support the team in a wave of purple and gold.

The good thing about our slogan is that it is flexible, allowing us to use it in a variety of different ways. On our home webpage our main banner will say, “Support the Royals on their quest to fight for the royal crown.” #4TheCrown is a smaller version of the slogan, but it will still be distinguishable for the brand we are trying to portray. This gives the team a goal to strive for by trying to win another championship. The fans get to feel like they are helping the team win by cheering loudly and being marvelous fans of the team.

2. We chose to switch the boring name of the Cortland Bears to the Crown City Royals. One main reason we picked the Crown City Royals is because within our search, Crown City is Cortland’s nickname because “Crown City” describes its location on a plain formed by the convergence of seven valleys, Cortland is situated about 1,130 feet, making it the uppermost city to crown the state. 40 stars representing the 40 cities incorporated before Cortland circle the State of New York and crown on the city’s official seal. The seven points of the crown create seven valleys depicting Cortland’s seven surrounding valleys. The 41st star in the center of the crown illustrates Cortland as the closest incorporated city to the geographic center of New York. Since Cortland is directly in the middle of New York, we are seen as the royal epicenter, which is why we picked our name to be the Royals.

3. The city of Cortland’s nickname is Crown City. When people think of crowns, they think of royalty or royal families. Therefore, we decided that our mascot should be the royal family members. In our first year as a new team, we will have two mascots, King Clark and Queen Shea. In our first four years as an organization, we will release a new mascot every year. This will hopefully create excitement amongst the fans, to see who the new mascot will be. In 2017, we will release the third member of the royal family Prince Hendrick, followed by Jester Lusk in 2018. Finally, Princess DeGroat will be released in 2019.

The organization decided to name each of our mascots after buildings from SUNY Cortland. The team wanted to show our alliance with SUNY Cortland as the school is an important entity in the town of Cortland. Our mascots will be present at community events held by the team. For example, the team plans to host food drives, fundraisers, and donations. Fans could also pay to have the mascots show up for a guest appearance.

During the 7th inning stretch for every home game, the mascots will take place in the royal race. Fans can vote via text message, who they think will win the race. Fans, who vote for the winner, will be rewarded with a food discount. For example, fans will be rewarded with a free small fry. This is another way for the organization to gain contact information for every regular season home game. In previous projects fans would only text for the team’s promotional nights such as superhero night and trivia night. Each mascot will also have their own social media pages, allowing fans to follow their favorite mascot. This provides another avenue the organization can reach out to fans to spread information.

Below is a short bio and introduction to the mascots we will be featuring throughout the coming years:

Name: King ClarkReleased Date: 2016Height: 6’0”Weight: 195 lbs. Friends: Queen Shea, Prince Hendrick, and Princess DeGroatLikes: King Clark enjoys spending time with his wife, Queen Shea. He also enjoys counting his gold and cheering on his baseball team, the Crown City Royals. But King Clark’s favorite task of all is making Jester Lusk’s life a nightmare. Dislikes: Losing his gold.

Bio: King Clark is the first king to rule the Crown City Royals. He moved to Cortland in 2016, when the team relocated into the area. He also leads the Crown City Royals into battle.

Name: Queen SheaReleased Date: 2016Height: 5’6”Weight: 110 lbs. Friends: King Clark, Prince Hendrick Likes: Queen Shea loves her husband, King Clark. But Queen Shea enjoys being told she is the most beautiful woman in the world. Queen Shea forces Jester Lusk to do her makeup and hair. Dislikes: Anyone who is a threat to her title as “Most Beautiful Woman At The Ballpark”. She also is jealous of Princess DeGroat’s beauty.

Bio: Queen Shea traveled with her King Clark to Cortland to rule over the new baseball team.

Name: Prince Hendrick Released Date: 2017

Height: 5’10Weight: 170 lbs. Friends: King Clark, Queen Shea, and Princess DeGroatLikes: Prince Hendrick enjoys a good adventure and a good fight. He also is in love with Princess DeGroat. Dislikes: He does not like jokes and backing down from a fight.

Bio: Prince Hendrick is the son of King Clark and Queen Shea. He is the second in command of the Crown City Royals.

Name: Jester LuskReleased Date: 2018Height: 5’0”Weight: 120 lbs. Friends: He has no friends.  Likes: He enjoys tormenting the royal family, causing havoc, stealing the King’s gold, and a good joke. He also likes Princess DeGroat and is willing to do anything to have her. Dislikes: King Clark, Queen Shea, and Prince Hendrick

Bio: Jester Lusk is constantly looking for work because he has been let go by every king for having bad jokes. He wondered upon the new king, King Clark in 2018. His goal in life is to overtake the throne for himself from King Clark.

Name: Princess DeGroatRelease Date: 2019 Height: 5’5Weight: 105 lbs. Friends: Prince Hendrick and King Clark Likes: Princess DeGroat enjoys romance and true love. Dislikes: Princess DeGroat does not like frogs.  

Bio: Princess DeGroat joined the royal family in 2019, when Prince Hendrick rescued her from Jester Lusk.

4a. The following is a list of names who we would send our press release to in order to get our name out to the public.

1. Caroline Kaltefleiter: head faculty advisory for the SUNY Cortland radio station. Email: wsuc@gmail.com.

2. Erik Bitterbaum: President of SUNY CortlandEmail: president@cortland.eduPhone: 607-753-2201Fax: 607-753-5993

3. Mike Urtz: Director of athletics at SUNY CortlandEmail: mike.urtz@cortland.edu Phone: 607-753-4953

4. Chris McManus: Program Director of Galaxy Communications at ESPN Radio SyracuseEmail: ccmcmanus@googlemail.com

5. Todd Mallinson: General Manager at ESPN Radio in IthacaEmail can be retrieved from this website: http://www.espnithaca.com/contact-espn-ithaca/ Phone: 607-533-0057

6. Tim McCarthy: Sr. Vice President ESPN Radio GroupEmail: espnpr@espn.com

7. Matt Cannon: Advertising Sales Manager at Time Warner Cable Email: mathew.cannon2@twcable.comPhone: 518-640-8595

8. Suh Neubauer: News Director at Fox 40 WICZ She can be reached by email at this website: http://www.wicz.com/wicz/contactstaff.asp?e=newsdirector%23wicz.com&n=Suh%20Neubauer Phone: 607-770-4040 x314

9. Peter Vorhees: Public Information Officer/ Sports Information Coordinator at Tompkins Community CollegeEmail: news@tc3.eduPhone: 607-844-8222 ext. 4351

10. Thomas R. Rochon: President of Ithaca CollegeEmail: president@ithaca.eduPhone: 607-274-3111

11. Sean Carney: Station Manager at Ithaca College Radio StationEmail: manager@wicb.orgPhone: 607-274-3217

12. Thomas Claybaugh: President and Publisher for Ithaca JournalPhone: (607) 798-1111 e-mail: tclaybaugh@ithacajournal.com

13. Kevin R. Howe: Publisher at Cortland Standard NewspaperPhone: 607-756-5665

14. Brian Tobin: Mayor of CortlandEmail: mayor@cortland.orgPhone: 607-753-0872

15. Mitch Seweryn: Manager at Mark’s PizzeriaEmail: mseweryn@markspizzeria.comPhone: 607-7536066

16. Rob Patrella: Manager of Brix PubariaPhone: 607-662-5636Twitter: @BRIXpubaria

17. Joe Hage: Manager at The Stone Lounge Phone: 607-299-4338Twitter: @thestonelounge

18. William McDermott: Owner of the Dark Horse TavernPhone: 607-753-6513Twitter: @darkehorse607

19. Tom Terwilliger: Co-owner of Red Jug PubPhone: 607- 289-4865Twitter: @redjugpub

20. Michael J. Hoose: Superintendent for local school districtEmail: mhoose@cortlandschools.orgPhone: 607- 758-4100

We chose these individuals based on their established titles. We went heavy on the media

approach, targeting individuals from ESPN Radio New York and specifically ESPN Radio in

Ithaca and Syracuse in order to get the word out in those areas. We also targeted SUNY

Cortland, Ithaca, and Tompkins Community College radio stations as well as the Cortland and

Ithaca newspapers. We decided to send our press release to the presidents of Ithaca College and

SUNY Cortland’s presidents in hopes of reaching the thousands of students the two schools hold

together. We focused a little more on the campus of SUNY Cortland, being that our stadium will

be built on the grounds. We will also be targeting the athletic director of the school in order to

reach out to a more specific demographic, rather than going to the whole school.

Other institutions that we plan on sending our press release to include the television

stations of FOX 40 and Time Warner Cable. We also reached out to the mayor of Cortland in

order to make him aware of our new team and in hopes of him being able to spread the word

around his town. Lastly, we went to the more popular local bars and restaurants in hopes of

reaching out to the hundreds of people that walk in and out of the establishments each day.

Lastly, we decided to reach a younger demographic and go to the school district of Cortland

County in hopes of reaching thousands of kids that attend the six schools in the district.

On the following page you will see our team’s press release.

Crown City Royals 38 Graham AvenueCortland, New York 13045

Contact: Mike Lambiaso Release Date: 12/11/15Cell Phone: (516) 640-9505 FOR EMMEDIATE RELEASEFax: (516) 450-8762Email: mlambiaso@yahoo.com

WEST VIRGINIA SINGLE-A TEAM SET TO RELOCATE TO CORTLAND, NEW YORK

CORTLAND, NY- Cortland, New York; often known for the college it serves home to, in SUNY Cortland, will have a new attraction coming to town beginning in June of 2017. The West Virginia Black Bears will be relocating to come to a small market in which Cortland residents wait anxiously in anticipation.

The formally known Black Bears of West Virginia will now be known as the Crown City Royals, with the name being the nick name of the city of Cortland. Fans will be able to see the Royals of purple and gold in their new state of the art stadium which is being built on the campus of SUNY Cortland. The stadium will also hold home to the defending Division III National Champion Red Dragons, the school’s baseball team.

The team is currently owned by Bob Rich Jr., chairman to the largest family-owned frozen food company in the U.S., Rich Products Corporation. When asked about the reason for the relocation he said, “Sometimes it’s just time for a change. We are excited to utilize our new facility and to bring our organization to the great town of Cortland.”

For the town of Cortland, this is something that residents have never had the opportunity of witnessing before. For the first time in its history, Cortland will be host to a professional affiliate baseball team, with the Royals being the single-A ball club of the Pittsburg Pirates. With the excitement that is buzzing around town, the 2017 season will be one in which fans, residents, and stakeholders within the organization will be looking forward to.

For more information, contact Mike Lambiaso at (516) 640-9505 or mlambiaso@yahoo.com

###

5. We chose the colors purple and gold on our billboard because those are the main colors

of the Royal Family. Purple and gold also will draw the eye to the billboard more effectively

other than a plain white and black billboard. By drawing the eye into our billboard, individuals

will feel the fun and welcoming vibe that goes along with our organization.

Works Cited

1. MiLB.com. Date: Unknown. Marketing/Advertising Information. Retrieved from

http://www.milb.com/content/page.jsp?ymd=20081223&content_id=41221432&sid=t558&vkey=team5

2. Korch, Travers. (2012, June 27). The Explosive Costs of Big Fireworks Displays. Retrieved fromhttp://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/06/27/explosive-costs-big-fireworks-displays/

3. J.M. Murray. Date: Unknown. About Us. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jmmurray.com/about-us/main

4. Cortland Regional Medical Center. Date: Unknown. Why Choose CRMC? Retrieved fromhttp://www.cortlandregional.org/about-crmc/why-choose-crmc