Unit 2 Sports Marketing Chapter 3 The Sports Market.

Unit 2 Sports Marketing

Chapter 3The Sports Market

Sports Marketing

The sports market is vast and growing at a phenomenal rate due to the vast range of sports played and watched by spectators around the world.

In this chapter you will be introduced to sports marketing with a history of business.

Sports Marketing Similar to marketing, sports marketing

has 4 foundations to build from and 7 functions to perform.

In this chapter, and the chapters to follow, we will start to explore these 7 functions of sports marketing: Marketing Information Management, Financing, Pricing, Promotion, Product Service, Distribution, and Selling.

Sports Marketing

The foundations consists of Professional Development, Economics, Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Communication/Interpersonal skills.

Without these foundation cornerstones, the functions of marketing could not survive.

Sports Marketing

With so many different type of sports products on the market today, is it a good idea for clothing companies to produce sports apparel? Why or Why not?

Name some sports clothing companies.

The Sports Market How many of you in this class collect

sports trading cards? How many of your parents have a card

collection at home? In the old days, collector cards were

found on cigarette packs. In 1909, The American Tobacco Company produced cards that came with the packs of cigarettes.

The Sports Market

Honus Wagner’s card is the most treasured by collectors.

Wayne Gretsky purchased the most expensive Honus Wagner card valued at 2.8 million dollars.

The Sports Market

The collectors cards have seen a transformation from paper stock to cardboard stock to a higher grade of acid free card stock.

The Upper Deck card company changed the way cards were made. They used high gloss cards, special collectors cards, and hologram cards.

Sports Marketing Profile What is Sports Marketing?

Marketing and sports marketing are two terms that apply to different characteristics of marketing.

Marketing is defined as the process of developing, promoting, and distributing products, or goods and services, to satisfy consumers needs and wants.

Sports Marketing Profile Sports marketing can be defined as all the

marketing activities designed to satisfy the needs and wants of sports consumers.

Sports marketing focuses on all different types of sports played today.

Sports marketing also focuses on the activities around sporting events, such as planning, promotion, financing, and sponsorship.

Sports Marketing Profile

Sports marketing has two major components, the marketing of sports and marketing through sports.

For example, the promotion of the Super Bowl, Indy 500, and the Olympics, through TV, and Radio advertisements is considered the marketing of sports.

The Sports Market

On the other hand, when Nike, Gatorade, and Goodyear promote their products by using a connection to sports, such as a sports personality as a spokesperson, those companies are said to be marketing through sports.

Sports Marketing Profile The beginnings of sports marketing can be

traced through several events and people. Many sports marketing first took place in

the early 1920’s. In 1923, Wilson Sporting Goods signed

then professional golfer Gene Sarazen to a deal that lasted until his death in 1999. To date,

This has been the longest sports endorsement on record.

Sports Marketing Profile Bill Veeck during the mid 1900’s was

instrumental in the promotion of baseball.

Fans were missing something He knew that the key to making

sporting events profitable was to get people interested in watching the game as well as the activities and events that surrounded the game.


Veeck took an ordinary sporting event and turned it into something appealing for both the fans and the media.

Midgets at the plate. Martians dropping in. Numbers and names on the player’s

jerseys.

Sports Marketing Profile In the 1960’s athletics and corporations

were put together by agent Mark McCormick, founder of the International Management Group (IMG).

McCormick and golfer Arnold Palmer was one of the first professional athletes to associate with corporations in a professional role. Ever since then, the concept of industry and sports has grown dramatically during the 20th century. See rankings of industry on pg 55.


Sports marketing takes a simple game no matter what it is, and turns it into an interesting and exciting event.

Monday Night Football got started by applying the principles of sports marketing.


Some careers in sports marketing include scriptwriter, producer, ticket agent, sports agent, luxury box sales rep, food and merchandise sales reps, group ticket salesperson, and many more.

Categories of Sports

Recreational Sports- some examples would be the YMCA & YWCA, Little Leagues, Boys and Girls clubs of America, Adult Leagues etc, etc. All of these organizations participate in many different types of sports.

Categories of Sports Young amateur sports- such as youth

league basketball tourneys in major cities which attract many people from the players to promoters to the player’s families and even college coaches.

An amateur athlete is defined as a person who plays a sport for the love of the sport. He or she does not get paid for participating. This includes High school and College players.

Categories of Sports High School Sports- All students who

participate in sports for their schools. Schools make sure that students benefit from a balanced educational and athletic experience.

College and University Sports- Sporting events at this level are very popular and very competitive in all regions of the U.S. some experts say that college sports are more competitive than professional sports.


The NCAA is an acronym for The National Collegiate Athletic Association. It is the organization that governs all aspects of college sports. Guidelines for the NCAA are posted online at www.ncaa.org. An example of a NCAA rule says that no player is allowed to take any money from anyone to play.


The NCAA has regionalized the teams and put them in divisions such as- The Big Ten, The Big East, The Pac Ten, The SEC, The WAC, etc, etc.

The bigger the event for the college, the greater its chance to make a name for itself.

Categories of Sports Olympic Sports-

First created in 776 B.C. in Olympia Greece

Only one event, the marathon run Now there are over 77 nations

competing in many events in the summer and winter Olmypics.

The Olympics face modern day problems of terrorist attacks, illegal drug use and political boycotts.

Categories of Sports Once truly amateur in nature, Olympic

participants now include professionals. In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttman of England

created the Paralympics for participants who had spinal injuries.

In 1968, Eunice Kennedy Shriver organized the first Special Olympics for special needs participants with developmental disabilities.


Professional Sports- a professional athlete is one that is paid to play by the team’s owner. Owners rely on a paying public and corporations to help pay the salaries of the athletes. The athletes are also allowed to become a spokesperson for products to augment their income.


Professional sports are the most costly and heavily marketed of all sports categories. Teams are considered a business whose main purpose is to make money, in order to get the best players available in the draft, or sign them as a free agent.


Professional sports are always competing for a bigger share of the entertainment pie. Professional sports are competing against movies, plays, concerts, and even vacation time.

Customers have limited disposable income for only so many activities.


International Sporting Events- in the early days, the Wide World of Sports presented by ABC TV was the only way to view international sporting event. Other TV networks followed the lead by Roone Arledge, who produced the international events on ABC.

Categories of Sports International Sporting Events- such

events as Rugby, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, the Tour De France, the Harlem Globetrotters, daredevil Evil Knievel, were now seen by the American public.

Famous announcers such as Jim McCay, and Howard Cossell, were instrumental in the success of the Wide World of Sports.


Women’s Sports- the popularity of women’s sports has been increasing over the past century and especially over the past twenty years.

New markets have opened up in basketball, volleyball, track, cycling, boxing, softball, and many others.

Categories of Sports Olympic gold medalist, Mildred

“Babe” Didrikson Zaharlas excelled in many sports and also became a great sports promoter.

She had a line of golf clubs, wrote books, and made personal appearances.

She played at the amateur and professional levels.

Categories of Sports On June 23, 1972, the enactment of

Title IX, the Education Amendment, advanced girls participation in sports.

It bans gender discrimination in schools that receive federal funds. As a result, over a twenty year period , the number of girls participating in high school sports programs has increased nearly tenfold.

Categories of Sports In 1970-71, only 294,000 high school

girls competed in interscholastic sports in the United States. By 1998-99, more than 2,652,00 girls participated.

Billy Jean King was instrumental in the advancement of women in sports. She won over twenty Wimbledon tennis titles in her career from 1962 to the 1980’s.


She then continued to spur women to play sports by defeating Bobby Riggs in a battle of the sexes tennis match which she won.

See the history of Women in sports on page 67.

Categories of Sports Extreme Sports- Non-traditional sports Daring stunts In the late 1980’s, extreme sports

became popular. Snowboarders of generation X

started the trend. Dirt Bikes, BMX, and Skateboarding.


Extreme sports is one of the many categories of sports whose characteristics help identify target markets. Sports marketers use these characteristics and new categories of sports to sell games, teams, and products

Unit 2 Sports Marketing Chapter 3 The Sports Market.

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Transcript of Unit 2 Sports Marketing Chapter 3 The Sports Market.