Facility&Operations | By David Kimel
"Ad" dollars to
your bottom line
P
ROFESSIONAL SPORTS turf managers don't have to look far to understand the importance of advertising on their team's and facility's revenue streams. Public and private facilities not affiliated with professional
sports may have more difficulty getting a piece of this very large pie. Let's take
a brief look at the history of advertising in sports facilities. Then we can consider some opportunities to tap the advertising market. I'll provide some tips
on how to close deals. Finally, I'll show how to calculate competitive rates.
Professional sports turf managers don't
have to look far to understand the importance of advertising on their team's and facility's revenue streams. Public and private
facilities not affiliated with professional
sports may have more difficulty getting a
piece of this very large pie. Let's take a brief
look at the history of advertising in sports
12 SportsTurf | August 2013
facilities. Then we can consider some opportunities to tap the advertising market.
I'll provide some tips on how to close deals.
Finally, I'll show how to calculate competitive rates.
Advertisers have long understood the
value of associating with athletics. Some
athletic venues, however, have been reluc-
DAVID KIMEL
tant to "spoil" their pristine parks, pools,
rinks, and other venues with advertising.
Public schools are among the last holdouts, an interesting phenomenon considering the pressure on school budgets.
Many schools have cut athletic programs
at the same time they have refused to
allow advertising that would have supported them. The simple answer to selling school boards is a slow introduction
of advertising. Start with a new scoreboard. Next consider the back of the
press box. If your Little League Field has
signs on their fence, ask to put them on
your school's outfield fences.
For many, the first advertising we saw
at a sports venue may have been those
signs on the fence of the Little League
Park for the local bakery. Most of us didn't look at it as advertising. Rather we
thought it was more an acknowledgement of the $100 contribution the baker
made because his son was the first baseman. Reality is, the only difference between that sign and the huge sign for a
www.sportsturfonline.com
