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Public Relations is a Home Run for the Sports Industry

Adam McCaffery

Syracuse University

PRL 206: PR Principles & Practice

Professor Anthony D’Angelo

October 15, 2021

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Public Relations is a Home Run for the Sports Industry

In March of 2020, the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of people across the

United States travelled from varying parts of the country to Indianapolis for the NCAA Men’s

Basketball March Madness Tournament. Despite the increased risk of COVID because of many

people traveling from hotspots, some college basketball fans thought the negatives of not seeing

their team play in person outweighed the potential risks of disease, and had to go see the games

in person. Aside from those in person, there were also 16.9 million who watched the Final Four

from their home on the TV. That might seem like a lot, it isn’t near the magnitude of how a

sporting event can impact the public, as 91.63 million viewers tuned into the 2021 Superbowl

matchup between the Buccaneers and Chiefs, which is almost 30 million more viewers than the

final presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020 (Lewis, 2021).

By looking at the numbers, it is clear that sports holds the hearts of people in this country.

Sports also is worldwide with events like the World Cup and Olympic games, in which people

travel all over the world for. Different sports have a long history behind their development,

starting as recreational and building their way up to organizations with multiple corporations that

have influence locally and internationally as profitable organizations. In Forbes 2021 list for

most valuable sports teams across the world, the Dallas Cowboys ranked first valued at 5.7

billion dollars (Ozanian, 2021). Throughout all of it, successful sports businesses have been

reliant on public relations to help them grow and maintain a positive image, and they continue to

be reliant with the growing role of social media in sports.

The impact of PR could be seen in the development of publicity in sports. Throughout the

history of sports, PR was instrumental in helping sports develop relationships with fans and the

media. Dating back to 776 BCE in the Greek Olympics, athletes gathered from as far as Spain
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and Turkey to compete in the Olympics (The Games, n.d.). The event attracted many because “at

their heart, the Games were a religious festival and a good excuse for Greeks from all over the

Mediterranean basin to gather for a riotous barbeque”, showing early elements of PR in sports

before it even existed (Welcome, n.d.). Fast forward to 1921, the first radio broadcast of sport

was set up for a boxing match to help it gain publicity, and in 1936 “Public Television Offices”

were set up for people to view seventy-two hours of live coverage for the Berlin Olympics,

which was the first televised sporting event (Sundem, 2011).

At an organizational level, teams began to implement their own PR firms into their

business to help build a brand. The Dallas Cowboys were able to gain fans in places outside of

Texas because of its nickname, “America’s Team”, which was coined by Bob Ryan in the 1960s

and was approved by general manager Tex Schramm who formerly worked in PR. Schramm also

implemented the famous Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders (Shuck, 2011). In 1994, the San

Francisco Giants PR team showed the MLB that sometimes it's bigger than sports with its “Until

There’s a Cure Day '' to promote AIDS awareness, and were successful by bringing in 50,000

fans which was above its typical game average (Schultz, 2020). From a historical scope, PR has

helped the sports industry blossom, and it is the individual roles within those organizations that

allow the bigger firms to function.

To sum up Amy Littleton, executive VP of Kemper-Lesnik, the Chicago-based PR firm

and sports marketing agency, “Sports PR is not one thing; it is many things,” (Page & Parnell,

n.d.). To start, a sports information direction (SID) helps maintain media relationships, writes

press releases, and helps maintain the athletic website, and this profession ranges at a collegiate

level to the professional one (Page & Parnell). For example, for every Syracuse University

sporting event, the athletic department posts a pregame writeup, tracks live stats, gives
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post-game access to media and more. PR professionals can also work on the retail side of sports

with products like energy drinks or athletic wear (Page & Parnell). Finally, the pinnacle of a

sport is the game or match, so marketing and promoting these events to help gain sponsorship is

another key role for sports companies (Page & Parnell).

Working in one of these roles requires professional skills like any other PR professional

should have, as well as sports-specific knowledge. In 2003, David Carter and Darren Rovell,

sports business analysts, stated “Sports organizations… deal with the same challenges faced by

organization and corporation public relations practitioners,” (Heath, 2013). This makes sense

given that athletes and coaches are human and face the same issues that other people do as well.

In a recent example, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden received criticism for racist and

homophobic langauge he used in emails dating back to 2011, which forced him to resign. This

situation can happen in the business world as well, and the same crisis management skills need to

be applied to avoid further harm to the NFL and Las Vegas Raider’s reputation. Additional

public relation skills like research and data analysis might also need to be applied to certain

aspects of the sports world.

Besides traditional communications skills, those in sports also need in-depth knowledge

in sports media, writing, and ethics (Heath). In male professional sport, the masculine imagery of

athletes sometimes allows for unethical moments to slide. For instance, when NFL quarterback

Michael Vick participated in dog fighting, the severity was “‘excused’ of participating in dog

fighting because ‘boys will be boys.’”, but eventually he served time in prison and his football

career was put on halt (Heath). While it definitely takes skill and dealing with athlete-crises can

be a disadvantage, the field is filled with benefits that working broadly in PR won’t provide.
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The advantages of working specifically in sports are plentiful to those who are passionate

about sports themselves. To start, working in sports PR means working around and with athletes

24/7. In a day in the life video of New Mexico State SID Tyler Dunkel, he talked about his busy

life, but said he enjoyed “interacting with the student athletes” and just having small talk with

them (NM State AggieVision, 2010). Working for a professional sports team also offers perks

such as working closely with coveted athletes that people have little access to. Raymond Ritter,

the VP of communications for the Warriors, which won the best PR staff in the NBA in 2017,

talked about handling one of the hottest commodities in sports. He described dealing with almost

30 phone calls or email requests for star point guard Steph Curry, and after the team won the

championship, Ritter and Curry took a photo holding the trophy together (KPIX CBS SF Bay Area,

2017).

Working with big names like Stephen Curry can also mean working hand in hand with

the companies who specialize in sporting goods. In Volume 5 of The Top 100 Case Studies

(2010), the Italian Collectible maker Panini Group acquired a sports trading card company, and

made it their mission to “promote awareness… that Panini was now an official trading card

partner of the NFL” in addition to other goals. Panini was granted an opportunity to interview

rookie players across the league, so it prepared and developed “quirky” questions for the players

in hopes of a viral moment online (Access Intelligence/PR News Press). Panini had measurable

success and generated media buzz with its footage of players dancing, singing and playing

pranks, totaling thousands of views online (Access Intelligence/PR News Press). By a creative

approach and bringing out player personalities, Panini showed how a sporting good company can

maximize profit with a well-formulated PR approach.

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Sporting good companies and professional teams also employ sports marketing tactics as

a way to generate profit. Although PR and marketing sometimes work towards the same goals,

one should note there are key differences similar to those of the PR and marketing of the

business world. In chapter 14 of the HandBook of Public Relations (2001), defining the

relationship between PR and marketing: PR’s most important challenge by James G. Hutton, he

agreed that the two industries share “much in common”. However, he was quick to point out that

marketing is more concerned with product development and retail, whereas PR focuses on

relations with the community, employees, and investors, and works closely with the media

(Heath & Hutton).

This thought process applies to sports business as well. For a company like Nike, who

sells athletic apparel, a PR professional on its team wouldn’t be as concerned with what the

T-shirts look like, and would be more involved with the thought process behind the

advertisement that stood with Colin Kaepernick and represented Nike’s values in 2019.

However, the line is often blurred and both sides are involved in a strategy. In 2017, Rutgers

University placed a hot tub in the student section for a football game (Rapaport, 2017). Pointing

out the distinct difference between PR and marketing could be difficult considering the event

gained publicity from the media but also focused on drawing more fans in attendance for a single

game. In short, Hutton describes different models for how marketing and PR should interact,

depending on the time and circumstance for an organization, the two might work completely

separate or close together.

Statistically speaking, the PR field as a whole is growing and has a positive future. In

PRWeek's 2020 salary report, there were multiple areas of year-on-year increase for median

salaries, including a 8.7 percent for overall PR and 9.8 percent for corporations, with 46% and
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55% satisfaction for base salary in each respectively. PRweek does not give specific description

for sports PR, but on ziprecruiter’s website, a specialization in sports has an average salary of

about $48,000 as of October 7, 2021. Even though it is a comparison of the average to the

median, sports PR salary is low compared to the rest of the PR industry as a whole. However,

with the increasing prevalence of social media in day to day life, sports PR is taking advantage

like many other specializations to help grow companies, and according to The encyclopedia of

public relations, sports PR is “one of the youngest and fastest growing segments of the PR

industry”.

The social network theory, which evaluates multiple aspects of a “network”, shows why

social media is influential today, and why it applies to PR (Heath). Twitter has speed, Facebook

has size, and so on. PR implements social media as a part of its strategies frequently, and in a

survey of multiple companies, "three quarters reported their top offerings were in social media

management and content marketing, with influencer marketing following as a close third,"

(Heath). Today, almost any brand is reliant on social media, whether it's in sports or a different

specialization.

Tiktok, a relatively newer social media giant, has become a prevalent app for sports PR

given its algorithm to present content to specific publics. The NFL currently has 6.7 million

followers on Tiktok and keeps up with current day trends and language of generation-Z, and

according to Tiktok, was the fastest-growing US sports league account on TikTok from the time

it launched through the rest of 2019,” (NFL Tiktok, n.d.). By scrolling through its video feed,

creative uses of unrelated but popular Tiktok sounds generate millions of views. It can also be

found commenting and interacting with other influential creators. For instance the NFL

interacted with Emily Zugay, a satirical content creator who pretends to “upgrade” business
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logos. It actually used her parody logo and went along with the joke, gaining lots of publicity.

Thus, it’s no surprise that the NFL has reached over one billion views and engagements, which

was tracked by the NFL’s social media team (NFL Tiktok). 10 years ago there were few teams

that required PR professionals to oversee social media accounts (NFL Tiktok).

All in all, working in public relations with a specialization in sports is a job I am highly

interested in. While it seems the pay might be a bit lower to work in the sports field, my passion

for sports outweighs that. I think some of the benefits I have researched far outweigh the

pressures of the job. For instance, the potential to work alongside athletes who I looked up to as a

kid is something that would keep me on my toes and engaged. Even when there is negative

publicity or a crisis, I would care deeply about the organization I work for which isn’t something

I can genuinely recreate in another specialization industry.

Based on my research, sports PR is an industry that is as important to a professional

organization or sporting good company as the players and coaches are to them even though

people might not realize it. PR professionals need to be creative, hardworking, and dedicated just

like those who put their talents on the court or field. Together with hard working athletes and

business professionals, sports PR can take the “team” to the next level.
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