Contemporary Sports Marketing

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Contemporary Sports Marketing

a b c
Linda Jane Coleman , Mayuresh Kelkar & David A. Goodof
a
Salem State College, School of Business , 352 Lafayette St., Salem, MA, 01970, USA
b
Salem State College , USA
c
Salem State College, School of Business , USA
Published online: 16 Jan 2009.
To cite this article: Linda Jane Coleman , Mayuresh Kelkar & David A. Goodof (2001) Contemporary Sports Marketing, Journal
of Promotion Management, 7:1-2, 195-214, DOI: 10.1300/J057v07n01_12
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SPORTS MARKETING:
CELEBRITY BRANDING
AND PROMOTIONS
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Contemporary Sports Marketing:

Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities
Linda Jane Coleman
Mayuresh Kelkar
David A. Goodof
ABSTRACT. The term “sports marketing” developed in the United

States as a way to analyze and implement strategies in which innovative as
well as tried and true marketing techniques are used to financially support
amateur and professional sports. With costs increasing, purveyors of
sports must look for additional revenue beyond ticket sales and television
fees. Corporations are searching for ways to increase the effective use of
the advertising dollar. The partnership of the two parties has never been
stronger than today, in the U.S. and abroad. In fact, sports collectively cur-
rently make up the 11th largest industry in the country. This article re-
Linda Jane Coleman (MS, Virginia Commonwealth University) is Professor of

Marketing, School of Business, Salem State College, 352 Lafayette St., Salem, MA
01970 (Email: Linda.coleman@salem.mass.edu). Mayuresh Kelkar (PhD, University
of Arkansas) is Assistant Professor of Marketing, Salem State College (Email:
mayuresh.kelkar@salem.mass.edu). David A. Goodof (JD, Suffolk University Law
School) is Associate Professor of Management, School of Business, Salem State Col-
lege (Email: david.goodof@salem.mass.edu).
Journal of Promotion Management, Vol. 7(1/2) 2001
 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 195
196 JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
views the various aspects of the sports marketing mix including

sponsorships, partnerships, the athlete, as well as the upcoming role of the
web. The implications to corporations, the rising female athlete, and future
challenges and opportunities are discussed. [Article copies available for a
fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail ad-
dress: <getinfo@ haworthpressinc.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>
© 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
KEYWORDS. Advertising, athletes, celebrities, endorsements, Internet,

marketing, partnerships, promotions, sponsorships, sports marketing,
women
INTRODUCTION
Sports marketing can be defined as “consist(ing) of all activities de-

signed to meet the needs and wants of sport consumers through ex-
change processes” (Mullin, Hardy, Sutton, 1993). Sports marketing
involves the selling of sponsorship rights to sporting events and addi-
tionally utilizing sports figures as spokespeople to promote the pur-
chase of sports and non-sports products and services, or as one leading
researcher notes, “Sports marketing is a multidimensional field of study
encompassing a wide variety of activities. Typically, sports marketing
is associated with professional sports team trying to increase atten-
dance. However, the field of sports marketing can include everything
from Nike’s ‘I Can’ advertising campaign to Joe’s Garage sponsoring
the local little league team.” (Shank, 1999, preface). As such, sports
marketing can be considered as a part of the broader area of services
marketing.
The United States sports market in the year 2000 amounted to $320
billion, making it the 11th ranked industry in America (Burton, 2000;
Shank, 1999). Given the popularity of athletics, sport sponsorship is
proving to be an effective marketing strategy for many corporations.
The relationship is a two-way one since the influx of monies has proved
equally effective as a revenue producer for sport organizations and the
media who cover their activities.
Indeed, sports marketing has undergone incredible growth in the past
decade-and-a-half. There are a number of factors which explain this
phenomenon. By the late 1980s, the increased costs and decreased ef-
fectiveness of advertising forced many businesses to seek out better
Sports Marketing: Celebrity Branding and Promotions 197
ways to differentiate their products and services in a cluttered market.

Traditional advertising in particular suffered as a growing number of
organizations demanded more return for their promotional dollars
(O’Neal, Finch, Hamilton, & Hammonds, 1987). Sports sponsorships,
for example, have proven to be relatively lower cost compared to other
advertising options. “Advertisers are aiming to get more bang for their
marketing bucks by sponsoring an event itself, rather than just buying
30 seconds of air time during a sports show” (Cook, Melcher, &
Welling, 1987, p. 48).
Through increased visibility of the company and its products or ser-
vices via sport sponsorship, most businesses anticipate increased prod-

uct/service consumption (Turco, 1994). Sponsorships have the added
benefit that sports linkups often reach target audiences in ways that en-
hance a sense of relationship. Sports marketing efforts distinguish
themselves by the special attachment the consumers feel to their favor-
ite sporting events. By their very nature, sports generate tremendous
spectator enthusiasm, high visibility and consumer brand loyalty. As a
result one could expect sports fans to be more receptive to marketing ef-
forts than your average target customer. In addition, businesses who
sponsor sporting events find that they get credit for: (1) demonstrating
good citizenship; (2) showing interest in the community; (3) generating
visibility for products and services; and (4) creating favorable media in-
terest and publicity (Wilkinson as cited in Ensor, 1987, p. 40; McCook,
Turco, and Riley, 1997).
As the popularity of sport sponsorship has increased, so have the
number of sponsorship proposals. Some companies are presented with
over 100 sport sponsorship proposals annually (Shelton, 1991). Part of
the growth in such proposals stems from the expenses incurred when
producing any national or international marketing program. Part can
also be attributed to the increasing costs associated with supporting pro-
fessional athletics whose salaries have skyrocketed. Professional sports
need the support of the business sector to pay for the rising salaries and
ownership costs of running a franchise. Without this influx of cash,
profits would be nonexistent and athletes could not be paid as well as
they are today. For its investment, businesses get tremendous exposure
from their promotion of sports and sporting facilities so there is an ef-
fective synergistic relationship.
Business as a whole has seen great gains from the use of athletes as
spokespersons and product endorsers. Athletes benefit, too, from their
great increase in income as a result of product and service promotion.
The amounts made depend on the attractiveness of the athlete, the mar-
ket in which he or she performs and the popularity of the sport being
played. The financial gains for the athlete are at the whim of the adver-
tiser. As in most fields, there are those athletes who are extremely popu-
lar for endorsement marketing purposes and who will be compensated
accordingly. An evolving strategy involves utilizing retired as well as
active athletes in an increased number of sports.
Given its rising importance, sports marketing definitely needs closer
attention from marketing academics and practitioners alike (Schaaf,
1995; Shank, 1999; Douvis and Douvis, 2000). Even though major ad-
vertising agencies have jumped into this arena, creative ideas have been
somewhat lacking (Ryan, 2000). Nevertheless, the sports industry is a

seedbed for innovative and unique promotional strategies, supplement-
ing more traditional efforts. This article will focus on many trends in
sports marketing. It concentrates on the current advertising and promo-
tional focus of professional sports, sponsors, spokespeople and athletes
in a variety of arenas and techniques that range from classic to high
tech.
SPONSORSHIP
If the boss liked a particular sport or wanted a good seat at the big
game, the company found a sponsorship deal. It didn’t matter how
much it cost or how well the sponsorship performed: Watching from a
prime seat and getting the company sign on-site were de facto measures
of success.
With the explosion in sponsorship options and the dramatic increases
in the price of these options, executive perquisites are not as persuasive
as they used to be. Today’s sponsorships are meant to appeal to the
company’s target market.
More corporations are seeking to tie their name to a facility, a team,
an event, or more effectively an athlete. Sports sponsorship is growing
at an outstanding rate: 138% in the past 10 years alone. Companies such
as Coca-Cola paid over $40 million to be an exclusive sponsor of the
1996 Olympic Games (Regan, 1998).
Yet cost cutting can affect the dynamics of sports marketing as seen
by Nike parting ways with the Italian national soccer team, a $15 mil-
lion dollar a year sponsorship of the team. This was once seen as a jewel
of the company’s soccer sports marketing program (AP News, 1999).
Scandals can cause suffering in a variety of ways. The Salt Lake
City’s Olympic corruption scandal may well have affected the commer-
cial value of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, even though Samsung Elec-
tronics Co. were among those not abandoning sponsorships–in their
case, a $45 million investment (Associated Press, 1999; Krupa, 1999,
February 19; Wells, 1999).
Veryfine Products Inc., a Westford manufacturer of fruit-based bev-
erages, is an example of a firm trying to use sports marketing to lever-
age consumer awareness. Veryfine recently became a player in the
ever-crowded, hotly competitive sports marketing arena, after signing
sponsorship agreements with American Skiing Co., the largest ski re-
sort owner-operator in the United States, and Minor League Baseball.
This is a big challenging marketing move for Veryfine, which until now
has mostly used radio spots and billboards to plug its more than 50 vari-
eties of fruit beverages (Bushnell, 1999).
THE ATHLETE AS A SPOKESPERSON
The marketing of professional athletes is becoming a sophisticated

science that is cribbing most of its rules and equations from classic con-
sumer marketing techniques (Nucifora, 1998).
The National Basketball Association’s (NBA’s) Michael Jordan
scored as much for corporate America as he did for the Bulls. It is not an
exaggeration to say that because of him sports marketing will never be
the same. In dollar terms, Jordan was even more successful as a corpo-
rate spokesman ($45 million in 1998) than he was on the basketball
court ($35 million). “He’s the most amazing endorser ever,” says Rick
Burton, director of the sports marketing center at the University of Ore-
gon. “He’s handsome, articulate, classy. He had a purity to his perfor-
mance on court and off. It’s hard to find the perfect celebrity these days”
(Peyer, 1999).
Also in the top ten endorsements, according to Bob Williams, presi-
dent of Burns Sports Celebrity Service, are Tiger Woods, Grant Hill,
and Shaquille O’Neal. Most earn a lot less than Jordan. Tiger
Woods–number two in endorsements–earns only about half of what
Jordan does. Since their home run derby, Mark McGuire and Sammy
Sosa have signed only $2 million in endorsement deals combined. Sales
of shirts, shoes, and other products bearing athletes’ names fell 8% in
1998 although it is still a $12.6 billion dollar industry (Peyser, 1999).
Some of the sports negativism has not been helped due to lockouts, and
poor conduct by teams, coaches and individuals professionally and/or
personally.
GROWING IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN ATHLETES
Janet Guthrie said that she harbors no malice that times have
changed. Even back 22 years ago, while a target of endless “woman
driver” jokes as the first female to drive in the Indianapolis 500, Guthrie
was able to shrug off the sexist ridicule, the gratuitous barbs. “Mostly I
could laugh at it,” Guthrie recalled. “I really did think it was funny”
(Nuebrer, 1999).
If Guthrie carries any sadness, it is that she didn’t get a chance to
prove herself year after year. Despite a solid early career in both Indy
cars and on the NASCAR stock-car circuit, she was able to find
top-level sponsorship for only three seasons.
“I wish I had been able to go on, but no money, no race,” she said.
“That remains a problem for many women athletes. I was shocked and
dismayed. You can compare my record in my 11 Indy-car races of any
of the superstars, and I think you would find the comparison quite de-
cent. I had a hard time reconciling myself to that. It was a sport I loved
very much” (Huebner, 1999).
Male athletes have dominated media exposure and lucrative endorse-
ments while their female counterparts have not. Nevertheless, profes-
sional female sports figures are becoming more popular and as a result
are receiving larger endorsement contracts from sport specific and
non-sport specific corporations (Veltri, 1998). The 1996 Summer
Olympic Games, the WNBA and the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team have
produced many female endorsers.
The sight of the Women’s U.S. World Cup Soccer Team kicking
their way to victory against China on July 10, 1999, was a thrilling and
perhaps historic moment for women’s sports. Now that women’s soccer
is here, it apparently isn’t going away anytime soon. There is even talk
of a women’s professional league (Hyman, 1999, July 26).
A growing trend among American corporations is to increase the use
of female athletes as product endorsers secondary to the growth of the
female sports market and the stagnation and saturation of the men’s
market. With the development of professional women’s leagues, corpo-
rations are interested in hiring these new sports figures. Corporations
are competing for the use of sportswomen as advertising models in an
attempt to boost product image, sales, and loyalty. However, female
professional athletes are still well behind professional male athletes
when it comes to product endorsement opportunities (Veltri, 1998).
Gatorade teamed up with the Women’s Sports Foundation to encour-
age even more of the under-18 set to be like Mia, rather than like Mike.
U.S. Soccer Team champion Mia Hamm appears in a new Gatorade ad

that coincides with the debut of the partnership. The three-year deal be-
tween the Quaker Oats Company division and the non-profit organiza-
tion hopes to inspire more females to get involved in athletics. The
centerpiece of the joint venture is a female-friendly sport and fitness
website (Petrecca, 2000).
Gatorade sponsorship of female sports is backed with a TV ad featur-
ing Ms. Hamm, as well as Women’s National Basketball League star
Chamique Holdsclaw, world champion runner Marion Jones and tennis
great Billie Jean King.
NOSTALGIA WORKS
Old athletes just aren’t fading away anymore, which explains why
superstar retirees like George Foreman, John Elway, Wayne Gretzky,
and of course Michael Jordan are still earning millions hawking
long-distance telephone service [Jordan], beer [Elway], pain relievers
[Gretzky], tires [Gretzky], clothes [Jordan], golf retailers [Elway], and
gizmos like George Foreman’s Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Ma-
chine.
The trend was validated when Foreman at 51 signed a stunning en-
dorsement deal with Salton, a $506 million a year cookware manufac-
turer, making the two-time former heavyweight champion one of the
richest spokescelebs ever. A hit on the infomercial circuit, Foreman
helped sell more than eight million of Salton’s grills in 1999, up from
200,000 in 1996 (Johnson, 2000).
Foreman’s inclusion in the new geriatric endorsement elite three
years after his retirement is a shocker. Once a chiseled but angry fighter
with little appeal, Foreman is now a cuddly figure with self-deprecating
humor and keen marketing instincts. “People are hungry for nice and
honest,” he says. “We were so poor when I was growing up we couldn’t
afford carpet. But when a vacuum salesman came to our house, he was
so nice my mom bought one. Before the product comes nice. If it works,
the sky’s the limit” (Johnson, 2000).
Tennis great Jimmy Connors joins this recent trend of retired athletes
doing adds for pain relief products as he agrees to star in a campaign for
Homedics, makers of Thera P Magnetic Wave product line. The print
ads ran in publications such as People, Newsweek, O, The Oprah Maga-
zine and U.S. News & World Report. Hall of Fame baseball pitcher
Nolan Ryan pitches American Home Products, Advil, while former
hockey star Wayne Gretzky appears in ads for Tylenol. It makes sense
for the pitch people to be the age that the target markets can identify
with and were their favorites (Goetzl, 2000).
PARTNERSHIPS
Stephen Astephen saw an important opening regarding extreme

sports and extreme athletes and launched Families, a sports manage-
ment firm. It is becoming more important to do right by clients and cus-
tomers’ in this arena. In the example of the X Games, ESPN’s

EXTREME sports festival drew 55 million TV viewers the summer of
1999–including one out of every four American teenagers. Astephen re-
cently took on former pro snowboarder Circe Wallace as a partner. Ex-
treme athletes are particular about “street credibility,” often spurning
the Jags-and-rags endorsements most sports agents actively pursue.
Some X-athletes won’t entertain pitches from cigarette or alcohol com-
panies, and some reject brands that depict their sport as a sideshow. On
the other hand, snowboarder Barrett Christy inked lucrative deals with
Nike in 1999 and will net over $200,000 from endorsements. Polo ads
featuring snowboarder Andy Hetzel contributed handsomely to the
more than $100,000 he earned in 1999–and to a second career as a
model. BMX biker Dave Mirra is promoting his own Adidas sneakers
and his own videogame, and pocketed $700,000 in 2000 (Goldman,
2000). These rough sports are getting plenty of media play these days,
with NBC-TV adding its own extreme competition.
Baseball’s New York Yankees and the NBA’s New Jersey Nets offi-
cials signed a letter of intent to create a holding company called Yankee
Nets. This adds to a growing list of corporate siblings from different
sports. Marketing experts say the pairings could give teams more clout
in selling broadcast rights to their games and create a chance for spon-
sors to obtain wider, sometimes year-round, exposure for their mes-
sages. The alliances also give each team easy access to the other’s fans,
creating opportunities for each of them to sell more tickets and trinkets.
Other alliances include The Walt Disney Co., which owns Major
League Baseball’s Anaheim Angels and hockey’s Anaheim Mighty
Ducks. Time Warner Inc. owns baseball’s Atlanta Braves and the
NBA’s Atlanta Hawks as well as hockey’s Atlanta Thrashers, who be-
gan play fall of 1999. Madison Square Garden, in part owned by
Cablevision Systems Corp., owns the New York Knicks in basketball
and hockey’s Flyers in Philadelphia. The Denver Nuggets of the NBA
and the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL are owned by Ascent Enter-
tainment’s Group (Wollenberg, 1999).
GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERNET
David Stern, NBA league’s respected, 57-year-old commissioner, is

connecting to the future of the NBA with the ambitious new digital net-
work called NBA.comTV. With the Golden Age of Jordan over and the
lockout behind it, the NBA is seeking its digital future. Commissioner
Stern now wants to see pro hoops on laptops and hand-held personal
communication devices.
Nearly half-way through the 1999-2000 campaign, average atten-
dance was down almost 2% from the already depressed lockout level
experienced the year before, a trend continued into the 2000-2001 sea-
son. Television ratings for NBA games have sunk to levels not seen
since Jordan led the Bulls to their first title in 1991. Gross retail sales of
NBA licensed products have plummeted more than 50% since 1995,
down to $1 billion in 1999. Interestingly, that is less than NASCAR sold
in licensed goods in 1999 (Roth, 2000).
NBA.comTV, launched in November 1999 (think NBA meets MTV
meets WebTV), is Stern’s dot-com vision to make pro basketball acces-
sible to fans worldwide through their televisions, computers, wireless
phones, hand-held computers, or whatever Internet devices roll out in
the future. The NBA Commissioner says, “Whether the fight to get into
the home is ultimately won by DSL or cable TV modem or wireless, the
issue is content and we think we have content.” Stern thinks content is
something not just fans but also Wall Street will crave. He is having dis-
cussions with the investment bank Chase H&Q about taking part of the
NBA public. The new entity could include not only the league’s Internet
assets–NBA.com, a digitized library of games, and NBA.comTV–but
perhaps all of NBA Entertainment, which includes consumer products,
licensing, global TV distribution, home video, videogames, and pub-
lishing.
Stern’s strategy has been an easy sell to his bosses, the owners. No
wonder–a lot of them are already tech heads. The strategy may be yet
another version of the bedrock business of the 21st century: Go digital
and go public (Roth, 2000). Among web-based companies, Yahoo has
benefited greatly by sponsoring Major League Soccer and local hockey
teams such as the San Jose Sharks. “We feel that the passion and excite-
ment fans have for sports is something people have toward the Yahoo
brand,” says Cindy Bishop, brand manager for Yahoo! Sports

(Reidman, 1999).
Focusing on the young, techno-savvy people around the world inter-
ested in the web, IBM sponsored the 2000 U.S. Open Tournament for
the key target of the multimillion dollar sports marketing program as
“Next Generation,” 24-34 year-olds who are thoroughly familiar with
the web and will be future purchasers as well as key decision-makers
and implementers of technology in their workplaces. The company uses
this event to tout its hardware, software and services to run e-busi-
nesses. IBM also created and runs the official U.S. Open website
(usopen.org) (Elkin, 2000).

Nevertheless, how the Internet will be used most effectively is still an
open question, with continuing uncertainty over profitability issues
(Casky, 1998; Duncan and Campbell, 1999; Kahle and Meeske, 1999).
NEW APPROACHES:
SPORTS PATCHES
To increase revenue, Major League Baseball teams have covered sta-

dium fences and dugout walls with commercial signs and added rotat-
ing advertising behind home plate. MLB has considered selling small
patches of advertising on the uniform sleeves of its players as a new way
to increase team revenue. Although baseball uniforms are regarded as
among the most traditional in sports, they have undergone market-
ing-induced changes over the years. Teams have changed uniform and
cap designs, or added new jerseys for special occasions, to enhance the
sale of licensed replica jerseys in retail outlets.
Baseball is also considering whether its licensed apparel makers
should make replica uniforms bearing the logos of the advertisers who
buy the patches (Sandomir, 1999). Baseball’s tentative plan would
probably have teams sell the advertising patches to local corporations.
When revenue reached a certain level, it might be shared with other
clubs. Only companies in the tobacco, alcohol and broadcast businesses
would be barred from the program. Until now, baseball has uniforms to
bear only the manufacturer’s logo. Currently, an “R” is visible on the
sleeves, for Russell Athletic. In the National Football League, uniforms
carry the logo of one of four apparel makers–Nike, Puma, Adidas or
Starter–on both jersey sleeves. At the opposite end of the spectrum are
athletes in sports such as auto racing; the jump suits of NASCAR driv-
ers are plastered with the logos of their sponsors. Golfers and tennis
players also wear caps and shirts with logos (Sandomir, 1999).
Even Little League Baseball is not immune from the corporate spon-
sorship issue. Although its goal is to keep Little League as free of spon-
sorship as possible, the annual operating budget of approximately $13.6
million cannot be passed on in full to the leagues. Accordingly, the thir-
teen corporate sponsors pay between $200,000 to $300,000 annually
for a minimum of three years and are expected to assist in devising
fundraising programs for the various Little Leagues worldwide. The
companies get to be a presence at the Little League World Series yearly,
get to use the Little League emblem in their advertising and also get ac-
cess to a database of more than three million children and one million
adults. Little League expansion (the next World Series will have double
the number of teams) will increase the need for money and perhaps the
further need for corporate sponsorship (Hyman, 2000, September 4).
NASCAR
In 1971, when R.J. Reynolds was no longer allowed to advertise on

TV, it coughed up $100,000 to sponsor the Winston Cup races. Before
that, Corporate America’s biggest involvement with NASCAR was
when the fuel additive company STP Corp. paid Richard Petty a few
bucks to paint its logo on his car.
Although it was slowly building a national following, NASCAR was
largely ignored by TV until 1979 when CBS aired the Daytona 500
flag-to-flag for the first time. Now every Winston Cup race–and a grow-
ing number of events on the Busch Grand National circuit, NASCAR’s
equivalent of Triple A baseball, are televised live on network or cable
TV. In 1998, says IEG Sponsorship Report, big business pumped $476
million into NASCAR. Only the National Football League generates
higher average ratings among major sports. According to Brian France,
Executive Vice President of NASCAR, “this television deal is going to
be the booster rocket to take us to the next level as a sport” (Dunnavant,
1999).
RJR Nabisco alone invested about $20 million in NASCAR during
2000 and corporations as diverse as Eastman Kodak, Texaco, and Proc-
tor & Gamble will spend anywhere from $5 million to $10 million a
year to be identified closely with major drivers. Hewlett-Packard be-
came one of four sponsors contributing a total of $30 million to
NASCAR and is on board to provide computing equipment and support
for racing star Jackie Stewart’s team in hundreds of events over a sev-
eral year period. HP has already helped the Stewart team create the
first-ever race car designed entirely on HP computers.
STADIUM NAMING
With the growing trend away from public financing of stadiums for
privately owned professional sports teams, and with the increase in con-
struction costs, it is necessary that every possible source of financing be
explored. The goals of all professional sports teams include winning a

championship and making money. The means to both are a competitive
advantage and in sport this involves having a venue that will support a
quality product. The Boston Red Sox are an example of a team that is
competitive but does not have the ability to go out and buy what is
needed to take them to that next level, the championship. And this is
true despite having the highest ticket prices in baseball. Part of this is
the tremendous escalation of salaries in professional sports in general
and part is the stadium is simply too small and antiquated to give them
the finances needed to win. Other teams simply want a new stadium be-
cause their current ones have become too old and too costly to repair.
One of the sources of financing that has become very popular in re-
cent years is the sale of the naming rights to the stadium. Recently the
New England Patriots sold the naming rights to CMGI, Inc. For the
privilege of having a stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, named CMGI
Field, CMGI will pay the Patriots $7.6 million per year for fifteen years.
3Com Corp. has done the same in San Francisco, with PSINet in Balti-
more and others having followed suit (Syre, 2000). These are not retail-
ers who sell to the general public. David Wetherell, founder and CEO of
CMGI, estimates that its name will be mentioned more than 2.6 billion
times each year as a result of this. Additionally, it will give a boost to the
company on the stock market (Vaillancourt, 2000).
The Patriots gain from this sale by having more money to buy players
and to pay the debt service on their new privately-funded stadium. In
addition, CMGI was chosen over allegedly greater offers because of its
ability to partner with the Patriots in providing technology to the sta-
dium in the future, including smart seats with hand-held computers to
enable spectators to access statistics about athletes along with perform-
ing many other functions.
In addition to the non-retailers who have been involved, many retail-
ers are paying large sums of money to name stadiums. Staples, in 1997,
paid $116 million over twenty years to name the Staples Center in
downtown Los Angeles. Executives of Staples say that this investment
has been worth it, especially given the recent Democratic National Con-
vention held in L.A. FedEx paid $205 million for naming rights for a
new football field in Washington and the deal for American Airlines
Center in Dallas was worth $180 million. The publicity certainly
strengthens brand recognition (Sanders, 2000).
The general trends seem to indicate that teams will sell the advertis-
ing and naming rights to facilities, sell advertising during games at are-
nas, allow advertising on uniforms and will form partnerships to
increase their marketing attractiveness. Individual athletes want to play

where they can get the greatest amount of advertising dollars. As
women’s sports grow and become more popular, marketing dollars for
these sports will increase. This trend has been increasing with women’s
basketball and soccer most recently. Active as well as retired athletes
are being utilized to expand the awareness and interest in the ever-in-
creasing sports arenas.
THE MASTERS:
WHERE LESS IS MORE
For the golf industry the mystique of The Masters, the tradition-rich
tournament, is probably best summed up by a simple principle: Less is
more. The buttoned-down, tight-lipped members of the Augusta Na-
tional Golf Club who runs The Masters have proved themselves masters
of managing supply (Hyman, 2000, April 17).
If you have week-long passes, you probably inherited them from
your great-grandfather. The estimated 40,000 badges are the most
sought-after in sports, and the waiting list closed two decades ago. Mas-
ters golf paraphernalia is not much easier to come by. Shirts, visors,
towels, and other items carrying the distinctive flagstick logo are sold
only at souvenir pavilions and the pro shop–and only during tournament
week.
If The Masters peddled its wares on the Web or loosened curbs on
corporate hospitality tents–only a few longtime sponsors have them–it
might be one of the great cash cows in sports, alongside the Super Bowl
and NCAA Final Four. As it is, The Masters is no pauper. Although the
club zealously guards its numbers, revenue estimates run from $20 mil-
lion to $25 million (Hyman, 2000, April 17).
It is believed that The Masters will continue leaving money on the ta-
ble. Its almost cavalier attitude toward cash allows the all-male, over-
whelmingly white membership of Augusta National to retain steely
control. The less these anti-sports-marketers trumpet their tournament,
the larger its legend seems to grow. “The Masters is absolutely unique
in all of sports. There is a real feeling that they want you to worship
from afar. See it, experience it, but don’t get too close,” says sports-
marketing consultant William A. Sutton.
“If you’re launching a sporting event now, you’re fighting every day
for people’s attention. First thing, you throw up a Web site. Then you
try to get writers buzzing about it,” says Sutton. “The Masters is just the
opposite. It doesn’t need to do any of that. It’s positioned itself as this
regal event.”
Television helps with the tease. CBS has been the only network to
televise The Masters since its TV debut 45 years ago. It has held on to
this plum largely because it abides by a list of unusual terms dictated by
the club: a limit of four minutes of commercial breaks per hour, a ban on
annoying promos for regular network shows, and a sharp limit on air
time (Hyman, 2000, April 17).
ONE COMPANY’S GLOBAL APPLICATIONS:

HEWLETT-PACKARD
Hewlett-Packard Co. is stepping up its use of international sports

sponsorships as a powerful way to reach a wider audience of global
business decision-makers. HP served its first-ever tour of duty as an of-
ficial information technology supplier to the World Cup soccer tourna-
ment in France in 1998. HP was looking for new ways to expose their
brand to a broad spectrum of customers around the world. HP is playing
a bigger role in sports sponsorship, maximizing opportunities to show-
case its brands through in-event presence (Fitzgerald, 1998).
In France, HP entertained more than 4,000 customers at soccer
events giving key customers prime seats and opportunities to meet soc-
cer players. “Corporate hospitality is a big part of marketing, and it’s
going to continue to play a role as we move into new markets,” said Mi-
chael Fournell, HP’s director of international public relations. HP also
perceived on-site signage and in-event presence by providing more than
2,000 personal computers and equipping 10 press rooms with computer
hardware and network servers to the event’s organizers. HP aims to ce-
ment its role as a long-term support as a World Cup sponsor in 2002, as
IBM Corp. has been a long-term sponsor of the Olympics (Fitzgerald,

1998). HP has established sponsorship deals, as well, with international
bicycling events, including the Hewlett-Packard International Women’s
Challenge and is also a long-term backer of France’s Tour de France.
HP is also prominent in developing the sailboat and the racing tech-
nology to be used by Skipper Paul Cayard as a major sponsor of the
Americas Cup yachting competition. As with their involvement with
the World Cup, HP has channeled its AmericaOne involvement for key
corporate hospitality efforts (Fitzgerald, 1998).
DRAWBACKS OF SPORTS MARKETING
Celebrity advertising can have a downside. Professional sports such

as basketball and celebrity advertising have given rise to unsavory per-
sonalities such as Dennis Rodman. The uncouth behavior of Rodman is
an indication of the evil and corruption generated by the advertising
methods of big corporations. Rodman’s totally undisciplined attitude of
missing a day’s work, insulting the boss and belittling of co-workers are
totally unacceptable in a corporate environment but were often ignored
because of his celebrity status (Calabria, 1998).
In March 1999, however, Converse Inc. told Dennis Rodman the
buzzer had sounded and the game is over. After a continuing series of
untoward events involving the forward for the National Basketball As-
sociation’s Los Angeles Lakers, the company quietly ended his $15
million endorsement deal. Converse exercised an exit clause built into
his contract about a year before it expired (Krupa, 1999, March 23).
“The whole idea was to use Rodman’s obvious visibility to increase
the numbers in the basketball shoe area–where sales are flat indus-
try-wide–to try to solidify the core business while expanding into fash-
ion and performance sneakers,” said Gregg Hartly, executive director
of the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association. “It didn’t work.
Dennis was always in the spotlight more for his personality problems
than what he did on the court” (Krupa, 1999, March 23).
Marketing experts wondered from the beginning whether Rodman’s
unpredictability would hurt Converse more than not having a major
NBA endorser. Then, on July 15, 1997, just seven months into the deal,
Converse’s shares fell 5.9% in heavy trading. Investors were said to be
concerned that the demand for Rodman’s shoe, the All-Star ’99, was
more than 10% lower than the company and industry observers had ex-
pected (Krupa, 1999, March 23). Just recently, the last major manufac-
turer of sporting shoes in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy reorganization.
In March 1999, ESPN threatened to pull out of its contract to televise
The America’s Cup because rival Fox Sports Net signed a contract to
have its logos plastered on Young America’s Yachts. An agreement
was reached by Fox Sports Net to let the New York Yacht Club syndi-
cate the sponsorship deal so that the event’s TV status wouldn’t be
placed in jeopardy. The ESPN contract stated that Fox Sports Net ads
would appear on the sails and hulls of two of Young America’s Yachts
America’s Cup races (Goodman, 1999).
Fox Sports Net spokesman Vince Wladika said, “When we gave

money to help build a winning U.S. entrant, we did it to bring the Cup
back to America, and it was a good marketing opportunity. When it be-
came apparent the television network was willing to sacrifice the event
along with America’s chances of reclaiming the Cup, we felt it was our
duty to put our own interest behind that of America’s reclamation of the
Cup.”
John Marshall, president of Youth America, said “Out of respect for
the America’s Cup, Fox Sports has generously agreed to release us from
the contractual obligations that ESPN objected to. Fox Sports Net
agrees with us that our partnership has fueled a dispute that was becom-
ing a distraction from our mission of winning a Cup” (Goodman, 1999).
CONCLUSIONS
The synergistic relationship between business and sport shows evi-

dence of ongoing growth, with the expansion of the sports industry also
creating more sports-related jobs. The continued escalation of the cost
of sports insures the need for the influx of the marketing dollar, which is
moving in a variety of directions from traditional to high tech. New tele-
vision and sport contracts are being signed regularly, despite uncertain-
ties over whether audiences will continue to be there. These commercial
agreements will be in addition to the sales of stadium naming rights and
the promotion of products by athletes. The continuing globalization of
sports marketing also means such formally national sports such as base-
ball, basketball and football are taking a greater hold in other countries,
with their star performers gaining international fame as well.
As ever-changing as sports marketing is, and with the increasingly
significant and pervasive cultural role it plays, there is surprisingly lim-
ited academic work available. There remains much room for examin-
ing, discussing and expanding our understanding of this promotional

area. As this article touches on, the possibilities are limitless and as
ideas are developed and fine-tuned the effects can continue to be excit-
ing and lucrative.
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Received: August 14, 2000

Revised: October 26, 2000
Accepted: December 8, 2000

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On: 03 December 2014, At: 12:57

Journal of Promotion Management

Contemporary Sports Marketing

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J057v07n01_12

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Contemporary Sports Marketing:

ABSTRACT. The term “sports marketing” developed in the United

Linda Jane Coleman (MS, Virginia Commonwealth University) is Professor of

views the various aspects of the sports marketing mix including

KEYWORDS. Advertising, athletes, celebrities, endorsements, Internet,

Sports marketing can be defined as “consist(ing) of all activities de-

ways to differentiate their products and services in a cluttered market.

vices via sport sponsorship, most businesses anticipate increased prod-

somewhat lacking (Ryan, 2000). Nevertheless, the sports industry is a

THE ATHLETE AS A SPOKESPERSON

The marketing of professional athletes is becoming a sophisticated

GROWING IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN ATHLETES

U.S. Soccer Team champion Mia Hamm appears in a new Gatorade ad

Stephen Astephen saw an important opening regarding extreme

tomers’ in this arena. In the example of the X Games, ESPN’s

GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE INTERNET

David Stern, NBA league’s respected, 57-year-old commissioner, is

brand,” says Cindy Bishop, brand manager for Yahoo! Sports

(usopen.org) (Elkin, 2000).

To increase revenue, Major League Baseball teams have covered sta-

In 1971, when R.J. Reynolds was no longer allowed to advertise on

explored. The goals of all professional sports teams include winning a

increase their marketing attractiveness. Individual athletes want to play

ONE COMPANY’S GLOBAL APPLICATIONS:

Hewlett-Packard Co. is stepping up its use of international sports

IBM Corp. has been a long-term sponsor of the Olympics (Fitzgerald,

DRAWBACKS OF SPORTS MARKETING

Celebrity advertising can have a downside. Professional sports such

Fox Sports Net spokesman Vince Wladika said, “When we gave

The synergistic relationship between business and sport shows evi-

ing, discussing and expanding our understanding of this promotional

ment, 9(1), 42-49.

Received: August 14, 2000

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