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Essay 4 – Marketing Strategies & Facility Disasters

Scottlyn Cottrell

KINE 5308

Dr. Bartee
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Marketing Strategies

Introduction

Marketing is one of the most important departments for an event and facilities manager.

This is the department that makes sure people are coming to events and helps to bring in the

money for the entire facility. This is also a department that is commonly overlooked because of

the thought that people will just come to the events or that other departments are more necessary.

This can cause a lot of issues later in the life of the facility because it can put them behind long-

term for development. In relation to a college athletic department the marketing director is one of

the more important positions for the department. If this coordinator is not good at their job the

entire department suffers horribly. Being lazy, or thinking that doing the work for marketing is

not the focus of the role is a common occurrence and can cost an athletic department dearly in a

lot of ways. If the fans are not feeling engaged at the event, or if they are feeling like they are not

important then they will be less likely to return for another event in the future. This is almost

entirely avoidable if the correct marketing person is in charge and is able to convey to the fans

how their presence is important and how they are welcomed. This paper will look into how

marketing strategies have changed over the last 10 years, and how technology has fueled that

change.

Evolution of Marketing

The history of sports marketing is fascinating. Some of the best commercials for sports

were at the beginning of television. Michael Jordan really became an icon because of his

incredible basketball skills, but he was able to reach so many generations because of the way he

was marketed. Nike’s deal with Jordan, creating the brand Jordan was a huge turning point in

sports marketing and his commercials saying ‘Be like Mike’ were able to reach even more kids.
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This marketing strategy, as well as, ‘Bo knows’ created a market that grew the need for athletes

in marketing and this really changed the landscape of sports marketing. Athlete sponsorships

have really taken off for businesses these last 10 years. The contracts that are signed between

brands and athletes, or teams, are lucrative deals that can sometimes triple their already high

paycheck. Having the best athletes for your brand is key for marketing now days. Thinking about

the current state of marketing, Steph Curry has created a brand for himself with the Brita deal

and his Under Armour deal. When Steph Curry first started his NBA career he was signed with

Nike and after some mishaps he turned to Under Armour. He has created a new brand with that

deal and this has in turn really helped to grow Under Armour’s market and allowed them to grow

their sales tremendously. This is just one example of how the evolution of sports sponsorships

have grown and changed so much over the years, but especially in the past 10 years.

Video gaming has also changed sports marketing quite a bit over the last 10 years. This

has allowed for kids who may not have grown up watching sports, but playing video games to

become sports fans. One article presents some interesting information, “Then, in 2011, a

significant portion of American soccer fans said they became fans by playing soccer video

games, skipping right over the phase of enhancing interest by playing video games to causing

people to become fans by playing video games” (Luker, 2015). EA sports has created their own

sporting world within ESPN and has allowed for sports to become even more in tune with the

lives of fans. They now are able to play sports and have contact with sports at any and all times.

They are now in a time where they can go to the gym or field and play, watch game on TV, and

then at night play the games. It has submerged people in sports, and this allows the market to

grow and in turn sky rocket video games. The leagues and associations are able to profit

themselves off the likeness.

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Social media also has changed the landscape for athletics marketing. This is because of

the ability to freely market to fans and get word out about events or games. This is also because

of the ability for teams and athletes to profit off of their tweets. This goes hand in hand with

sports sponsorships because of the ability to profit while being a brand ambassador and for the

brand to get their name out there. This is a more recent feature of social media where ads have

taken over athletes’ feeds. There is from the Internets’ ability to reach almost everyone and it can

unify or divide people, and sports are a huge aspect of this new normal.

Conclusion

Overall marketing has changed so much of the landscape of sports and has allowed for

the sporting realm to reach more people, and make more fans. This also has increased revenue

for sporting teams and the leagues as a whole. From a Biblical perspective the verse that best fits

this concept is Mark 8:36. This verse says, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole

world and forfeit his soul?” This verse fits this because of the need to do things for others and in

service of others. This is the role of being a Christian and being a true servant. Being in charge of

marketing is not something that can be done selfishly because it is naturally a selfless act. This

means that there has to be no glory wanted or needed, just like what is involved with being a

Christian.
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Sport Facility Disasters

Introduction

Sadly, any time there are large groups of people crowded together into a facility there is

always a risk of disaster. There are so many things that have to go right for a event to be

successful, and there are so many things that can go wrong to create a huge disaster for a facility.

This paper will examine one disaster and how it was handled correctly, and how it was also

handled incorrectly.

The Disaster

In 1964, the world’s worst stadium disaster took place. This happened in Lima, Peru

during a soccer game. The game had a groundbreaking attendance of 53,000, which was the max

limit for the stadium. During the game two fans ran onto the field to protest the game and this

caused a riot to break out. During the riot the police started throwing tear gas at the fans and

ended up allowing 300 people to die from the gas and being trampled during the outbreak of

violence. There were also people who died from gunshots and the police are the ones who

needed to control the chaos, and they just added to it. This can definitely be labeled as the worst

disaster, and the worst part of it is that it was entirely avoidable. The police did not handle this in

the correct way at all. Yes, spectators should have stayed off the field and allowed the game to

play out, even when there was discord with the game. This does not justify the death of 300

people.

The game of soccer has true fans, and in other countries the passion these fans have for

the sport is remarkable. “Many of the football fans who escaped from the tear gas, certainly

wanted revenge on the police. Two policemen were reportedly killed inside the stadium, and

battles continued on the streets outside” (Edwards, 2014). This should never be what happens at
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a sporting event, even though there is a divide that comes from sports, this should never translate

into violence and especially death. The death of 300 people who wanted to just watch a game,

and innocent people who just got caught in the cross hairs.

This is an incredibly sad thing that happened, that never should have happened. This is a

big issue with safety at sporting events. One thing that can be determined to have been handled

right about the situation is that people can learn from it and hopefully never allow for something

like this to happen again. The other part of it that was handled correctly was that “the police

commander who gave the order to fire the tear gas was sentenced to 30 months in jail” (Edwards,

2014). It is important to look back at history and learn from it and grow from it. This is a case

where something can be learned and avoided in the future.

Conclusion

Overall this is a terrible tragedy that should have never happened. This hopefully can

never happen again. From a biblical perspective this is very relatable because there is tragedy all

the time and as Christians we have to look to God in the face of tragedy always. The verse that

fits this concept best is Psalm 55:22. This says, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain

you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.” This is so needed to remember in any disaster or

tragedy that we as Christians run into.

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References

Edwards, P. (2014, May 23). Lima 1964: The world's worst stadium disaster. Retrieved from

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27540668

Fried, G. (2015). Managing sport facilities. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Luker. (2015). How video game technology creates sports fans. Retrieved from

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/01/26/Research-and-

Ratings/UpNext-with-Rich-Luker.aspx

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments. (2002). Oxford: Oxford University

Press.