May 2010
December 2009
- Sweet P Rebel Headquarters
June 2009
- Comment The power of wind power.
December 2008
- Sweet P 37 Hours in Providence.
Patrick Nero, Commissioner of the America East Conference
Since it is that time of year, we decided to get some insight into the phenomenon that is known as March Madness. Patrick Nero knows the NCAA and the tournament very well. He has seen it from all sides as a former university administrator (at University of Maine and the University of Miami), the NCAA (where he currently sits on the Division I Management Council) and as the Commissioner of the America East Conference.
- Jeremy
In college sports, March brings the madness of the NCAA Championship and the end of the college basketball season. And along with the excitement of the tournament, March also brings opportunities for those of us involved in college sports to work with our corporate partners to generate revenue as well as spread the message about intercollegiate athletics.
For years the NCAA has been very cautious about how the relationship between college sports and the corporate sector has been presented. There exists a paranoia that too much corporate involvement will taint what is presented as amateur collegiate athletics.
From the beginning, the NCAA has been committed to a “clean” venue, meaning no corporate signage in the arena. Today, in both professional and collegiate venues, we are used to arenas that have signage everywhere – from the scoreboard, to the press tables to even in the restrooms.
And while the clean venue remains a central theme, the NCAA has done a very good job of creating partnerships that allow for messaging that’s not so over the top.
One of the ways that the NCAA has added value to its partnerships over the last five years is by capitalizing on the excitement of the Final Four to create ancillary events around the weekend. These events allow corporate partners to market their products while entertaining their own very important clients.
An example of this is the Final Four Festival in Centennial Park in Atlanta this past week. Originally created for the 1996 Olympics, Centennial Park is approximately 10 city blocks of green space in the middle of downtown Atlanta and adjacent to the Georgia Dome where the Final Four was being held.
The NCAA turned this park into a festival atmosphere with four days of live music. Acts like Maroon 5, LL Cool J and Marc Cohen not only attracted different types of crowds each night, they attracted age and economic demographics that would not normally attend a Final Four basketball game.
The NCAA then did a great job of partnering with the likes of Coca Cola, AT&T and Dodge to provide marketing opportunities such as signage, video boards and product display. The inclusion of Final Four-related activities allowed for not only very good attendance numbers but also great diversity.
Corporate Hospitality has become a large piece of most major sporting events over the last 20 years. Attend an event like the Olympics, Super Bowl, Masters or even the Daytona 500 and you will be surprised at the number of large corporations who use these events to cultivate their top customers. This is an area that the NCAA has generally stayed away from in the past. Concerns with issues such as tickets (before the Dome era) and hotels, as well as lack of staff, had left this as a void in the NCAA corporate partner program.
Now that the NCAA has made the decision to play all Final Fours in domed arenas, they have made corporate hospitality a priority. And in somewhat of a controversial move, they signed an agreement with an outside agency named RazorGator to handle corporate hospitality. This agreement also included rights to the secondary ticket market, and it’s this part of the agreement which has come under question.
The partnership with RazorGator began at this years’ Final Four and the results appeared to be successful, with a large VIP area set aside in the Georgia World Congress Center featuring food, beverage and entertainment.
The last bit of growth and maturity we are seeing is the strengthening of the partnership between the NCAA and its television partner, CBS. Anyone who has closely observed the tournament over the last several years could see how well the NCAA has taken advantage of the commercial time that is part of the agreement.
For those involved in college sports, the image of the student-athletes is something of great importance. Each day we work with hundreds of students in many different sports, most of whom take their education as seriously as any other college student, yet commit themselves to excellence in their sport as well. Using the incredible visibility of the Men’s Basketball Championship to spread the message of all its student-athletes is important to all involved in college sports.
The relationships between corporations and the NCAA may always be scrutinized, however, well-managed partnerships can continue to positively impact both parties.
