пятница, 14 сентября 2012 г.

Sports marketing execs agree: It's mostly about marketing.(The Dallas Morning News) - Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service

Matt Fitzgerald landed his job as senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Dallas Mavericks, in part, because he liked pickup basketball games at the Premier Club.

That's where he met Mark Cuban, back in the days when the Mavericks owner was just another anonymous Internet billionaire.

'Just over the course of a couple of years, I got to know him,' said Fitzgerald, who was then a senior marketing manager for Coca-Cola Co. 'And I'll never forget the day last January when he came up to me and said, `Hey, did you buy your Mavericks season tickets?' I said `No. Why would I do something like that?' He goes, `Because I'm going to buy the team tomorrow.' '

About two months later, when Coke offered Fitzgerald a promotion, he consulted Cuban about whether he should take it.

'That's when he said to me, `I want to talk to you about coming on board with the Mavericks,' ' Fitzgerald said.

'I wound up having a lunch meeting with him in March, and I had actually prepared a document called `Restaging the Dallas Mavericks.' We went through that, just to kind of demonstrate the level of thinking that I could bring, and by the end of the lunch he had offered me the job.'

Fitzgerald's story illustrates two truths about careers in sports sales and marketing _ there are few direct routes to a job with your favorite team, and a professional sports background is not a prerequisite.

A background in marketing, however, is required, Fitzgerald said.

'There's definitely a learning curve in terms of understanding the business, but marketing is marketing, and there are a lot of things you can apply,' he said.

Jeff Cogen's career path took him from the big top to the top marketing job for the Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers and Mesquite Championship Rodeo.

Cogen is executive vice president of marketing and communications for Southwest Sports Group, which is owned by Dallas businessman Tom Hicks and handles marketing for Hicks' sports-related enterprises. But his first job out of college was with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

His responsibilities included traveling ahead of the show to book arenas and sell tickets and to negotiate advertising and sponsorships with local media outlets.

'One of my towns, by happenstance, was Detroit, Mich., where I brought the circus to a place called Joe Louis Arena,' Cogen said. 'It was run by a guy named Jim Lites, and he was executive vice president of the Detroit Red Wings and Joe Louis Arena.'

They hit it off, and Lites ended up hiring Cogen for the Red Wings' marketing department in 1986.

'When they asked me to come work for the Red Wings, I told them that I had never seen a hockey game,' Cogen said. 'Their response was `good.' They wanted somebody to treat it like a widget.'

When Lites moved to Dallas seven years later to become president of the Dallas Stars, which had just relocated from Minnesota, he brought Cogen with him to run the team's marketing.

His advice for sports marketing wannabes is simple. 'Get applicable experience, and then keep your eye on the ball,' he said.

George Hays, vice president of marketing for the Dallas Cowboys, was offered his position when his longtime friend and business associate Jerry Jones purchased the franchise in 1989.

'I'm a believer in the fact that you don't necessarily have to (have) a background in any one item or business,' he said. 'As long as you are successful in business, you can take those attributes and put them to work on another business.'

Hays suggested that students interested in sports marketing should consider a degree in sports marketing and seek internships at local franchises.

'What you're looking for is some type of connection that gets you an edge when you come in,' he said. 'If you've interned with a particular team, and you've done a good job and they recognize it, then you've got a foot in the door.'

X X X

PHOTO will be available from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099.

X X X

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

(c) 2000, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.