Week 1..10 Weeks to Go!

After the first two days of the internship, the overall workload remained consistent for the rest of the week. For half a day, I worked on the USATF Pick-N-Win Fantasy game. For this game, I was updating racing start list and entering the information into the master system. Otherwise, I primarily worked on long-term projects.

On the third day, I participated in a very rainy and cold National Running Day. At this event, I met the CEO and a couple former Olympic athletes. Primarily, National Running Day was a community outreach event aimed at growing a sense of running in Indianapolis. Actually, many similar events were going on throughout the U.S. to celebrate this national running day.

For the rest of the week, I was researching Fantasy Sport Leagues in order to understand industry practices. Through online research of various sites, such as ESPN, Yahoo Sports, and CBS Sports, I was able to see what types of functionality and overall look fantasy gaming utilizes. Primarily, I researched through observation; however, I signed up for various fantasy leagues in order to get the true gaming experience.

Additionally, I watched various media to ensure that I understand the current state of USA Track and Field. This media viewing enable me to gain a stronger background in the sport of Track and Field so that I could better identify the problems in the organization. Along similar lines, I also watched the PreFontaine Classic, which is a professional track meet. Through this track meet, I was able to see what type of marketing currently being done in professional track and field.

Also, I began to do some preliminary research on potential sponsors for USATF. To generate ideas for new sponsors, I researched several local Indiana teams as well as nationwide leagues. As a result, I concluded that USATF has an opportunity to get involved with a radio, cell phone, air travel, banking, electronics/television, camera, towels, and/or shipping type companies. I will further investigate these leads at a later time.

Lastly, I was given the opportunity to listen in on a conference call from a representative from a USATF sponsor-Visa. In this call, USATF and Visa discussed the total remaining ticket value left for Visa from the original sponsorship agreement. According to the phone call, Visa was given $11,000 worth of tickets for the entire season, but Visa was about to go over this allocation. Therefore, USATF and Visa were discussing solutions to this problem. Additionally, USATF introduced a new buy-in for VISA where USATF would create a Visa fan zone with coaches, ping tables, and much more outside of the 2009 Outdoor National Meet. According to USATF, the main goal of this fan fare is to please fans while exposing them more to the Visa brand. The sponsorship asking price would be $15,000, which is considered very small for Visa’s budget.

Overall, my primary learnings for the week involve a better understanding of the sport sponsorship process. The conference call gave me new insight on the numbers involved in sponsorship as well as the relationships amongst the sport organization and the company. In addition, I gained a better understanding of the way a sports franchise organizes community outreach program to grow their brand.