We talk a lot about youth sports and amateur associations here—but let’s digress a bit this week and talk about how professional teams reach out to their communities.
The trigger for the discussion is this week’s Hometown Huddle project by the NFL, United Way and others. The annual Hometown Huddle is an NFL/United Way initiative that happens in all NFL markets on the same day, geared toward promoting volunteerism and creating a lasting impression in the community. This year it’s on Tuesday, October 18, when coaches and players will go to a community building, a playground or similar facility and spend the day painting, landscaping and overall making the facility one that the entire community can use.
That’s just one example of how professional teams look to give back: Besides the individual NBA teams planning events in their cities, the NBA itself has an “NBA Cares” all-star day of service; MLB teams often have community funds as a part ...
The NASC Awards and Hall of Fame Committee are delighted to announce that they are now accepting submissions for annual awards and the first class of NASC Hall of Fame inductees.
Nominate an Industry Leader to be Inducted into the NASC Hall of Fame
First Class of NASC Hall of Fame Inductees to be Recognized at 25th annual NASC Symposium
The NASC Hall of Fame Committee was established to honor those who play a vital role in the success and promotion of the NASC. The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to promote the professional management of sporting events and the sport tourism industry as a whole by honoring those individuals who exemplify the values of the NASC in their careers and by acknowledging their legacies to provide guidance for future members of the NASC.
To be considered, nominations must be received no later than December 1, 2016. Submit a nomination.
Direct any questions about the NASC Hall of Fame to Denny Gann, Hall of Fame Committee Chair.
NASC Awards Commit...
Community partners for you can come in many forms. They could be board members, advisory board members, universities, hoteliers, downtown alliance groups, professional teams, facility owners, volunteers, sponsors, etc. The one thing they need to have in common is the buy into your organization’s mission and vision. With this buy-in, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to understand and navigate political landscapes, fundraise, accomplish organizational goals and take your organization to new heights. Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Most of your community partners’ primary business is not tourism, but their willingness to help and understand tourism’s contribution to the community is what makes them unique.
Most sports commissions or sports tourism departments are very small staffs, which lead to lots of travel, long hours and many weekend events. All of this ...
As a rights holder or event site manager, you are very familiar with the rules and regulations of holding an event, as well as the insurance and liability coverage that you need to follow to make sure the event goes off smoothly. As a matter of course, most events are required to have medical personnel on site, in case of injury.
Often, the medical provider will also be listed as a sponsor of the event. But how do you know that the medical personnel on hand are the ones who can treat the young athlete?
According to a 2014 ESPN sports poll, more than 87 percent of parents worry about their children getting hurt while playing sports. Injuries, from a knee scrape to more serious fractures and tears, are not uncommon in youth sports. Getting the proper treatment quickly is important, both for the athlete and for you as the event provider.
In a recent ESPNW article, “Helping your athlete kids recover from injury the right way,” author (and mom) Sharon Van Epps shares a ...
If there is a universal complaint heard from many event organizers, it’s this one:
“No one ever comes to cover my event.”
You can fill in the blank as to who “no one” is—local newspaper, television stations, etc. Truth be told, it doesn’t matter who that media entity may be. There is a good chance, unless you’re holding a national or state championship or a huge community event (think marathon weekends), the media coverage is more than likely to be sparse.
Why is this?
The quick answer is, media doesn’t operate the way it used to.
The longer answer is, most media outlets have fewer people feeding more media channels. That means whatever story they’ve been assigned to do, they have to contribute a report to the ‘traditional’ media (TV newscast, print newspaper) as well as to the website and social media channels. So they’re doing a lot more with one story. That leaves little time to cover severa...
We talk a lot in this space about the good that youth sports offers our kids, from exercise to discipline to life lessons. But students in northern Ohio were handed one life lesson this past weekend that we wish they didn’t have to learn at such a young age.
Andre Jackson, a Euclid (Ohio) High School football player, died Sunday, following injuries he suffered during a Friday night football game. A junior fullback and outside linebacker, Jackson died after he was hurt during the school's game against Solon High School on a special teams play.
Euclid High School head football coach Jeff Rotsky said the incident happened during a "completely normal" play. "It was a pooch kick," he said. "He was going for the ball, and their guys were going for the ball, and I think he got kicked or kneed."
The school district said Jackson walked off the field after the play, went to the hospital, was examined and was later released. No cause of death has b...
https://issuu.com/sportscommissions/docs/2017_sponsor_prospectus
We’ve quoted from a number of articles and columns talking about how coaches can better serve their athletes. Now, there’s an article (aimed at soccer parents, but applicable to just about anyone) on how parents can better serve their own kids.
From the Institute for Soccer Parenting comes an article by former college and pro soccer player Skye Eddy Bruce, “Immediately Become a Better Soccer Parent by Asking This Question.” In the article, she talks about the ride home with her daughter after a loss. She starts the conversation by saying, “I love watching you play.” And then, the rest of the ride was filled with talk about what went right in the game, and what went wrong—talking, basically about the results.
She admits in the article that she went about the conversation in the opposite way she feels she should have. “Instead of focusing on winning (or not winning) I should have been focused on development,” she said. After tha...
We continue our featured benefit for the month of September with a blog post on the Event RFP Database and Event Webinars.
As the sport tourism industry's only association, the NASC emphasizes educational and professional development opportunities year-round that help make our members more effective in the business of bidding on, booking, and managing sporting events. The NASC uses a variety of platforms, including the Event RFP Database and Event Webinars, to share information with serious-minded sport tourism executives. Information-sharing is one of the cornerstones on which the NASC was founded. NASC members have access to many resources to help them get their share of the sport tourism industry.
NASC rights holder members can post their events available for bid in the NASC Event RFP Database. NASC active members may search the database by event name, bid deadline, organization name or sport to find events to bid on. The event databa...
With the NFL now in full swing this week, it’s a good time to highlight some of the initiatives the NFL has in place to get kids active and eating right. In fact, you may have seen one of these programs in action if you attended an NFL pre-season game this summer.
Probably the most visible is the “NFL Play 60” program, which is really the umbrella title for several youth initiatives, including Fuel Up to Play 60, an in-school program emphasizing good nutrition along with activity; NFL Punt, Pass & Kick, the long-time national skills competition for boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 15; and NFL Flag Football, a youth football league for boys and girls ages 5-17.
NFL Flag Football partners with recreation commissions in cities around the country to form leagues—at last count, more than a thousand leagues across the country. The highlight of the year for many of these teams is playing at halftime during an NFL game—and many were able to do ju...