Before today’s post, I’d like to take a moment of prayer in regards to the situation in Boston this week. May those injured find peace in God’s healing grace.

I received this email last week from the New Orleans hornets and thought it was well worth sharing. The Hornets transformed a routine visit from a league professional into a revenue opportunity for their team. This visit from the NBA’s manager of referee development was moved from a routine evaluation of that night’s game officials into an opportunity for the Hornets to engage with a specific audience and in a unique way. The team was specifically targeting coaches and referees from the area with the dual purpose of engaging with those people on a professional level, as well as giving them some insider access and a game ticket to enjoy the sport they all love.

The reason why I bring this up is simple – when are you coaches hosting their own coaches clinics? Most college football teams probably do this in the spring or summer time, but it might be worth exploring other times of the year when something like this makes sense. How about your basketball or baseball teams? If ever you’ve got your league or conference managers coming in to observe, consider doing something like this for the coaches and referees in your area and providing group discounts for their teams. Or if you’ve got a professional team of the same sport in your market, one of their coaches or executives may be willing to step in to speak to your crowd.

Going a step further, consider hosting the conferences for the various affinity groups involved with other areas of your athletics program. You could have a local turf management conference on campus or letter winner’s conference or one of the many other professional associations come to your campus instead of going elsewhere. In addition to that, keep tabs on what is happening on your campus and stay up-to-date with the academic or professional conferences they have going on there – might be a good sales opportunity there.

Finally, don’t forget about related organizations in your community or at your own school. I know that here in Seattle there are several f0r-profit organizations that host their own recreational sports leagues (flag football, 3on3/5on5 basketball, etc.), so this might be something they would be interested in sending their own referees to; it is also possible that your university recreational sports department is looking for ways to develop their recreational league student officials, so just something to keep in mind. In this day and age where team administrators and executives are looking to maximize all possible revenue sources, these are more ways you can adjust something your teams are probably already doing to create even more benefits for your organizations bottom line.

Go Forth!

BILL PECK