Ohio State Football 101 Email

After my last post generated some good interest, I wanted to share a few examples of various programs who already host their own “Football 101” event. This is nowhere close to being an exhaustive list, nor do I necessarily endorse any of these events, however these links are just meant to serve as examples of teams of various levels and types of sport. My first experience of ever hearing about something like this was when I was working at Notre Dame. Other college football programs that have similar events are Oregon, Wisconsin and New Mexico State. The above picture is an email I received from Ohio State promoting their upcoming event this summer, which happens to last all day.

NFL teams have recently gotten on board with doing these women-specific events also. One interesting piece regarding the NFL teams was that of the teams I looked at, they were planned during the actual football season. I thought that was particularly of interest considering the college teams all host these events during the summer. Two NFL teams to look at are the Chicago Bears and the Seattle Seahawks.

Baseball 101

This idea of bringing your product to a demographic that may not perhaps be very familiar with what you have to offer also translates well across different types of sport as well as levels of sport. In a recent edition of Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal, I saw an announcement that the Philadelphia Phillies were hosting a “Baseball 101” event. Considering their recent success over the last few years and strong fan support, I’m sure they probably had a great turnout. Another baseball example I found was that of a minor league affiliate to the Boston Red Sox, the Salem, VA Red Sox.

If I can draw any kind of conclusion regarding these events, it’s that there’s no real set format for success as long as what your organization plans out fits with your overall goals, whatever those may be. Events like these have the potential to be very successful in terms of engaging fans of a different demographic with significant revenue potential as well as just being a community outreach type event intended to engage participation from the community. Please leave a comment below if you’ve ever attended one of these types of events or have a particular example you’d like to share.

Go Forth!

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