Excerpts from speeches at the final day of the 1996 National
Sports Forum in Colorado Springs, CO.
ANDY DOLICH, Former A's Exec VP/Business Ops, spoke on the
importance of community relations: "Most teams have been run as
passive investments by an older generation, but now you have an
ever-growing group of young entrepreneurs who have made
significant money over a short period of time. Their corporate
mantra is 'Make me a profitable deal and make it yesterday.'"
Dolich targeted the "New Soldiers of Sports Fortunes": "I am
concerned the future of community relations will not be as bright
as in the past because of the desire to make so much money
today." His challenge to community relations directors: "It is
your job to keep the game from becoming too much of a business
and the business from becoming too much of a game."
JOHN CORDOVA, Group Manager/Sports Operations at Coca-Cola,
spoke on the history of Coca-Cola's marketing strategy; their new
focus on "activation" marketing to use properties to boost brand
performance; the evaluation methods they use to determine
viability of sponsorship opportunities. He said Coca-Cola is
looking more at opportunities in education, youth participation
sports, and less traditional venues, like shopping malls (THE
DAILY).
