U.S. Ski & Snowboard staged a Big Air event at Fenway Park in '16 with strong reviews and attendanceGETTY IMAGES
U.S. Ski & Snowboard wants to expand its urban event schedule in the coming years at the request of sponsors, who see huge payoff in bringing traditionally mountain sports to major stadia regularly, said Chief Commercial Officer Dan Barnett. In '16, the NGB staged a Big Air event at Fenway Park to strong reviews and good attendance. However, the events are cost- and labor-intensive and have been difficult to replicate. Speaking on Thursday to about 220 sponsors and suppliers at its annual partner summit in Park City, Utah, Barnett said urban events are now a top priority. “We want to bring the events to the people,” he said. “Mass media, mass spectatorship, mass viewership in major cities around the country, whether that’s a sprint cross country World Cup in Minneapolis with Jessie Diggins or stadium ‘big airs’ in iconic ballparks like New York, San Francisco, Dallas and Boston.” Barnett mentioned Philadelphia and Chicago as cities identified by sponsors as places they would want to sponsor stadium events. The key to making the economics work, Barnett said, is to create a series. Barnett: “The thing in Fenway was incredible, but the thing is it doesn’t work if it’s a one-off because you have to build good will and equity in the event and let the sponsors activate over multiple years rather than three days. We owe it to them to have a schedule in place to help grow this thing."
WORK TO BE DONE: The NGB did not announce any sponsor renewals at the Utah summit, but Barnett said Visa and Procter & Gamble are top priorities in the coming weeks. The NGB also is engaged in discussions with NBC about extending its media deal, which expires this year. Barnett hopes to get more control of media inventory in a possible extension. In a 20-minute speech to partners, Barnett underscored the dominant position skiing and snowboarding holds in the Winter Olympic movement. For instance, U.S. Ski & Snowboard gained 430,000 new social media followers during the Pyeongchang Games, more than the IOC or the USOC gained. The NGB oversees three of the top four winter sports by total audience engagement. But Barnett also indicated a sense that U.S. Ski & Snowboard still underperforms compared to its potential in terms of marketing opportunities and content creation. Barnett: "We need to become a 365-day-a-year, 24-hour-a-day activation platform for our partners.” He added: “We need to continue to drive to make our key athletes households names for the good of all, and I’d say we’re in a better position in the next 12 months to do that than ever before." Barnett also noted the ascendant careers of snowboarder Chloe Kim and skier Mikaela Shiffrin, and the possibility that Lindsey Vonn will become the winningest alpine skiier of all time next season.
