Sports Illustrated is about to embark on an anniversary celebration worthy of a magazine long unafraid to visit the fringes of the sports world.
On Thursday, representatives of the magazine will arrive in Newport, R.I., to celebrate the Newport Sailing Regatta, the first of 30 sporting events that will serve as a platform for the largest promotional and editorial initiative in the magazine's 50-year history, according to Jeff Price, SI's executive director of sports marketing.
The yearlong tour, estimated to be a multimillion-dollar effort, is intended to correspond with an editorial calendar that over the next year includes four double issues and a weekly section on a sport or sporting event unique to each of the 50 states. SI executives hope "America's Sports Illustrated: 50 Years, 50 States, 50 Sports" resonates with readers by examining sports that people play that have largely disappeared from the media's focus since SI launched 50 years ago.
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The goal is to draw 2.5 million people to the tour, which after Newport heads west to Cheyenne, Wyo., for Frontier Days.
"This is a celebration that is looking at the context of sports and what it means to our readers and to the folks that are passionate about sports in these individual states, and finding a way to celebrate with them," Price said.
The yearlong tour is by far the largest and most logistically challenging part of the celebration because it follows events instead of a map, said Price, who would not disclose the cost of tour. An industry source estimated that a tour this size — three semi-trucks, one trailer and 30 stops — would cost the magazine anywhere from $2.5 million to $3.5 million.
Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the tour. Best Buy and Starter have signed on as program sponsors.
New York-based Jack Morton Worldwide is handling the mobile marketing of the tour.
The football-field-sized traveling exhibition will include Toyota Field, an enclosed theater showing highlights from the greatest sports moments of the last 50 years. Best Buy will showcase its latest consumer electronic innovations at each stop and also will bring its Best Buy Concert Series to the tour's main stage. Starter will have an exhibit profiling the Starter All-American Teen from each state.
The first state-specific weekly section is scheduled to be in publication's July 7 issue, focused on Rhode Island. The first double issue hits newsstands the week of July 14 and covers the state of sports when the magazine launched in 1954.
