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The sports industry has been fraught with public relations challenges the past 10 days. When I began to form this post in my head, the “only” examples were Michael Vick, Brett Favre, Plaxico Burress and Major League Baseball. Today I add to that the National Football League and ESPN.
What could be more appropriate for sports PR case studies than Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback who spent 18 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring, was recently conditionally reinstated by the National Football League and hopes to earn a roster spot and respect; Favre, the three-time NFL MVP quarterback who’s trying to delete the last line of his bio written by critics that identify him as an all-pro waffler after he retired in 2008 from the Green Bay Packers, unretired to play for the New York Jets, retired and after months of speculation, courting, consideration and biceps rehabilitation, told his former NFC nemesis, Minnesota Vikings, he wasn’t coming out of retirement again, after all; Burress, who was indicted by a grand jury on three weapons counts in New York after shooting himself in a nightclub last fall; or Major League Baseball, that endured another leak of premier players (Manny Ramirez and
The first Sports Networker event took place last week in NYC and seeing that it was nearly 100 people over capacity at the venue, I would say it was a fairly big success.
I am still receiving thoughtful emails from attendees who said it was packed full of quality sports professionals and they all received a ton of value from connecting in person.
We had Bill Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN who is featured on the picture to the right, in attendance promoting his latest project CollegeFanz, along with the really fun team from LockerBlogger.com, Sports Lawyers, sports social networking platforms, professionals athletes, NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL league and team employees, AFL, agencies, marketing firms, CBS, Madison Square Garden, minor league teams, and a number of other quality professionals (I am leaving out a large group as over 350 in total attended throughout the night).
The Princeton Sports Symposium is one of those sports industry events that you just don’t want to miss out on. For those of you who did, its my goal to give you the best highlights from the event.
Although I was not able to cover everything, I did get a number of video interviews with some of the most prominent names in sports, along with some up and coming sports executives and companies.
Check out this video interview with Bill Rasmussen, a man who needs no introduction for the global beast of a brand he created with ESPN! He breaks down how he got involved with ESPN and where his big break came from getting into the sports industry.
“Bill Rasmussen is truly the George Washington of ESPN. His accomplishments, however, transcend the boundaries of the sports arena into areas beyond our wildest dreams.” Chris Berman, 1993
Even though Bill is arguably considered the “President” of the sports, you would not think twice about this due to his genuine soul and humble heart. It was a pleasure speaking with him, and I urge you to take a look at his latest company, College Fanz, and become involved with what may be the next best thing since ESPN.
I will be featuring other great video interviews from the Princeton Sports Symposium, plus interviews with pro bloggers from NYC who offer amazing advice on how to take your company or personal brand online, and make it famous.
Watch out!
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What are your thoughts on the comments Bill made in this interview? Do you agree or disagree with him on the future of the sports industry? Do you have a story that tops his? If so, I’d love to hear it.
