PR in Sports Industry

Profitability is one of the key goals of any organization. This is true for the sports industry where successful franchises often produce hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for owners. Nevertheless, the sports industry is unique in a manner akin to the film industry. In both of these industries just one “star”, whether an athlete or actor, can have a significant impact on the franchise’s profitability. Yet there is a crucial difference. Bad press often makes a popular star even more appealing to his or her audience. With respect to star athletes and sports organizations, the opposite is often true. Take, for example, the notorious bad publicity that erupted when Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker spewed a raft of disparaging remarks to a reporter doing an interview f

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keness. He also argued they force players to play a certain number of games, all the while collecting enormous fees for televised rights to these events. Sports PR pros were dumbfounded by Wood’s very public comments. As one noted, “He should fight these types of battles outside the spotlight of the media. The casual sports fan has no interest in understanding the nuances of intellectual property. They just read that Tiger wants more control and more money” (Lesser 14). In the case of Rodriguez, though his comments were not made publicly, the press discovered the outrageous demands he and his agent sought in the wake of his $252 million ten-year contract with the Texas Rangers. These demands allegedly included more billboards of A-Rod, as he is known, around the city, use of a private plane, luxury suites for home and away games, a four-person private PR staff, and a tent at spring training selling only A-Rod merchandise. As Peter Land argues, “Time magazine called A-Rod ‘sport’s new poster boy for greed’. Like Woods, Rodriguez was branded as selfish, and, like Woods, he was the victim of a lack of public relations” (Lesser 14). It is in such cases as these where a star athlete thinks they are bigger than the sport or
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Approximate Word count = 1691
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)