One of the best books ever written about sports marketing was written by Mark McCormack, the founder of IMG. The book, entitled, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School was followed by the equally compelling, The Terrible Truth About Lawyers … both should staples in your professional library.
The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the origins of sports marketing. There is some really excellent information contained within.
The origination of the marketing discipline known as sports marketing, coincided with the advent of the first MLB game ever televised on August 26, 1939 [1] and as a result made Babe Ruth the first six-figure athlete in the history of professional sports.
Sports marketing’s expansion began in the “open era” of the professional sports of tennis and golf. From the seventies to early eighties, the corporate sponsorship of Lamar Hunt‘s WCT Tennis Events and PGA Tour golfadvertising, sponsorship, promotion, sales promotion, and public relations into one of marketing’s most effective tools to reach and touch consumers. tournaments, first launched this modern-day marketing discipline. Sports marketing morphs
The first full-service sports marketing and sponsorship agencies were founded in the early to mid-1970s with Millsport LLC (now part of The Marketing Arm), Mark McCormack‘s International Management Group (IMG), and Donald Dell‘s ProServ, which had expanded beyond athlete management into event production, television production, and sponsorship negotiations. Professional tennis and golf provided the impetus for the expansion of the sports marketing discipline. Virtually every pioneer of the sports marketing profession, got their start in professional tennis or golf since, at the time, major league sports like the NFL, [[Major ts had yet to accelerate.
The man most credited with launching the sports marketing industry was IMG’s Mark McCormack. However, other sports marketing pioneers cut their teeth in professional tennis and golf. Former IMG CEO, Bob Kain, got his start working the Colgate-Palmolive Tennis Grand Prix. Donald Dell and Frank Craighill, founded ProServ where Jerry Solomon (Nancy Kerrigan’s husband), Ray Betton, Lee Fentress, Steve Disson, and David FalkNye Lavalle, founder of Sports Marketing Group, presided over Pro Tennis International from 1977 to 1984 before joining World Sports Group with former WCT colleagues and later creating SMG in 1986. would become partners and agents.
However, 1984 became a watershed year for sports marketing. The commercial success and corporate acceptance of sports marketing as a key component of the marketing mix came with the Americanization and commercialization of the modern Olympiad in the Summer Games of 1984 in Los Angeles. Corporate sponsors such as McDonalds and Coca-Cola used the Games as a platform to market their brands. Coca-Cola, for example, spent nearly $30 million in support of its official sponsorship of the Games. As CEO and chief organizer of the 1984 Olympics, Peter Ueberroth, a former senior executive with Trans International Airline and Transportation Consultants International, is credited with demonstrating the power of sports marketing.
The balance can be read here: