Most of the articles I’ve written focus on the social media aspects of event and sport promotion. There are fairly few opportunities to really grab the attention of a local TV sports anchor, particularly if the city has a professional team or when there are college team events going on. Competing against football, basketball, and baseball is a challenge for sports done by individual players.
One example of an amazing time to involve local TV sports, is during the NFL preseason, when high school and college seasons are not yet at the forefront of the sports viewers’ minds for any sport.
Next week, the Denver Broncos will be playing in Arizona on Friday August 11th. The Colorado Rockies will be playing out of state all week. The Denver Nuggets are completely off. This means that Thursday August 10th, would be a great time to capture a local sports new story about racquetball.
The KWM Gutterman World Singles and Doubles Open Championships starts on the 10th and will have players representing 12 countries. (More players from their national teams than were present at the Central American and Carribean Games in racquetball.) There are also players for 34 US states (two states players aren’t actually in any divisions, they appear to have purchased reserved seating or to be in the pro/am event that funds scholarships, or perhaps a hospitality pass or Saturday party reserved seating).
So, what kinds of things might get the attention of that sports anchor and get a segment produced from the Highlands Ranch Northridge Recreation Center about racquetball?
1) The local involvement, i.e. former USA Racquetball directors and board members, the sponsors, the 88 players from Colorado testing themselves against the best in the world, the two semi-local players that are active on the pro tours, both representing Team USA, etc.
2) The national team involvement, the national teams for Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and USA will all be present, at least in part, at the event. (I’m not familiar with the national teams of India and Japan, so I cannot confirm whether or not the players from those 2 countries are on their national teams.)
3) The history of the sport, being invented in the USA at a YMCA, and still having 270+ US players at this event. The sport being used for cross-training by professional football athletes in the 80s and 90s.
4) The professional involvement, i.e. the presence of both pro tours and their streaming staff, and their players.
LPRT on YouTube
IRT on YouTube
5) The attendance, this will be the second largest racquetball event of the year, behind only the Longhorn Open (342 vs 380).
6) The scholarships funded by the Pro/Am division.
7) The impact to the local economy during the event, with more than 350 people coming into the area, getting hotel rooms, buying meals, renting cars, using Uber, etc.
What other things would you highlight in an elevator pitch to that local TV sports anchor in Denver to get them out to the event on Thursday?
What would you talk to them about while they were there in person?
Let me know your thoughts on how you would take advantage of this opportunity with local media coverage on my posts on Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit.
6 Argentina
7 Bolivia
4 Canada
7 Chile
4 Colombia
2 Costa Rica
6 Ecuador
4 Guatemala
1 India
1 Japan
25 Mexico
275 USA
Some of the participants in the list don’t have a division, so we will assume that they are supporting in some other way.
Here are the players for each US state:
4 Alabama
7 Arizona
27 California
88 Colorado
16 Florida
1 Hawaii
15 Illinois
3 Indiana
2 Iowa
1 Kansas
2 Louisiana (no division listed)
2 Maryland
3 Michigan
3 Minnesota
3 Mississippi
2 Montana
3 Nebraska
1 Nevada
1 New Jersey (no division listed)
13 New Mexico
1 New York
5 North Carolina
1 Ohio
6 Oklahoma
9 Oregon
2 Pennsylvania
1 South Dakota
1 Tennessee
34 Texas
5 Utah
3 Virginia
4 Washington
1 Wisconsin
2 Wyoming
