Sports marketing is heralded as one of the most prestigious, exciting, and popular fields in contemporary marketing. The number of related programs in colleges and universities has exploded, and companies tied with sports marketing handle thousands of avid career hopefuls each year. The Ultimate Guide to Sports Marketing is the first book to go behind the scenes and outline a strategic, integrated approach to effective and innovative sports marketing.Completely revised and repackaged to provide detailed strategies on entering the sports marketing field, acquiring funding, managing event logistics and more, this comprehensive guide covers a wide range of topics including: - Use of the Internet as a sports marketing tool - Negotiations and contracts with sponsors and suppliers - Specifics of licensing deals

Some might argue that sports marketing is a mere subfield of marketing, meaning that there are theoretical and practical dimensions that apply only to sports marketing and are only of interest to those involved in sports. In Team Sports Marketing, author Kirk Wakefield dispels this argument by demonstrating that effective sports marketing epitomizes the science and art of marketing across any context. At the core of sports marketing is the creation and enhancement of fan identification, where consumers are not just loyal customers, but have become brand fanatics. Team Sports Marketing shows that while many aspects of sports marketing are thought to be unique to the field, other product and service sectors would do well to learn from teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL that have transformed customers into fans. Moving beyond principles of marketing, Team Sports Marketing is packed with examples of best practices and covering subjects as diverse as sponsorships, season ticket sales, venue management and all topics in between. Team Sports Marketing is a must read text for students and managers in professional and collegiate sports. Support materials for professors and students are available at www.teamsportsmarketing.com.

For decades, amateurism defined the ideals undergirding the Olympic movement. No more. Today's Games present athletes who enjoy open corporate sponsorship and unabashedly compete for lucrative commercial endorsements.   Matthew P. Llewellyn and John Gleaves analyze how this astonishing transformation took place. Drawing on Olympic archives and a wealth of research across media, the authors examine how an elite--white, wealthy, often Anglo-Saxon--controlled and shaped an enormously powerful myth of amateurism. The myth assumed an air of naturalness that made it seem unassailable and, not incidentally, served those in power. Llewellyn and Gleaves trace professionalism's inroads into the Olympics from tragic figures like Jim Thorpe through the shamateur era of under-the-table cash and state-supported athletes. As they show, the increasing acceptability of professionals went hand-in-hand with the Games becoming a for-profit international spectacle. Yet the myth of amateurism's purity remained a potent force, influencing how people around the globe imagined and understood sport.   Timely and vivid with details, The Rise and Fall of Olympic Amateurism is the first book-length examination of the movement's foundational ideal.