How important is credibility/legitimacy and to what extent should we spend our membership dollars to get credibility/legitimacy?
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7 comments:
I share the frustration with those in the ultimate community who want to see our sport get more exposure. Ultimate is an amazing spectator sport (especially when it's played on the sand) - all it needs is the spectators. With all the sports channels out there, we should be expending time, money, and whatever other resources we have to get us some media coverage. We could even use our self-officiating and SOTG as a hook to set us apart from other sports. UPA should really make this a priority.
Where do you suggest we look to get exposure? ESPN?
Generally, getting on television is very expensive, so the money is usually put up by corporations looking to profit from publicity and/or prodcut placement. We've seen CSTV promote Ultimate, and I personally think it has been successful as a way to get into the media, but I don't know much about the numbers behind it. I am concerned about where we get our money from, but it would be cool if Patagonia, UnderArmour, Nike, or Dunkin Donuts put it up because these are all companies that I see closely connected to Ultimate. Maybe one of the new "healthy" drinks, like Vitamin Water, would be interested in a rapidly-expanding fringe sport.
So I think the UPA should focus, right now, on other financial priorities--specifically opportunities to play and the Observer system. I would like to see Ultimate on TV, but I don't think the UPA should be spending their resources on it directly.
Apparently (based on their latest commercial) Vitamin Water is promoting the sheep tossing at the Scottish Games.
Actually, I think there is a lot of opportunity for promoting ultimate on TV.
Look at what ESPN is doing with Arena football. They've bought into the league in order to gain creative control over how to present the games in ways the NFL won't allow (such as mics on coaches, interviews with players between possessions, etc.). There are markets for new, exciting sports.
ESPN needs 24 hours of programming for at least 2 channels (ESPN & ESPN2). I'm willing to bet they would rather show a decently editted ultimate game or a highlight tape than a full hour of curling.
I'm not saying we need to go to ESPN for exposure, but anything to show people the excitement of ultimate is a good thing. Rock climbing and skateboarding sell videos.
The sports pages would be a great place to gain some legitimacy as a sport. I cringe every time I see another ultimate article in the "lifestyle" section of the paper, often with some kind but patronizing reference to dogs. These articles perpetuate the marginalization of the sport. After 30-40 years, its about time we made it to the sports pages. Three ideas: 1) meet with the sports editors of major local newspapers to educate them about ultimate with the goal of getting coverage of major local games; 2) send game results for all local and national competitions for inclusion in the "results" page of the sports section (this is where all sports -- from track to figure skating -- are given a basic listing of results; and 3) discourage newspaper coverage by "lifestyle" or other non-sports writers.
One of the best things the UPA could do is draft press releases and make them available to TDs to help publicize events. Generally Tournaments don't have the resources to manage publicity and it wouldn't be too much work for the UPA to make drafts available.
It would be nice for series events to be publicized in a timely manner both before and after the events. To help the volunteer coordinators, the UPA could even manage this centrally using the score reporter to generate the letters to be sent.
I think these are all good ideas. Publicity in any format only increases exposure. TV is awesome, if Ultimate graduated from CSTV to ESPN or got placed on some other channel, just getting it onto that medium a little more would be a good step.
The sports pages would be great, and I agree with Bruce's point about the Lifestyle section, but if we get it in more LIefstyle sections or local sections or whatever, in big newspapers and magazines in big markets, people will recognize the sport more, and then sports pages will eventually be able to identify it.
Press releases? Send them to anyone and everyone, see who bites. The UPA magazine had an article on writing a press release recently, and I think the UPA should do more to encourage local leagues, tournament directors, club teams, etc, to send out press releases.
Get the word out! Let everyone know about Ultimate!
love to see this discussion! It’s great to see you all working through the issues and also, it’s great to see recommendations for testing. In the end, it’s what your actual users do and prefer hat should be your biggest driver in making these decisions.
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