Growing up in New York, I never thought about marketing in sports. Everyone there was either a Yankees devotee or a Mets supporter. You always loved one and detested the other, and so did your whole family. It was more of a tribal allegiance than a decision. The truth that, beyond the athletic events, there was another competition going on not ever occurred to me. I not ever thought about the fact that the teams were not only fighting for victory, but also fighting for followers. Until I fell into an athletic marketer position, I was pretty much unaware of how much capital changes hands behind the scenes. Pro sports merchandising is a multi billion dollar niche, and it is growing each year. Most athletic teams, in point of fact, make more money off of selling sports garments than off of tickets!

Finding myself in an athletic merchandising firm was a pretty odd development for me. In a number of ways, I do not fit in there at all. Although I majored in niche marketing and advertising, I have never been a big sports supporter. This placed me at odds with a business filled with athletic fanatics. Nonetheless, I have done my job pretty well. At the start, I was not up to date on the various teams. This made my sports merchandising job tough, since I did not know the niche! People expect you to be able to talk athletic with them if you're going to promote their teams. Even if you're an effectual marketer. If you can't talk shop and socialize with fluidity, it's hard to keep your position.

Basically, I approached athletic merchandising like I approached school. I sat down and crammed for weeks at a time. Soon, I knew more about sports statistics than many of the most die-hard fans in the business. After them, it was simple. Good sports teams sell themselves, so it is just a matter of playing on existing brand devotion. As for the lower ranking athletic teams, you could always play off of the underdog factor. There are a number of individuals who just love to root for a team that loses season after season. Marketing sports to these types of fans is a smaller trade, But what they don't have in numbers than make up for in brand faithfulness. They are the most dedicated followers in the trade. The only time when athletic merchandising is a tough sell is when a great team starts to slide. Suddenly, no one wants anything to do with them. The rest of the time, however, the job is pretty much a breeze.