Selling to sports and entertainment companies

Sports and entertainment companies get a lot of pitches. Everyone wants to work with a team or a famous venue, and the people who run them know it.

So the bar is high. The vendors who win aren't the ones who love the brand. They're the ones who understand that a team or a venue is a business with tight margins, a fixed calendar and a fan base that notices every mistake.

Treat it like a business and you'll stand out from the fans with a pitch deck.

What's changing

Media rights are shifting. Leagues and teams are moving games from cable to streaming, launching their own direct-to-consumer services and rethinking local broadcast deals. Every change brings new technology, new data and new ways to sell.

Fan data is the new asset. Ticketing, concessions, merchandise, apps and streaming all produce data about fans. Most organizations still keep it in separate systems run by separate vendors.

Venues are being rebuilt. New arenas and stadiums are going up, and older ones are getting major renovations, often as part of larger mixed-use districts.

Live entertainment keeps growing in complexity. Touring, festivals and venue operators run dynamic pricing, cashless venues and mobile entry, all on systems that have to work perfectly on the night.

And sports betting has changed the business in many places. Data partnerships, integrity monitoring and sponsorship deals all create new work.

Who buys

At a team, the president of business operations owns revenue, from tickets to sponsorship. The CFO owns cost and capital projects. A chief technology officer or head of IT owns the systems, and a head of analytics or fan data often owns the hardest problem.

At a league, a commissioner's office sets strategy, but specific departments buy. Media, technology, operations and sponsorship each have their own leaders and budgets.

At a venue operator, the general manager owns a single building. A head of operations or technology owns the standards across buildings.

At an entertainment company, the buyer depends on the business. A promoter, a festival operator and a ticketing company buy very different things.

The signals that matter most

New venues and renovations come first. A new arena announcement means networks, ticketing, point of sale, security and building systems, all with a fixed opening date. A new facility needs systems before it opens covers that timing.

Ownership changes are strong. A new owner or a private equity investment in a team or league usually brings a business plan, new leadership and pressure to grow revenue.

Media rights deals matter. A move to a new streaming partner or a team-run service changes what the technology and data teams have to build.

Leadership hires matter a lot. A new president of business operations often arrives with a plan to rebuild the fan data and revenue stack.

And speaking slots tell you a lot. Team and venue executives talk openly at sports business conferences about what they're building next.

An example opener

Say the Halsey Harbor Hawks, a minor league baseball club, announce a new downtown ballpark opening in two seasons. The team's release mentions year-round events beyond baseball. A new president of business operations joined from a larger arena operator in the winter.

The new Hawks ballpark opens in two seasons, and the plan calls for events all year, not just home games. You've run a year-round building before, so you know how different that calendar is. My guess is the harder part is one fan and ticketing record across baseball, concerts and community events, since most clubs run those on separate systems. Is that accurate, or is the bigger issue something else?

It's built on a public fact, a reason the reader is the right person and one practical guess. And there isn't a word in it about loving the team.

What to avoid

Don't lead with how much you love the team. Everyone does. It makes you sound like a fan, not a partner.

Don't ignore the calendar. Teams and venues plan around the season. Pitch in the off-season, and never in the final weeks before opening night.

Don't overpromise on fan data. Most organizations have tried a fan data project before. Show you know why the last one stalled.

And don't forget the vendors already in the building. Ticketing, concessions and media partners all have contracts and opinions.

The point

Sports and entertainment buyers want people who treat them as a business. Follow the venue, the owner and the media deal, and write to the person who has to make it work on opening night. For more on similar buyers, see selling to media companies and selling to travel and hospitality companies.