Expert: Patrick J. Murray - 11/9/2011

Question
Good Evening Mr Murray,

I'm with a new startup team in a developmental league for a non-traditional sport here in the US, Rugby League. It's a very popular sport in other parts of the world, such as the UK, Australia and France, and with the US making the Rugby League World Cup for the first time, we'd like to ride the coat-tails a little. We are interested in getting the games we play out there, but we are unsure how to proceed. Would a foray into local public access television be a way of getting ourselves out there, at least until we grow enough to attract a potential commercial channel, or would we be damaging our product if we started with public access?

Kind Regards,

Brad

Answer
Hey Brad....

Thanks for stopping by....

You are correct in that Rugby is one of the none traditional sports here in the US but that doesn't mean in this era of communication that you should be shut out. Getting the word out is the most important so as you are, I would definitely be exploring ways to promote the product on the field.

Using a cable access would be a great way for you to start in your particular area. You can contact them to see if they would be interested in televising a couple of the events for their access channel. You could assist with offering interviews and following up with the local radio, TV, and newspaper sports folks to help promote the event. If you tell the cable folks that you have plans to broadcast this around the area with extra public relations, they should look at this differently in that you are also helping to promote viewers for them! It shows a willingness on your part to work with them and be pro-active on the marketing front.

It is also possible you may be offer them a package of a few games offering up players and coaches for other interviews possibly on other cable and over the air sports shows. This again helps to promote your product and the airing of the games which is what they are looking for when they enter something like this.

I would offer them a package they could not refuse. Get your marketing package in order first...then lay it out for them and show them how serious you are about getting this on the air. I would tell you that if you walk in and just say "We want to place some Rugby games on your access channel", they will probably just walk away. Show them you have a plan in place and I would at least think they would look at the project and be more open to dedicating some resources to it!

If you have more questions or chat with them about the situation and I can assist further, please stop on back! Best of luck!

Patrick Murray