Dan Migala on Promotions, Sports and Marketing

Sports marketing author and practitioner Dan Migala has served all levels of the sports marketing community. As an author, Migala founded The Migala Report to help educate sports marketing executives. The monthly electronic publication chronicles the tough to answer “how” and “why” of sports marketing topics with best practices profiles. As a practitioner and consultant, Migala has worked for or advised virtually every level of sports franchise.

He is regularly quoted on sports business topics by news outlets like The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Sports Illustrated, CNN, ESPN and NBC Nightly News....and now quoted extensively in the Gameops.com 10-year Anniversary Interview. (sportsmarketingassociation.com)

Cudo: Let's start with just a little bit of background about who you are and The Migala Report and what your mission is with it.

Migala: Sure. Back up, we have our 5-year anniversary this year so you're twice the age of us but...

Cudo: We are very old here...

Migala: Exactly, I'm like a preemie here so I should be interviewing you all. Prior to me starting The Migala Report, I was the publisher of Team Marketing Report for five or so years. What I found in covering sports business news was that there wasn't really a resource out there that really covered the how to and the why. You know, almost best practices, you know, a game plan if you will for why certain promotions work and why sponsorship for ticket sales strategies work. And it is really patterned after the Harvard Business Review, to be kind of like a think tank for clubs to share information, best practices and knowledge. One of the things that is very universal or unique about the sports community is the ability for teams, be it the Toledo Mudhens or the Los Angeles Lakers, which are in completely different businesses, but they have the same challenges. If we can kind of combine the challenges and help them provide solutions by examining essentially how and why and kind of go a little bit deeper, that was the original mission and it still is today and it has really spawned tremendously in the five years we've been doing it.

Cudo: Describe the typical reader of the report.

Migala: People that are responsible for revenue generation at clubs, anybody that is a property executive. Traditionally it's your traditional second ball teams at major, minor league and collegiate levels, but we have a number that are at marathons or golf, you know, not your traditional team sports that are responsible for sponsorships, tickets and/or promotions marketing.

Cudo: I'd like to talk a little bit about Dugout Wisdom, your book. I know you interviewed about 50 legends in baseball about the pivotal moments that shaped their lives. If you want to talk a little bit about that and then we can kind of spin it perhaps into something game operations related.

Migala: Like a lot of people, I got into sports because I had a childhood love of baseball. I mean, that was my passion growing up and I definitely enjoyed working on the business side of baseball. I started to work on a number of charitable efforts, not just in baseball, but in other sports, but baseball was one that was of particular interest to me and I was working with the Baseball Hall of Fame which I don't think I was really even aware was classified as a 501(C)3. They're a charitable arm and a not-for-profit and also the Scouts Foundation, and we were brainstorming fund raising ideas outside of doing memorabilia, auctions, golf tournaments and state dinners asking, “What could we do to raise money for these two charities?” When I was a child, I was just a pretty assertive lover of baseball and had a great passion for writing and I used to mow lawns, go door to door, and offer to mow people's lawns, not for money, but for a box of envelopes and a book of stamps so I could write letters to major league baseball players.

Cudo: Wow. That's an early sign of a writer if I ever heard of one.

Migala: And one summer my mom helped me edit them and I had 143 consecutive days that I got a letter from a major league baseball player. I think that for me, I have always wanted the opportunity, even though I'm a sports business writer, to interview these players, and this gave me the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream. The Hall of Fame got behind it, the Scouts Foundation got behind it and it really was a labor of love, but it was just a tremendous opportunity and then to also give back to baseball and raise some money for those two worthwhile charities.

Cudo: That's great. What I saw about it is that it might open up a discussion about how teams can utilize players and I always thought that's kind of an untapped nugget for teams where these players have such a huge appeal for young fans and to use that in a way where it's not just like selling their jersey but talking about the person and what they are engaged in. And the one I listed as an example about Steve Nash and how he's an avid environmentalist, are you saying things in game elements that tap into that in sports?

Migala: Absolutely. It's ironic, I never imagined the book itself would get to this level but we are currently, and this is something that I would love to talk to you about also, talking to teams that have approached us about doing the book as a branded giveaway item and, just the ability to give away a book, share stories or if it is a controlled asset, all of those variables I think are the foundation of what makes a good giveaway. What I learned from a marketing standpoint, from when I worked with teams or worked on promotions, from an outsider’s standpoint, you view the players as an asset and you have a hard time sometimes dealing with them as a person separate from their accomplishments on the field or as a brand. I learned through this experience, or this journey, about how to neutralize that to have an emotional connection with them. It’s almost like I position it, when I work with teams now, as a selflessness to selfishness. Sometimes when you work with players you have that natural tendency to just try to take, take, take from them. Through this experience, I learned it is so much better to just try to give, give, give, and then by giving and supporting what they're interested in, like the Steve Nash example, they will give you ten times more of their time, energy and passion to help the organization further their own goal. As far as the advice, I think what I would do if I was a marketing or promotions person, is that at the beginning of the season, sit down with each of the players and just simply ask them these two questions: What do you love and why do you love it? I think what you will find in the core, just like I found with all of these baseball players or the Suns found with Steve Nash, you will find that one thing that they care about more than money, the one thing that they care more about than their free time, whatever it might be, and that is the key to unlocking their desire to help you with something. That is what I am strongly encouraging teams to do and I think that’s what the Dugout Wisdom book even created for me from a business standpoint. I wasn’t even looking at it from that perspective but it spawned it because there was a sincerity involved in it.

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