Comments on: Using Social Media to Connect Current and Former Athletes

By: social network for pro athletes

social network for pro athletes — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:26:37 +0000

Peter mentioned that athletes should have their own network 6 months ago… he was right. onlyplayers.com seems to be doing exactly what you described Peter

By: Ar-Lena The ePublicist

Ar-Lena The ePublicist — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:06:16 +0000

Greetings,
I believe this is a feasible. Several sites exist to connect the fan with players, but something as comprehensive as you’ve suggested doesn’t exist based on my social media and sports marketing activities.
Thanks Sam….I joined your network.

By: Sam Peterson

Sam Peterson — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:49:32 +0000

To change the angle of this conversation a bit, I wanted to point out to you a site I have created with my partners called http://www.athlinked.net. While professional athletes are more than welcome to join the site, it is more targeted at alumni collegiate athletes in the business world. While I am sure the major professional sports leagues will continue to work to support their alumni, particularly in light of the recent backlash from the NFL alumni related to medical support, it is the athletes who “go pro in something else” who truly need a networking community. We are trying to connect people back to their programs, programs to their alumni, and sport specific alumni in different cities.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:54:27 +0000

Agreed. Creating such a site for former athletes could be extremely valuable, but not necessarily monetarily. But I do like your advertising angle. I feel that in order to make this a worthwhile financial investment, I would suspect a 3rd party would have to create this for several leagues in order to get the reach/size for advertising revenue.

Still, perhaps the big 3 could go at it alone. This reminds me of some Harvard or HBS alums that decided to launch a separate alum magazine funded by luxury ad revenue. I don’t remember the details, but recall that it was quickly successful. Perhaps a league thinks its worthwhile beyond the $ incentives, however knowing how some of the leagues operate, I would also think there have more important HR/IT-related projects on their plates.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:48:28 +0000

Peter,

Thanks for your comment. I guess the player associations and alumni associations fit the bill here, but I was thinking more about how to expand this concept online/through social media. Instead of having a group that meets once a year (or however often it really is) and sends out emails occasionally, why not let people be connected 24-7 to get as much out of this as possible…

This is somewhat of an HR project, but couldn’t it also be a way to generate incremental revenue? Leagues could build a site like this and extend sponsorships to it, or even get players to chip in to fund. I would think luxury brands and marketers would pay to have their message in front of wealthy current/former pro athletes. My vision was for something like this to be done at the league level, to involve/connect as many people as possible–instead of having separate efforts for each team.

Thanks for bringing up these interesting points, and thanks for commenting.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:47:28 +0000

I’m not sure if I’m seeing this exactly as you are, but you could argue something like what you describe exists, For example, league player associations or college alum programs.

I have, however, seen the concept of TEAM “alum programs” brought up in the past, and believe its a great idea.

For corporations it makes sense because talent frequently returns, thus reducing the cost of finding talent.

For teams, it probably makes most sensein soccer or other professional sports that have developmental programs or leagues (perhaps baseball’s minor leagues or NBA’s D-league). It’s hard however for a club (or even a league) to justify initial investment in such an “HR” project, when perhaps the only added benefit would be in the long term: if a star is seeking to end his/her career at a small- or mid-tier team where they began, enter team operations, or give back financially. Even if players did return to work for a club/team/franchise, there would probably be little monetary goodwill by either side at that point. Thus, it would be hard to justify the initial and ongoing ROI past marketing and PR for a club, especially when its likely that players follow coaches more than ownership/managment, and they’ll have likely turned over ago.