Editor’s note: This excerpt is from “Beyond the Scoreboard: The Ultimate Guide to Sports Event Presentation” (Sports Business Journal Publishing, September 2025), by Don Costante.
When people attend a sporting event, they do so for a variety of reasons. Some are dedicated fans of the sport, while others may be attending because a significant other (e.g., dad, mom, brother, sister, boyfriend, girlfriend) has brought them along. Some attendees might even be there because their company sponsors the organization (or team). Regardless of the reason, it’s an organization’s responsibility to develop an event presentation that leverages all available resources to connect with and entertain everyone in the audience.
Take basketball. True basketball enthusiasts find enough entertainment in watching the game itself. However, for those less invested in the sport and attending mainly to accompany someone else, it’s the other entertainment elements (outside of the game) that will keep them engaged. I’ve dedicated an entire chapter to how entertainment resources can add value and enhance the experience for those attending events. Alongside these assets, organizations should view the promotions they implement during an event as essential tools for engaging and entertaining the audience, whether sponsored or not. Well-crafted promotions entertain while effectively fulfilling a partner’s objectives when sponsorship is involved. This chapter will outline some of the best strategies for developing and implementing event day promotions, leading to an enhanced gameday experience for everyone.
Developing standards/criteria
When constructing promotions, scripting, storytelling, the quality of production and execution are strong contributing factors to their success or failure. In reality, promotional ideas come from various people within and outside an organization. I encourage everyone to share their ideas on just about anything, particularly in the event presentation area. With that comes the understanding that not all ideas are good. As a result it’s important to have a process for evaluating ideas to ensure that less-than-desirable promotions never see the light of game day. This means developing and implementing a set of standards/criteria to determine whether a promotional idea has the elements required to achieve successful results. I realize that there are no guarantees to success, but having a set of predetermined standards/criteria to measure success certainly helps eliminate potential embarrassments and provides the blueprint to follow when developing promotions.
Salespeople excel at selling, but the focus on closing deals can overshadow the importance of maintaining the quality of promotions agreed upon with sponsors. Establishing clear standards and criteria ensures that sales teams have the necessary guidance to achieve their goals without compromising the entertainment experience for fans.
Additionally, some organizations outsource their sponsorship rights to professional sports marketing firms that prioritize sales over the impact of promotions on fan engagement. By providing these companies with approved guidelines for event promotions, you retain control over the quality of content presented to your audience.
This approach does not limit their creativity in developing innovative sponsorship ideas. Instead, it serves as a blueprint for success, ensuring that promotional efforts align with the overall fan experience while still allowing room for strategic and engaging activations.
Over the years I have put together a list of standards/criteria for developing promotions that have proven successful. By successful, I simply mean that the promotions met the sponsor’s objectives and enhanced the fans’ entertainment experience.
Standards/criteria for promotions
1. The contest must provide the sponsor with a creative digital display and audio exposure. (We must be able to hear and see the sponsor’s name.)
2. The contest must create awareness between the sponsor and the club.
3. The contest must meet the sponsor’s “secondary goal” as specified by the sales manager (e.g., partner wants to drive traffic to their store).
4. The contest should not make any contestant feel like a “loser” or associate the sponsor with “losing.”
5. The contest must have a substantial difference in the prize levels (e.g., there must be a difference between the “secondary” prize and the “grand” prize).
6. The contest must have some degree of fan interaction—by including the fans as part of the contest, you increase your odds of success.
7. The contest must be clearly and quickly communicated (who, what, where, when, why). It must have a logical beginning, middle, and end.
8. The contest must incorporate music and sound effects that enhance the impact and enjoyment of the contest.
9. The contest must have a comedic element or build drama.
10. Avoid a contest that is too complicated.
11. The contest must fit within time constraints.
12. The contest must be safe.
13. The contest must be rehearsed with the staff responsible for implementation and the sales manager who sold it (if applicable). All necessary props and signage should be present at the rehearsal.
14. The “final version” of the contest must be in place one week before the designated game date.
Some may consider the final point in the list of criteria to be unrealistic. In today’s fast-paced environment, game-day elements are often rushed into implementation for various reasons, such as the excitement of introducing something new, fulfilling promises made to sponsors, or accommodating requests from leadership. Unfortunately, these decisions are sometimes made without fully preparing or effectively communicating the logistical details needed for seamless execution. The emphasis here is on “fully” preparing and “effectively” communicating. Presentation staff are often forced to cut corners to meet expectations when deadlines are tight. Regrettably, I’ve witnessed this more times than I’d like to admit. By requiring the final version of a contest to be in place one week before the designated game, the event presentation and production departments are given the necessary time to ensure successful outcomes without compromising execution.
The list of standards/criteria should be used as a reference guide, a starting point for an organization to generate its list. Whether you choose to incorporate the standards/criteria that I have provided or your own list, the important thing is to maintain “quality” control over the promotions presented to the fans during events.
Don Costante is a sports and event presentation expert with more than thirty years of experience transforming live events into immersive, fan-centered experiences. He is president of Costante Group Sports & Event Management.
