Bright Lights,
Big Time
| "For the future of our league": NBA Commissioner David Stern charms all comers at a UMass sport management event at the NBA Store in New York City in April. (Ben Barnhart photo) |
Except for his finely tailored suit and his shop's elite mid-town address—645 Fifth Avenue—David Stern could be mistaken, on this Thursday evening in April, for any New York City merchant. The com-missioner of the National Basketball Association, one of the most powerful and successfully marketed sports organizations in the world, proudly strolls among aisles and aisles of NBA knickknacks: ash trays, clocks, miniature basketballs, tie clips, golf shirts, jackets and the ever-popular team jerseys emblazoned with NBA and WNBA logos.
Stern has opened the doors of the NBA Store to the UMass sport management program for its inaugural Dr. Julius Gundersheim Lecture, for which he is principal speaker, and he casually mingles with some 200 UMass students, alumni, and faculty there for the pre-event schmoozing among the NBA baubles. Stern was chosen to kick off the lecture series—named for a thirty-seven-year veteran of the department who retired in 1998— because of his unparalleled stature and his success in turning a sports league into an international entertainment phenomenon, says department head Lisa Masteralexis '87.
"We wanted an innovator, a marquee name," says Masteralexis. She credits lecture committee chairs Jeff Price '90G and Mary Boyd '93G for zeroing in on Stern nearly two years ago, and keeping up the pressure until he acquiesced. Not only did Stern eventually agree to speak and to host the event at NBA headquarters, he also offered to broadcast it live on nba.com-TV, which reaches four million homes via satellite.
The UMass-NBA connection is definitely on the rise. Several alumni have taken their degrees to work at the league office. The UMass students who made the bus trip to Manhattan for the Gundersheim lecture participated in a series of afternoon workshops organized by the NBA. Those students also linked up with one of their profs who's spending this year in the commissioner's brightly lit orbit.
That professor is Bill Sutton, widely considered one of the nation's top sports marketing experts. Sutton is spending his sabbatical as a consultant to the NBA, sharing his expertise and garnering, in return, a network of connections and a familiarity with the inner workings of the basketball behemoth that he'll bring to his UMass classroom next fall.
Sutton, who is helping the league's operations department develop marketing for the NBA, WNBA and the newly formed developmental league, says this kind of real-world experience is valuable for both teacher and class. He adds that his contact with the NBA has already helped land jobs for several of his students.
As for Stern, he's the man who used creative marketing to make professional basketball the star-studded, made-for-media sport that it is, and that shows in the organization of tonight's event. "Developing young marketers is an absolute priority for the future of our league," says Stern as he works the crowd with handshakes and introductions, as the catering staff works them with hors d' oeuvres, and as they, in turn, network with gusto among the NBA souvenirs.
– Ben Barnhart
