Paul Swangard Quotations

Until the product is back on the shelf, you can't say what the market is going to be. The NHL hopes its core fans are the first to come back -- and that they bring a friend.

Ultimately, his success on the field would open some new doors.

What the NFL taught us . . . is that I can take an absolutely meaningless game between two teams that no one cares about, take them to Mexico, and turn it into an international marketing platform.

Nobody we've seen in the last 10 years has fallen as hard and tried to come back at this level. It makes sense to come back with a product that focuses on the court, where his performance message counts most. The core target audience here may be urban youth, but his image is still relevant, for example, to the mother of the shoe buyer, or anyone who holds the purse strings. Perception is what drives the market.

Bush has the opportunity with the national championship game to have an unrivaled platform. If he does use that as his starting point into the professional ranks, he's got a stage. And to have somebody giving him good advice about using that stage accordingly and acting appropriately is not uncommon.

Globally, the NFL is playing a little bit of catch-up.

He can't let the blip become a trend.

There are still categories that are probably not going to want to attach their name to Kobe. Family-consumer brands like McDonald's and Sprite are probably still a little reticent to come back into the fold.

I suspect they realize that whether you love him or hate him, you want to watch. As for other companies, there's just too much to lose to tie their brand equity to Barry right now.

Kobe was seen as this non-controversial, rather worldly good guy. He can rebuild his image, but it's never going to be the same that it was.

The American population is continuing to diversify, and Hispanics have become a very important part of the sports economy,

That's what folks thought Kobe could become. It was such a shock to the system what happened in Colorado.

When you're flipping the channels on a Sunday and see his team on offense with him in the backfield or in the slot, you're going to stop. That awareness and interest is what marketers will covet.

While not unprecedented, it takes us into a potentially new era. It's sort of the last bastion in American sports. We haven't been willing to accept it. I'm not sure if that's right or wrong, it's just not been done.

With all due respect to the Indians, I'm not sure there's an insatiable appetite for Indians programming and nothing else.

To the degree that she reflects the franchise's style and savvy, she is well respected in a male-dominated sports property. That respect goes all the way up through the league's operations. She has established herself as one of the major team executives in all of sports.

Finance 101 will tell you, if you take the value of her figure skating revenue streams and discount it, this is a multimillion-dollar disappointment.

Fans of college football, particularly those who are spending a lot of their dollars, see things less as fans and more as investors. It does beg the question: What point do we damage what was a tradition-based event? I think you can have the best of both worlds.

At this point fans are saying, 'Show me that my loyalty means something to you.' But it's a double-edged sword.

The Seahawks are a wonderful story. If you look at that franchise now, it's a success story for him.

Teams are realizing that it's not their business to be in broadcasting.

Companies realize there's a growth possibility in the lifestyle category ? not necessarily for athletic use, but because it looks good.

The Cadillac dealership deal is an obvious and natural connection. But it's like a building that has a naming rights deal. It might prevent him right now from other deals,

There were a lot of companies that might have dreamed of a Monday like this one.

There's a lot of interested stakeholders in wanting her to be there. There's a lot of outside interests pulling for her.

It may not be a mass audience, but a passionate audience. You're probably paying less than to get a mass market appeal. It gives you a focused way to reach the core of the brand.

It's paramount that they get people back in the building to remind them how good the sport is.

The NHL has taught us that the players need to understand that this is about extending the revenue opportunities to keep the dollars flowing. If you want to make millions, (you) have to do some things that are creative. It's about as saturated a marketplace for sports today than we've ever seen before.

The notion of what it represented is not a bad idea in 2006. This idea that someone is willing to pay for the Olympics when they want it, how they want it.

That helps from a budget-planning perspective and brings expertise to the college level that professional sports teams have had in-house for decades.

They've realized that the next generation of fans wants sports delivered any time, anywhere. They're astute in remembering that in every arrival of new media, sports has always been second to porn as the most compelling content.

It's not about bringing the loyal fans back. They're probably at the doors now. It's the casual fans that will make the difference between teams being profitable and not being profitable.

If you don't pay attention to them long term, you are going to wake up one day and have asked yourself, 'Where did all your fans go?'

Clearly in an era in which most athletic departments are told to be self-sufficient, they should look more like the way a business is structured.

I don't know if we'd call this a renaissance, but I think he's certainly coming back to life both on and off the court. He may never get back to where his potential was two or three years ago, but there was always the sense that he could rebuild some of that equity. ... It's clear he's well on his way.

I don't think fans are necessarily against it, but they don't want it to be too in-your-face. If it becomes overly commercialized, people will turn away. We've already stepped out with buildings, but the connection the fans have isn't with the building, it's with the team. This gets closer to the core.

You want to be using the off-season to generate momentum. And nothing has happened, from the stadium issue on down, to give much acceleration to that momentum. For every step forward, it seems like they've taken two steps backward.

The general feeling is that firms are trying to be more selective about the number of athletes with whom they have relationships. You have to remember that, for the most part, the industry is young and learning how to measure success and get the best return on its investment. The emerging trend is the use of entertainers and retired athletes to market these products.

The good news for NBC is that China is a bigger story than any athlete. The significance of those Games will draw the casual viewer because it's China. ... You are talking about 1.3 billion people and a country that is using the Games as a statement of its place in the global economy.

All the (major sports) events have some presenting sponsors.

The leagues, especially the NFL, don't want to discount their product for a particular market,