SPORTS-RELATED PROMOTIONS CAN BE A REAL HOME RUN

Rough Notes, Oct 2004 by Bloss, Bob

Golf hole-in-one contests have long been a popular promotion. Often a car, a boat or some other item of substantial value is awarded to the person whose tee-shot scores an ace. Of course, odds against such achievements are great, whether it's baseball or golf feats, catching a tagged fish, or throwing a football through a distant target. According to the 2004 edition of The Insurance Marketplace-the annual excess, surplus, and specialty lines directory published by The Rough Notes Company-nearly 50 listed companies write prize indemnification coverage. Some of them have "Hole in One" in their names, but their business is not limited to golf.

Sam Schachter, special events/marketing director at National Hole-In-One Association in Dallas, has been involved in a variety of baseball promotions. "Coverage is based on the value of the prize," Schachter explains. "Usually it's somewhere between 3% and 12%. But much depends on the difficulty of the endeavor, and, where records are available, the odds against achievement. At the beginning of a recent baseball season a car dealer noticed the odds of his local team's winning the World Series were 100-to-one. He considered offering cars, free, if customers purchased them during a particular springtime month-and if the team won the following October's World Series. However, he decided to forgo the promotion and he soon forgot about it. But by late August the team surprisingly remained in contention for post-season action. So he came back to us to re-consider the project. By then, though, our original premium quote of about 5% had expired. Now it was significantly higher. But he accepted it anyway. The dealership sold over a million dollars worth of cars in 36 hours. And, you guessed it; the local team fell short, failing to advance to the Series. The dealer's insurance premium cost was multiplied many times over in sales.

"Recently a television network was our client for a 40-game baseball 'cycle' contest (a player's hitting a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game). With the score about 17-to-1 late in one game, Phil Nevin of the San Diego Padres had already singled, doubled and homered. He needed just a triple-the hardest of the four to accomplish. He smacked a drive into the outfield gap, but with the outcome of the 17-1 game pretty well decided, he chose to stop at second rather than sprint for a possible triple. He had no idea about the contest. But, of course, some fan who stood to win a car, must have gone berserk."

Chuck Domino, award-winning general manager of the Eastern League's Reading (Pennsylvania) Phillies, experienced a fright a few seasons ago when a grand slam contest was in effect. Domino explains: "Greg Edge, our shortstop, came to the plate with the bases loaded. If he homered, a lucky fan-in the seat whose number we'd drawn and already announced-would win a major prize. Edge was a slap hitter, without much power. But he tagged a pitch pretty well, and sent it between the outfielders. As the throw eventually came back toward the infield the three runners had scored and Edge was already nearing third. I was the happiest man in town when I saw our coach hold Edge at third base. It's not that I was reluctant to award the prize. Just the opposite. But our insurance contract noted that a grand slam home run 'must' leave the park. Go over the fence or into the stands. It could not be an inside-theparker. Our coach had no idea about an insurance contract; he was completely innocent. But what if I had to explain that small print to the fan in the winner's seat?"