Sports events and hospitality programs

from today's Street and SMith's Sports Business Journal (6/23):

Creating experiences that pay off
Brands, agencies seek to make memories and make the deal with beefed-up hospitality programs
By JON SHOW
June 23, 2008

"Corporate hospitality at sporting events started out as a way to entertain clients with a ticket and a hot dog. It has developed into an industry with sophisticated methods to determine return on investment and a focus on providing a first-class experience." ...

"The exact size of the corporate sports hospitality industry is unknown, but industry executives estimate the size between $1 billion and $2 billion annually, depending on the timing of high-value, quadrennial events such as the Summer Olympics and FIFA World Cup.

Brands and agency executives point to two areas that have shaped changes to corporate hospitality in recent years: more of a focus on ROI and providing high-quality, unique client experiences.

Proving ROI was a natural outgrowth from existing legal guidelines that limit what companies in various industries, banking for example, can spend on individual clients." ....

for the complete story