PR practitioners coordinate the flow of information from teams to the press and feed the public hunger for sports news items, team data and player information. They also play an important "promotional" role in generating public interest, increasing teams' visibility and filling stadiums with fans.
PR practitioners do everything from writing newspaper stories and press releases to organizing press briefings, preparing press guides and maintaining team historical files. They are responsible for responding to media and public information requests and often for positioning difficult or sensitive news stories relating to teams or players so as to throw the most positive light on a situation.
Working with the media
Professional teams work closely with the news media on a daily basis, providing them a wide variety of info about players, staff and the organization.
It is important to get the reporters on your side. If a crisis arises, DON'T DENY IT. Instead, put it in the best possible light. This may seem like a difficult task, but it can be done and it gives you more credibility with the media and the public.
As a public relations employee, you must think about your team, athletic department, or organization and consider that they may have the power to influence a story, whether in a positive or negative direction. It's important to realize that these groups have the ability to color the way that a story is reported. It's important to remember that in most cases the reporter will report the facts but, it is up to you to have the skills to make sure the "FACTS" are reported in the most favorable light.
Community Relations
Public relations experts work to maintain a favorable opinion of the sports club that they are working for. One of the most important assignments is getting the crowd to the game and really getting them into the game. When cheering goes up, team morale goes up too. The public relations department must provide excellent opportunities for the players to be visible and active in the community. The public relations team must make the program visible in the community activities beyond the playing field. This is extremely important because people enjoy being recognized as part of a group.
Source: (Public Relations in Sports by Jason Latimer)
We want to professionalize sports in Botswana and this is one of the few things that are left behind. We are tired of PR officer being match analyzers; they should do their job and leave that to retired players, current players, coaches and sports journalists.
Batswana know little about their teams, there are situations where people know more about foreign teams than their local teams which is bad. We need to keep the records of our teams and they should be easily accessible.
It’s high time we keep a well documented history of our sports clubs.
Our sports leaders are making life difficult for our sports journalists, I was listen to one radio station, a certain team chairman refused to tell the whole country what is happening at his club and that was an issue which the fans and the nation at large wanted to know. The public want to know what is happening in our clubs, good or bad.
If players, coaches and referees are doing their job in the field and management is still left behind we will never ever come closer to professionalism.
There are a lot of issues but I just wanted to highlight on this one first.
‘The way I see it’ Bakang Pesi Pesi
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