Nye Lavalle - Sports Marketing Career

Sports Marketing Career

Lavalle began his career managing professional tennis players with Pro Tennis International and consulting sports agents, major corporate sponsors, advertisers, ad agencies, and media. He was the founder of the American Sports Marketing Association in 1989 and was a partner and managing director at World Sports Group, an international sports marketing firm.

In 1986, Lavalle established Sports Marketing Group (SMG), a sports and sponsorship research consultancy based in Boca Raton, Florida. From 1988 to 1994, SMG conducted what many media sources considered the largest surveys and research of spectator sports and sponsorship in America. In 1991, Adweek Magazine called the studies "the most comprehensive popularity study of its kind." In 1993, Adweek again stated "The head of one international ad agency called it the first social and cultural census of America." The AP called SMG's 1993 survey "the most detailed survey ever of America's sports tastes" researching "114 spectator sports they might attend, follow on television or radio or read about in newspapers or magazines."

Most notable in Lavalle's career was the January 16, 1994 edition of US News & World Report that quoted Lavalle as saying "more people will view the Winter Olympics than any event in the history of sports. It's the dream team of figure skating." While many sportswriters and columnists scoffed at Lavalle's prediction, Adweek reported "Dallas researcher and sports marketing specialist Nye Lavalle has said it ever since the results of his first sports popularity survey came out in 1989: figure skating rivals NFL football in popularity in this country and will one day become recognized by TV programmers and advertisers. That day has come with the controversy and drama surrounding figure skating at the '94 Winter Olympics."

"It took the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding spectacle to open a few eyes, but Lavalle, who was looked upon skeptically last summer when he predicted high Nielsens for Olympic figure skating, now looks like a genius. His forecast of 35-37 ratings for the women's events and 28-33 ratings for the other figure skating events didn't turn out to be generous at all with the women's pulling in the high 30s and the other events around 30. Skating he asserted, would have pulled high numbers even without the controversy." Lavalle also successfully predicted the future growth of NASCAR.

SMG's studies, often reported on by award winning Associated Press columnist Steve Wilstein, received widespread media attention around the world for not only disclosing the most popular sports in America, but also its most hated. Even the Russian newspaper Pravda would publish American likes and dislikes of sports. In 1991, Lavalle and Wilstein also collaborated on the first study of the economic size and impact of sports marketing and the business of sports in America. The joint SMG/AP study documented that the entire sports industry was one of the largest industries in America totaling $180 billion a year. The Sports Business Journal has built upon Lavalle and Wilstein's methodology and continues to conduct an annual study of the economic size of the sports industry in America.

Lavalle's last known published SMG study came in 2003 when results of the "most hated" sports in America were released via Wilstein and the Associated Press. Dogfighting was America's most hated sport with 81% of Americans over 18 years of age saying they hated or disliked a lot the sport of dogfighting. Rounding out the top 10 of most hated sports in America were No. 2 Pro Wrestling; No. 3 Bullfighting; No. 4 Pro Boxing; No. 5 PGA Tour Golf; No. 6 PGA Sr. Tour Golf; No. 7. LPGA Golf (29.2%); No. 8 NASCAR (27.9%); No. 9. MLS Soccer; and No. 10 ATP Men's Tennis.

Lavalle was one of the original board member's of Mark Tudi's Sports Careers with Robert Helmick (then-president of the USOC), Jerry Colangelo (sports owner), Gary Bender (sportscaster), and Charles Higgins (Ohio University Professor). Colangelo later purchased Sports Careers before selling the business to Franklin Covey.

Sports Marketing Group has advised and counseled major corporations, ad agencies, sports leagues, networks and organizations across four continents on issues ranging from Olympic and World Cup sponsorship to sports league television and expansion plans.

SMG's work has been sourced, quoted and featured in thousands of stories in newspapers, magazines, television and radio shows throughout the world and Lavalle has appeared on shows for the BBC and Tokyo Broadcasting as well as on Hardball with Chris Matthews to discuss Tiger Wood's first win at the Masters and on CNBC's PowerLunch to discuss Wood's signing with NIKE. He has made numerous appearances on CNBC as well as a number of appearances on PBS’ Nightly Business Report. Lavalle is even quoted in a version of Meriam Webster's Dictionary of Allusions.