Colorado University Athletics
Buffalo Sports Properties Picks Up National Honor
August 21, 2017 | Neill Woelk, Buffalo Sports Properties
BOULDER — Buffalo Sports Properties, the management team charged with representing the University of Colorado Athletic Department's multimedia and sponsorship rights, collected top honors at the annual Learfield awards show earlier this year.
BSP is one of more than 130 Learfield groups across the nation that manages rights for collegiate institutions, conferences and arenas. BSP was named Learfield's Tier Three "Property of the Year" after posting 23 percent growth for the 2016-17 athletic season.
In the corporate world, earning top honors among 130 collegiate programs is analogous to a Division I football program earning a top-10 national ranking.
"It's a team award based on our sales success and growth," BSP General Manager Lance Gerlach said. "It's a competitive field. Learfield has grown to be 130-plus multimedia rights properties across the country so you're ranked against your peers. For us, it was very encouraging to see because it was in (Athletic Director Rick George's) third year. Rick's background is certainly in the world that we live in. He gets it, he loves it, he enjoys it, he's helped a tremendous amount. For us to do that before we started seeing the success on the football field says a lot about our efforts, but it also says there's a lot more opportunity there."
BSP manages all aspects of rights relationship for CU athletics, working with corporate partners to provide both traditional and new media opportunities with the university. Corporate partners are able to bolster their brand and get maximum exposure via inventory such as venue signage, event sponsorships and promotion, corporate hospitality, radio and television and digital engagement/visibility via the department's official website, CUBuffs.com.
"We are very proud that Buffalo Sports Properties was recognized for all the hard work and success they had this past year," said Matt Biggers, associate athletic director of external affairs and chief marketing officer. "But really, their performance has been stellar for many years and we value the partnership we have with them. They work hand in hand with us in engaging the corporate community to generate the meaningful relationships and resources we need to deliver the world-class experience for our student-athletes and fans that we aspire to do at CU. We can't thank them enough for their efforts."
Gerlach credited CU's new Champions Center as playing a role in helping BSP deliver its message and work with corporate partners.
"Obviously having this facility built was a big step," Gerlach said. "We're hosting a lot of our meetings now on this campus to showcase these facilities. Instead of us going out in the field and sitting in someone's office and trying to talk about the culture and landscape at CU, now we're inviting them up here and they get to see this first hand. They see where we are and where we want to go — and they see what opportunities are here for them. It's changed a lot of what we do from a day-to-day basis."
While success on the playing field no doubt plays a major role in the process, Gerlach said corporate partners are also interested in the academic side of the equation.
"How we rank with our conference peers, how we rank nationally — a lot of it truly beyond the athletic scope — is very much on their radar," Gerlach said. "A lot of these businesses want access to our student-athletes. They are their future employees, their future business leaders, and they're seeing how we do things here from an academic and athletic standpoint. They're seeing what path we're on and they want to be a part of that."
Of course, CU's recent successes on the playing surface have also been a big plus.
"Our leadership talks about our best years being ahead of us and people are now starting to see that and realize that," Gerlach said. "It no doubt speaks to the opportunity that is ahead of us. Now that we're starting to see more success on the field, that should translate into more success. I think the future is very bright for us."
BSP received the honor at Learfield's annual awards show, the "Clydes," named after Learfield founder Clyde Lear. Gerlach was also honored as one of 14 employees across the country named to Learfield's exclusive Chairman's Club for top sales activity.
"Every team follows their leader and being the leader of that property, I'm tasked with going out and driving revenue and trying to find larger partnerships," Gerlach said. "We've had success doing that — and again, it's a team effort. The department has been a great partner for us, allowing us to do new things, be creative, be cutting edge. It's allowed us to open doors that quite frankly, historically were not always open. A lot of companies didn't want to have the conversation with us, they didn't believe in the product that we had or us representing them would make sense for the business. That has changed a lot."
