APPENDIX F: The “Four Corners” Approach to Building Community Support for a New Stadium

In every team’s home city/region/state, the situation is analogous to a tag team match in a wrestling ring (an appropriate analogy given the siphoning off of audience share Monday nights by Monday Night Nitro).  In the ring:  four corners.  Tag teams are in all four corners.

The goal:   to transform the ring into a round conference table (which is only far as we are talking about the knights of the community).  Put a tag team of key players in each of the four corners, and then, instead of engaging in a tag team brawl, invite they need to sit down at the round conference table to resolve the conflicts in such a manner that all can get on board the new stadium deal.  Two corners are private sector (big business in one corner, and small business and the media in the other).  Two corners are public sector (governments of various levels in one corner and non-profit organizations and the rest of the public who don’t fit into one of the first three corners in the other.

In corner #1, you have big business, including financial houses and dot.com members of the Fortune 500.  They can be investors as well.

In corner #2, you have small business and the media.  A portion, whether large or small, of their livelihood depends on the home team and on the other professional and college teams, especially the media personnel assigned to cover them (and it may be that very dependency that makes them shorter tempered, as some become “warriors” and “hit men” with pen and paper.

In corner 3  you have the top state, county, and city politicos, or their specific special assistants/representatives (who represent taxing authorities which benefit greatly from the presence of the home team), as well as neighborhood organization representatives and appropriate special interest groups, including those established just to facilitate or kill a new stadium.

In corner #4, you have not-for profit organizations and foundations and other (401)(c)(3) organizations, and any and all local athletic teams and leagues, including bowling, as well as neighborhood groups and on-line communities who have an interest and who can be tapped into.

When the bell rings for each "round," the goal is not a fight in which the stadium can't win, but rather a conference, in which the stadium can win.

Details on how to do so are found in Appendices G, L, and M.

The following Appendices, G-M, represent some of the tools we utilize and recommend, which are summarized here; taken from our papers ranging in size from 9 to 50 pages.

Go to Apendex:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

 

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