Five Things I Want This Year

The cold weather in our part of the country provides an ideal time to reflect on what has happened in the team business in the past year and then, of course, to look ahead to the next 12 months. We can all agree that 2009 will not be remembered all too fondly by team dealers, their vendors and their customers — too much economic bad news, too few great new products, too many new avenues of competition.

But what 2009 did succeed in doing was setting the stage for progress in 2010. If the past 12 months were a time of just holding on, the next dozen should be a period of taking tentative steps forward to a stronger future. We all (well, most of us) survived 2009, so here are five things I want to see happen in 2010.

1. A Special Events Bounce … In case you haven’t noticed, there are two grand sporting events that will capture the world’s attention in 2010 — the Winter Olympics in Canada and soccer’s World Cup in South Africa in June. Mega-events such as these always serve to draw attention to the “secondary” sports that captivate the world for a few weeks, so I would like to see soccer and men’s and women’s hockey, among others, get more of the attention they deserve. Maybe even curling can get a bounce.

2. Get Together … Don’t you miss seeing your business friends and colleagues every once in a while? I do, and short of traveling all over America there’s no chance to do it. Sure, the buying group shows are great for those that belong, but what about the thousands of others left out in the cold. I would like to see a place where all team dealers and their vendors could meet face to face to talk about team problems, opportunities and challenges without the aid of technology.

3. Get Technical … That said, team dealers really do need to more readily embrace and reap the benefits of the amazing business technology available to all. Yes, some dealers do actually have working Web sites and their roadmen are equipped with hand-helds to keep in touch with customers and the home office and even place orders while on the road. But I would like to see all dealers embrace tools that will make their businesses more efficient and more profitable.

4. Nike Get Nice … Okay, we pick on Nike a lot, but for good reason. But at the end of the day the denizens of Beaverton are merely symbolic of the pressures dealers face when their vendors sell direct or otherwise take not-so-subtle steps to circumvent the dealer channel. I would like to see vendors either commit to the dealer – as so many, from Under Armour on down, have done – or else dealers have the cajones to support the vendors that support them. It’s that simple.

5. Read Team Insight … This goes without saying. And don’t forget to log onto http://www.TeamInsightMag.com, which covers breaking news and provides access to every article published in this magazine in the past five years. We remain committed to the team dealer channel, and the team dealer channel only, and it is our pledge not to stray from that mandate editorially. We have a lot planned for the next 12 months and I would like each of our readers and advertisers to come along for the ride.

That is my wish list for 2010. It is really not too far-fetched to believe each of these wishes can come true — well, except for the Nike-being-nice thing. So why don’t we all try to get together, watch the Olympics and World Cup games on our computers while surfing TeamInsightMag.com, and plot a continued course of success for team sports in 2010. Would that be so difficult?

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