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USA Masters Games Put On Hold
Former CSM President Builds Consulting Business |
Although Capitol Broadcasting Company postponed the USA Masters Games and shut down its Capitol Sports Management subsidiary, at the end of December 2001, former CSM President, Hill Carrow is keeping the firm’s consulting business alive.
Carrow started his own company, Sports & Properties (S&P), Inc., to capitalize on the consulting contacts he made while running CSM. Teams such as professional women’s soccer’s Carolina Courage will continue to work with Carrow on their sports marketing, and he will also focus on corporations to help them with their sponsorships of sporting events. Carrow is currently assisting Progress Energy, among others. He is also helping the Durham Bulls organization with their sales and sponsorships.
Currently operating out of rented space at CBC in his former CSM offices, Carrow says he will “try to see if we can’t build back up to have another good business enterprise that primarily focuses on the consulting side of sports marketing.”
“The sports market place here and in the Carolinas has changed a lot, and for the good,” said Carrow of his new role as an independent consultant. In the mid-1980s, Carrow headed up the Triangle’s bid for the Olympics Festival. After spending time sports marketing across the country, he returned the Raleigh area to try to get the USA Masters Games off the ground.
The original plan was to put together the Games for 2003 designed to draw more than 5,000 athletes and thousands of spectators to the Triangle.
“The corporate sponsorships we needed just weren’t there,” said Carrow.
Vice President of the CBC Sports Group George Habel concurred, “We made great progress in developing the event. The sports were in place with the support of their national organizations, but sponsorships were slow to develop in this weak economy. It’s still a strong concept, but the timing isn’t right. Therefore, we are putting it on the shelf.”
