Snow-sports enthusiasts gathered here last month to wrestle with a marketing paradox: The U.S. ski-and-snowboard team won a record number of Olympic medals at the 2010 Games, but the team's revenue from sponsors was
red down 45% from its peak eight years ago.
"Off the slopes, we need to do a better job," said Bill Marolt, president of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
As part of that effort, Mr. Marolt has hired Andrew Judelson, a veteran marketing executive from the National Hockey League, to fill the newly created post of chief revenue officer.
At a July 21 summit here, Mr. Judelson praised the ski-and-snowboard team's success at the Vancouver Games in February, where it won 21 of the U.S.'s 37 Olympic medals, more than doubling its previous record of 10 medals in 2002. But the downside of relying on the Olympics to attract sponsors, he said, is that it comes only once every four years.
"We need to engage with our fans on an annual basis," he told the meeting, which drew about 90 representatives of the team's 15 corporate sponsors and suppliers.
After building gradually for years, the ski-and-snowboard team's sponsorship revenue hit a high of $13.3 million in fiscal 2002, with the Salt Lake City Games. The individually negotiated sponsorships have since fallen sharply, partly due to
red economic woes, to $7.3 million in the year ended in April.
