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OPEN INVITATION TO ALL U.S. PARKS & RECREATION ASSOCIATIONSThe Arizona Parks and Recreation Association (APRA)
Hello PRAs,
Sports MatchMaker® (SMM) was first conceived as a fund raising mechanism for a non-profit youth tennis academy in Arizona (the academy was co-founded by the owners of SMM). Later, the SMM initial technology was changed to efficiently handle all sports/activity matchmaking globally (patents-pending).
In keeping with its charitable roots and a desire to launch and grow SMM from the grassroots, SMM partnered with the Arizona Parks & Recreation Association (APRA), pledging to donate a substantial percent of all SMM Arizona advertising revenue to the APRF (non-profit fund) on a continuing basis, at this critical time when federal funding has been slashed.
The good news for you is that the SMM owners liked our idea of opening their donation offer to ALL PRAs nationwide. Any PRA in any state can now join the program by simply filling in the registration form (see link at bottom of this letter). When each state's PRA joins the program, SMM will then begin donating 60% of that state's SMM advertising revenue generated from the Player's Guide ad listings (SMM's onsite advertising directory, like online Yellow Pages) to the state's PRA, for the first 3 months following the state's registration date. After the first 3 months the PRA will receive 20% on a continuing basis.
This is a tremendous opportunity, as many professionals believe this site has the potential to grow as rapidly and large as any of the world's leading social networks. MySpace's annual ad revenue is projected to hit $1 Billion in 2009. With SMM's use of "viral looping," one user becomes two, four, eight on up to a million and more. Regarding funding of our programs, you can think of the potential viral principle as taking a penny and doubling it every day. Sounds small at first, but that's well over $2 Mil just by the end of one month - and it all starts with us PRAs, literally! We'll all be proud to see our charter member efforts building for the benefit of our children - of course, we will all be having lots of fun and fitness, too!
The APRA recognized that a partnering with the SMM website technology armed us with the missing link we need to effectively drive people to get outside and be active together, in keeping with our objectives and the national theme of "Leave No Child Inside" and the "GetOutdoorsUSA!" movement, fighting obeseity and other related health issues.
This technology is the next generation of "social networking," but thankfully it is not a new indoor "toy" like MySpace or FaceBook. This is a digital "tool," which reaches people where they are at, in front of their computers, and then literally compels members to get in the game offline, as well. It is a "tool" that recreation professionals, individuals, couples and/or teams can use to search for and set up sports/activities matches (parents can set up supervised matches for their children, too). For example, you can quickly search for an individual or group that has requested to play tennis/golf/softball/hiking, or any sport/activity, at a defined level of ability, location, date and time, while traveling or at home, and join-in with one simple click.
Picture this: you're about to get off work on Friday and your email and/or cell phone dings with a new text message. You see it is an automated SMM message that someone in your Player's Network™ has just made a Match Request™ on the SMM site to play racquetball (or anything else) in an hour at his/her club. You want to play so you "Reply" quickly onsite with a click OR via your cell with the "Join" keyword (you don't need to know the requestor's cell # and vice versa). The requestor gets a message that you joined and replies with the "accept" keyword. You get a message back confirming your game and proceed to the club to meet your match! The ways to use this site are intriguing and represent an improved healthy, exciting lifestyle!
You can also search for SMM players for all kinds of sports around your state. If you want to go hiking, look for another PRA player that has requested to hike on the days and times you are free. The software is extremely versatile and can sort through thousands of profiles to find someone that fits your skill level and interests. The key is to get as many people signed up as possible so there are plenty of opportunities for public matches (anyone), as well as private ones with people in your own Player's Network™.
We soon realized that the technolgy also provides us with the FIRST real technological tool to measure exactly how many people are making sport/activity matches, what, where, when and how often the sports/activities are being played, and who was playing. These statistics can even be collated down to age, gender, marital status, level of ability, location of events (parks, geographic locations, mountains, streams, lakes, etc.), facilities played at indoors, occupations, disabilities of players...even winners in competitive individual sports and team sports (feature in development).
This means of measurement, alone, is priceless, but the fact the owners are philanthropic, willing to partner and pledge a substantial percent of the site's Arizona advertising revenue to us on a continual basis, made us all very happy here, as you can imagine!
As SMM is a site for active people who are golfing, hiking, boating, camping, cooking, gaming, working out, traveling, dining, etc. together, all sporting facilities, fitness centers, bowling alleys, sports retailers, golf clubs, tennis clubs, parks, restaurants, theaters, resorts, etc. want to secure their permanent place in the Guide (see Player's Guide on site). The first advertisers in each location/category win the top listings on a first-come, first-served basis.
The site is designed to increase membership in a very rapid manner (utilizing "viral loops"), once the initial members kick it off and invite all their friends. We tell our membership that this is where we really need their help, since APRA will benefit financially and be able to pass all that along to their programs in the form of grants. So, we inform them it is imperative that they help populate the SMM website, which will help to attract the advertisers, since we all directly benefit from this ad revenue.
Of course, we are also informing prospective advertisers/sponsors about the advertising opportunity on SMM, and that a portion of their advertising dollars are funding the APRA on a continual basis. Our members have been informed that a portion of the money the APRA takes in will go back to our members' programs in the form of grants. So, of course, they are invested in bringing in as many new members and advertisers to SMM as possible.
So, it's a win-win opportunity for us all. The U.S. PRAs now have this opportunity to be the beneficiaries and first adopters/builders of the newest, largest Player's Network in America and beyond!
Jeff Spellman, President
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