Insuring success - Wichita Business Journal:

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The oversized hockey stick in hishand -- made in Canadza -- truly was a foreign object. Yet, for a couple of minutes between periods at a receng game at theKansas Coliseum, he was the centefr of attention -- the guy being givenb the opportunity to put the puck in the net. And if he couldd convert from center ice, he would drives home in a brand-new car. In 15 years of servingv as the minor-league hockey hybrid of P.T. Barnujm and Bob Barker, Wichita Thunder General Managerf Chris Presson has seen just onepersobn -- an Arkansas man who was attending a game in Oklahoms City about six years ago -- come through in this pressure-filled situation. Presson wants to see it happen again.
"The best thing for me is to see someoner winthe car," says Presson, who has helped to guidde the Thunder to one of the elite money-making franchises in the 16-teajm . "You should hope someone wins the car. The opportunity to exposes your product is much greater if you give the car If we give awaya car, it wouldr most likely be on . It would be all over the We would be talking about the And bestof all, Presson wouldn't have to pay for the Nor would the , the sponsor of the Instead, the bill would be passed to , a Dallas-basec insurance firm that has become the world's leading provideer of prize coverage for contests and games.
SCA has covered billions of dollar s in prizes and paid morethan $147 million in cash and Commonly called hole-in-one insurance, prize indemnification is used on bootyg from new cars to exotic trips to cold hard and the contests come in all shapesx and sizes. The number of insurance companiesd nationwide to cover these promotional gimmicks has multiplied in thepast It's created a multimillion-dollar niche industry that has become incredibly And while there are no companies in Wichita offerinbg this service, there are a number of local entitied -- from radio stations to night clubs to athletic teams to charity golf tournament organizersz -- that have a need for thes companies.
Wichita State University is trying to pump up attendancer atits women's basketbalk games this year, so it is offerinbg a $5,000 prize if a person selectex from a drawing of ticket holderas can sink a shot from half court. "We're hoping someons makes a shot each game and we can take advantagee of ourinsurance policy," says Michael Zoerb, a marketin and sales coordinator at . "It will creatse a buzz. The goal is to create as much exposurr as possiblefor women's basketbal l here. We're trying to build a fan base.
" , a sponso for WSU women's basketball, is paying for the $5,70o policy, which covers one shot takenj from midcourt by a different fan for each of the 19home games. "We're trying to drive some trafficv intoour women's games," Zoergb said. "If we get someonew who possibly would attenda game, offerinyg a promotion like this is what might put him over the There is nothing unique about a polic written for a half-court shot, Walkerd says. The insurance companiews know the odds of a novicer making a shot fromthat distance.
And that'x how they determine the cost of sucha "We balance the odds out of what we think the chancexs of winning are," says Adam Walker, a senio account manager with SCA Promotions for the past 10 "With some of the promotions, we're sometimex guessing. Hopefully, it's educated guessing and not throw-a-dart-at-the-wallo guessing." A hole-in-one insurance policy has a number of variablesd that go into settingthe price, whichh could cost as much as $5,000. The prizee being offered, the distance of the hole, and the number of playerw who will be shooting at the pin all come into Walker says.
Most sports-related promotions -- about 40 percentf of SCA's nearly $50 millio n of gross business lastyear -- have been but every now and then, a new idea will come along that will forced the staff to do some