- About
- Divisions
- Media
- Careers
- Locations
- Contact
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
When I started General Sports and Entertainment in 1998, I wanted to
create a company that could truly leverage the power of sports and
entertainment. I not only thought about building one of the top sports
marketing firms in the country, but I also envisioned using the platform of
sports and entertainment to build relationships that would allow the business
to expand into non-sports related fields. In 2006, the full scope of the
original vision for General Sports and Entertainment began to come into
focus.
In August, we launched General Sports Alliances, a new division that we believe will become the premier sponsorship sales and consulting agency in North America. The concept for General Sports Alliances is one that we had been thinking about for some time due to the consistent feedback we have received from clients and colleagues about the need for expertise in the naming rights and sponsorship consulting arena. This past year presented the perfect opportunity to start General Sports Alliances when we were able to secure Chris Foy, one of the top naming rights and sponsorship experts in North America, to serve as president of the division.
In November, we established a new company called US Energia, which is our first non-sports venture. US Energia, led by CEO Jeff Moss, provides technical, engineering and project management services to a variety of industries across the U.S. with a heavy focus on providing mission critical services to a wide range of back-up power supply equipment. We believe that we will be able to help build and grow US Energia through our marketing and branding expertise as well as our ability to help the company tap into the thousands of relationships that we have been fortunate enough to build over the years through our involvement in sports and entertainment.
In the midst of launching General Sports Alliances and US Energia, we also had very exciting developments with the synthetic turf company we helped to start in 2003. First, the company changed its name to General Sports Venue to reflect its broadened focus on providing sports venue solutions and consulting services beyond just synthetic turf. General Sports Venue also underwent a successful recapitalization in which Michael A. Dennis became the majority owner, Vice Chairman and President. Finally, Michael Dennis and CEO Jon Pritchett completed a historic licensing agreement under which General Sports Venue has the exclusive U.S. rights to the iconic AstroTurf brand and an array of new, cutting-edge products.
In addition to these significant developments, we continued to build and grow our businesses in Corporate Consulting, Executive Placement, and our GSE Meetings & Events division, which produced our sixth annual Sports Executive Leadership Conference. Our Team Acquisition & Management division completed the sale of the Fort Wayne Wizards minor league baseball team after 8 years of ownership and we began to explore other potential team acquisitions. Finally, the Suite Dreams Project enjoyed another wonderful year of creating healing environments for chronically ill children in Michigan and Indiana.
So, we accomplished some terrific things in 2006, but we have a great deal of work to do in 2007 as we continue to build, grow and strengthen General Sports and Entertainment and our affiliated businesses. We continue to believe in the strength of our long-term vision of building relationships through the power of sports and entertainment, and we once again thank all of our friends, colleagues and clients for their continued support.
All the best,
Andrew D. Appleby
Chairman
