The 1995 publication of the first edition of The Ultimate Guide to Sport Event Management and Marketing was kicked off with nothing less than an industry event: a huge gala for the book that was widely covered by the media. Oprah Winfrey delivered the keynote address to a roomful of industry hcavyweights, the media and friends of the authors. This event helped to launch the book, and also overcome it’s weak package (awful cover that was juvenile in presentation, verbose title, clunky size at almost 400 pages, and $32.50 price tag). Despite all of those issues, the book will exceed the $200,000 mark this year, and is still selling even in its fifth year. The second edition affords us the opportunity to repackage and streamline the book so that it is more appropriate for the trade channel. The plan calls for a serious revamping of the entire package, including: A new, shortened title. Original was a mouthful: The Ultimate Guide to Sport Event Management and Marketing; A more compact package, going from 380 pages to 292 pages; Coverage of how to use the Web as a sports marketing tool will be integrated throughout (with several new sections on Internet marketing); Reduction of the coverage given to historical aspects of sports marketing, SWOT analysis and other less exciting aspects of the field; More industry information, such as how to enter the field and how to succeed in the industry; Beefing up the action plan boxes that were sprinkled throughout the first edition; Utilizing event management software to plan sports events; More detailed information on the specifics of licensing deals; By eliminating 100 pages and much of the less exciting, academic sections, and by adding fresh material outlined above, we will be creating a much better trade package and a stronger book. Given Stedman Graham’s media presence, we have a chance to create a market leading title that is likely to receive a great deal of media attention. Sports marketers, industry insiders, and would-be sports marketers will all be potential buyers of this book. Since sports marketing is often heralded as one of the most glamorous of marketing professions, the new packaging should help us to produce a book with far wider appeal than the first one. In addition, since we had no publicity department when the first edition was published, we should be able to get broad mass media exposure for the new book. Graham is well known both in and out of the sports world, which will help us to secure numerous broadcast appearances. For his last book (with another publisher), he appeared on several national television shows, including Good Morning America. In summary, the new edition represents a unique opportunity, and gives us one more chance to get this book right.