Fast Talk: Good Sports

Patty Herrera

Director of multicultural initiatives
Oakland Raiders
Oakland, California

Herrera, 35, spent eight years as a Raiderette before being named to her current position overseeing outreach to minority communities.

"The Raiders have always been at the forefront of diversity issues in professional football. They made Tom Flores the NFL's first Hispanic head coach in 1979, and 10 years later, they hired Art Shell, the NFL's first black head coach [since 1921]. Our rich history and working-class image attract a lot of people, not just here, but internationally.

One of the missions we have is to reach out to our international fan base, both locally and internationally. These fans may never be able to come to one of our games, but at least through the Internet, we can make them feel as if they're a part of what we're doing. When we played in the American Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys in Mexico City in 2001, we were amazed by all of our fans in Mexico. Following that, we created Raiders en Español, the only alternative-language Web site in the NFL. We're not just translating material. We thought it was very important to create a site that is its own entity. Because of its popularity, we have expanded our multicultural efforts, and we've launched Raiders in Chinese and Raiders in German, for example.

The Raiders have always been about being different from the rest. Which is why we decided to broadcast Raiders games in Navajo, to unite the Navajo Nation and the Raider Nation. The response we got was unbelievable. One Navajo Raider fan wrote to us and said, 'I was driving down the highway, and when I heard the Raiders being broadcast in Navajo, I almost ran off the side of the road.' American football is growing in popularity, and as the sport expands, we need to embrace all our fans and communicate to them in a way they understand: 'Hey, the Raiders are talking in my language.' "

Tom Whaley

Executive vice president
St. Paul Saints
St. Paul, Minnesota

Whaley, 42, has used outrageous shenanigans to fill a 6,000-seat minor-league baseball stadium since joining the team in 1993. He got the job because (or maybe, even though) he sent his résumé to owner Mike Veeck on a piece of dried cod.

"We play in this ramshackle municipal park by the tracks with aluminum bleachers on concrete. If we just did baseball, we'd probably have 1,000 people here a night. If you look back over 13 seasons, we have averaged 90% capacity, and last year we had higher revenues than ever, and I credit that to fun.

We rate an event a success as long as it doesn't cost anything and no one gets killed. We put a lot of work into having fun and trying to come up with stuff that makes us laugh or causes conversation. We've had mimes reenacting the game, pigs delivering balls because we thought mascots were becoming too fluffy, and this year, we'll have 'ballet parking'--ballerinas who'll park your car. We try to move fast and react to the news. The day after commissioner Bud Selig had called a tie at the All-Star game, we were all talking about it. I mean, baseball is the one game you can't end in a tie. So the guy who's doing our merchandise says, 'Let's do Bud Selig Tie Night.' And in six hours we got the whole thing together. We had the ties purchased and silk-screened. It was even on ESPN.com by 3 p.m., and it was only an idea at 8 in the morning. The funny thing is, we never played the game. It got rained out.

There's no reason why our park should be full all the time other than that people have bought into the notion that you can bring your kids several times a summer to a great environment, have a lot of fun, and see really good baseball. You can't fake it, though. If you don't want to be fun, that's fine. But if you're not honest, fans will smell that out in a second."

Paul Brooks

President
NASCAR digital entertainment and broadcasting
Daytona beach, Florida

In his 13-year career with NASCAR, Brooks, 40, has been responsible for integrating new technology, from creating NASCAR's Web site to making NASCAR the first sport on satellite radio.

"We see our fan-friendly culture as a secret weapon. Everything we do today is built around how to bring fans closer to the sport. What we find is that fans want to experience the sport in different ways, but our goal is to put them 'inside the helmet,' whether it's on broadcast TV, DirecTV, satellite radio, or online.