The Charger Blog
A Charger Blogger’s Guide to Fall in Connecticut
From apple cider to autumn hikes, Connecticut native and Charger Blogger Beatrice Glaviano ’26 shares some of her favorite ways to soak up the season before winter hits.
University News
Expert on Marketing Sports to LGBTQ Community Discusses Power of Sports to Unite
Ceyda Mumcu, an authority on fan behavior, told NBC News that inviting Melissa Etheridge, a lesbian icon, to sing the national anthem at Sunday’s AFC championship game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs has the potential to change hearts and minds.
January 18, 2019
Ceyda Mumcu, a University of New Haven sport management professor who is an expert on marketing sports to the LGBTQ community, says the Kansas City Chiefs inviting Grammy Award-winner Melissa Etheridge to sing the national anthem before the AFC title game on Sunday is especially notable because of the unique ability of sports to "unite people."
"The Chiefs-Pats game will be a heavily-watched, attended game, and Melissa Etheridge’s performance will be a part of the game experience, which will spark conversations, allow interactions and change hearts and minds," Mumcu told NBC News.
The LGBTQ sports site Outsports noted that the last time prior to this season that the Chiefs won an NFL playoff game was in 1993 — the same year Etheridge came out publicly.
"Our research will be used by other scholars to investigate the current and future marketing tactics implemented in the sport industry, and will be a resource to the industry."Ceyda Mumcu, Ph.D.
In 2017, Mumcu, a former member of the Turkish Women’s Professional Basketball League, was a co-author of the first study on marketing sports to LGBT fans.
The groundbreaking study on the WNBA’s 2014 Pride campaign – the first professional sport league in the U.S. to reach out specifically to LGBT fans – found that targeted marketing was valued by members of the LBGT community, a key market segment, and did not compromise perceptions of the WNBA brand among its heterosexual fan base.
Her research has been downloaded hundreds of times by higher education, commercial and governmental entities from nearly 30 countries.
"Major leagues in the U.S. and their franchises have started implemented marketing tactics to expand their fan bases, and, as part of this effort, they have pursued the LGBTQ segment explicitly," says Mumcu. "These current tactics demonstrate the importance of our research and the positive findings revealed. Our research will be used by other scholars to investigate the current and future marketing tactics implemented in the sport industry, and will be a resource to the industry."
Recent News
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Don Fertman ’76 reflects on being a “shy kid, squared” who joined a group of students that in 1973 launched WNHU, which has become an award-winning radio station. “It was the music that comforted me in my isolation,” he said. He talked about his 1970s new-wave rock band “The Crayons” writing a jingle for the Subway restaurant. That ultimately led to a 40-year career with the chain, culminating with him serving as chief development officer and two appearances on the hit reality show “Undercover Boss.” Today, he continues to host a weekly radio show on WHNU, he’s active with a nationwide organization that supports substance-abuse recovery, and he’s an adjunct professor in the Pompea College of Business, teaching a course he developed on franchising.
The Charger Blog
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