As for getting speakers, I think it comes down to who you know, how much you're willing to pay, and how hard you're willing to work for it. Alex shows us it can be done in a cost effective and very productive manner. Not knocking Space Coast, but maybe their leadership simply doesn't have 'it'.
Can't blame Space Coast too much. It all depends on who you have access to and who is willing to come. For an event in Orlando, the speaker usually drove home afterwards. We didn't always have to spring for a hotel room. Space Coast would almost always have to pay for lodging on top of the speaker's fee. Plus you have to take into account your membership base. What's going to appeal the most to them? Are you catering to retired old Bull Gators, or young alumni with twitter feeds on their phones? Sometimes you do different events so you can cater to both.
Players charge different fees. When I was involved in the Gator Clubs, there was a mini-scandal when a player charged one club a reasonable fee and absolutely gouged another club because the other club had no idea what the going rates were. There was a movement to set up some sort of database so clubs would have a general idea of what other clubs were paying. Dunno if that's been done. Of course, somebody who is local will take less than somebody who has to drive from Gainesville to Fort Meyers. I always wanted to get Wuerffel. We had a connection to him but he wouldn't do it for money. So how do you get him to come from New Orleans to Florida? A donation to Desire Street Ministries. No problem, right? Wrong. Gator Clubs are set up to raise money for UF. We can pay Coach Spurrier to give a speech if that speech is raising money for UF. We can't make a donation to another charity. So we would have to pay Danny and then have Danny donate the money to Desire Street??? Very complicated.
I know the out-of-state Gator Clubs seem to like Dooley a lot (that's where they went to get their Gator news). If he goes to Denver, they will be paying airfare, hotel, etc. Some like Mick Hubert too. I've never heard him and frankly, I'm not interested. Not sure why. The gentleman I REALLY liked was Steve Russell. He's the radio guy, he does the post-game call in show you listen to driving home from the game. Been there since the late 80's, a real class act, no pretense whatsoever.
In Orlando, there is a lady with all the player's numbers. She used to coordinate lining them up for their annual golf tournament and every year she got a ton of players to participate (she probably still does). She kept those numbers to herself. I can't blame her. It's a matter of trust. You don't need some drunk fanboy ruining a relationship for you by calling a player just to say "hi" and "do you remember that time you caught that pass, man, I was right there in the stadium, we were going crazy!". In my phone right now, I've got numbers for Shane Matthews, Chris Doering, Terry Jackson, and a few others. Other players belong to networks. Dan Cross (from our first final four team) runs an organization of former athletes. Rhett was represented by an agency (don't know if he still is) but other folks had his number. I'm guessing since I got away from the clubs, player contact is probably done more through social media.
As for the independent media types, somebody like Marty Cohen from GatorBait would speak mostly for the free advertising.
Alex.
