Mobile Sports Group is a mobile marketing, technology, consulting and database development company with access to SMS, Email (Consumer & B2B), and Postal consumers. We focus on helping clients manage and deliver relevant digital and direct marketing communications that improve campaign performance and return on investment. MSG provides complete mobile, email, and postal marketing services including the following products and services:
Customer Profiling
Database Marketing
Embedded Video Email Platform Technology with Social Media Tracking
Mobile News Network - Covering 210 DMA's
Social Media & Commerce Performance-Based Advertising Network
Search Engine Marketing & Search Engine Optimization
List Management Services
Rick Furr, Co-Founder & President
Rick Furr brings over 20+ years in sports marketing to The Mobile Sports Group. Rick has extensive background in Professional Baseball, Collegiate Athletics, and Sports Media. Working in professional baseball, Furr has served as Director of Broadcasting, Broadcast Sales Manager, and General Manager.
As GM in the Tigers Farm System, Rick doubled attendance his first year, at the time, built the largest play-by-play network in Minor League Baseball, managed game-day personnnel, hired a telemarketing staff that tripled season ticket sales, developed ball park promotions that complemented community events, and most important, increased owner’s franchise value. His experience in baseball has been associated with P&L, opening a new stadium, hiring sponsorship & ticket sales personnel, creating game-day promotions; developing sponsorship packages, bringing play-by-play broadcast in-house, negotiating rights fees, selling suites & premium seating, expanding the team broadcast affiliates, and serving as play-by-play color-analyst.
In collegiate athletics, Rick has worn the hat as both coach and athletic administrator. At ISU, he managed external operations, provided a comprehensive marketing plan for (15) sports, and directed all game-day events. His marketing program increased football attendance 19% and women’s basketball attendance tripled in one year. Rick oversaw all media buys, negotiated media agreements, and supervised the broadcast team. He worked on fundraising event campaigns to help meet the needs of facility enhancements and student-athletic scholarship programs. At Austin Peay State University, Rick was the assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator.
Rick served as National Sports Manager for both CBS Sports & Clear Channel Radio for six years. During this time, he worked in major markets in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta. His primary task was developing sports media partnerships with national & regional marketing executives. He represented over 50+ sports play-by-play sports properties.
After leaving the coaching ranks, Furr spent several years working for Johnson & Johnson. At J&J, his sales teams were ranked among the top in company sales, in 1987 & 1988 his teams finished ranked #1 among 15 sales regions. His responsibilities included hiring sales reps, building sales teams, training personnel, and launching ACUVUE. Won the “Significant Contribution Award,” in 1988. His team sales revenue increased from $7 million to $35 million in three years.
Rick played college baseball at Louisburg Junior College and participated in the 1977 JUCO World Series. After Louisburg, Furr signed with University of Maryland, and the 1980 team, was the first team in history with Maryland Baseball to go undefeated at home. Maryland finished 2nd in the ACC that year behind Clemson. Some of his collegiate teammates reached the majors included Otis Nixon, Byan "Twig" Little, Jeff Schaefer, Mark Ciardi, and Brian Holton.
On a personal note, Furr grew up in Middleburg, Virginia and still calls Loudoun County home. He is married to Crystal Davis from Mooresville, North Carolina and they have four dogs; Spanky, Pokey, Wrigley, and Fenway.
Harry Hutt is recognized as one of the sports marketing industry's leading professionals, with over 30 years of hands-on experience at the college and professional team level, both in management and sales and marketing. Hutt’s NBA career began with the Buffalo Braves in 1977, where he spearheaded all game night operations, promotional activities and ticket sales. Before joining the Braves staff, he was an assistant basketball coach at the University of Buffalo. Hutt was fortunate while at the Braves to work with two of the NBA’s all-time best marketers, Norm Sonju and Jon Spoelstra.
When the Braves were re-located to San Diego, Hutt was hired by the Detroit Pistons as Director of Sales, and he stayed with the Pistons for 18 years, eventually serving as Vice President of Marketing and Broadcasting. In that role, he brought the Pistons television and radio rights in-house, a first for the NBA at the time. he was executive producer and director of the Pistons television broadcasts during the club’s NBA championship years in 1989 and 1990, and was a member of the NBA’s broadcast advisory committee. On the sales and marketing side, Hutt started the ticket sales department, game operations, marketing and sponsorship sales, where he sold landmark soft drink and malt beverage deals, and completed the deal with Chrysler for the naming rights to the Detroit Neon indoor soccer team.
Harry then went west, and joined the Portland Trail Blazers in April 1996 as the Senior Vice President of Marketing Operations, and eventually was named Chief Operating Officer / Executive Vice President, overseeing all the business operations of not only the Trailblazers but also the Rose Garden Arena. During his tenure with the Blazers, the team ranked in the top five in NBA Big Three revenue, i.e., ticket sales, sponsorship sales and broadcast revenue. The team sold out 104 consecutive games with a franchise record 17,000 season tickets as well as sold out club seats and suites.
When Trailblazer owner Paul Allen bought the Seattle Seahawks in 1997, Hutt took on double duty with his Blazer duties as he was named Senior VP, Marketing Operations for the Seattle Seahawks, overseeing all Seahawk sales and marketing activates. He was responsible for the first ticket sales and sponsorship sales departments and brought Seahawks radio and television in house. Within three years, Seahawk season tickets had increased from 32,000 to 58,000, all home games sold out and sponsorship revenue had more than doubled. Hutt was also a member of the Paul Allen management team that planned and developed the Seahawks new stadium in Seattle.
While with the Blazers and Seahawks, Hutt also started several Paul Allen companies including Action Sports Media, Action Sports Cable Network and Action Sports and Entertainment Mobile. Action Sports Media was a college sports marketing company that grew to have contracts with 17 major universities across the United States including Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Purdue, Washington and South Carolina. Action Sports Cable Network was the first regional sports network formed by a team (Trailblazers) and the first team-owned, 24 / 7 sports network to broadcast in HD. Action Sports and Entertainment Mobile was formed as a television truck production company, and produced the first HD TV truck west of the Mississippi.
He formed the Hutt Sports Group in 2003 and had a number of successful sales ventures, including a multi-million dollar deal between Chrysler and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In 2005 during the NHL lockout year, he was recruited to go back to the professional team level when the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning offered him the position of Executive Vice President, Corporate Sales. He enjoyed a very successful four year run with the Lightning, leading the Lightning sponsorship sales to the top ten in the NHL four years in a row. Immediately prior to joining the Mobile Sports Group, he spent a year as Vice President, National Sales with Tampa Digital.
Hutt is a native of Syracuse, New York and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester, NY, where he was an all-state soccer player and school record holder in several field events in track. He did graduate work at Michigan State University, and received a master’s degree in education from the University of Buffalo.
Hutt is active in the community, currently serving on the Board of the Tampa Bay Ronald McDonald House, and in Portland was on the Board of the Portland Urban League, the Portland Oregon Sports Authority, and the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.
He and his wife Peg live in Tampa, Florida, and are the proud grandparents of a combined 15 grandchildren.
Jon Cherney is a Sports TV and Interactive Media & Marketing expert with over 25 years of experience. In 1986, Jon began his Sports TV career as an Account Executive at Westinghouse-owned Home Team Sports (HTS) in Washington, DC. HTS was the cable home of the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Bullets, Washington Capitals, Georgetown Basketball, Colonial Athletic Association Basketball, Pimlico Race Track and many other relevant sports properties throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region. By 1990, Jon was promoted to the position of National Sales Manager.
In 1997, Jon became the Director of Sales at Minneapolis-based Midwest Sports Channel (MSC) where he oversaw all ad sales and sponsorship efforts for the Minnesota and Wisconsin regional sports networks owned by CBS. After CBS sold MSC in 2001, Jon joined ShopNBC, a $700 million Home Shopping TV Network, as Vice President, Programming Partnerships where he also became involved with an online merchandising division called FanBuzz which operated online stores for several major sports and entertainment brands like the NHL, USA Hockey & Basketball, Elvis Presley Enterprises and Peanuts, to name just a few.
Most recently, Jon has expanded his contacts and knowledge into sports syndication with Raycom Sports, the home of ACC & SEC football and basketball, and with Content Management Systems (CMS) and interactive media while working at Minneapolis-based Inergize Digital. Over his career, Jon has sold, managed and supervised hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sports advertising, sponsorships and business partnerships while working closely with media outlets, clients, ad agencies, teams, leagues and conferences to meet established objectives for all concerned parties.
On a personal note, Jon is married to Julie Yeazle, who is a two-sport inductee of the Augsburg College Hall-of-Fame in Minneapolis, and has an 11-year old daughter, Noa, who is an aspiring Veterinarian. For fun, Jon has a fluctuating 10-handicap in golf at Rush Creek Golf Club and likes to stay in shape by participating in several weekly Total Conditioning group workouts at Lifetime Fitness.
Andrew Plenn brings nearly 20 years of experience working for and on behalf of colleges and universities. His experience includes successful athletic and institutional fundraising efforts, collegiate sports marketing development and database administration consulting. His experience includes serving s as Assistant Athletics Director and Executive Director of the Terrapin Club at the University of Maryland. During his time there, he grew annual giving revenue by 300%, increased the donor base by 72% and generated six and seven figure capital donations that helped fund one of the countries elite college basketball facilities – the Comcast Center.
Andrew also served as Associate Athletics Director for Development at the University of Colorado. While there, he managed all aspects of the fundraising and development operation overseeing annual giving, capital giving, endowment giving and the football luxury suite and club seat programs. He conceptualized and established new and successful revenue streams. He also enhanced communications efforts with department’s customer, alumni and donor base by improving personal customer service and establishing new print and internet efforts. His other development experience includes Villanova University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
His sports marketing experience includes serving as General Manager for Nelligan Sports Marketing. Andrew established a comprehensive sports marketing program at Florida Atlantic University. There, he sold corporate sponsorship programs and served as the point person for sales of campus wide business-to-business opportunities. He managed all marketing inventory consisting of radio/television commercial spots, program advertising, sports venue signage, internet advertising, event promotional opportunities and more. His efforts resulted in a significant increase in the value of sponsorship packages that led to increased revenue.
Most recently, Andrew served as a database enhancement and internet marketing consultant. His clients included such prestigious universities such as the University of Texas, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Purdue University, the University of Washington and many others.
Scott Lavery brings over 20 years of Sales and Marketing experience in the NHL, NBA, NASL and the NCAA.
He started with the Detroit Pistons as season ticket sales manager and after a successful career with the Pistons he was recruited by the San Jose Earthquake in the North American Soccer League as director of promotions. After three years in San Jose, Scott returned to Detroit as Director of Group Sales with the Detroit Red Wings. During that time he was also the Producer/Director of a Detroit area sports talk show on the top rated Detroit radio station. His most recent experience was with the University of Michigan Network/IMG College where he was local sales manager. He sold corporate sales packages and worked with corporate partners developing integrated marketing packages that included radio, on-site partner marketing, program advertising and web site advertising.
Scott was also involved in the golf industry as a General Manager at two different properties owned by the City of Detroit and operated by American Golf Corporation. He was the direct supervisor of over 30 employees and that also included sales, implementation and management of all golf leagues and outings and general operation of all buildings and property. While he was with American Golf Corporation, golf course revenue, rounds, outing and tournament revenue showed double digit increases.
Other sports marketing experience included stints with Hutt Sports Marketing as Midwest Sales Manager where projects included the Rose Bowl video board, corporate sponsorship advertising sales for NCAA Conferences as well as college football and basketball nationally syndicated weekly television shows.
On a personal note, Scott is married to Donna. They live in Macomb Township, MI and he has 2 stepsons and 2 grandchildren.
Randy Gerringa has over 25 years of sales and marketing experience running the gamut from PRCA rodeos and country concert acts including Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride and George Strait along with helping develop marketing plans for many fortune 500 companies.
After attending college at the University of Montana and Western Montana College and graduating with a BS in Business Management and Secondary Education, Randy pursued his dream of playing professional baseball. After baseball, Randy began his sales and marketing career working for his father’s auto parts business. After a stint with a local auto parts company and snowmobile dealership in West Yellowstone Montana where Randy made daily snowmobile trips into Yellowstone National Park during the dead of winter and maneuvered buffalo traffic jams in the summer, Randy took his passion for sales and marketing to the Pacific Northwest.
As District Sales Manager and Operations Manager for a major auto parts corporation in Portland and Seattle, Randy found many successful ways to increase sales by using both traditional and new media strategies. In 2005, Randy launched his career in radio, television and web sales. As Director of Sales and Marketing for a Regional Radio and TV Network, he has helped numerous clients maximize their marketing dollars with strategically placed media reaching consumers in a five state region and parts of southern Canada. With Randy’s vast business experience in customer service, marketing and business management; he has a strong desire to help his client’s succeed in today’s ever changing business environment.
Away from work, Randy spends time with his wife Helen and daughter Erin while also exploring the great outdoors, working on his golf game and volunteering with Special Olympics athletes.