Company stresses disabled athletes' value This is it! I've been talking to my friends about this very topic. People with disabilities, the untapped market. It makes complete sense to get corporate sponsorship for disabled athletes. With the success of the Salt Lake City paralympic games, one can only imagine the possibilities corporate sponsorship could bring. If big business decides to go ahead with Scot Hollenbeck's plan, this could set up a chain of events. First, sports for disabled athletes would benefit. Second, being that people tend to buy products from companies that sponsor these kinds of activities, just think of the increase in sales that would take place if major companies joined in. Third, people with disabilities enjoy wearing designer clothing, eating out at popular restaurants and doing just about anything that nondisabled consumers do. It only stands to reason that targeting disabled consumers could absolutely boost sales of many different companies. What better time than now. Let's face it, at a time when stocks are down and business is hurting fresh ideas are needed to spark the economy. And what could be better public relations than to include a group that has been pretty much left out of the loop for too long. If you sponsor it, people will come. I believe Scot Hollenbeck is on the right track. Maybe the disabled community could get involved by sending letters to major companies to let them know about what Scot Hollenbeck is doing. What do all of you think? Email us at cpaul@ChooseAbility.com--maybe we can pass our ideas on to Vie Sports Marketing. (This Story was posted on ChooseAbility on July 29th, 2002)