Over the weekend, I emailed a friend of mine who is a writer for the Fort Worth Star Telegram (though he doesn't cover sports). Here's what he said.
1. For season-long coverage, most pro or college teams have a form that needs to be filled out, submitted, and approved.
2. For individual game coverage, teams will require an e-mail or a faxed letter on letterhead,
3. The email needs to be from a work email account that is associated with the media being represented. Personal email accounts are not acceptable,
4. The information that needs to be provided includes
Employee name, office phone, cell phone, email
Supervisor's name, office phone, cell phone, email
Name of Media organization
Physical address of Media organization
Description of what the employee does for the Media organization (photographer, team beat writer, columnist, etc.)
Names of Professional Media Organizations that the employee belongs to