Sports Business Conversations

I’ve had a lot of discussions lately about the meaning of the term “grit”. Like what it means, what its qualities are, and its relative level of importance. You know, things like that. Generally, most people seem to agree that grit is the thing that gives you the ability to respond when life throws you a curveball. The grittier you are, the quicker you bounce back. And let me tell you: this episod...

Chip Kelly, the Head Coach of the UCLA Bruins football team, once remarked that he wouldn’t be surprised if this episode’s guest Chase Griffin wound up as President of the United States one day. And after getting to spend some time with Chase, I think Coach Kelly’s expectations might actually be a little on the low side. Chase is currently a UCLA QB, and that on its own would be a pretty remarkabl...

When Alisha Pope was playing AAU basketball, her teammates would often share dreams about playing in the NBA and WNBA. But not Alisha. She dreamed about being commissioner. And let me tell you, after my conversation with her, I’m thinking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver better watch himself. Alisha kind of represents a perfect storm of how to succeed in sports business. She combined her innate compet...

I know, I know, I know. This is supposed to be a sports business podcast. The focus has always been on talking to people in the industry who are doing cool and interesting things. My challenge, though, is that I meet a lot of people from outside the sports business world who are ALSO up to cool and interesting things. And then my curiosity gets the better of me. Doctor Peter Belafsky is a perfect...

At any given time, there are something like 120 categories of business engaged in sports partnerships. And of all those categories of business, I don’t think there’s any as competitive as sports apparel and footwear. It is NOT for the faint of heart. Books have been written and movies have been made about how intense it is. That’s why Tamzin Barriolhet, Under Armor’s Senior Lead for Global Sports...

A couple of years ago, the NCAA did something CRAZY. After some legal defeats and legislative challenges, the NCAA finally threw up their hands and started allowing college athletes to make some money by using their name, image, or likeness in different marketing activity. What happened next was a veritable explosion of new companies, brands, brokers, collectives and athletes all trying to gain a...

Let’s take a second and define the meaning of the word “bananas”. Yes, it’s a yellow fruit you need to take care not to slip on. But that’s not the definition I’m thinking of right now. I’m thinking of the bananas that means “crazy”. “wacky”. “Bonkers”. And so, with that definition in mind, you know what’s truly bananas? Pitching an extensive partnership with the Savanah Bananas, a sports property...

You may think you’ll do anything to close a sports marketing partnership, but how about eating bullfrog soup? That’s what this episode’s guest Yao Williams did once. (Yes, just the once). Currently the VP of Global Partnerships for eSports juggernaut ESL FACEIT Group, Yao’s path through the sports business world has been a remarkable one. He started out like so many of us do in this industry: in t...

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Joe De Sena thinks you’re soft. And he wants you to suffer. In fairness, the founder and CEO of the obstacle competition empire Spartan Race thinks just about everyone is soft and can benefit from some suffering. Because he believes it’s in those moments, when you’re exhausted and at what you think are your limits? That’s where real personal transformation occur...

Lets start with a tortured analogy: using data and analytics is a little like going to the gym. You know it’s important and good for you, but MAN can it be hard to get started. No one knows this better than Dr Darin White, the Executive Director of the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University in Birmingham AL. In his role, Dr White has created THE leading sports analytics program in the n...

“I’m a capitalist, but I also have a conscience.” That was written by this episode’s guest, Adam Lippard, after he returned from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and they really cut to the heart of the internal conflict he experienced during that event. Adam is the Chief Partnership Officer for GMR Marketing, one of the biggest and most consequential experiential marketing companies in the world. And...

Note: This episode contains some salty language. This is a sports business podcast. Says so right there in the logo. So you’re probably expecting something related to sports business. Well, sorry to disappoint. My guest in this episode has never worked in sports. Frankly he’s not really even that much of a fan. So why on earth should you continue to listen? Because this episode might LITERALLY one...

When I ask you what the most dominant sports league in the US is, I suspect you’d probably say the NFL. And if I asked what sports agency more or less created sports marketing, you’d probably say IMG. How about the world’s biggest sportswear brand? Nike, right? And what do all these blue chip sports businesses have in common? They all hired this episode’s guest, Marc Reeves at one point or another...

The Drone Racing League’s current season wraps up on NBC with the Algorand World Championships Semi Finals on March 26th and the finals on April 8th, so it’s kind of a miracle I managed to get the League’s SVP of Partnerships Ari Mark to sit still long enough for an interview. These are heady days for the DRL, so Ari, who oversees the League’s partnership portfolio, is zinging around faster than o...

Trying to stay on top of the Name-Image-Likeness market for college athletes is just brutal. That marketplace is more complex than reading Shakespeare in ancient Greek while juggling on 1 foot. I suppose it takes someone like Lyle Adams, the CEO of Spry, to not only make sense of it all, but to build a product that can help others make sense of it all, too. A former D1 college soccer player, Adams...

Here's a little secret: high school football is a really big deal in Texas. OK, maybe that’s not that much of a secret, what with the whole Friday Night Lights thing. But still: it’s a really REALLY big deal. And no one knows that more that Rudy Klancnick, the VP of Sales for Sports in Action. In his role, Rudy creates partnerships for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, a brand that may be more Texas...

How do athletes feel when their time as a competitor seems over? When the last fan leaves the stadium and the lights go out for the what might be the final time? For British Olympian Margie Pedder, the period that followed competing in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Australia was a bit uncertain. After training so hard for that singular goal, she found that what came next presented it’s own, som...

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. " That little pearl of Aristotelian wisdom is probably one of the most frequently used (or overused) phrases in the business world. But the meaning can be a little opaque at times. Well, unless you’re Jason Oberlander, the Chief Commercial Officer for ASM Global. He knows exactly what it means. You see, Jason is charged with generating commercial ac...

For 16 years, Dave Raymond was the Phillie Phanatic, one of the most famous mascots in all of sports. In his time inside the costume, he more or less invented the concept of the modern mascot and made characters an indispensable part of a sports team’s operation. In our conversation, we review the Phanatic’s origins, how Raymond developed the mascot’s personality, and discuss some memorable run in...

The theme of this episode is all about taking chances, something Jennifer Todd, the co-founder of The Basketball Tournament, knows all about. Consider some of her rolls of the dice: As a freshman in college, she joined in a lawsuit that would become a landmark case involving Title 9. After she landed a dream job in sports, she left it to travel the world for a year-and-a half. Looking to re-start...

Suffice it to way that, at least from a marketing perspective, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is off to an interesting start. In this special World Cup edition Danish sports business professional and soccer expert Kenneth Corsten breaks down the MANY stories that have already emerged, including the Budweiser fiasco, Danish equipment maker Hummels strategy for the tournament, and the potential long te...

Is there a more iconic brand than Levi’s? Think about it: you only have to hear the numbers “501” and you know exactly what they mean. That’s both the opportunity and the challenge for Mark Foxton, Levi’s point person for Global Partnerships and Collaboration. Mark is charged with figuring out how sports can help Levi’s maintain its status as a uniquely American (and now global) brand. And that in...

“Control what you can control.” That’s the mantra that Phoenix Suns SVP of Marketing Partnerships Tom Fletcher spoke to himself as his playing days in the NFL came to an end. It was his vow to never let his future be left to the capricious whims of some unknown team executive. With that, Tom began his sports business career by focusing on what he could control: building solid relationships, saying...

I guess you could call this episode’s guest Alan Ledford “a baseball guy.” He’s been working in the game for over 30 years, beginning as an intern for the Oakland A’s in 1983 and rising top the the club’s VP of Operations. Since then, Ledford has helped launch multiple minor league baseball teams, most notably the Sacramento River Cats and the El Paso Chihuahuas. So, a baseball guy, right? Not exa...

Have your ever had an idea for a business that just took up residency inside your head? Something that you’d think about and go ‘that might just work’? Jason Smith, the Founder and CEO of SponsorCX sure did. For years Jason thought about using technology to bring order to the chaos that can sometimes be sponsor and property relationships. And for years he thought “there’s just no way I can do this...