SportsTravel Podcast

Dan Butterly has been the commissioner of the Big West Conference since July 1, 2020 . He took the job at a time when Covid was wreaking havoc on the sports landscape and led the conference through uncertain times. Butterly has negotiated a large streaming contract with ESPN-plus and has ambitious designs for the future of the conference and its athletics. He is a member of the NCAA Division I Men...

The Lionel Messi effect in his second season with Inter Miami is well underway in Major League Soccer , which has had five matches this season with an attendance of more than 60,000 or higher. MLS’ total attendance is up 13 percent compared to the same date last season and with the Copa America ongoing, the international club competition will segway into one of Major League Soccer’s main in-season...

One of the most high-profile sports in the Olympic Summer Games in Paris will be basketball. The USA Basketball teams have been some of the most dominant in Olympic history in any sport. The women’s team looks to extend its streak to eight consecutive gold medals and the men’s team looks for its fifth in a row, having only lost six games in Olympic history. The U.S. also will have teams in the blo...

Skip Gilbert is no stranger to the sports industry. As a former professional soccer player, the sport may well be his true love. But his previous stints included one with the USADA, the anti-doping agency, as managing director of operations, marketing and development; managing director of professional tennis operations and tournament manager for the U.S. Open in New York; CEO of USA Triathlon; a v...

In 2019, the Sports Events and Tourism Association , or Sports ETA, embarked on an ambitious State of the Industry report to attempt to put a value on the economic impact derived from sports events and sports-related travel. The timing was fortuitous as it set a baseline for future studies just before the pandemic. In 2022, a second report analyzed the pace of recovery from that pandemic, looking...

If you’ve ever seen traditional diving at the Olympic Games or in real life, you know that the cleaner the dive, the better the score. The goal in that discipline is to enter the water as straight as possible with as little splash as possible. But starting in the 1970s, a new generation of divers began something just a bit different. Starting in Norway, these diving daredevils started jumping from...

Ron Price has been the chief executive officer of Visit Phoenix since July 2021. Prior to the move to Phoenix, Price had stops in Arlington and San Antonio, Texas, as well as more than a decade with Marriott in several places, including Denver and Southern California. Phoenix has become a basketball hotbed, having hosted the NCAA Men’s Final Four in March with the Women’s Final Four on tap for 202...

Scott DeRue was named the new chief executive officer of The Ironman Group in January , joining the organization from Equinox, where he served as president. At Equinox, DeRue oversaw a business that included 107 fitness clubs, a connected fitness platform, a large personal training and coaching practice and digital commerce and media properties. Ironman’s portfolio includes hundreds of events acro...

Every year, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association , or SFIA, takes on a number of research projects designed to offer insight into the world of sports through the lens of participation, equipment sales and other metrics. But the Topline Participation Report is one of the longest-standing and most ambitious surveys the organization conducts. Each year, thousands of people are surveyed about...

This year, Kevin Klipstein will celebrate 20 years at the helm of US Squash , the national governing body for the racquet sport that has been steadily growing in participation and membership over that time. While the NGB has seen remarkable success through projects such as a national training center in Philadelphia, and exposure in new markets, the sport itself for years has been seeking a holy gr...

If you’re familiar with the sports history of the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it may be as the site of the famed “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. But in recent years, another effort is aiming to attract visitors to the African nation and build a lifelong culture of sport t...

USA Swimming is known around the world as one of the powerhouse teams in the sport and this year expectations are high as always ahead of the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris. This year’s Games will be the second for Chief Executive Officer Tim Hinchey but the first in which he does not have to lead the national governing body under pandemic-related conditions. With a high-profile year that incl...

The first weekend in February will be an extraordinary one in Orlando, Florida, which hosts the U.S. Olympic Trials for marathon on February 3, followed the next day by the NFL Pro Bowl Games are at Camping World Stadium . The big weekend comes on the heels of news that two of the city’s recognizable sports venues will receive more than a combined $600 million in renovations in the coming years. W...

The Greater Columbus Sports Commission will host this year’s U.S. Figure Skating National Championships, the first time the event will be in the Ohio destination. Nationwide Arena will host over 400 athletes, coaches, and officials, plus thousands of fans over the seven-day event. The venue is within walking distance of many hotels and restaurants to ensure a smooth fan experience. It’s a major ev...

Sam Joffray is no stranger to the Super Bowl. He has been to every big game since 1997 in some capacity. Whether it was leading a bid for the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation or as a consultant or vendor, Joffray has a wealth of experience when it comes to the NFL’s crown jewel. So when Las Vegas welcomed the Raiders to the city and built world-class Allegiant Stadium four years ago, they nee...

Last year the editors of SportsTravel got together for a year end recap for the first time and we thought it would be a great idea to do that again. In this episode, Managing Editor Matt Traub , Associate Editor Justin Shaw and Executive Editor and Publisher Jason Gewirtz take a look at their biggest takeaways from the past year, stories that resonated with them, stories that flew under the radar,...

J.C. Poma spent almost 7 years with Richmond Region Tourism , working his way up from manager to director to vice president before leaving earlier this year. He didn’t venture far, as he went about 20 miles south of Richmond to the small city of Chesterfield, Virginia. Since arriving in Chesterfield , his task has been to build up the Play Chesterfield brand within the Sports, Visitation, & En...

Flag football being named to the 2028 Olympic program earlier this year completed an impressive rise for the sport. Having the sport in the Los Angeles Games is a massive win for the NFL in broadening its global reach . On the IOC’s part, having the NFL promoting the Olympics does the same in expanding its reach and marketing to fans of a sport who may have never bothered with the Games in the pas...

Khalid Cannon didn’t have the most direct route to the world of Ivy League athletics, but he certainly made the most of his opportunity. Growing up on a chicken farm in Alabama, his father was incarcerated when he was just a toddler, a development that led him to sports as a youth as an outlet for the challenges his family naturally faced. Not only did he excel athletically in baseball, football a...

Like many elements of the incredibly fast-growing sport of pickleball, the PPA Tour does not yet have a long history, having been founded in 2018. But its growth has also been very much on the upswing. Today the tour offers 24 events nationwide and a prize purse exceeding $5 million. Carvana is on as a title sponsor and interest on all levels in the tour continues to rise. Recent months have also...

The Maryland Cycling Classic, a one-day competition sanctioned by USA cycling and UCI, the sport’s international federation, is the centerpiece of a full Labor Day weekend of activities throughout the Baltimore region. The event is owned and operated by the Sport and Entertainment Corporation of Maryland, of which Terry Hasseltine is the president. We chatted with Terry recently about getting the...

The EsportsTravel Summit is the world’s largest gathering of esports tournament and video-game event organizers and the only event focused on the travel side of the esports industry. Presented by SportsTravel and hosted by Destination Toronto, the 2023 EsportsTravel Summit was held July 12–14, 2023, in Toronto. One of the major programming sessions at the event was on grassroots esports. Recognizi...

The National Council of Youth Sports has member organizations that go beyond just sports organizations. Destination marketing organizations are also involved as are groups whose missions it is to foster a great youth sports experience. But the sports organizations that belong to the National Council of Youth Sports represent some of the largest groups by participation in the country. Some 60 milli...

Sustainability has never been a more important factor in the sports market with events that are some of the most high-profile in the world. Tim Trefzer has led sustainability efforts at Mercedes Benz Stadium, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff and the Atlanta Falcons among others. He also co-founded the Sustainable Sport index, the sports industry’s first ben...

The second annual TEAMS Europe included leading experts from global organizations including the National Football League, the International Olympic Committee, World Rugby, the International Tennis Federation, LaLiga, Major League Baseball and more. TEAMS—the world’s leading conference and expo for the sports-event industry—unites sport event organizers with destinations, venues and suppliers inter...