Tao of Sports Podcast

With the advent of the Power 5 schools starting to separate, yet be beholden to the same rules as the smaller schools, it requires a lot of patience when working at Presbyterian College, which has one of the smallest budgets in Division I athletics. James Downer oversees sports supervision, as well as compliance and other details, and tries to build a relationship with each coach and student-athle...

The role of sports management education is changing, but that also requires a lot from its student base, especially as the amount of programs offered throughout the country expand to over 300 with options for actual jobs somewhat limited. Indiana State Professor Matthew Blaszka discusses some of the perils of the industry, especially with students who believe that achievements earned in the classr...

The future dissection of what customers want has extended past the argument of the single game bucket seat ticket in the upper deck, now the secondary market focus is turning toward the luxury suite and premium seating options available. Todd Lindenbaum created Sports Shares as a piece of that model, providing a membership accessible option to those customers who simply want to experience premium...

As the Minnesota Vikings transition to a new football stadium in 2016, the goal is to seek out every potential qualified lead in order to continually grow the customer base. Rich Wang serves as an associate director for the NFL team's analytics and fan engagement, having worked at several teams, such as Madison Square Garden, The San Francisco 49ers, Legends Hospitality and the Minnesota Timberwol...

Premium seating has been around since the Romans, but Bill Dorsey has seen the growth of the VIP areas in sports facilities since he started the Association of Luxury Suite Directors with 13 members. Dorsey explains some of the origins in modern sports, and why the luxury space has become a mainstay in state of the art facilities, only rivaling broadcasting rights as a top franchise revenue genera...

When discussing the athletic director's chair and the challenges that go with it, a consultant is required to have a short-hand knowledge of every component that happens within that role. Mark Majeski has had over 25 years of athletic administration experience at the small college level, serving as Athletic Director at two Division III institutions. Majeski describes his time at UC Santa Cruz, whi...

Understanding the sports hiring realm only works if you've really been in the game for a long time. Luckily for young professionals, M3W's Michael Warren has served in multiple capacities with professional teams, including his current stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates' spring training home, working in Ticket Operations. Warren discusses the playing field in terms of sports hiring, especially on ho...

The undisputed king of secondary market distribution channels is StubHub, a company that Geoff Lester helped drive partnerships for in the last four years. Lester has a background in traditional sports business, with 12 years at NASCAR prior to his time with the secondary market king. Lester discusses some of the issues surrounding legal action over what a ticket really is - a revocable license or...

Overseeing a NCAA Division III athletic department means being able to handle multiple duties within the administration space. Steve Thompson isn't just the athletic director, he's also the women's basketball coach. And that's part of the diverse nature of Eureka College and athletic administration at the Division III level. Thompson discusses some of the ways that he implements fair but necessary...

The relationship between a third-party and a college athletic department is a new paradigm for sports revenue. Overseeing sales for Comcast-Spectacor at Providence College, Erin Dunn faces the challenge daily of ensuring that she conveys the best interests of the university's athletic department in tandem with revenue generation. Dunn describes her focus on ensuring that each component of the sale...

The interesting challenge facing Jonathan Benedek is working within the modern era of marketing, against the traditions of Indiana University. Although Assembly Hall may be packed for a men's basketball game on television, that doesn't mean that conducting the entire marketing plan is anything but complex. Benedek discusses why having every home basketball game on television can be both an asset a...

Stadium security is a subject that no one wants to talk about, but it affects the fan experience in every facet. James DeMeo has helped open several high profile sports facilities, including The Barclay Center in Brooklyn and Cedar Park Center in Texas. The goal is always the same: enhance the fan experience by protecting them from unnecessary risks. DeMeo discusses his philosophy on engaging staf...

Tony Knopp has been in the primary and secondary markets, working for AEG, StubHub and now his own venture, TicketManager. Knopp discusses some of the various ways in which corporate tickets have become a wasteland for businesses when they don't have credible data to support their usage rates. That's where Knopp feels his business has the solution, providing real time analytics which ensure proper...

The last time we chatted with Rick Olivieri, he was the Director of Guest Services at the Washington Capitals (Ep. 272). Now a member of a small sales team in Las Vegas, Olivieri is helping shake up Sin City with the opportunity to bring a Major League hockey franchise to town. Hockey Vision Las Vegas has already begun on a high note, hitting over 11,500-plus season ticket deposits despite not hav...

Sports journalism is finally carving out investigative reporting beats for the business segments of the industry. Reporter Mark Alesia is one of those innovators in the field, digging up information that pulls back the curtain for the public on stadium financing, pricing and secondary market tickets. Alesia continues to maintain his impartiality to the process, filing Freedom of Information Act re...

Understanding how to engage and push audience creation is at the heart of what Caleb Clark strives to do daily. Clark discusses the misconceptions of Big Ten athletic attendance when it comes to The Ohio State or Olympic sports, as well as how to improve the overall fan affinity for each of those teams. Clark also covers his tenure at UC Irvine and Akron, where the main attention transfers to othe...

Brent Holck is one of the masterminds behind the University of Minnesota's golden ticket program for men's basketball. The ticket program helped usher in an exciting amount of interest for UM as well as ticket sales overall. And it brings up the question that Holck asks the most: Are season ticket holders more valuable to a program than other ticket buyers or fans. Holck has a complicated answer f...

A key asset to any sports management program is having a professor who has worked in the field. James Madison's Alyssa Bosley not only has experience in minor league baseball as an intern, but also has worked at JMU as the Director of Marketing. Utilizing that experience, Bosley shares how she is able to go off-textbook with her advance level discussions when students are looking to get into the s...

Volt Athletics is aiming to make elite strength and conditioning training available to even those high school and college teams on a tight budget. Dan Giuliani helped found the company, basing it on current technology which allows video, audio and text demonstrations of how to properly use equipment as well as develop various parts of the human body. Giuliani discusses some of the hot topics surro...

Chad Collins has worked on both sides of the sports hiring industry; as a recruiter and as a ticket seller. That is a key component when attempting to diagnose what a franchise executive wants when filling positions. Collins shares his experience of selling in the NBA, MiLB and ECHL, as well as how he interacts with potential job candidates, developing the best possible recruiting tool for franchi...

Understanding the statistics and likelihood behind catching a foul ball at a baseball game launched a company called IdealSeat. Founded in Seattle, CEO Joel Carben shares his vision of increasing the fan experience through probability and statistics, especially when it comes to the amount of potential interaction between a customer and the game of play. Carben's company has invested thousands of h...

Nels Popp is already pioneering his academic studies to improve sports business, especially after releasing a widely read industry report in NACDA about ticket sales, outbound sales and third party initiatives to produce revenue generation. Popp shares his criticisms of the sports administration field, where improvements can be had across the board, as well as what students can do to increase thei...

Understanding how to build an audience further is one of Scott Garrett's specialties, ever since starting at UIC and rising up to K-State athletics in Manhattan, Kansas. Garrett discusses how to ensure that the ticket product is not devalued, as well as the customer experience is increased by everyone who walks through the doors. And he plainly mentions how winning doesn't hurt, but it also can't...

High level gifting as a sign of customer appreciation is far different than the mass giveaways that happen at the gates in exchange for a ticket. John Ruhlin specializes is crafting the best ways for a franchise or company to show their commitment back to the larger customers within their suite and premium levels. Ruhlin discusses why some of the things that franchises choose to aren't valued, and...

Eli Madden dusted off and rebooted a dormant sports sales academy at the Colorado Rapids, re-invigorating one of the best pipelines to working in sports. Madden discusses how those academy attendees have responded, when it has come to both new prospecting techniques as well as overall sales. Madden mentions that it has also had a positive affect at pushing the current Rapids sales staff, seeing th...